T Shirts! And basics

 I know some of you are struggling with your jiggly creating, so I will remind you of a couple of things. When you are doing the wet Jell-O, you can still get jiggle with a stiffer formula, like the jiggler recipe on the Jell-O box, which says to use 2 1/2 cups of water to 2 6oz packages of Jell-O, instead of the 4 cups of water for one 6 oz package. So that is roughly one fourth of the water. You still get a little jiggle and a firm enough piece to cut it or get it out of the molds with not much trouble. You can decrease the water even more to get a more firm body, so that it won't melt at room temperature and will set up fast. You can use hot water with the Jell-O brand, as it is mostly chemicals and sugar and not very much gelatin.

If you are using the Knox brand, those little envelopes hold 1/4 oz of gelatin which they want you to put in one cup of water. That means for a substantial amount you have to use a lot of the envelopes, and you will want to use more than that amount of gelatin to get more body. Since it is only gelatin, you should use cold water, let it sit for a few minutes, and then melt it in a microwave or pan on the stove.

For the dried gelatin I make, I use 3 oz gelatin per cup of water, so you can go anywhere up to that (I suppose more if you want) and it will harden up at room temp, and stay somewhat stable. Refrigerate it if you want it to not get moldy, because if you don't dry it, it will only last a couple of days in its wet state.

One of the best tips is that if you don't like what you get, you can just remelt it in a pan or bowl or jar, and try again. You can add more gelatin or try a different type of mold, or technique. One thing I do a lot is just swirl it around in the container to coat the sides inside, instead of making a solid chunk. You can't always do that, but it saves a lot of gelatin if you can, and that stuff is getting expensive. 

 Remember it is supposed to be fun! And you can use lots of things for molds, but the easiest kinds to get the Jell-O out of are flexible plastic. You can use blister packs, ice cube trays, candy molds, lots of things you might have around or find at a thrift store. My first step used to be going to the thrift store for inspirational objects. Just see what appeals to you.

You still have plenty of time to try some things out. Keep in mind that anything you do will be perfect. There is no critical structure in the Jell-O Art world, no judges, no "best" or "worst." There is only Jell-O Art.  Let it feed you and bring you joy.

Got the shirts done this week, well, almost done, as I decided to color in the little Jell-O and made way too many shirts. I ran through my gold marker and now have to use screenprint ink to paint the rest with a brush. Very time consuming but they're almost finished. 

The colors are maroon or brown, pretty dark. It's a dark time. I also had some brown shirts I needed to use up that I bought in 2021 and dyed. That's one reason I made too many. 

Hope to see you all there! I do think we will have a good time. Maybe it won't be as cold and wet as it is today, either. I sure don't want to go out in this.