Welcome To The DIY Gel Plate Universe

Your home base for nerdy experiments, Legit recipes, Easy Math, heroic tools and wonderful imperfection.

If you’ve ever fallen in love with gel printing … WELCOME, you’re in the right place. This could be your headquarters for all things DIY gel plates: from classic gelatin plates to vegan alternatives and hybrid “fusion” experiments. Here you’ll find recipes, nerdy deep dives, troubleshooting guides, and a calculator that does all the boring maths so you can get back to the fun part: embracing the unknown and making art. 

Choose your gel plate adventure

Commercial gel plates are amazing: you take them out of the package, they work, they last and they don’t complain. If you want plug-and-play reliability, they’re a great choice. But if you like to customize the feel of your plate, save some money, tinker with recipes, and understand what’s actually going on under the surface … the DIY route is a whole different kind of fun.

Meanwhile I created various recipes for different plates with different “personalities”. Some are bouncy, some are juicy and some are firm and some are drama queens that need a bit of extra care. In my little corner of the internet, DIY gel plates fall into three main families:

Pick the world you’re curious about or explore all three:

classic

The classic DIY gel plate – based on gelatine, glycerin and water (and in my updated version: propylene glycol instead of alcohol).
This is where everything started: my original “perfect DIY gel plate” recipe, long-term tests, troubleshooting and all the updates I’ve made after many, many experiments (and a few mild disasters).

vegan

Plant-based only! Lots of possibilities.
These recipes use gelling agents like agar, konjac, sodium alginate, carrageenan, LBG or xanthan and are perfect if you want to keep things vegan and dare to experiment.
Expect: slightly different surface, immediate pulls, beautiful sharpness and a bit of science-nerdery along the way.

fusion
A hybrid approach that combines gelatine with plant-based hydrogels. Think of it as: “What if we take the best bits from both worlds and see what happens?” These plates can be extra “juicy” and forgiving with acrylic paint, while still having that familiar gelatine feel.
No Thanks, I like it classic

DIY Gel Plate Recipe Calculator 2.0

cm inch
If you’re using standard sheet gelatine from the supermarket and there is no Bloom value on the package,
choose “I don’t know”. The calculator will assume about 200 Bloom - that’s what the original recipe was based on. If your Bloom value isn’t listed, just pick the closest one - the difference is usually small and the plate will still work.
Plate style / recipe:
Polyols = glycerin + propylene glycol. “Fusion” uses my experimental recipe that combines gelatine with konjac/xanthan hydrogel.
Ingredients for your plate:
These values are approximate. It’s absolutely fine to round to what your scale can measure.