Crazy about Gelli arts and mono printing

Video instruction from Gelli arts youtube for stamping with the 3" x 5" Gelli Arts Plate. 

Monoprinting is a form of printmaking that has images or lines that can only be made once, unlike most printmaking, where there are multiple originals. There are many techniques of monoprinting. Examples of standard printmaking techniques which can be used to make monoprints include lithography, woodcut, and etching. A monoprint is a single impression of an image made from a reprint able block, but with the Gelli Arts plate, stamping and "ghost prints are also an added addition to the traditional mono printing process.

The beauty of this medium is also in its spontaneity and its combination of printmaking, painting and drawing media. With this process, no two prints are alike; although images can be similar, editioning is not possible. Each piece is original.

The creative and fabulous artists at Gelli Arts have made some wonderful video instructions and I've included the one above the creatively uses the smaller Gelli plate in the 3" x 5" size for stamping $11.69 at Blicks. 

I wanted to add some tips and tricks I've learned while using the Gelli plate. 

• Number one tip is to take good care of your Gelli plate. READ the instructions and follow care instructions carefully and the Gelli plate will last for years. Gelli Arts cautions not to use any glossy paper stock, including photo paper. It can stick to and damage the surface of the gel plate. In addition, the gel printing plate has an extremely sensitive surface and will imprint any texture it is siting upon. It is recommended to always keep your gel printing plate laying flat on a smooth, flat, nonporous barrier such as a Teflon baking sheet, baking tray or piece of glass. Read the instructions from your Gelli plate or get the info here -  Gelli care instruction . Your Gelli Arts plate can be expensive to replace especially if you have the larger 12 x 14" which is roughly $62.99 Blick. 

• The substrate matters. (substrate - the base material onto which e.g. images will be printed). Paper (lightweight, heavyweight, coated, uncoated, paperboard, cardboard, etc.) including parchment. Then theres fabric, foils and wood. I've found a medium weight paper around 120 lbs holds up well and can be used in other projects like collage or jewelry. But the parchment papers transparent quality make amazing and interesting collage additions as well. The exciting part of mono printing is the experimentation because even with careful planing your will always get surprises in the results - most are happy surprises.

• a. paper - Hollander carries a wide selection of papers coated and uncoated (surface coat is added). Coated papers can often resist paint but don't simply discount this paper if you have it on hand. It's just needs to dry a little more between coats of paint. The surface may have more sheen as well and doesn't really work with the Gelli Arts plate. It can also possible damage the surface so I recommend starting with computer paper or card stock as you learn and then graduate to printmaking paper.  Our local craft and art stores carry the heavy Bristol paper and Staples #110 Cardstock for an economical heavy paper is another great choice. Rives BFK (about $7.50 a sheet) or Rising Stonehenge ($3.25 for 22" x 30") are excellent printmaking papers for fine prints. For collage, I love using deli paper (here's a blog that has images of prints on deli paper. I found Costco carries dry waxed paper sheet in bulk and they work very nicely. Also here (dry waxed paper). The deli paper is wonderful for it's thin, translucent properties. Paper is such an individual preference, and your end purpose will be a factor in your paper choice but I would note that a smooth-surfaced paper gives a more detailed print.
•  b. Fabric - Gelli printing is perfect for monoprinting on fabric. Tight-weave fabrics, such as PFD cotton and muslin, give great results.

Paint:

Acrylic paint is stellar for gel printing! Although a little warning that it dries quickly and forces you to make quick decisions about pattern. I recommend sorting out your templates and mark making tools in advance of rolling out the paint. Laying the paper on top of the design, pressing with your hands to make the design stick to the paper and then and pulling it off the plate is quite exciting but if the paint dries to much before this effort is accomplished the paint won't all adhere to the paper. However, do despair too much because you can spread more paint thinly and bring up a ghost print of the previous design. That can often be where the gel prints are the most interesting. 

Liquitex Basic acrylic paint has a great color selection and is relatively inexpensive. Some of the colors are more saturated than others like the Quinacridone Magenta  which runs about $4.49 for one and for 3 or more $3.44 in a 4oz tube at Blick Art Supply. I've also found a variety of paints in the clearance section at my craft store that are priced around $.25 for a small 2oz tube. Sometimes they need to be revived with a little water as the paint has sat a little too long and has started to coagulate. At those prices the paint can be a wonderful source of experimentation as you can mix the colors to create additional shades. 

