Jell-O Prints

Germany is a great place to live.  But not a great place to cook.  The food here is really fresh- most things don't have preservatives.  HOWEVER, this means daily trips to the grocery store.  Even if things stayed fresher longer, there's no room to keep them.  The fridges here are tiny. Maybe a bit bigger than a dorm room fridge.  But overall, healthier food.  Even the soda here is made with cane sugar, not corn syrup.

To the point... before we came, I stocked up on some things I couldn't buy here.  Peanut butter, Rice Krispies, corn starch and most importantly, Jell-O.

Jell-O is a really fun snack, but I use my Jell-O for artwork.  Artwork you say?  Yes.  In fact, printing with Jell-O is my new favorite thing to do.

Pretty much, you make some really jiggly jell-o, let it set, roll out some printing ink on a smooth surface with a brayer (laminating film or thin plastic work well), roll the ink onto the jell-o, lay down some plants, put a piece of paper on, and rub.  Its cool because it first makes a silhouette print like this:

And then if you take all the leaves off, it makes a detail print like this:

Or you can print on top of other prints like this:

I spent a couple hours collecting all sorts of fun leaves and plants and things, then the entire afternoon printing (with the help of two very curious cats who like to step on wet prints and eat leaves...).

Here's one of my favorites from Friday:

Interested in learning more?  Check this out!