How I started with gelli transfers

I saw this interesting thing one day on the internet. Magazine pages magically printing themselves onto paper, via Gelli plates. Could it really work? I needed to try it out. 

I went to the store to buy a fashion magazine and to the thrift shop to look for cool books. I found a book about old cars with vintage sports cars.

At the studio again I was excited to see if it should work. The blog posts I read said that you just need regular acrylic paint, a Gelli plate, and some paper to print on. Not too complicated. So I got started. And it worked! The fashion magazine made beautiful prints as you see. The book didn’t work as good. I got some shades but no full prints.

I tried out a few different brands of paints, and they didn’t make any difference. I ended up using Liquitex, Schjerning, Winsor & Newton, L&B and Maimeri.

The paper you print of, however, makes a big difference. The glossy magazine pages worked the best. I also tried a magazine with a matt print and that didn’t work out at all. The old book had glossy pages but the print was weak. If you are familiar with the printing process you can probably figure out what works or not.

This technique was so much fun and I can continue work on it for a long time. It’s amazing to see the magazine print come off and over to your paper. The papers you print also turn out great and I ended up saving some for collages.

My best tips as a beginner Gelli transfer printer:

1. Print fashion magazines. They work.

2. Pics with high contrast works best.

3. Don’t put to much paint onto the Gelli plate when printing. Both when lifting the magazine page and when you print your own paper.

4. Make sure you see the magazine print off through the paint on the Gelli plate when you print your paper.

Watch the magic of Gelli transfer printing happen: