Gesso patina

Still busy with the harvest, but don't want to abandon the blog totally. So here's a pic of a brass stamping I was playing around with recently.

Originally, I just wanted to give it a white wash using gesso. Gesso is a product I just recently discovered. I'd heard about it before, but just seen it as something for painters, not for me. But then I began to see it in mixed media works and on metals coloured using coloured pencils. So I got a jar -- and I love it: the versatility, the creamy white colour, the matte finish, the toughness, everything.

The stamping with its clumsy gesso patina had been laying on my worktable for months as I wasn't pleased with the result. So the other day, when I felt like torching something, I gave it a bit of a heat patina on top of the gesso, perhaps inspired by Victoria Altepeter's patina examples.

Not sure if it's a good idea to torch acrylic-based gesso... Don't encourage others to apply an open flame on anything plasic based, but that's what I did. Carefully and with (sort of) good ventilation, but still nothing to encourage. Probably better to get the heat patina first or go for a fumed/buried/immersed patina on top of the gesso instead.

Next time I might dilute the gesso -- as mentioned here -- to make it easier to apply and, most importantly, to wipe off.


PS! If you want some gesso inspiration, check out my pinboard Crackle and patina finishes on Pinterest.