Example pic of Liquitex paint also available at craft and artist supply stores. 

Stamping with Gelli arts 3 x 5 mini plate

My Pinterest monoprints

Zen Doodles - Zen Lines - Gelli monoprints 

This work started as a practice in drawing lines, movements and shapes. Feeling no stress to “get it just right”, but drawing a line or making a mark and seeing where the movement left a mark was so pleasing to me. For me it is very meditative, stream of conscious activity that I never seem to bore of and feel "what a zen” place to be.

I started by making my own handmade alcohol inks.

1 - pick up some packs of inexpensive alcohol pen markers at the dollar store. 
2 - find some small spray bottles - I found a bunch at Shopko for about .50 cents.
3 - small can of denatured alcohol (Denatured alcohol or methylated spirits is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous, extremely bad tasting, foul smelling or nauseating, to discourage recreational consumption). Please keep all these materials away from children.
4 - Using needle nose pliers pry the nib tip from the marker. Wear gloves as the dye can stain your fingers. Pry the nib carefully and make sure to keep the tip pointed upward as not to spill the contents. Pour the contents into one of the small spray bottles. Add equal amount of the denatured alcohol and shake up the mixture and voi·la (vwäˈlä/....there is is). 



This ink is a good substitute for some of the pricer inks found at craft stores and depending on the color can be quite brilliant and can saturate the substrate very nicely. But any brand of inks work just great. 

I also used washes of watercolor to help me start the creative juices flowing. I had the good fortune of purchasing a bundle of very heavy watercolor paper from a garage sale. That bundle sat around for a very long time as I worked on becoming proficient with encaustic. When I ran into a creative deadzone I scrambled around and pulled the paper out and thought that the materials were inexpensive way to start practicing drawing lines and shapes. I had read to stand back and use the entire arm to make movements and shapes. So that's how I started. The sheets of watercolor paper were 22" x 30" so there was a lot of space to create. I ended up dividing the sheets into four and adding painters tape around the edges to protect and keep the pretty white border. 

Over the years I've collected many art and craft tools from stamps to templates, collage papers, and various brushes and mark making instruments. Now was the time to pull them out and start using them. 

After several pieces were randomly painted and inked, sometimes stamped, sometimes stenciled I became more myopic (nearsighted) in decorating the surfaces. In the evening I often attached a dry piece to an art board and would begin making more marks with my many pens and markers. As you know, when its a marker there's no erasing so I just let it flow and didn't worry about the end product but just the happy place I found myself when doing this work. 

I noticed the work started to have a organic, underwater theme and I liked the direction and spent time looking at underwater sea forms and microscopic images. Then the pieces became more intentional yet still very meditative. I still enjoy making this type of art and can see how it will be a lasting tool when I need to jump start my creative juices. 

This first piece lives in London at my nephews home and makes me feel happy that others have the benefit of this art practice. 

This piece is in my granddaughters nursery. 

You can see these pieces on my pinterest board too

Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe: DIY Altoids Watercolor Tin

 Found this on a friends pinterest instruction post and was amazed at the simple, yet smart, handmade watercolor tin to carry in a backpack, purse, vehicle... etc. love this. Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe: DIY Altoids Watercolor Tin

Money Can't buy love....The Ken Griffin Divorce…and the Right Way to Do a Prenup - 

Copied from above article on WSJ...."Hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin and his wife, Anne Dias Griffin, appear headed to court in a fight over the validity of a prenuptial agreement signed on the eve of their 2003 wedding.

Reports say 'Mrs. Griffin filed documents in court in Illinois this week challenging the prenup, saying it was signed under duress. Mr. Griffin, who filed for divorce in July, reportedly didn’t disclose his financial information until days before the ceremony, and she signed the prenup three hours before a rehearsal dinner on the night before their July 19, 2003, wedding.'

At stake is Mr. Griffin’s reported $5 billion fortune. If the prenup remains in place, Mrs. Griffin would get roughly 1% of that, or $50 million. If it doesn’t, she could get substantially more. Mr. Griffin’s Chicago-based Citadel LLC is one of the largest firms in the hedge-fund industry, with about $21 billion under management. About one fourth of that amount belongs to Mr. Griffin or his employees, according to a person familiar with the matter."

