Playing with Gesso

As part of the first week's lesson in Jane Davenport's "Supplies Me" class (you can read about it here), I've been experimenting with gesso (rhymes with "jello"), which the back of the bottle describes as a "thick white primer that seals, stiffens and provides surface "tooth" for painting surfaces."  It also comes in black and clear.

I've discovered that my rarely used stove top makes a good working surface, it's just the right height.

I layered different things underneath to create texture - textured wallpaper, masking tape, lace, tulle, random bits of paper.

Beans helped me pick out the tulle:

I made little swirls using the small foam brush I used to spread the gesso.

I played around with both black and white gesso, which ended up being grey in certain areas but that's not such a bad thing. It took me a while to realize that the black gesso is very thin, like acrylic paint, while the white gesso is thick because the black covers easily and you can't see through it, while the white needs to thick so you can layer it on for as little or as much coverage as you would like.

This page is now reading to journal on.  At first, I wasn't sure what I was going to do next but now I have an idea.  I'll share the finished creation with you when it's done.