Gilding--or--"Mommy, why is that lady's behind gold and glittery???"

Yesterday's day away from the blog was, in a way, GOOD, as I got more done and some photos shot. The first leafing I put on was the silver, as it was on the interior edge of the wood, and that was the smallest, soooooo, a wise place to start!

This shows one side of the wood with the leaf applied and then a coat of fluid acrylics and GAC 200, to antique it. I did not want it excessively bright. The second photo also shows the silver, but you can see there is adifference in appearence.

This is due to the texture of the underlying wood and the many coats of gesso, that build up the texture. In traditional gilding, the gesso base is made as smooth as possible to allow the leaf to look like real metal, or in the case of antique gilding, real gold. I like what happened with the rougher undersurface; I think there is a particular character to it and will work well with the finished piece.

Then I got brave and began the gold colored leaf. This may be psychological, but this leaf seems much softer and harder to work with. I should add here that I did NOT buy the usual gilders medium to apply this with. It's too slow to dry and gets to be a big mess. I chose to try the matte version of Collage Pauge and while your work time is shorter, it seems to do the job very well.

At this point you can see the red background and the very soft natural bristle brush I use to smooth the leaf out. You must--I repeat MUST--use an extremely light touch when smoothing the leaf with the brush. There is only so much you can do once it has hit the size/glue base. It is there. After it is set up, I use the brush to take off loose pieces and tiny areas I have had to backfill.

That is where the title of the post came from.....I discoverd that not only was the table covered with tiny bits of gold, but the floor, my shoes, the rug, the wastebasket and my chair. Which meant something else was probably covered too........ai yi yi......

This is how it looked after the last leaf application. There are rough spots, places where the red shows through but that will be okay. For my next step, I think the red should help to add to the overall composition.

I rarely show step by step process on these, and this is rather fun! I hope you are learning a bit from it, even if that is that you NEVER EVER want to try metal leaf!!! LOL!!!

Wait till you see the next part.....

Stay tuned!

P.S. One thing I did not place enough emphasis on is allowing proper drying time for the leaf to set up and then really cleaning the tidbits of unadhered leaf OFF the project. That's when your whole world begins to shine....because it is everywhere. It's a good idea to cover things with a disposable paper or plastic cloth. Saves time and sanity. ;)

New Toys!!!!!!

It's been years since I did real gold leafing (or I should say *metal* as I can't afford the real deal...) and as I recall, I ended up with more of it on me than the project I was working on. I also recall a lot---and I do mean A LOT---of vulgarities flying because I did not have much luck with it.
At any rate, the box canvas cries out for some of this, so armed with a 40% off coupon and with brushes advertised at 50% off, I headed to Hobby Lobby early in the morning and got my weapons of war! Four natural bristle brushes and a pack each of gold and silver colored metal leaf. I am guessing that with the assortment of glue-like products I own, something will work in place of the traditional sizing, which takes forever to come to tack and stays wet way beyond my patience. (you're right...the patience is at a minimum)
Today, before more health-related stuff, I am heading to the cellar to try my hand at this again.
Things I recall:

--make sure your hands are CLEAN and DRY
--don't exhale at the wrong time, and anytime you're working with the leaf is the wrong time
--use the natural oil from you skin to charge the brush to pick the leaf up
--don't drink copious quantities of caffeine before starting this project
--take your time and expect waste, or save the waste pieces and use them in collage
--pray you don't screw the whole thing up!!!!

If, perchance, anyone should notice a mushroom cloud going up in the vague direction of the northern third of Indiana, then you should guess, correctly, that things have not gone well and Anne is throwing a temper tantrum, and hopefully nothing else.
However, if there is a lovely photo here tomorrow, well, things might just have worked out!
It takes a certain amount of backbone to revisit areas of artistic endeavor that didn't work the first time. But I believe, at the end of the day, it is what is good for all of us and pushes our abilities to be more creative.
Or makes us look like the chick at the beginning of the Bond movie "Goldfinger".....