White Gesso for Priming, Texture and Mixed Media
This product is part of Part 2 of the Playing with Gels & Pastes series, where I explore the individual gels and pastes included in my experiments.
Prima Marketing Finnabair Heavy Gesso is a white, opaque, matte acrylic ground designed primarily to prepare surfaces for paints, inks and other colour products.
According to the product information, it can be used on many different surfaces including canvas, wood, paper, metal, chipboard, fabric and plastic.
Once dry, it creates a permanent but flexible surface and can also be mixed with pigments or acrylic paints to create custom-coloured grounds.
I included Heavy Gesso in my Getting to Know Your Gels & Pastes experiments to see how it performed beyond its traditional role as a primer and discovered that this basic product is surprisingly versatile.
Characteristics
Heavy Gesso has a thicker consistency than Clear Gesso, but still spreads easily with a paintbrush or palette knife.
It dries white, opaque and matte with a mostly smooth finish. The Heavy Gesso I tested was not quite as smooth as my Clear Gesso, although this may differ between brands depending on how finely the product is ground.
Once dry, it remains flexible, making it suitable for scrapbook, journal and book pages that need to bend.
Ways to Use Heavy Gesso
Create Texture and Stencilled Designs
The thicker consistency makes Heavy Gesso very useful for creating texture.
It works particularly well through a stencil when applied with a palette knife or silicone brush. And if you don’t have either of those in your stash, an old credit card works too!
Prepare Surfaces for Paint and Ink
This is what gesso was designed to do.
Heavy Gesso creates a white, opaque base that accepts paints and inks very well. Because it is designed to accept colour rather than repel it, it does not work as an ink resist.
The white base is particularly useful when you want to cover the original colour of a surface before adding something new.
Change the Colour of Embellishments
Heavy Gesso works very well as a primer on embellishments such as buttons.
The opaque white surface covers the original colour and creates a new base that can then be painted or inked. This is one of the ways I use Heavy Gesso most often when I want to customise embellishments to suit a project.
Use It as an Adhesive
This result surprised me!
Heavy Gesso worked very well as an adhesive in my experiments, successfully holding both the button and the sand to the cardstock.
Heat Embossing and Foiling
Because the wet gesso has adhesive properties, embossing powder will stick to it and can then be heat embossed as usual.
It worked for foiling too, although not quite as successfully as Clear Gesso. The slightly more textured surface of the Heavy Gesso meant that the foil did not adhere evenly in every area.
Tint the Paste
Heavy Gesso lends itself very well to tinting, so the white base can easily be changed to create a custom colour before it is applied.
Silicone Moulds
Another surprising result was how well Heavy Gesso worked in a silicone mould.
The moulded shape dried successfully and produced a strong, durable embellishment. This gives Heavy Gesso another possible use when you want to create your own dimensional elements.
My Favourite Uses
Heavy Gesso
- Creating texture
- Priming surfaces for paint and ink
- Changing the colour of embellishments
- Stencilling
- Creating custom colours
Also surprisingly good for:
- Silicone moulds
- Adhesive
- Heat embossing
I would reach for this when: I want an opaque white base that covers the original surface, particularly when creating texture or changing the colour of an embellishment.
Explore More
- Getting to Know Your Gels & Pastes
See how I tested the different gels and pastes in my stash and what I wanted to discover. - Ways to Use Gels & Pastes
Explore which gels and pastes worked for stencilling, ink resist, adhesives, moulds, heat embossing, foiling and more. - Clear Gesso vs Heavy Gesso
See how Clear and Heavy Gesso compare and when I would choose one over the other.
PLEASE NOTE: All the opinions are my own. None of the products have been sponsored.