Rabbit Skin Glue Rabbit skin glue is also called hide glue and is a general name for glue made by rendering an assortment of animal parts. It is a traditional glue used in the preparation of gesso, as a sealant (size) on canvas (and wood panels) underneath gesso, and as a glue in some book making. When preparing a canvas or wood panel for painting with an oil painting ground or genuine gesso the canvas or panel needs to be sealed (sized) first. This is a transparent layer. This can be done with an acrylic polymer (see below) or with rabbit skin glue. If using rabbit skin glue brush the fabric or panel with warm rabbit skin glue thinly and lightly, being sure to cover the whole surface then go back and work the size into the weave. I apply two thin coats making very sure no area is missed. The sizing must be thin because too much rabbit skin glue will crack later. rabbit skin glue (rsg) comes in little cubes in a plastic-lined paper bag. Because it is affected by water it needs to be stored somewhere dry where it can be safely kept for many years. To be used it needs to be made into a liquid solution. The method is to combine with water and soak overnight, warm in a double boiler (bain marie water bath) (do not get it too hot or it will lose it gluing properties), and apply warm or make gesso with it warm. It doesn’t take as much of the dried cubes as you might think because you add a lot of water to make it. You may not need to make as much as you think either as you apply the rsg thinly and you can’t store the leftovers for very long. Rabbit skin glue must not boil. You need to warm it gently to melt it. What I do is boil a kettle of water and pour it in an old empty bucket (from Golden Gel) and then set inside that a second bucket with the water and rsg cubes. It takes a few minutes to warm stirring gently occasionally. You will get a light creamy coloured thin mixture. You can filter the glue through an old pair of tights to eliminate contaminants. If you are working in warmer temperatures hot tap water might be enough. I have read that the maximum temperature is 70C before rsg breaks down and isn’t good as glue. If you wish to use a thermometre that would be very precise. The same is true for gelled rsg stored in the fridge, it comes out quite cold so the boiling water in the bain marie should cool fast enough to not damage the glue. Basically just be aware of heating it gently. for more details send a mail to us at aarthangers@gmail
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 04:16:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015