Do you think Anne Dias Griffin should be awarded $$ because her marriage didn't work out with Mr. Griffin? If the shoe were on the other foot and her hedge fund had been worth  a $5 billion fortune, should Mr. Griffin be entitled to his $$ if the marriage didn't work out? What is this idea where marriage can be a path to fortune? There's no simple way to split up a marriage especially when children are involved but adding to that pain and trouble (especially for the children) is when one of the partners has a bundle of cash going into the marriage and the other partner wants to continue in the life style they've became accustomed too and is asking for the prenup to be thrown out.  

What a way to start a loving relationship. Does anyone believe they met and it was a rare occasion where they fell in love without either of them knowing the financial background of the other person. Anne Dias before she and Ken Griffin married ran her own hedge fund, Aragon Global Management LLC in Chicago, an investment firm she started in 2001 with backing from hedge-fund manager Julian Robertson. The firm returned money to clients in 2009, having managed $200 million in assets at its peak. 

One would wonder if Mrs. Griffin carefully thought this out before tying the knot. I know nothing of Mrs. Griffin except what I read in the WSJ regarding her challenge to the prenup that she signed the day of their marriage. Which apparently has no standing in the state of California where prenups aren’t enforceable if there aren’t at least seven days between their being presented to the parties and the actual signing. They were not married in California but in Paris, and Bloomberg reported they have not lived together since 2012. (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-03/kenneth-griffin-s-wife-seeks-child-custody-amid-divorce.html). According to Mrs. Griffin, Mr. Griffin carefully thought out his union with her saying she signed the agreement on the advice of a psychologist “under the guise of a counseling session.” Kenneth Griffin recommended the psychologist and didn’t disclose that he had a “fiduciary relationship” with the person, according to her divorce filing.

Divorce is a complicated issue and resolutions to "splitting up" has a rich and barbaric history. European royalty could simply do away with they're spouses when they tired of them. England's King Henry VIII was a notorious husband, and he wasn't much better as a fiancé.  Henry was reportedly out hunting on the day his second wife Anne Boleyn was beheaded. He rushed to Jane Seymour to share the good news. They were married the next day. And while the wedding was a relatively private ceremony, there were preparations to be made, invitations to be sent, cakes to be baked. All must have occurred even as Boleyn was still alive in the Tower of London. This is clearly an exceedingly brutal example and in this day and age what we've became accustomed to in our modern view of fairness and individual rights has grown out of years of  trial and error. 

Did Mr. Griffin realize if he married Ms. Dias at the Palace of Versailles in Paris that he might be viewed as having the rights of the earlier royalty? Ah psshaw, forget about prenups, off with her head, I'll take the children and continue my lifestyle- MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Still, I can't help but think no matter the virtues as well as flaws of either of the Griffins or what their reasons for splitting happened to be, will money be the answer? Perhaps Mrs. Griffin thinks so and feels she and their children are entitled.

So what of this trend of marriage and divorce and how will it change our demographics in the future? 

According to Wikipedia "In 2005, divorce rates were four times the divorce rates in 1955, and a quarter of children less than 16 years old are raised by a stepparent, according to one source.[9] Marriages that end in divorce last for a median of 8 years for both men and women.[10]"

According to Wikipedia "In 2008 a report was taken out by major research foundations including The Young Foundation (UK),The Bertelsmann Foundation (DE), The European Center for Social Welfare Policy and Research (EU), and other foundations around the world. These foundations combined their own research to show what to expect families to look like in the next twenty years or so.[30] These factors included:

21st century fertility rates

In industrialized countries, such as the United States, fertility rates have been lower than non-industrialized countries. Women have had children later in life, which has resulted in fewer births per woman. With a higher percentage of women in the work force, more women have diverted their attention away from establishing a family.[30] This has led to speculation that, in the next 20 years, the native U.S. population is not going to increase as fast as it did in the 20th century. Despite increased longevity, the number of members per family is not projected to increase.[30]

Immigration

As of 2006, roughly 12%-14% of the U.S. population was foreign born. This is attributed to immigration from nearby countries and around the world.[30]

Future marriages and families in the United States

With increased longevity, more great grandparents and great grandchildren are anticipated. For the married couple this can either mean more sources of sibling, kin, and parental support or more stress from having to take care of more elderly and young family members—yet there will be fewer siblings within the family. Due to a constant flow of immigration, both legal and illegal, marriages can be projected to be more interracial and culturally diverse, which would lead to the majority white culture becoming the largest minority, leaving behind a more diverse population than currently present in the United States.[30]

A crown's no cure for a headache.

