All gessoed up with nowhere to go
Hooray, I have finished doing the gesso, I can go to bed now. Of course, I will probably go and do an hour's pinning first because I am on a deadline after all but bed is at least a feasible possibility now.
Things I have learnt about gesso so far:
You always need to put in more gesso powder than you think.
Don't use a sieve to put the gesso in the glue, you'll end up with a more bubbly gesso and you really don't want bubbly gesso. It's far better to sprinkle it in like flour (just like your friend Siobhan bloody well told you but you had to go and experiment, didn't you! Never mind that Siobhan is a professional gilder who's used gesso for years...)
The skin on the top of the pan will melt if you heat it long enough, you don't need to pull it off and throw it away.
However, the thin skin that forms in the pan while you're busy painting the next layer on should be pushed firmly to one side otherwise it'll get lumps onto your brush and onto your layer of nice level gesso.
If you get little pin prick holes in a coat of gesso make sure to fill them in while it's still wet. You really, really need to do this.
Don't put the wooden spoon on the newspaper, it'll pick up the newsprint and paper and then transfer it into your gesso.
Fortunately it's only glue and chalk, it cleans up really easily.
Don't lean over and touch your bright blue jumper to the edge of your very nearly finished panels.
It's better to reheat your gesso during a session of painting rather than to let it get too cold.
Don't use the last little bit from the pan without watering it down first or you'll end up with a thick lumpy nasty final coat.
Overall, the process wasn't as dire as I'd heard it could be. Like many things I think it's largely a matter of patience and paying attention. It's probably helped that I was just doing flat boards and not covering intricately carved frames. It's not something you can walk away and leave, you do need to make a commitment of about 6 or 7 hours because you're not going to be able to be away from it for longer than about 45 minutes. I'm sure if I do it more often and become more practised, I'll look back at these first boards and think they're terribly badly done, but for now I'm pretty pleased with how they've come out. Although at least one board is totally messed up with a big pinprick in the middle I'm hoping I may be able to sand it out but if not I'll use it as a test board. But frankly, if the gesso stays on and doesn't all chip off when I sand, I'll consider it a success!
We'll see how I feel about the final results once I've used them for drawing but so far I really love the incredible whiteness of the ones that have already dried. And of course, I still have 16 bits of plywood waiting patiently in the hallway, but I'm not going anywhere near gesso for at least the next three weeks!
On second thoughts, having pottered around for an hour sorting out the Kidlet and tidying up, I think I'll skip the late night pinning in favour of sleep.
Things I have learnt about gesso so far:
You always need to put in more gesso powder than you think.
Don't use a sieve to put the gesso in the glue, you'll end up with a more bubbly gesso and you really don't want bubbly gesso. It's far better to sprinkle it in like flour (just like your friend Siobhan bloody well told you but you had to go and experiment, didn't you! Never mind that Siobhan is a professional gilder who's used gesso for years...)
The skin on the top of the pan will melt if you heat it long enough, you don't need to pull it off and throw it away.
However, the thin skin that forms in the pan while you're busy painting the next layer on should be pushed firmly to one side otherwise it'll get lumps onto your brush and onto your layer of nice level gesso.
If you get little pin prick holes in a coat of gesso make sure to fill them in while it's still wet. You really, really need to do this.
Don't put the wooden spoon on the newspaper, it'll pick up the newsprint and paper and then transfer it into your gesso.
Fortunately it's only glue and chalk, it cleans up really easily.
Don't lean over and touch your bright blue jumper to the edge of your very nearly finished panels.
It's better to reheat your gesso during a session of painting rather than to let it get too cold.
Don't use the last little bit from the pan without watering it down first or you'll end up with a thick lumpy nasty final coat.
Overall, the process wasn't as dire as I'd heard it could be. Like many things I think it's largely a matter of patience and paying attention. It's probably helped that I was just doing flat boards and not covering intricately carved frames. It's not something you can walk away and leave, you do need to make a commitment of about 6 or 7 hours because you're not going to be able to be away from it for longer than about 45 minutes. I'm sure if I do it more often and become more practised, I'll look back at these first boards and think they're terribly badly done, but for now I'm pretty pleased with how they've come out. Although at least one board is totally messed up with a big pinprick in the middle I'm hoping I may be able to sand it out but if not I'll use it as a test board. But frankly, if the gesso stays on and doesn't all chip off when I sand, I'll consider it a success!
We'll see how I feel about the final results once I've used them for drawing but so far I really love the incredible whiteness of the ones that have already dried. And of course, I still have 16 bits of plywood waiting patiently in the hallway, but I'm not going anywhere near gesso for at least the next three weeks!
On second thoughts, having pottered around for an hour sorting out the Kidlet and tidying up, I think I'll skip the late night pinning in favour of sleep.