A week or so ago I shared my Recipe for Home Made Gelli Plates. .. but you know my mind just keeps turning. I wanted to know if there was a difference between the ones with sugar or no sugar (some folks on YouTube insisted that ones with sugar would not mold) and if there was really a difference between the homemade plates that were made with or without glycerine to preserve it.
So of course, I made some videos to compare EVERYTHING…. and now I’m sharing with you.
First, a video about making gelatin plates WITH or WITHOUT sugar…
Here are my takeaways:
- There is no difference in texture
- There is no difference in moistness
- There is no difference in print quality
- THEY BOTH WILL MOLD
I stored them for 1 week at room temperature in a sealed glass container. So… don’t waste your sugar on printing plates!
Next… do the “regular” homemade gelatin plates work any differently than the homemade gelli plates in which you add glycerine to preserve it?
And my takeaways on this:
- No difference in texture
- No difference in moisture
- No difference in print quality
- IT DIDN’T MOLD. (At least not yet.)
- The cost or availability of the glycerine is the only deciding factor. It was rather expensive at the pharmacy- $8 for a 6-oz bottle- but I’ve seen it online for much cheaper and folks tell me it’s inexpensive at Wal-Mart.
So the break-down here is you can spend $1.50 for a plate you can use for 2-3 days, or $5-8 for a plate that will last much longer.
The only thing left I have to do is compare my homemade glycerine gelli plate to the one I bought from Gelli Arts…. so stay tuned for that!
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Is it possible to multiply the recipe in order to use a larger pan and then cutting up that large plate? I was thinking that gelli printing would be a fun project for the tweens at my library, and being able to make four or more at a time in for instance a jelly roll pan would save lots of time. Amazon has great deals on glycerin, especially in large quantities, so it wouldn’t cost too much.
Your videos really inspire me. Love the humor. Also you have the best scarves.
Katy- I believe it would but you’d need a deep enough pan to get 1/4-3/8 thickness and still be able to transport a pan filled with heavy liquids into a cool space to set up. (You wouldn’t want that sloshing about!) So while the answer is “yes,” it actually might be more convenient to do a number of small batches.
And thank you for the comment about the scarves! My studio is in the 3rd floor of my home and it’s a tad chilly up here right now. 🙂
Hi, I noticed that the real Gelli Plate can be mounted on plastic or an acrylic block to be used as a stamp. I tried with my homemade plates, but they do not stick to the block. What can I do to get them to stick?
Did you use the preserved on non-preserved version?
Hi Jenny
Thanks for responding. I am not quite sure what the preserved or non-preserved version is. I used gelatin, glycerin and water for my Gelli Plates.
Hi Jenny, I’m looking for your homemade vs. bought comparison and can’t seem to find it. I am nuts about the gelli plate andwant to share it with my starving artists but find the price prohibitive so have gone into the homemades but am not ecstatic… Have not gotten it to work well yet… How long are your glycerine plates lasting?
One person puts hers through a strainer after yhe re-mrlt to get out the stuck on bits of acrylic. Tried the babywipe wipe off and it started to disintegrate… Am also in a heatwave so I suspect that contributed to melting.
Cheers!
Shelly S.
I just checked and my glycerine plate is still usable- (July 2015) not bad! I don’t mind the bits of acrylic, because that’s part of the look I like. And I have re-melted plates to “freshen” them and it works a few times. It sounds like you might need an extra packet of gelatin for your warm climate, no?