I have not blogged for a while because I have been extremely busy designing stencils and masks for my new gel press. This has been very time-consuming as Inkscape, the powerful free vector drawing program, is a continuous learning curve for me and I have encountered various problems along the way which took a long time to resolve, especially because when I had finally discovered how to make it work, I forgot the steps I’d taken to get there! I have now taken copious notes, and watched various helpful YouTube videos, and know what I am doing now (I think!) – I have created a lot of new material, which will all be available for free download on my OneDrive, as soon as I have had a chance to cut them to make sure they all work as they should. All these drawings will be in both svg and png format so they can be downloaded and used for cutting, or as printables. All I ask is that you do not edit them (apart from resizing) and that you credit me with the designs, linking to this blog, and that you do not sell them for commercial gain. They will be free to download for personal use.
New Gel Press
Last year I bought an el cheapo gel press and after one use, put it away, thinking I was an utter failure at this art form. It was in the back of my mind to get it out again and learn how to do it properly, as I felt a bit guilty about buying it and then not using it.
However, when I discovered Froyle on YouTube and watched her doing the most astonishing prints, I knew I had to sort myself out and do this properly. I researched a better gel press and on Amazon, I read a comment from someone who had also had a cheap one and had no success with it, and had bought a decent one and was pulling prints straight away. I knew that if I was going to make a success of this, I had to have decent tools to start with, so I bit the bullet and bought a decent one, large enough for A4, which is bigger than my original one. It is at least three times as thick, and really squishy.
To begin, I just did some simple backgrounds using a single layer, mixing one or two colours on the plate. I set everything up on my table by the sink in the studio, with my new drying rack beside me, and the old gel press alongside so that I could use it for cleaning off the brayer or mixing colours.
Here’s what I’ve done so far. Nothing too earth-shattering – some single-pull backgrounds and a few with some of my existing stencils.
I’ve got a few more acrylic paints on order.
Stencils and masks
A word about stencils and masks (forgive me if this is too basic but some people may not appreciate the difference): a stencil is a sheet with holes cut in it, which generates a positive image when paint or ink is applied through it (the paint forms the image). A mask is a solid piece with no background, which generates a negative image when paint or ink is applied over and around it (the paint forms the background). I have tried to make both versions of as many of my designs as possible, but some really only work in one format or the other.
I have a number of stencils, most of which are not very large. Several years ago I cut a series of stencils on Sheba, my electronic cutting machine, out of acetate which wasn’t very satisfactory. It’s a bit hard, and can easily be damaged, but they work OK if I’m careful.
Here are my original drawings for the new stencils and masks, some of which were done with a black Tombow Dual Brush Marker. These were then scanned into the computer and worked on in my photo editing software to increase the contrast and get a good black image which would trace well in Inkscape, after which I could save them as cuttable svg (scaleable vector graphic) files.
Watching Froyle, I got really inspired! Froyle is very fond of one particular stencil which is a quite large crazy script one. Unfortunately this is not available in the UK so I decided to design my own. I called to mind smething I discovered years ago called “Stacked Journaling” invented by Judi Hurwitt, a mixed media artist. You write some words, preferably without punctuation or gaps, all lower case – you can write anything you want because it’s not going to be legible anyway – and then you turn the paper 90 degrees and write again, over the top of what you have already written. The results are intriguing!
Here are the results of my original stacked journaling designs. I have made two block designs for background masks, and I drew four lines of scripting, but in the end chose only two of these. I have designed three different sizes of each of these two lines of scripting.
Another scripting design
I made a background of lines of smaller script. I wanted this to be abstract and not legible, but recognisable as handwriting. I covered a sheet with lines of small scripting, again using the black Tombow Dual Brush marker. Once it was in Inkscape I did a considerable amount of editing which took several days to do – as always, any traced bitmap images generate great forests of unwanted nodes (the little points on a vector line that you can move around for editing purposes) – if you have too many nodes this increases the size of the file considerably, and it can also cause problems at the cutting stage, so they need weeding out. I adjusted some of the handwriting where it was less aesthetically pleasing, and divided the lines into “words.” For the stencil version, I also removed some of the loops which would have enclosed pieces which would fall out when cut.
For the mask version of this, I needed to join all the text elements into a single piece, so I extended lines vertically between the lines of text to connect them.
Froyle has been inspired by another amazing mixed media artist called Robyn McClendon, so I visited her channel. She does abstract oriental-style brush script which I instantly fell in love with, so I got out my black Tombow Dual Brush Marker and my first attempts were a roaring success!
Inkscape refused to play ball (most likely my fault, not Inkscape’s although I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong!) and I had endless problems stopping it filling areas that I didn’t want filled, but I found a work-around (very time consuming to do) and achieved success. Eventually I discovered on YouTube the correct way to go about it which saved a great deal of time. I have created three separate designs, each one being in three different sizes as before.
After creating these continuous, vertical designs, I made a set of individual abstract Oriental characters, both in mask and stencil format, to enable one to form a negative or positive image respectively. You will notice in the stencil version, that I have created small “bridges” to prevent pieces from falling out when the designs are cut. These can always be painted over in the project in which you use them, if you don’t want that “stencilled” look.
I have found the best way to get that free, loose brush-stroke look, is to draw the characters very rapidly, holding the pen in a relaxed way and moving your arm from the shoulder rather than from the wrist. After I had drawn them, I thickened the lines where required.
