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Gesso
Jane ahausfrau02@yahoo.com
Here's how I do gesso transfers.
Materials:
Substrate of choice
white gesso (or gesso that can show print)
old brush
toner based image (newsprint, magazine print, toner print)
Paint a thin layer of gesso onto substrate of choice. Let dry until a little tacky (this is the HARDEST Part, as too wet, bad transfer; too dry, no transfer--add more gesso and wait again). Press on the image and rub with your fingers. Pull up before gesso has the chance to dry. If you wait too long, your paper will stick.
It comes in black which is one of my favorites, and other colors. White is the basic most people use. You can also add Acrylic paints to it and make your own color, but that is a little expensive to me unless you just want a small amount. I have used it for many years for many different things.
It makes wonderful floor cloths, where you coat the back over and over with layers of the gesso, then I used the white. It gives the muslin, osneburg or canvas stiffening and lasting qualilty and body. They you stamp, stencil, paint your design on the top of the muslin, and coat the top with repeated coats of a polyurethane sealer, it's based on an Amish or Quacker old fashioned design and you use it for anything from a door mat to an 8 by 11' size that one of my friends made. They are very durable and you can wash or wipe the surface with any cleaner. People prepare raw canvas with it for painting, etc with it. Wood, I use the white mostly on unprepared wood, rough or unsealed wood, such as when I did Acrylic painting on shapes, wood cut out, bashets, sconces, clocks, anything you can make out of wood. LOL Like those raw wood bird houses, shapes etc you see in ACMoore. It is not a waterproof sealer. When you are using it on a wood surface like raw wood, it's more to prepare a surface for your painting or stamping over the wood, whatever you are going to apply. Sometimes people just fine sand it, seal it with an acrylic sealer to have the aged look of a white piece.
For boxes, wall plaques, baskets, or washboards, things that I want to have a wood look but aged, I like the black Gesso. I saw some in grey the other day at ACMoore. You apply coats with a brush, fine sand inbetween, but it lets you leave a marvelous texture if you are not going for a fine, finished look either. I rough up my wood, apply the gesso in area's that are cracked or chipped at times to fill it in and to give modern wood pieces ( picked up at yard sales or something) I have redone a great aged look and texture. I used it one year making barn doors that opened at the top for a piece and it looked great. Like that. Any book on Acrylic or Tole Painting etc, will tell you how to use Gesso in preparation for the wood, there are books for cloth if that is what you are using it on, or for canvas too, whichever material you would be doing the preparation on.