Gelli Printing: Printmaking

What We Did

This was my lesson for the class. I started by talking about the artist Favianna Rodriguez and how her art relates to ecology. Her art often has meaning and an explanation for why she decided to make that piece. I then demonstrated how to use Gelli plates, which is a gelatin plate. You put acrylic paint onto the plate and then roll it out with a brayer. Then you can create different textures on the plate using various objects. We used stencils and textured blocks for ours. After they had the chance to experiment with making multiple prints they had to make a collage. For the collage they had to come up with a meaning for their work, had to have one object found in nature (for mine I did a polar bear), use three different colors, and they had to have at least three organic and three geometric shapes.

Here is an example of how Gelli printing works:

Extension Activity

Read the story "My Friend Earth" then take the students on a nature scavenger hunt. You could give them a list with different objects you want them to find; such as leaves, flowers, blades of grass, pinecones, rocks, and bark. Instead of using the stencils and texture blocks they could use the objects they found to create textures in their prints. This is a way to get the students outside in nature doing physical activities. I would have students write about what their favorite outdoor actvitiy is on the back of one of their prints.