Questions Submitted by our Members and Others from around the (Art)World.
Q. I am about to finish carving a large oval mirror frame...patterned after a frame owned by the Hershey Hotel, Hershey, Pa.
...There are various places where the orig. frame has "pearls" hanging... (Some of the pearls are missing/broken off). I plan to water gild these individually. Note: I will not burnish the gilded beads. There will be approx. 150+ individual beads needing to be gilded...
Would appreciate any detailed guidance you might provide regarding the best possible means of completing this "water gilding" challenge.
Thank You!
~ E. McKamey
A. Thank you for writing. I have a few suggestions which I hope you'll find helpful:
Supporting the Object: Gilding small elements such as the beads can be difficult to handle if they aren't gilded 'in place'. You'll need to make sure first that you have a system to hold each bead while you work on them. You'll need some ingenuity. I like to use toothpicks which can be inserted into an object and then stick the other end into a solid piece of Styrofoam so I can pick it up, work on it, then stick it back into the foam.
Gesso: Gesso for water gilding serves two roles: To fill the grain of the wood and to allow burnishing. Since you won't be burnishing you will only need enough gesso to fill the grain. Birch is tight so you may only need three or four coats.
Bole: Gesso is followed by about three coats of bole (mixed with 10% (rabbit skin glue)) for satin tones. Knock off any graininess of the dried bole with a little 1000 grit sandpaper. Don't polish it smooth though, you want to have a 'matt' feel to the clay as the gold will reflect the texture of the underlying surface.
Gilding: Burnishing the leaf not only makes the gold shine, it also compresses the leaf into the surface making it more durable. Unburnished leaf has a very attractive satin tone. However, leaf that is left unburnished is more vulnerable to wear. In this case it is often a good idea to give the satin gilding a thin "size coat" of weak RSG.
I suggest 1 part 10% RSG solution to 5 parts distilled water. This weak size coat will tend to provide a slightly more satin tone to the gold leaf while smoothing out the appearance and providing some additional bonding assistance of the leaf to the bead.
Topcoat: Many antique frames do not have a final protective coating; the layer of size may be enough. However, it is water soluble so if you have any concern you can use either a sprayable satin lacquer (e.g. Deft) or blonde, dewaxed shellac which you can prepare from shellac flakes and ethyl alcohol (denatured works but is rather toxic smelling).
Another option to consider is whether to oil gild the beads since they are going to be unburnished anyway. I believe in staying with the original concept of an antique but it depends in part in your proficiency in water gilding.
I hope this is of some help. Good luck!
Q. Hi. What glue or adhesive would be best to gild paper?
~ Dom, Australia
A. There are traditional materials that have been in use for paper like glair (egg white), gum ammoniac, gum tragacanth. But you need to know how to prepare gesso for gilding paper to do it properly. Depends on what you're working towards. You can try a contemporary adhesive called simply Paper Size by Kolnar Glanz, distributed by Sepp Leaf in New York. It's an interesting material which allows the gold to shine with a burnished appearance. I have found it can also be used on glass and porcelain. Paint it on a sealed surface, let it dry for about fifteen minutes until slightly tacky, apply the leaf and gently rub it with a soft piece of felt. Good luck!
Q. Does surface gold leaf stick to the gilding pad at all?
~ (A question submitted to the Charles Douglas gilding clip on YouTube)
A. No, the leaf doesn't stick to the pad (the cushion that the gold leaf is laid down on and cut with the gilder's knife) unless there's something on the pad like a bit of oil from one's hands. It happens sometimes so you just need to degrease the pad from time to time with a bit of whiting (the calcium carbonate you use to make gesso). Sometimes static, such as from a room with strong electric heat, can cause the leaf to stick to the pad too. The majority of the time though it works just fine.
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