Wednesday, October 17, 2012

MAKING A MASK

What is a mask pray tell?
Well....a mask is a cover that is usually made of paper or plastic 
which is used to protect the surface beneath it from ink or paint that is
 either sprayed or brushed over the mask.  When the mask is removed it 
reveals an area untouched by the medium....creating 
an image in the negative space.

Before I started playing with the Gelli Printing plate, I knew 
that I was going to use...excuse me.....NEEDED many masks 
for the process.  I invisioned flowers, donuts, hearts, stars, birds, 
people, mermaids...the list goes on.  To do this I first turned to all the 
dies that I have for my Cuttlebug machine.  I cut flowers, swirls, scrolls, 
butterflies, leaves and trees from mylar.  I made many cuts from each
 die and saved both the positive and negative image because.....
YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU WILL NEED.  
Each die cut was then placed into an envelope that was 
labeled with it's name and a traced image.




I drew other shapes such as hearts, stars, donuts, letters, and numbers 
by hand.  For the birds, people, and mermaids, I placed the mylar 
over magazine images and traced them using a sharpie pen.  I cut them 
out and also placed them into an envelope with their image.



I used mylar instead of paper to make the masks because the mylar is 
transparent, making it easy to see when tracing objects, and it doesn't 
warp or tear.  I never wash them, although, I could if I wanted to but it is 
not necessary.  Just don't do what I did and peel the mask off the paint and 
place it paint side down on a paper covered desk. 
 Then I had to peel the paper off the mask!!  
Not an easy task!!

It's a lot of fun making masks and using them with the Gelli Printing Plate.  
Try it!!  You're gonna love it!


Gelli monoprint using three bird masks.

Till next time!  Hugs!
Ginny 

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