Our big idea for the month of October is Environment. For fourth grade, we are learning how our environment can inspire our art as well as be used to create our art. We had a fabulous time making prints using the gelatin printmaking method. The students loved it so much that they wanted to know how they could do it at home! So here is what you need: A box of Knox unflavored gelatin (you can get it from any grocery store), a baking pan to hold the gelatin, water based printing ink (you can get from Hobby Lobby or any craft store), a brayer to roll the ink (any craft store), aluminum foil to roll the ink out, and lots of soft foliage like leaves to use in the printing process.
Step 1: Prep your gelatine printing plate by placing 2 cups of water in a pot and 4 packets of gelatin powder (4 tbsp). Heat water up to dissolve the gelatin and stir consistantly so it doesnt burn to the bottom! Once the water is hot, pour it into your baking pan and place in the frige to harden for at least 12 hours.
Step 2: roll out your ink first on the foil and then roll ink onto the gelatin until the ink on the gelatin is opaque.
Step 3: Lay your leaves onto the inked gelatin plate. Yarn works great too!
Step 4: Place paper over the leaves and gently rub the back of the paper. You are trying to pick up all of the ink around the leaves to create your negative print. Pull your negative print.
Step 5: Blot any extra ink not picked up from the negative print and then carefully peel away the leaves from the gelatin.
Step 6: Lay a second peice of paper down on the gelatin to create your positive print.
Step 7: Do steps 1-6 again and again!! Have fun!
Here are some that are now on display in the main hallway! They look so beautiful and it was such a fun way to teach negative and positive space to fourth grade! I hope that you have fun doing these at home :)
No comments:
Post a Comment