Hello
Again I’d like to talk about the gel plates I made, I’ve made a few mistakes and found out a few more things that I thought might be helpful for other people.
I have changed the recipe drastically since I first made the plates, thanks to a friend who shared her recipe with me:
for 1 cup (250ml) of water use 3 packages (21 gram) gelatin.
That’s it, very simple, one thing though, it has to be stored in the fridge, otherwise it will go bad, and yes it does.
For the fun of it, I kept it out the fridge to see how long it would last, it only lasted 1 1/2 week.
About storing in the fridge, most fridges have a small space under the vegetable drawers which is perfect for storing a gel plate.
You do need to place the gel plate on a smooth surface like plexiglass, or, I get clear cutting boards from the dollar tree, where one side is smooth and the other side is a bit rough, these cutting boards are ideal for this!

So that kept me thinking about all the gel plates I made.
First, too much gelatin and second, way to much glycerin.
I remelted all the gel plates I had made and added it’s own weight in water and sometimes even more. And that did it, they work great!
When I now make gel plates, I only add a small portion of glycerin just so I can store the plate outside the fridge.
My recipe is as follows:
1 cup (250ml) water
1/4 cup (60ml) glycerin
4 packages (28gr) gelatin.
I have made this recipe a few weeks ago, and my plates are still good.
Edit February 1:
I have a bit of mold showing now, so I’m going to add a bit more glycerin.
New recipe:
1 cup (250ml) water
1/3 cup (75ml) to 1/2 cup (125ml) of glycerin
4 packages (28gr) gelatin.
One of the plates I made with the first recipe is still good, but it is on my table and used on a regular bases. I think that might be a factor that it is still good.
Another thing that people will tell you is that when making a gel plate you need a container with a smooth bottom, as the bottom of the gel plate is used to make the prints.
This is true, but then the options are limited of what container you can use, I used a new baking pan that is 9″ by 13″ (23cm by 33cm) that gives me an 8″ by 12″ (20cm by 30cm) printing surface.
I wanted a few more options, like smaller rectangles and circles.
So, I tried using any container, I used a mason jar lid and I have these nice boxes from stamping up that used to hold stamps, and poured a gel plate, because the bottom is not smooth, my idea was to use the top.



When I now make the gel, I pour the glycerin and the water in my pan.
Sprinkle the gelatin on top and wait a bit so the gelatin can be absorbed by the liquid.
I use the stove top for this, I heat it up slowly and stir gently till the liquid becomes clear, you do need to watch those bubbles and pop any that come along.
As for the very small bubbles, move them to the edge and try to take them out of the pan. It is okay if some remain, we’ll get to that later.
The thing with the top part of the gel plate is, when pouring the gel, those small bubbles might stay on the surface.
A side note on letting the gel harden, I cover the container after about 1 hour, not sooner as I might get condensation.
If the container is not covered, the gel plate might dry out a bit, I have more on this later in this post.
My solution was to wait till the gel hardens, this will take about 3 – 4 hours, take it out of the mold and then I put the gel back in the pan and slowly melt the gel again.
Then pouring it back in it’s container. Usually most of the small bubbles were gone. If some are still there, I will move them to the perimeter.
That’s the other thing with using the top part of the gel plate, when liquid is poured into something, it usually hugs the wall of the container, making it a bit concave at the edge.
When the gel plate is hardened I will take a scissor to it and cut that edge off, this way the bubbles are taking care off and the plate is now smooth.



The top might not be totally smooth, but you won’t see that in the final print.
When you want to release the gel from it’s container, you gently push in the edge all around and then you can carefully peel it from the edge.
The first picture below shows the texture at the top of the plate, Misty was curious what this was and stuck her nose right to it!



The other thing I came to realize was that my gel plates were stored in a box, water content in the gel plates evaporated, so the plates became sticky.
Now I store the plates under cling wrap or cellophane.
I also cover the plate with cellophane when I leave the studio.
But, if I think the plates don’t work as well anymore as they should, I don’t hesitate to melt them and make a new one, I will add water to it again, because I think that is a big factor in the success of gel printing, enough moisture in the gel plate.



I hope this helps to encourage you to make your own gel plates, it’s a fun technique to do.
Some of the things I do with my gel prints is, I use them as backgrounds for cards, for collaging on art pages, and recently I saw how to make a book out of a stack of papers, I will be doing that also and maybe show my result in a future post.
Talk later,
Geesje