_______

And the Griffin's .... I have to agree with one of the Bloomberg commenter (Navin) who states "If she (Anne Griffin)  is claiming she did not have her Prenup reviewed by an Independent Legal Counsel, she is dumb as door nails or extremely smart. The latter may be the case here

Having said that, with her exceedingly superior work experience with blue chip Hedge funds etc it is also unlikely that she did not herself have the capacity to review the agreement and understand is troublesome.

If she did not have an Independent Legal Counsel Review her prenup then Ken is the real IDIOT! At a minimum a DRAFTER of Prenup would force a client to ensure that the new spouse has an Independent Legal Counsel but that counsel sign off on the prenup in clear and convincing manner.

As usual everything coming out of Chicago is a mystery - nowadays!

I can totally see this divorce blowing up Citadel!"

3-year-old Mateo Makes His Case for Cupcakes: "Linda, honey, just listen."

Little boy on mom’s pregnancy ‘This is exasperating!

Time management tips

Time Management tips:

I often talk about not having enough time to get a job. I've been semi-retired for over a year and catching up on all sorts of to-do-list has been mostly fulfilling. However, I find myself drawn to time consuming activities that although enjoyable, doesn't really get my list accomplished.  I've scoured the internet and complied the following list to share that might help us all  get productive and stay balanced at work or outside the office.

1.  Start talking or thinking about what you do have time for. 

2. Use your time for the things that have value or add value to your life.

3. Your time is valuable. When you show that in your behavior others will recognize and honor that too. 

4. My sister does an amazing thing that I've always admired. She is able to turn off her email for blocks of time that she needs to focus on a task. She's also amazing and turning off her phone. That might not work for everyone, but it's something to apply in your time management list. 

5. Time is the same for everyone!

6. Start to focus on the task at hand within five minutes of sitting down at your desk. 

8. Find  time saving patterns in your daily life that you can turn into habits. End your working day at a fixed time, and don't let work flow over into the evening. 

10. Research shows getting plenty of rest is important to stay productive. Make sure you get plenty of zzzzzzzs! Try to get a power nap at the same time everyday. 10 minutes can completely refresh you help you finish off the day. We all need down time.

11. If you’re using social media for business, schedule some of your updates. You don’t have to be there all of the time.

12. Pay attention to how you use your time and adjust by trimming out the time sucking activities that don't help you accomplish your goals. Think about where you can balance time so that you can enjoy yourself doing things you value. 

13. Make a list of things you want to accomplish or enjoy doing. Think about how often you actually carve out time to do these things. Then write it down as your go-to-list to remind you of your goals.

14. Are there people who drain your time? Remember tip #3. Do these same people also drain your energy? Get focused and take back your time and energy to focus on things that really matter to you. 

15. You can actually get an awful lot done in half an hour. Don’t just float because you’ve only got half an hour until your next meeting or appointment.

16.  Consider taking a short, 10 minute break by sitting quietly, breathing in for 5 seconds, holding the breathe for 5 seconds and expelling for 5 seconds and repeat. Dare you to stay awake!

17.  Identify anything causing a regular, repeated drag or drain on your time. These might include technology, systems, workflow or people, for example. One by one, take these things and fix them, address them, or change them to free up more time.

18.  Task that can distract you (i.e. social media, email, surfing the internet) suck your time and can you can end up spending more time there than you realize. Try seting  an alarm on your phone to alert you of the time passing, decide how long you want to actually spend on this activity. It might be surprised at how much time can lapse just surfing the internet or on social media.

19. We regularly underestimate how long something will take us. Factor this in! 

20. Could you spend time as an alternative to spending money during the week.

See: FORBES: http://www.forbes.com/sites/francesbooth/2014/08/28/30-time-management-tips/

Entrepreneur

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553

Study Guides and Strategies

http://www.studygs.net/timman.htm

WEBMD

http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/features/time-management-tips