Happy Tuesday, and welcome to the latest installment of our ToTs Series designed to inspire you to join in the fun of creating postcards for our International Mail Art | Celebration of Sapphire. This week, our topic is custom rollers. These rollers can be used to create patterns on gelatin prints, and you can create your own for a fraction of the price of commercially available ones.
If you’re like me, you’re cheap frugal, and you look for ways to spend less, and to use what you already have around the house. This is a perfect project for that. Here’s all you’ll need: recycled cardboard tubes, adhesive-backed foam sheets*, and an X-Acto knife or scissors. Note: these rollers can be used again and again, which makes them even more economical. Winning!

THE ROLLER DESIGNS: To begin, draw a design on the adhesive-backed foam (*although a bit more expensive than regular Dollar Store foam sheets, the adhesive backing makes glue unnecessary), keeping in mind the length of your cardboard tube.

This will be part of a 3/12” cardboard tube design. The adhesive back foam sheet was $1.25, and the tube was recycled.

The idea is to create a repeating pattern with your design which, once rolled onto the gelatin printing plate, will form a cohesive whole. Here, in photos, was my process for creating the 3/12” texture tubes:

I used an X-Acto blade to cut the notches, but if you prefer scissors, go for it! Pro Tip: Cut the design with the adhesive backing still attached (your blade or scissors will thank you).

Here’s the first strip of the design adhered to the tube. The next one is a bit different, which will make the resulting pattern more interesting. I also purposely misaligned the notches, again, for more interest.

The finished roller. I also alternated between straight and notched sides facing each other…for that visual interest thing again.

Above are the next 3 roller designs, plus the scraps! As you can see, curved elements can work. You can also treat the tube as a ‘canvas’, filling in empty spaces. Just remember that the foam will remove the paint from the plate, and the “empty” spaces will be the color of the paint on the plate, as you’ll see below.

THE PLATES AND PAPERS: After adding a thin layer of paint onto the Gelli plate with a brayer, I placed one roller at the bottom of the plate, lined up with the right edge, and rolled it to the top. I did the same on the left edge, which created two rows of my pattern. Try using the roller in different directions on the plate, too. (if I’d had a longer tube, I could have used just one pass over my 8” x 11” Gelli plate). Tip: use gloves if you don’t want your hands to get almost as much paint on them as on the plate.

Once the plate was dry, I used a pick up color of paint to create the final patterned paper. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the full pages of printed papers (oops!), but here are some scraps left over after I created the postcard-sized finished collage:

Partial printed papers. I used Golden Fluid acrylic paints: Teal, Anthraquinone Blue, and Titan Buff on regular printer paper.

THE POSTCARD COLLAGE: I created the collage below using each of my printed papers. I used circle punches to break up the linear aspects, and repeated shapes around the card. I love how the two colors and their tints and shades play across the surface, and I don’t even mind where the white specks from the Gelli plate show through.

I hope this project has inspired you to create custom pattern rollers to add to your stash of Gelli plate tools. And I hope you’ll create a fabulous postcard with them to add to the Celebration of Sapphire collection. ‘Can’t wait to see what you’ll design!

Penny will be up next month with another edition of ToTs, so stay tuned!

~Michelle

On our final day together, we created with a fury: there were massive numbers of prints made, stamps employed, beads created, stencils used, and a quite impressive round of books sewn. We did not waste a moment, and yet found the time for our Creative Explorers to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather (70 degrees, bright and sunny in March!?), and get in some beach time by slightly rearranging the day’s schedule.

We opened the day with Michelle sharing the wonders of gelatin printing with modern tools (GELLI and GelPress plates). She highlighted many ways to create unique and expressive prints with a variety of materials, including stamps from Art Foamies, texture plates, and stencils from ARTplorations. We pulled prints on an assortment of different papers. The ladies were encouraged to use the stamps they created the day before to further personalize their prints and the outcome made for all sorts of happy noises throughout the work area.

After all of that, we had worked up a good appetite! The ladies enjoyed a leisurely lunch and then had some free time to take in the local sights. Some visited the beach, some took a little time to recharge for the afternoon’s activities, and one had a little surprise up her sleeve.

Upon returning from their beach-y explorations, they settled in to an afternoon of book art with Penny. Once again, they employed stencils and Marabu Art Sprays to customize the papers that would become the covers for their wrap-around journal. While the covers dried, we turned our attention to the configuration of the inner pages. Working with Stonehenge paper from Legion Paper Company, we crafted signatures that included foldouts for two of the three, and an abbreviated inner page to add visual interest to the third. We finished them up by bringing all the components together with a button hole stitch. The ladies were elated with their creations, and Penny was giddy with their successes!

In order to fully take advantage of the final day, it was decided shortly after breakfast that we should “pot luck” for dinner — an idea that was quite happy-making for the hostesses who had over-provisioned for our gathering. One of our lovely ladies decided to upgrade this idea by taking on the role of Personal Chef for the household, and applied her creative skillset to the creation of a most memorable dinner for our last night. Returning from their beach romp with a gorgeous cut of salmon and some shrimp, Nikkea prepared an amazing repast for our farewell dinner!

Salmon marinated in lemon and white wine — alongside shrimp and mixed veggies in a lemon, white wine, honey, and butter sauce. Toasted rolls with a compound butter of garlic and seasonings. In short: SUPERB!

Delightful, delicious, and de-lovely! We gathered for dinner as friends. We who, only two days before, had been (except for the trio traveling together) virtual strangers. Is that not the power of art? …the power of creating community? We feel that this represents completely what Your Creative Connection is all about: beyond an art retreat, it is an experience. More than making art, we gather to make learning and discovery a joy; we make friends and we make memories that will last long after our brief time shared.

…and then it was over. We are so grateful to all of our Creative Explorers for being fully present with us in this circle of creativity! We are already looking forward to next time. When might that be, you ask? Well, given the current state of things, we are hopeful that another event will happen this year. We want more than anything to welcome another group into our circle of creative connection before the end of the year. The best way to make sure you don’t miss out on the next one is to subscribe to our Newsletter. Subscribers receive the details of future events 7-10 days before they go live here and across our social media feeds.

Until next time, be safe and be kind and be good to one another — and never miss an opportunity to add a little beauty to your day!

~ PLA & MDP