A moment on the gelatin.

I haven't gotten to play much with gelatin prints since making those first attempts.

I did however spend a weekend over at my aunt's, and while I was there decided to make a plate and go to gung ho the next day.

I mixed up the gelatin in the usual recipe, 4c water to 1/3c gelatin - food grade gelatin I ordered off line. I have 5 pounds of the stuff which will stretch WAY farther than I thought it would. So the game is on.

I pour the gelatin a bit at a time stirring it into the simmering water, when almost all the chunks are dissolved and it's like a light shade of piss yellow- I pour it out into a jello roll pan. I leave it on the counter overnight to cure.

Now the next day, when we went to get it out of the pan it stuck like GLUE! Worse, when we attempted to gently, with splayed fingers, tug it out, it folded and broke. crack after crack. Next we tried heating up the underside of the pan with a hair dryer. No difference. Eventually we settled on prying it out of the pan using the hairdryer to blow air up under it creating lift- think a sheet on the line on a windy day. We managed a few decent sized chunks. and played with them- but they were too soft to take much printing and eventually we played with cookie cutters to make shapes.

The ink also acted differently on it, being more water-y the ink slid off it instead of having nice grip. The Speedball inks I'd expect that of- I haven't had much luck with them being sticky or opaque. The Daniel Smith inks I bought are Fantastic (unfortunately their price? less than fantastic).

Anyway- The real question is- why was my plate so awful?

Let's investigate the differences between the first [;ate i made and this last one in process:


Plate One:
4 cups water using liquid measure + 1/3 c gelatin solid measure. When combined over heat, resulting in an amber like color, a medium yellow. Then poured on a normal cookie sheet, let it set, then popped it into a fridge over night. It was almost room temperature by the time we used it next day but it was rubber-y and the edges and bottom had pulled away form the pan.

Plate Two: 4c water- using a solid measure. 1/3 c solid measure. when combined made a light yellow color, poured into a jelly roll pan (higher, more vertical sides) and placed on a counter.

My hypothesis is that I ended up with more water in plate two, and because I didn't stick it in a dry fridge to dehydrate over night it didn't get that ideal rubbery texture.