Among the Ferns by Seok Yam Chew

Morning Seok, is that you standing there in your weeding dress? Marvellous print! I love the gentle pink against the different blues and the ghost of the postcard is so effective. You are getting seriously good with this method!!

This is clever Seok. Is it a monoprint? However you have done it, it is really effective.

This is really good Seok. Love the colours :)

This is so cleverly done Seok, I can't really understand how you've achieved this. You must do a YouTube video then we can all see! Love the colours!

Sounds like fun its great to experiment with new methods and even better when you get great results like this Seok keep on doing what your doing mate.

Beautiful Seok weeds are friends and so elegant

Yes do tell us the method - whatever it is it's produced a great picture here.

More great ideas Seok, and a super design has emerged, great use of complimentary colours.

Really like this, it's very effective.

Thanks so very much, everyone! Satu, no that's not me. This is my cobbling together another geographical incongruity - it's the silhouette of a friend from San Diego in the US wandering among my weeds and ferns in Singapore! Julie, yes, it's a monoprint using a gelatin plate. Christine and Michael - I have never loaded a video on Youtube and will probably take longer to figure that out than the time it takes me to produce a presentable print! However, I will try to describe the steps I took if it'll help. I used a gelatin plate because I took the monoprinting course with Linda Germain and she recommended that we use one. I think you could probably find something on YouTube teaching you how to make one. I won't reproduce Linda's recipe here as she probably wouldn't appreciate my sharing her lessons with the public and I will probably be breaching some intellectual property law. However, if you can't find a satisfactory gelatin plate recipe online, I think the Gelli Plate will produce a similar result. I think a number of artists use acrylic paints on the Gelli plate, but I found I preferred water soluble printing inks because they were so much easier to clean. The downside is that they never really completely dry, and feel a little sticky to the touch. So here goes: (1) I used a stamp with writing on it (bought at a local stationery store), inked it with blue printing ink and stamped all over a piece of mixed media paper (the "Printed Paper"). (2) I then inked my gelatin plate with a thin layer of red printing ink and then placed some ferns randomly on the plate. I pulled the print using the Printed Paper. (3) Next, I inked my gelatin plate with a thin layer of yellow ink and again placed ferns randomly on the plate. I then pulled the next print on the Printed Paper. (4) Finally I inked my gelatin plate with a thin layer of purple ink (mixing my blue and red inks) and placed weeds and ferns randomly on the plate. I also placed the stencil mask of the woman with the hat on the plate. I then pulled the print on the Printed Paper, which gave me the resulting print. I hope this helps!

Thanks Seok for that very detailed explanation, just as useful as a YouTube video! I collected some lovely ferns and leaves on my walk this morning so will definitely have a go at this in the next day or two using my Gelli Plate for a start. I do like the inspirational variety of different techniques used by POLers! Thanks again.

That is so interesting Seok, as is your detailed explanation of how you achieved it. Such lovely colours and exciting shapes, a wonderful piece of art.

Great work!

Very attractive Seok. I love the writing included with your friend and such great colours.

Another successful piece. Lovely.

Another beauty Seok!

Very very clever Seok and lovely colours.

The mystery ang glamour of this attracted me to this. Finding your clear explanation was a bonus. Thank you.

Amazing work Seok, has a classical feel to it. Thank you also for the explanation, I really must have another go at it.

Almost missed this Seok. Unusual effects and so original in application. Lovely colour and design elements - I'm sure your methods have all sorts of potential images to exploit. Intriguing!

Looking forward to seeing your Gelli Plate work, Christine! Thanks so much, Val, Debs, Carole, Avril, Louise, Marjorie, Sian, Fiona and Pat!

You are getting an expert at this technique Seok! Very well done!

Thanks very much, Sarah!