Fixing A Damaged Gel Plate with Humor

Oh the terror! 

At first I thought the lump I felt on my 18x24 Gelli Arts plate was that sneaky residue of invisible matte medium. But… they felt deep. Too deep. No. What are these lumps? Does my plate need a mammogram?

I splashed some baby oil on it and looked at the plate from the side. The light caught them perfectly. Augh! There were indeed trenches in my precious big gel plate. No doubt my gasp could be heard as far South as the Panama Canal and possibly rattled a few cargo ships passing through.

The culprit?
It turns out that the highly textured Kozo paper I collaged on my gel plate, leaving it overnight under heavy books, was not my best idea. Hindsight is cruel. It’s funny how I am always so cautious about setting and storing my gel plates on smooth surfaces, yet completely fail to predict the flaw in the “let’s press strings with the heaviest books I own” plan.

For the record, those books were large, serious-looking art books snd dog encyclopedias. Apparently, they are excellent for learning and equally excellent for turning gel plates into relief maps.

What a loss it would be to lose both my beloved big plate and the joy of textured Kozo collage materials. I was already mentally planning the memorial service.

What to do?
Without thinking, I slathered baby oil onto my gel plate and rubbed it in like I was giving it a day at the spa. Ten minutes later I opted for pouring a full-on puddle of oil on and just letting it sit.

Two hours later, the Grand Canyon of gel printing fuck-ups was still on my plate. It was suggested in the Gel Inspirations Facebook Community that my plate should also be in a warm room, but not in the sun. I live on the beach on the NW coast of Baja. People move here for the benign — yes, 100% boring — weather. As a result, rooms are never really warm, nor are they cool enough for me to justify a space heater. Curse that perfection!

Massage, massage!
I doused my plate with more baby oil, rubbed it in and put it in the sun for 30–40 minutes. Desperate times, desperate spa measures.

Was I imagining it or did the trenches feel less deep/traumatizing? I brought the plate back inside, but continued alternating baby oil massages and letting puddles of oil sink in for the rest of the day, like some sort of weird gel plate ICU. My kingdom for a mineral oil IV bag to hang.

Whew! 

It took 9 hours, but the deep grooves vanished. I can’t say if the cure was the massages, the oil, the bit of sunshine, my tear drops plus my swearing, or all of the above, but something worked.

So I write this post both as a cautionary tale about textured paper plus heavy dog encyclopedias, but also to let you know there is hope. If your gel plate is dented, act fast, be patient and always have baby oil on hand - lots of it. 

I HOPE it helps. And may your plates stay smooth and your bad ideas always be reversible.