Gildingguide

Calling all gilders. I am teaching a days course in Leek, Staffordshire at the end of the month with the great Kolner gilding system. Details are as follows:

I gilded a piece of flint with the new Kolner instacol. It really brings out the colour of the gold.

Today and tomorrow, I have the pleasure of working with the artist Sally Burnett. Sally works in creating decorative wooden vessels that have a really delicate and lovely look to them. Have a look at her website and tell me what you think? http://www.sallyburnett.co.uk/

Gilding was started by the Egyptians 4500 years ago. Upon death, an embalming ritual transformed the deceased into a 'living Osiris' using decorative painting and gold leaf in the process. Gold itself was thought to come from the sun as it is similar in colour. Note how great the condition of the face and hands are even after thousands of years.

I have had a class of beginner students who helped me transform a rather bland resin frame into aged copper. We used a 1 hour oil-based sized and large sheets of loose copper. The background mirror has been created using silver leaf in a Verre Eglomise style, which has been distressed and finished in traditional black.

Just putting a few finishing touches to the latest water gilded frame in 23.5 kt gold. And snacking on Poppadoms while I'm doing it... Hey! Gilding is hungry work!

My student Caroline has restored this grand frame from the mid 19th Century. It has been water-gilded in 23.5 karat gold and aged with burnt umber. There were about 25 pieces of composition that needed to be replaced, but you cannot see the joins. Well done Caroline!

Ever wondered about the process and production of gold leaf? Here it is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiXlljBWO XI

Eleanor Hutchinson, new student created this white gold and silver eglomise panel today.

I am now officially working full time on my book. For those of you who don't know too much about the origin of gold, here is an exert. Let me know what you think... IN THE BEGINNING For a long time, it’s been widely accepted among scientists, that the heavy metals, such as gold, platinum, lead etc. and the other heavier elements within the periodic table, are formed through nucleosynthesis in a gigantic supernova explosion. A supernovae event is so rare, that its only been ob...
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Bought an old frame, recut it to fit, gilded it in copper and 23.5 karat gold leaf, aged the copper and inserted an original oil painting. Not an authentic Van Gogh of course, but I think the result is pleasing.

Just finished another class with a very talented student. This is Cat Edinoff. I have spent just 1 day teaching her Verre Eglomise after her success at oil gilding and this is what she produced. Well done Cat! http://www.edinoff.com/gallery

One of my gilding students has been painting on gilded panels. I really love her work. Have a look at her gallery here. http://www.edinoff.com/gallery This one is oil painted on 23.5 karat gold-leaf.

I have been working with a student developing different decorative effects on glass (verre eglomise) the resultant panel had quite a wide range of effects!

I love the look of this cake! Don't forget, gold is completely edible! IOn fact, it is classed in Europe as a food additive, as is silver. http://www.boredpanda.com/expensive-looki ng-carrot-cake-pa…/

I have been experimenting gilding on paper. I sometimes get people asking me how it's done. In this example I have used an acrylic based size made by a german company. It is available for purchase from goldleafsupplies.co.uk It is applied in 2 parts, a base coat and an activator. The gold is applied after it has dried. The paper is very, very thin handmade Japanese paper. I used thin paper, because it is so delicate and so the method has to be just right. Apart from a few unexpected lakes around the world, and to be fair Italy just looks plain weird, not too bad an effort. I shall continue in my explorations.

Gold-leaf is beaten so thinly, that a 5mm bead, can cover a full square metre, as can be seen in this picture. Just to put that in perspective, 10,000 sheets stacked one upon the other, is just 1mm high.

The Egyptians used gold-leaf that was thicker that what is in production today, but still very thin.

I've just had a professional blog put up about my gilding class. Please have a read and tell me what you think! https://www.goldleafsupplies.co.uk/blog/< br>

Richard is a very talented gilder and an excellent teacher. Having taken a water gilding course with him, I can personally vouch for that. We always recommend our clients to Richard whenever they need extra advice or tuition. He is our " Gilding Guru"

I had a days tuition with Richard and it was absolutely brilliant. I learnt so much in such a short time and would highly recommend the course.