Gold Leaf questions

[CES020]

I have a personal project I'm working on and I thought it was about time to dive into trying to use gold leaf.

I bought a starter kit that came with the powder stuff (can't remember the name, I'm not near it right now), a brush, a "mop" brush, the sizing, and a book of gold.

I v-carved some practice letters into a piece and painted the sizing on it. I let it dry as recommended on the sizing, and then took out a leaf and attempted to jamb it into the letter with the "mop". I think it went okay, but the leaf quickly came apart and the action of tamping it down into the letter produces a lot of very small gold particles. I just kept trying to get the leaf into the letter, and that meant poking a lot of the little "dust like" pieces into the letters as well.

In the end, I think it turned out okay for my first attempt, but not having ever seen it done before, I have no idea if that's right or wrong, acceptable or not acceptable.

Is that the normal practice, just keep "mopping" it until it's all covered? Or do you not want those tiny particles if you can help it? Is there a way to handle the leaf that's better than some other way?

Also, on the book of gold, it says "Glass" on it. What's that mean? I should only use it on glass? It's made for smooth surfaces only?

One more thing, the powder says it's used to keep stuff from sticking where you don't want it. The instructions that came with the kit said to put that all over and then paint over it with the sizing, where you do want it to stick. Is that standard or can I skip that?

I have 2 personal projects, one will be v-carved letters down into a piece, and the other will be prismatic letters with a black smaltz background. I'm guessing I should do all the gold, maybe clear it, and then do the smaltz? I wouldn't think you'd do the smaltz first, because I can see all the gold stuck in that. The smaltz won't hurt the gold while I'm doing it?

Sorry, lots of questions

I'll make it really clear, these are NOT paying jobs, just ideas I've had in my head for a little while now and it's time to let them out.

 

[Billct2]

Whatever you are going to leaf should be finished first with paint, like you weren't going to leaf it, a hard smooth finish.
Then apply a light dusting of the powder ( I use an egg white size instead).
Mix a couple drops of yellow in the size and letter a smooth even coat.
Have a test piece that gets prepped and sized the same way at the same time, so you don't keep touching the real piece to see if it's ready.
When the size is "squeaky dry" apply the gold. Better a little too soon than too late.
The "mop" sounds like a gilders tip that is brushed against your nose to get it a little sticky or over your hair to get a little static grease. It is used to float the leaf off the carrier sheet and onto the size. Use a soft sable or similar brush to tuck it into place. I don't know why you have glass gold, but beginners usually prefer patent leaf which doesn't have to be floated onto the size, it sticks to the sheet till you rub it onto the size. Let the leaf/size cure for a day or so them dust it off and you can remove any loose stuff with cotton balls.
And yes, gild first smalt later.

 

[round man]

on the projects I have gilded v-carved letters I have done the same sizing process as Billct suggested above but when I laid the leaf I used loose leaf glass gold and used a fitch very similar to a makeup blush brush(very soft black hair) to press the gold down into the v of the carved letters,...as for the small particles of gold you mentioned we call them skewings and try to save what is not used so the next time you gild v-carved letters you can use them to fill any voids left when needed,...they can come in real handy in a pinch and you need to keep them in something like a glass wine decantor or cigar box and not try to handle or contaminate them. after the gold is covering all the area sized I will take cotton and or old soft velvet and burnish (rub once gently but firmly in one direction,with what ever you use to get an even tone to the gold) the gold,..this helps to hide any overlaps and breaks that have appeared where the leaf broke up and tones the gild out evenly

edited to add a mop is used to spread water size on glass to water gild and is not used in surface gilding,...a gilders tip is used in the description Billct gives above for a mop,...the soft haired fitch or makeup brush is used to simplify the leafing in hard to reach areas with irregular surfaces so one doesn't have to touch the gold itself

 

[Forum Studio]

Get this book - Gold Leaf Techniques by Kent H.Smith http://www.gildedplanet.com/gildingbooks.asp.This book will save you lot of in the future.
Glass Gold are better quality leafs, selected no pin holes ,tears or beating marks.Glass Gold Leafs are also a bit thicker 18g/1000 leafs.Reg. Gold Leafs 15g/1000 leafs.

 

[CES020]

Thanks for the tips. The "mop" is in fact the type brush you guys are mentioning. It looks like a makeup brush to me.

Here's what I did....

I v-carved into a piece of Corian because I knew it would be hard and smooth when finished (it's actually the substrate for one one my projects I want to use it for). I painted the size on the letters (all samples, I'm just practicing), and waited about an hour and came back and it appeared to be dry enough for me to try. Even if it wasn't, I would try it anyway, since I was impatient and it was getting late I didn't paint the letters or add color to the size. I had read about that, but don't have any gold paint to try it with at the moment. I'll have to order some.

I semi-lifted the gold leaf out of the book as much as I could and laid it over the letter and took that make up like brush and pushed it down into the letter. I then took bits and pieces left over and tried to use those. As the brush hits it from pushing it into the letter, it creates almost a dust. I debated on trying to brush them into the size or not and decided to try it on one letter. So I was just working that brush all over, tamping it all over the place, brushing and tamping to try to get coverage.

This morning I came in and lightly sanded the top of the corian to give a sharp, crisp line around the edge. I see my mistakes this morning. Like the sizing was still too thick and wet in the bottom of the v-carve, but I felt that would be a problem when I did it, but I still wanted to try it before I left for the night.

Overall, I'd say it looks decent with the exception of the issue at the bottom of the v-carve where the size is too thick. I think I'll try a few more things this weekend and report back and I'll look into getting that book mentioned too.

Oh, the products I got are : Guilders Fast Gold Size, Guilders Shadow Kaolin (should I use that for anything?), 23K gold leaf, and 2 brushes, one that is the make up type brush and one that's a 1/2" mack brush (??? Shows what I know about brushes).

Thanks again for the tips, this first one is a project for my mother, hence the use of the gold leaf Can't be any better place to use Gold than for Mom, now can it?

 

[SD&F]

Where's a pic?

 

[CES020]

Where's a pic?

Oh, I'm not a pic level yet

Maybe on my next attempt It would help if I didn't take a soft paper towel to one of the letters. Lesson- don't do that, it scratches it I looked everywhere for a piece of cotton and couldn't find it, so I said "That's a soft paper towel" Wrong.... Hence, no pics!

 

[round man]

Size should always be put down with a good overall coverage but with the thinest coat possible,...when the size puddles up it does what we gilders call "drowning" the gold and thus you end up with a dull spot where the gold breaks thru to a wet puddled portion or drip in the size ,....this effect is undesirable

Edited to add,...the kaolin is basically powdered clay like one would use in ceramics and should be dusted around the area to be gilded before the size is laid down,...then when you do gild it keeps the gold from sticking anywhere but where the size is and thus avoiding extra cleanup,....the way most dust it is the same as one would with a pounce bag for patterns thus not creating much more than a very fine film of dust,...the reasoning behind using koalin is that it doesn't clump up in the size like baby powder and egg white,..