Froyle also had a fabulous squiggly line mask, so I designed my own version of this one too. I was careful not to look at the original so I would not be tempted to copy it – but squiggly lines per se don’t have copyright on them so I thought it would be acceptable to draw my own. It is a continuous line, which I then filled out to make it thicker.
Again, I have made this in mask and stencil formats. The stencil does have the little bridges to stop the pieces falling out when you cut it, and you would have to go over it afterwards and fill in the gaps on your work, but it’s another option.
With the gel plate, though, you can get all sorts of cunning results, both positive and negative, from stencils and masks, so you can achieve a stencilled look from a mask, and vice versa. This is something of a learning curve for me still, and I’ve taken copious step-by-step notes till I can get my head around the concepts!
Background stencils
Other stencils I designed were “Overlapping Circles,” “Irregular Rectangles,” “Irregular Ovals” and “irregular Ovals Radiating,” all of which are large enough for A4 and for use on the gel press. They are background designs. I have plenty of other ideas for further stencils.
Froyle was most amusing, telling us on one video how she had discovered some rubber washers for mending leaking toilet cisterns, and had bought them to make art with! (A girl after my own heart… I love to repurpose things for art too!) She uses them on the gel press and creates beautiful circles for her stunning collages. Unfortunately for those of us not living in New Zealand or Australia, this particular brand and size is not available, so I designed an svg file for these too, and also a series of circles with different sized holes in the centre, and a set of nesting circles, for anyone to use who has access to a cutting machine.
She also made me laugh by describing how she’d bought a really cheap and nasty bathmat in the Dollar Store, which has the most delicious texture for printing on the gel press. Imagine my delight when I found the self-same thing on Ebay! The only colour still available was pink – I’m not surprised all the other colours had gone because the pink is pretty awful! However, this isn’t going in the bathroom, but will be used for art, and it will probably end up covered in paint anyway! Incidentally, this truly awful piece of cheap tat smells appalling too!
I manipulated a photo of it in the hope of creating a file in Inkscape but this proved to be impossible. The shininess of the plastic makes it hard to photograph, and the fact that it is transparent makes it difficult to create enough contrast with whatever surface you attempt to photograph it on. I tried designing one pattern repeat and creating a grid with the tiled clones feature in Inkscape, without success – the design seems to lead to gaps between the units.
The simplest solution was to design the grid in PagePlus, my desktop publisher, and then import it into Inkscape to convert it into an svg.
As a texture maker, the mat itself has lots of potential on the gel plate. I’d like to have the option, though, to use a mask in the same design. The bathmat itself isn’t really suitable to be used directly as a mask, and I’d like the opportunity to resize the pattern, in any case.
This has been a very inspiring few weeks as I have followed these two tremendous artists on YouTube. It has involved a huge amount of work to create the masks and stencils I wanted, but well worth it.
Materials for cutting
In the past I have cut my stencils from acetate but this is not the best material as it is hard and brittle. Mylar or polypropylene are better – more durable, and less punishing on the cutting machine blade. You can buy cheap polypropylene document wallets which make excellent stencil material for less cost than buying sheets of stencil material from art suppliers. However, one of the best materials is Tyvek – a breathable membrane used in the building trade. It comes in two forms – fabric or paper, and the latter cuts like butter on the machine. It is virtually indestrucible and if you get it covered with paint (if you get carried away and forget to wash the stencil between uses!), the stencil or mask can be used as a collaging element in a mixed media project, and you can always cut a new one! It takes paint extremely well. The only thing to remember is not to heat it or you get some very interesting results as it shrinks, distorts and bubbles – fabulous for art work but not much use as a stencil after that! The main disadvantage of this material is that it is opaque. Most people prefer transparent stencils so that they can see what’s underneath and how best to line up the stencil, but I don’t think this is too much of a problem.
Buying Tyvek from an art supplier can be expensive. I have discovered C4 Tyvek envelopes (Ebay or Amazon) and the Tyvek is much cheaper in this format. They are slightly larger than an unfolded A4 sheet, being designed to contain these, which is an advantage because you can then cut a full-sized A4 sheet from them on the machine if you want the outer frame of your stencil to be this size. The back of the envelope has a seam down the middle, so for full-sizd stencils, only the front will do, but you have plenty left over for smaller ones, such as individual motif masks, or for cutting up and melting and making into beads or textured collage elements.
I have some Tyvek equivalent in the fabric format, which was quite a big offcut that the builder gave me when we first moved house and were having the roof redone. This stuff is fabulous for making really strong book spines, and hinges – it is soft and pliable, but immensely durable. It takes acrylic paint very well, too, which is good because it’s a rather depressing shade of grey, and it has writing on it. This stuff is not suitable for stencils, of course.
Top of photo: the soft roofing membrane I use for book binding. Far left, a pack of Tyvek envelopes. You can see the seam down the back. To the right, some sheets of Tyvek ct from the fronts of these envelopes. Far right, a polywallet cut up. It’s a bit difficult to see the difference in these materials because they are white (I altered the brightness and contrast a little so they would show up better, which has made them off-white in colour).
I hope this post has been useful. I will post an update once I have had a chance to do some test cuts and done any necessary editing of the files, which will then be uploaded to my OneDrive.
