Every so often I have to challenge myself to try something new. I’ve had a gelli plate for a while and done some basic printing but saw an advert on Instagram for an online Gel printers summit with courses by 15 amazing tutors arranged by Drew Steinbrecher. This was such a brilliant idea, one session every day for 2 weeks with access to the videos even after the summit had finished. I learnt lots, made lots of mistakes and tried different ideas as well as meeting like minded people.

One of the tutors Jayne Emmerson used fabric in her course and as I’d got lots of different types of fabric already I spent several happy hours playing.

Later that day I visited Elsecar Heritage centre for coffee and a wander around the antique centre and I spotted this vintage baby gown.

It was very delicate and discoloured with a few tears in it but I decided on a whim to buy it and see if I could take any prints from it. I used Golden Open Acrylics as they take longer to dry so I had time to take a print straight away without waiting for it to dry and adding a layer of gel medium.

Although the fabric was really fragile it picked up the paint well and allowed me to get clear images.

If you follow the hashtag #gelprinterssummit2023 on Instagram you will be able to see the creativity which came out of this course @janehmokumegane