Laying a Little Gold

Here are some frames that I'm in the middle of gilding for a client. The two with gold on them have just been gilded and are in their raw state. The other one is ready to gild. It has a red bole with a dark chocolate panel and highlights on the raised portions of the profile. "Bole" is a clay base that was mixed and applied by hand. After the gold has been burnished to achieve a sheen it will then be rubbed a bit with some pumice. The gold is VERY thin and just a little rub will bring out the color of the bole thereby giving a color influence to the gold.

This photo shows the frame in the process of being gilded. You can see how the gilding goes in sections. The liquid is a wetting agent that is applied, activating the adhesive properties of the clay bole. This allows the gold to "stick" to the clay.

These are three of the frames for this order. They are in their raw gilded state. I'm waiting for them to dry and cure. Next step is to burnish the gold with an agate stone stone that has been polished so it is very smooth. The process of burnishing will set the gold in the clay and yield a high sheen to it. I'll follow up with that in the next post. Although the gold used here is 23kt. the lighting I photographed these frames under makes the gold look more like 18kt.