Guilding

Artiglio · 15 Sep 2020

No, the only only bit that will be guilded is the motif, they sort of put the property owners mark on the vane, can be just about anything, usually black but guilding it will be a bit of a personal joke for past career. This is a common one in kent, not what i’ll be doing.

AJB Temple · 15 Sep 2020

Yes! You also see a lot of ducks, rabbits, a fox or two, chickens etc. I wish I had an oast just so I could do what you are doing! I have been tempted to build one!

custard · 15 Sep 2020

I've played around with a possible Guild Mark submission that's based around a cabinet with an austere and plain exterior, but a dazzlingly sumptuous interior. So I taught myself gilding as that would be part of the interior decoration. I was lucky to have some time with professional gilders, but I actually got 90% of the way there thanks to an excellent little book, "Practical Gilding" by Peter and Ann Mactaggart. It covers oil and water gilding, as well as surface preparation. Only a couple of quid and thoroughly recommended.

Good luck!

marcros · 15 Sep 2020

custard said:
I've played around with a possible Guild Mark submission that's based around a cabinet with an austere and plain exterior, but a dazzlingly sumptuous interior. So I taught myself gilding as that would be part of the interior decoration. I was lucky to have some time with professional gilders, but I actually got 90% of the way there thanks to an excellent little book, "Practical Gilding" by Peter and Ann Mactaggart. It covers oil and water gilding, as well as surface preparation. Only a couple of quid and thoroughly recommended.

Good luck!

I bought a suit like that once

Exluthier · 16 Sep 2020

Just to clarify, what Mr Percy Snodgrass and Richard C are describing are indeed two very different things. Transfer leaf gilding is where the leaf is loosely glued onto paper, and requires hand pressure to transfer it onto the surface you are gilding. Richard C describes the more difficult (though far superior) technique of water gilding, in which the leaf is loose between sheets of tissue, and is applied to a prepared surface (often gesso, on picture frames) using large squirrel hair brushes. This is the process to use for any carved surface, because you can’t press transfer leaf down into crevices and bits of carving. Whatever you do, avoid Dutch Metal ‘gold’ leaf; it will discolour within weeks. You need to buy good quality gold leaf for exterior work, which will last for years; think of all the church weather-vanes up and down the land; you would not want to be renewing that gilding every year! Good quality loose leaf would cost around £25 per book. Finally, don’t use a yellow base-coat, as you may not be able to spot tiny areas that you’ve missed, which might then allow the ingress of rainwater. Water gilders have used red ochre for centuries, to the extent that it is traditional on interior work only to let tiny fragments of the base coat show.

Max Power · 16 Sep 2020

mrpercysnodgrass said:
Gilding is doable, all I know about acoya is it can attack steel screws. For the gilding you will need to prime, undercoat and top coat in oil based paint. The top coat should be yellow which will help to hide any little imperfections in the gilding. Professional gilders would use a top coat of oil based eggshell and gild directly onto that when it reached the right tack however that takes a lot of experience, for a first timer you should use Japan Size over the top coat of paint and transfer leaf 23.5ct.

My friend who paints these has probably applied more gold leaf than anyone currently alive and uses size