Rabbit Skin Glue - do you need it?

[Karine Monaco]

Thank you Thomasin for bringing this subject on the forum today.

Actually, I just bought raw linen, a binder that is said to be used for sizing canvases, and gesso.

I have not tried it yet, but reading these posts make me worry a bit. Has anyone tried modern binders that would not cause any problem of slacking? I hope so.

I am painting on a big canvas right now (100*140) that I bought a few months ago. It was already primed, and sounding like a drum at first. And it started to slack when I was working on it. I thought that I did something wrong, I didn't imagine that it could have been a problem linked to an acrylic sizing...

Anyway, I read somewhere a few days ago (have to remember where it was), that the product named RSG they were selling was not true RSG but acted as it was. Has anyone heard of it ?

Karine

[Richard Bingham]

Originally Posted by Karine Monaco

. . . Has anyone tried modern binders that would not cause any problem of slacking? . . . a big canvas . . . started to slack when I was working on it . . . product named RSG . . . was not true RSG . . . Karine

Ah, Karine, we are cross-posting!

Some clarification. "RSG" stands for Rabbit Skin Glue. Yes, sometimes glues are identified as "RSG" and contain hide glues from other sources.

Possible confusion with "PVA" or Poly-Vinyl Acetate, a water-soluble synthetic glue, common brands are "Elmer's" and "Tite-bond". Some folks use it rather than natural hide glue.

In my experience, acrylic primed fabrics will "slack off" when worked on vigorously or otherwise manipulated. Cotton will tend to stretch with work, regardless of the method of preparation, and linen is particularly prone to changes in tension with changes in ambient humidity. Linen is deceptive to prepare because it shrinks so readily when washed, or in the first sizing. The "deception" is that it will draw up drum-tight regardless whether it is evenly tensioned on the chassis. Hemp is the least forgiving of sloppy or irregular stretching, although all stretched canvases will show the defects of initial preparation with age.