Questions Submitted by our Members and Others from around the (Art)World.
Q. I have stumbled across your (web) site a few times now and I am seeking advice, if you are willing to help.
I've been water gilding for over 20 years now, and set up my own studio about 7 years ago where I work primarily with picture frames for the high end of the contemporary art market.
At the moment I am double gilding a large number of silver frames (burnished face/ matt sides) and I'm struggling with the second leaf bonding on the face (it wants to flake off, especially during burnishing).
Any advice you can give would be gratefully received.
Many thanks for your time and help,
~ Daniel, UK
A. Dear Daniel, Yes, there is a tendency for the double gild with white metals to behave differently than gold. Gold is of course very malleable and will stick to itself pretty easily; silver isn't quite so. Palladium can be a little sensitive towards double gilding as well.
White gold will respond better than genuine silver but your projects may be calling for the pure silver. The best you can do is to make sure you have added sufficient glue or gelatin to your gilding water, about the size of a single peanut from your 10% batch and burnish as soon as you are able to without harming the gilding. Burnish while there is still some moisture still present in the gilding but not enough to disturb the surface with the burnisher. The glue of course helps with the adhesion. And make sure you do not add alcohol to the gilding water for the second gild.
Try also to find the thinnest silver you can as this seems to help as well. Let me know if you have done any of this before and how things are working.
Thank you for your note Daniel and good luck!
Q. I bought a gilding tip and I am having a hard time getting it to work. Do you need to prime it? It's just not picking up leaf. I am using copper and imitation gold at this point while I practice.
~ James, Port Townshend, WA
A. The reason the tip isn't working is that these brushes generally aren't made for use with the imitation gold - the heavier brass or aluminum leafs. There are some heavier 'tip' brushes made for those although the majority of Tips are for use with genuine gold leaf. The best way is to either lay the brass or aluminum leaf right out of the book or to use a cardboard palette, a gilder's knife to pick the leaf up, and a smaller piece of cardboard with some felt wrapped around one of the edges and stapled on to help place the leaf over the object.
And remember, the best way to learn to handle gold leaf is to work with gold leaf. The other less expensive materials handle so differently that it won't help much with developing that skill. The best thing is to buy some of the lesser expensive brands of gold leaf, such as 'Best XX', and learn to manipulate it in the gilder's pad with the knife, picking it up and twirling it on the pad, over and over.
Hope that helps. I also have a full archive of articles I've written on water gilding which may help you. (These can be found at: www.gildingstudio.com/gilding_arts_newsletter.html)
Q. I have been taking part time gilding classes in Sweden for one year, and I have two more left. A friend of mine asked me if I would like to gild an outdoor bronze statue (3x3 meter). I have never gilded any large objects before and I'm feeling a bit insecure about it. If you have any advice to give me it would be greatly appreciated.
~ Malin, Sweden
A. Thank you for your note. I'll list the few thoughts I have and hope they help.
1. The metal should be degreased with alcohol, primed and painted with an appropriate paint for the bronze. This will help keep the metal from oxidizing and therefore preserve the gilding. Inquire with a local paint supplier about the best type they have for bronze.
2. Choose the heaviest leaf you can to help withstand the beating of the weather.
3. Choose a high Kt, no less than 23k. Otherwise, the leaf will oxidize outside.
4. Use a slow size if you can; slow is better for quality and adhesion.
5. Wash the gold after the object is finished. Use a soft brush and very cold water. No varnish is necessary - the gold will look better unprotected and doesn't need a topcoat.
Good luck Malin!
Q. I see in your formulas that you have an optional clearcole. I too was instructed to seal the entire frame first but only used a mixture of 1 part rabbit skin glue to 10 parts distilled water. I do this by weight and use heat to dissolve the RSG.
Here's the problem: I brush this solution on the frame with a chip brush and let it dry. My first coat of gesso seems to "resist" adhesion and results in tiny pinholes. My initial thought is that there was air in the gesso but when I brush it directly onto a piece of basswood no pinholes occur! In your clearcole you add a bit of whiting -- could that help? I've also seen where this coat should be brushed in stiffly to really work it into the wood and also seen the mention of salt (or urea) to break up the surface and prevent gelling. Since this seems to be the problem is it really necessary?
I tend to seal the backs of my frames with shellac anyway so wonder if that would be the same as that initial clear, coat. Any help or advice you can give is much appreciated... the internet has a dizzying array of information; trouble is there are lots of contradictions. Thanks for answering.
~ John Eugster, Las Vegas
A. Thank you for writing John. Essentially, your questions concern the proper way of making and preparing gesso. Although traditional gesso is comprised of only a few materials - water, rabbit skin glue, and calcium carbonate (whiting) - there are many complexities involved to get a good gesso surface which is very important as it's the foundation of water gilding; the gold leaf will only look as good as the surface on which it's applied.
It's important to work from an initial batch of rabbit skin glue made at a 10% strength which you may be alluding to although there is some disagreement of how that's achieved. It's a ratio of 1 Part RSG to 9 Parts Distilled Water (1+9 is 10 and 10% of 10 is 1 - the amount of your glue). The RSG pellets are allowed to absorb the water for approximately 4 hours, or even overnight which facilitates dissolving during gentle heating (not past 120F, otherwise the enzymes in the RSG can be weakened and the glue will lose its strength).
Clearcole is simply RSG with a little Whiting added. It can help bond the first layer of gesso to the wood. I use a hard and a soft gesso recipe, therefore I consider that the hard gesso replaces the role of clearcole as the hard gesso has less whiting than the soft gesso.
Pinholing can be a problem with gesso and may result from a variety of circumstances, from how the gesso is prepared to the environmental temperature and humidity. I find that when the room is hot during the hottest part of the Summer that pinholes can be a difficult problem. Aside from that, there are a variety of precautions that must be taken in the way gesso is prepared, from how the mixture is stirred to the judicial use of isopropyl alcohol to break the surface tension.
A good technique that I like to use when brushing on gesso is to also use my hands to rub in the first few layers of gesso, pushing the material into the grain of the wood, especially if it's an open grain like Walnut. Also, apply the coats rather thinly until you build up a nice surface of about 14 coats to get a good burnish.
I don't like using other non-traditional additives like Urea as I don't find they're necessary and could cause other problems later. As for gelling, I would only see that as occurring if the mixture got too cool, and gesso we apply blood warm.
Yes, I agree that applying Rabbit Skin Glue all around the raw wood surfaces of a picture frame applies a minimum amount of necessary sealing to the wood and would act on the back in a similar way as the shellac that you have used. (And of course, do not use shellac under traditional water gilding; the RSG is the proper sealer for water gilding; compatibility is important).
As for contradictions on the internet concerning gilding, yes there are. And they aren't limited to the internet. However, even if various gilders use different approaches from one another, the essence of what they share must be ultimately the same, otherwise the different approaches wouldn't work. There is an art to gilding but there is also craft and science and certain principles must be met. But indeed, there are misnomers and errors that exist concerning this beautiful, medieval art and you are commended in keeping your eyes open as you explore the intricacies involved.
Good luck with your continued work and thanks again for writing.
~ Charles
"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.'
~Pancho Villa, last words
(bandit and revolutionary, 1877-1923)
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