Recipe Eco-friendly Gesso
Ingredients
- 1 part Wallpaper glue
- 1/2 part Casein
- 1 part Gypsum
- 1 part Titan white pigment powder
- Water as needed
- A few drops of glycerin as you wish
Start with the wallpaper glue and water and make a nice paste, not too thick, not too thin. Make sure you get all the lumps out of the glue. Let this rest for about half an hour: it will thicken some more.
In the mean time make a toothpaste consistency paste of the titan white pigment powder, gypsum and water. Here too, no lumps!
I’ve used casein binder from Schmincke in a bottle but you can make that also yourself. A recipe for that you can find here: https://www.earthpigments.com/…
After half an hour stir the wallpaper glue, add the casein (out of the bottle this is thick and sticky) and make it a little thinner with water, if it’s too thick to stir pleasantly. Then add the white pigment/gypsum-substance to the glue and stir well. You can now add the drops of glycerin if you wish.
Make it a pleasant spreadable paste, apply with a brush. When you’re done, you can rinse your brush with water.
ATTENTION! Casein in liquid form can go bad. Pre-made gesso will split over time into a white and a transparent substance. It smells sour then. Once applied gesso and dried it stays well. So always make as much gesso as you need. And don’t keep it longer than a week.
In the mean time make a toothpaste consistency paste of the titan white pigment powder, gypsum and water. Here too, no lumps!
I’ve used casein binder from Schmincke in a bottle but you can make that also yourself. A recipe for that you can find here: https://www.earthpigments.com/…
After half an hour stir the wallpaper glue, add the casein (out of the bottle this is thick and sticky) and make it a little thinner with water, if it’s too thick to stir pleasantly. Then add the white pigment/gypsum-substance to the glue and stir well. You can now add the drops of glycerin if you wish.
Make it a pleasant spreadable paste, apply with a brush. When you’re done, you can rinse your brush with water.
ATTENTION! Casein in liquid form can go bad. Pre-made gesso will split over time into a white and a transparent substance. It smells sour then. Once applied gesso and dried it stays well. So always make as much gesso as you need. And don’t keep it longer than a week.