ART
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
CRAFT
CULTURE & HISTORY
ENTERTAINMENT
ENVIRONMENT
FOOD & DRINKS
REVERSE ENGINEERING
SCIENCES
SPORTS
TECHNOLOGY
WEARABLES
Glue Gesso: Rabbit-Skin Glue and Chalk for Painting Panels
Traditional gesso is animal glue and chalk: a white, absorbent ground for wooden panels, needed for egg tempera (acrylic gesso does not take it). Soak rabbit-skin glue, melt it warm in a double boiler, stir in sifted chalk until creamy, strain it, and keep it warm while you brush on many thin coats. It is brittle, so use it on rigid surfaces only.
The picture: our diagram, glue and chalk to warm gesso.
Beginner
Overnight soak, then an hour
Instructions
1
1
Soak the glue
Soak the glue
Weigh the glue and ten times its weight of cold water and leave the glue to swell overnight.
Materials for this step:
Rabbit Skin Glue (Granules)50 g
Water0.5 literTools needed:
Digital Kitchen Scale
Mixing Bowl Set2
2
Melt it warm
Melt it warm
Warm the swollen glue in a double boiler to about 60 °C, stirring until it is clear.
Tools needed:
Double Boiler
Instant-Read Thermometer3
3
Stir in the chalk
Stir in the chalk
Sift the whiting and sprinkle it into the warm glue a little at a time, stirring gently, until the mix is like thin cream.
Materials for this step:
Calcium Carbonate - Whiting550 gTools needed:
Fine SieveDigital Kitchen Scale4
4
Strain and keep warm
Strain and keep warm
Strain through muslin to remove lumps and bubbles. Keep it warm in the double boiler; it sets to a jelly as it cools. Brush it on rigid panels in many thin coats.
Tools needed:
Muslin Straining ClothDouble Boiler
Paintbrush Set5
5
Batch quantities
Batch quantities
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
Materials
3- Placeholder
- 0.5 literPlaceholder
- Placeholder
Tools Required
7- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
- Placeholder
This blueprint makes
Related Blueprints
These blueprints share knowledge with this one — techniques, materials, or principles that connect them in the learning graph.
CC0 Public Domain
This blueprint is released under CC0. You are free to copy, modify, distribute, and use this work for any purpose, without asking permission.
Support the Maker by purchasing products through their Blueprint where they earn a Maker Commission set by Vendors, or create a new iteration of this Blueprint and include it as a connection in your own Blueprint to share revenue.