Good Gelatin Plate (I hope)?

     Since my large "permanent" plate had developed some small mold spots, I cut it up into pieces about 3 inches square and put them into a glass bowl and microwaved them for 3 minutes. They were completely melted. Then I added 1/4 cup glycerin to the mix. Gave it a good stir and poured it back into the cookie pan. It set hard within 15 minutes. Hopefully, that will do the trick. I still have a little glycerin left over, so if mold grows again, I'll remelt it and add some more. The problem may be with the type of glycerin I'm using, however. I bought it at Hobby Lobby in the soap making department. On the label it says non-edible. That could be because it has some ingredients in it other than glycerin. There is no ingredient list on the label and it doesn't say 100% glycerin on the label.

     My small gelatin plate is still mold free and I used glycerin from a health food store. That glycerin was edible and was 100% glycerin. It was also very expensive. 

So now the ingredients in the large plate are:

12 TBS gelatin

3 1/4 cups glycerin

3 cups boiling water

Here's the link for the original recipe: Original Recipe

Time will tell how it goes...

Update on Gelatin Plate

BIG OH OH! I got out my large gelatin plate today and saw that it was growing some small mold spots. It's not supposed to do that!!! I took a look at the small plate that I made in August from the exact same recipe and it is just fine. The only difference is that I used a different brand of glycerin in the small plate. I bought the glycerin for the small plate at a health food store and it was very expensive. I bought the glycerin for the large plate at Hobby Lobby. My plan is to cut up my large plate tomorrow, melt it in the microwave, add some more glycerin, and hopefully it will harden again and not grow mold. I'll let you know in a new blog post.

Impromptu

 Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine some time back listed some prompts you could use to spark ideas in creating art. At our last meeting, my art group, ArtsEtc., did an activity in which the leader pulled out prompts from an envelope one by one. After a prompt was called out, we each executed the direction onto our working surface. My surface was a 12 x 12 piece of batting. I brought a collection of fabrics I had made (from gelatin monoprinting), some commercial fabric from   Marcia Derse,  some pearle cottons, embroidery floss, sheers, and 3-D items, needles, and thread. Here are the prompts that were pulled. We were allowed to ignore the ones that we didn’t like. I followed all but #6.

1.) Add a strong diagonal.

2.) Add a trapunto. (I added a stuffed monk.)

3.) Add a repeating shape in several sizes.

4.) Add a doodle.

5.) Add a circle.

6.) Gather.

7.) Add strips.

8.) Add embroidery.

9.) Add a geometric.

10.) Add a sheer.

Since I’m trying to develop a body of work, I brought materials that stick to the colors and themes of that body. The activity took about an hour and a half and lots of talk and laughs.

     After I made it and took it home, I read that  SAQA wants a 10 x 7 piece for a trunk show and I thought the composition of part of it was good enough and if I work on it more and quilt it and embroider it, I can make it into a nice art quilt. So I rearranged some of the elements and cut it to size. (I forgot to take a photo before I did all this. Whoops.) So to get a “before” photo I stuck all the pieces next to each other.Here’s the 12 x 12 piece. 

definitely an impromptu work

Here it is cut to the proper size for the trunk show.

In-process, cut to size

The plan is to add quilting, embroidery and edging and other elements as needed.

I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can visit other art quilt blogs. Please make comments to let the artists know you stopped by.

I'm Getting Attached to My Monk

     At my art group ArtsEtc, we've decided to start each monthly meeting with a quick sketching exercise from a book called "Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun (Lab Series" by Carla Sonheim Amazon.com even though we are basically fiber artists. We only spend about 15 minutes doing it to get our creative juices going. Our sketching leader chooses the exercise and this last time the instruction was to quickly draw 30 cats. I knew I wouldn't have time for details, so I only drew the outline of the cat over and over; no eyes or whiskers or other details. I only had time to get 22 of them on my paper before time was called.
     Then the homework was to choose our favorite drawing we made and to put it on a 5 x 7 cardstock and develop it into a composition and bring it to the next meeting. Here's mine.

Guardian

I used a combination of watercolors, acrylics, Shiva paintstiks (I love those), and a black Sharpie fine point marker.

     The other homework was to bring a photo of a giraffe. Intriguing. In the meantime, I'm monoprinting and texture rubbing fabrics for a couple of quilts I'm preparing.

A Remarkable Project

      I have a friend, Margaret Loomis, in my art group, ArtsEtc,  who has come up with an amazing idea and has put it into action. She saw that Alzheimer’s patients were lined up in their wheelchairs in the hallways of their nursing home and they sat with their heads down with no stimulation for several hours. To provide some interaction for them, she decided to make covers for their wheelchairs that had three dimensional art so that they could reach out and touch the cover on the chair in front of theirs. She made sure that there were no embellishments on the covers that could be removed by the patients and put in their mouths like buttons, sequins, beads, etc. She also found out that patients with dementia and Alzheimer's can be disturbed by shiny things so no glitter, foils, or shiny fabrics. She also made sure that the covers were comfortable on the side facing the back of the patient and that they are machine-washable. Here are five of the many she has made so far.

African Iris

I'm Still Me

And here's the artist!

     Even more amazing, a nurse got wind of her idea and has applied for a grant to do a study at one of our local rehab homes with an Alzheimer’s wing to see the effects of the covers on the patients and the staff. So our art group is busy making the wheelchair covers for the study. 

