Sunday 23 September 2012

Gesso and chalk




When I bought a jar of gesso for a project, it was only sold in big jars (with a price to match). Great for painters, but when making jewellery you don't use very much at the time. So there's a lot of it left. Now, gesso is great and has many uses so I'm sure it'll come in handy some day. And I want to buy black gesso too to complement the white.

The other day I got the idea to just play around and smear some of it on two small Vintaj brass blanks. On the left tag, I used a smooth brush stroke motion (didn't actually use a brush but a piece of paper towel) and on the right tag, I dabbed the gesso with the paper.

Then -- just for the fun of it and because I hadn't used it yet -- I brushed coloured chalk on the not fully dried gesso. Not sure it's something that's going to lead anywhere. It was just for fun and because I had nothing else to do. It's two little doodles made without a plan or idea, almost stuck after having that inital thought of "what if I gesso some metal and brush on chalk to tint it". Nothing special to look at, but I'm hoping to see some sort of potential in them nonetheless.

To conclude, the blanks had me thinking of more ways to use gesso on metal -- you've seen me use gesso on metal before here -- and what to do with my chalks. (And what kind of fixative or varnish to use on chalk and gesso; these pieces aren't sealed.) Both gesso and chalk are fun to play with. I bought gesso inspired by designs and techniques I'd seen in paper crafts and mixed media while I got the chalk with the intention to use it on polymer clay. Then I realised I'm rubbish at working with clay and the chalk was never used. Perhaps it can be used on the epoxy clay I have lying around? I do believe it can also be used on paper so maybe it'd be a good thing to think of some sort of paper-based project for these materials.

But I do think I want to develop this idea of gesso and chalk on metal a bit more too. What do you think? Do you perhaps even have some tips or ideas to share or links to others who do great things with gesso and chalk?

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