Gesso ~What's It All About ?

Hi everybody! It's my turn to put together one of our 'Inspirational Posts' and I've chosen to play with gesso. I have a large pot of Liquitex white gesso in my stash, which I've used to make the samples I have to share with. If you aren't already familiar with gesso, it's a type of paint that is generally used to prepare a surface ready for painting. When it dries it has a slightly rough feel, this is because gesso contains chalk or gypsum, which helps other more 'slick' paints such as acrylics, or oils,to stick to the prepared surface. Gesso also has some other great properties so without further ado let's see what I found out.......Oh and there are lot's of pictures so a cuppa might be in order !

Here is my collection of sample tags and I'll try and briefly go through some of the techniques I've used......

For this first tag, I applied a coat of white gesso, not too thick and  whilst it was still wet, I doodled onto the surface with the end of a paintbrush. Once the gesso was dry, I sprayed the tag with a variety of Distress Sprays. I then stamped the image with Archival Ink.

Here's another doodled and sprayed tag, This time I applied a thicker coat of gesso, which has given the surface more texture.

This tag was firstly prepared with a piece of patterned paper adhered to the surface. I then smeared gesso over part of the surface using a plastic card . Once dry, I sprayed it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and spritzed it with water. I really like the level of distress on this one. 

This tag was firstly painted with acrylic paint, without being gessoed first. You can see how the paint paint streaks. Once the tag was dry, I used a piece of cut and dry foam, to gently tap the gesso onto the stamp. I think it's given a nice crisp image, I'll definitely be doing this again as I think the gesso has worked better than any of the white ink pads I've got.

 I firstly coated this tag with gesso and when it was dry, I applied Alcohol Inks with an ink blending tool. I also dripped a little blending solution on top. I like this because the inks have reacted in a very similar way to when they are applied to glossy paper but there is no gloss! For me that's a good thing because I love the colourful effects of Alcohol Inks but I don't always want a glossy surface.

Another of my favourites. To create this tag, I used Cut and Dry foam to apply gesso to the raised surface of an embossing folder, I then ran it through my Big Shot. You need to work fairly quickly as the gesso dries quite fast. once the tag was dry I sprayed with Distress Spray. The gesso acts as a resist and gives a lovely distressed finish. Remember to wash your embossing folder before the gesso dries. I keep a bowl of water handy so that I can just drop any stamps, stencils or embossing folders straight in and avoid any heartache !

Now this might be my real favourite ! It's another stamped tag, but this time I painted the tag with acrylic paint to which I had mixed in some gesso. This has the effect of 'flattening' the paint, giving it a really nice matte finish. Once this was dry, I stamped the surface with one of Andy Skinner's industrial stamps again applying the gesso with a piece of cut and dry foam. I then used a blending tool to apply Distress Ink and did a bit of flicking over the surface with water.

This tag has been given a coat of gesso and then had Gelato's  blended on the surface. I then used a foam stamp with gesso. I rather like the delicacy of this one.

This tag has had gesso applied to the bare tag, through a stencil. It was then sprayed with Dylusions Inks. As you can see, the gesso works really well as a resist. 

and finally...... a black tag that has had a fairly thick coat of gesso applied. It has then been scratched with the end of a paint brush, sprayed with Distress Ink, and then stenciled with black Archival ink. Again it has a nice tactile surface.

Well ! if you have lasted to the end of this post,well done and Thank You ! I think you might be able to tell that I've really enjoyed my playtime. I'm sure there are many more possibilities and I hope I may have inspired you to have a go with gesso.