     I’m sharing this with you because I’m hoping you will pass this on to many others. They don’t take long to make and really brighten up someone’s world. I could see many guilds and other groups taking this project on. Even if the staff of a retirement home or hospital is cheered up by wheelchair art, it will have a positive effect on their patients.

     Here's a diagram of how to make them. It has the size for a wheelchair for the average adult. I cut batting and backing fabric the length and width of the whole thing and spray basted them together. Then I spray basted the part that would go against the person's back. Then I assembled the artwork and attached that last by fusing and finally quilted the whole thing. I attached bias tape to the edges with a zig zag stitch to all the edges and it was finished.

     My personal goal is to make wheel chair covers on a regular basis for a retirement home in the long term ward with the understanding that the staff will put them on the wheel chairs in the morning when the patients are using the chairs, and then velcro or pin them onto the curtains that divide the patient’s beds from each other in their rooms in the afternoons when they are in bed so that they can see the art on the cover when they are in bed. I’m going to sew velcro onto the cover and onto the dividing curtain if the staff will allow it. If the retirement home doesn’t like the idea, then I’ll make the covers for children at the local hospital or find a place that will want them on a regular basis. Nov. 14:  I recently found out that they cannot be put onto the curtains because the curtains are fire retardant and the fabrics of the wheelchair covers would have to be fire retardant, also. Makes sense.

     Wheelchair art doesn’t have to be as elaborate as Margaret’s. One of our group made several covers that are blocks of traditional log cabins and her covers are gorgeous. Mine is a bouquet of flowers that I made by fusing fabrics that I fussy cut and fused onto a background and then zig-zagged stitched to make sure they stayed on after machine washed. Anything that is cheerful would be appreciated. But Margaret has truly inspired us at ArtsEtc with her beautiful art and her clever and witty take on these wheelchair covers!

I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday  where you can visit other art quilt blogs. Please make comments to let the artists know you visited.

Back At It

     My surgeon took all restrictions off today! My arm still is sore, but I can do whatever I can tolerate. Yipee! And I found out I don't need surgery on my other shoulder. It's just arthritis in that one and exercise will keep it going.  When I was at physical therapy doing my exercises, I noticed the sheet on the table and saw that it was thin and had some holes in it and that it had a nice pattern on it in gray. The nurse saw me handling it and said "You seem to be rather focused on that sheet." I said it has some holes in it and if you are getting ready to throw it away, please don't. I'll be glad to put it to a good use. (I can see that gray pattern in strata and rocks and all sorts of backgrounds and the thin material is just what I want for my quilts.) Then I heard my husband from the waiting room saying "Is my wife asking for stuff again?" I ended up walking out of there with four sets of sheets. Tee Hee.

Treasure for me

     This past week, I took out my mini gelatin plate that I made in August and had stored in my studio at room temperature and it is just as good as new. So I made a large one following the same recipe. I know you can buy the permanent gelatin plates now, but they don't make large enough ones for me. Plus, if you damage them, I'm not sure you can melt them and reform them. With this recipe, you can store them at room temperature and they won't grow mold and if you damage them, you can microwave them to melt them and then cool them to reset them. Not many places sell glycerin anymore, though, and it's getting a little expensive. You can find it at health food stores, on-line drugstores like Walgreen etc. (but then you have to pay shipping), in the soap-making section of Hobby Lobby (use the 40% off coupons), and places like that.
Nov. 16. BIG OH OH! I got out my large gelatin plate today and saw that it was growing some small mold spots. It's not supposed to do that!!! I took a look at the small plate that I made in August from the exact same recipe and it is just fine. The only difference is that I used a different brand of glycerin in the small plate. I bought the glycerin for the small plate at a health food store and it was very expensive. I bought the glycerin for the large plate at Hobby Lobby. My plan is to cut up my large plate tomorrow, melt it in the microwave, add some more glycerin, and hopefully it will harden again and not grow mold. I'll let you know in a new blog post.
Here's the recipe I followed:
12 TBS Gelatin
3 cups Glycerin
3 cups boiling water

1.) Mix the gelatin into the glycerin.
2.) Add the boiling water. Stir until dissolved.
3.) Pour into the pan.
4.) Let harden at room temperature.
This was enough to fill an 11inch x 17 inch cookie pan. I leave it in the pan permanently even while I print. I made a cover for the pan. Cover for Pan If I damage the gelatin plate, I'll cut it up and put it in a microwavable container and melt it and then pour it back into the cookie pan.

To clean up, do NOT clean up in your sink or you will clog up your pipes. Wipe up the gelatin with newspaper and throw away. I also rinsed everything with hot water outside on our dirt driveway.

     I monoprinted a white T-shirt using the method I use to make the fabrics for my latest quilts. Here it is so far. I'm going to use Shiva paintstiks to add rubbings to it later this week. That will unify the parts more.

Front of T-shirt

Back of T-Shirt

Lastly, the small gelatin plate that I made in August was from the same recipe, but here is the amount I used:
2 TBS Gelatin
1/2 cup Glycerin
1/2 cup Boiling Water
Here is a photo of the container I poured it into. It's a sandwich container I bought at a Dollar Store. Once the gelatin set, I flipped it over and removed the gelatin. I keep it stored upside-down on the lid so that I can use it.

The container upside-down
with the gelatin inside

The mini gelatin plate sitting on the lid