The Gilded Panel

Here is my panel after two coats of gold leaf.  It actually took more than two books of gold leaf, partly because of the curves and sides.  Even with experience gilding can be tricky, so if you have not tried it before, I do recommend practicing a bit first with imitation gold leaf until you feel comfortable with the process.  You can get a beginner kit which includes imitation leaf, fast-dry size, and even a bit of venetian red which is often used under the leaf as a base color, and this is a great place to start.  With more experience you'll use less gold.

I'm still waiting for my shellac crystals to come in the mail, so I'll return to this project once my surface is ready for applying paint.  It can take a little extra patience and time to arrange trying something new, but if it lights my inner fires, I feel it's worthwhile.  Who knows what great places it may lead me to?  I hope I can pull off the new technique of oil painting on gold, because I love how this panel looks too.

Highlights on Oil Gilding

This is a 'rough-cut' video, but here are some highlights about oil gilding......... 

Several additional points:   As you lay down thin squares of gold, it's naturally breaking up a little here and there, so there will be little 'holiday' spots to patch.  These get patched over immediately as you go, and it all smoothes into one coat of gold.  If the size dries out too much, or you can't do it all in one sitting, simply resize over the gold and when the tack is ready, do another layer, or carefully size portions and patch.

Gold leaf typically costs about $40 per 'booklet' of 25 square leaves.  It's taking approximately two books to cover the panel in my demo, counting patching.  *An additional note:  imitation gold leaf looks nearly as nice as the real thing, and it's just about $7 per book.  The only thing you must be sure to do with imitation gold leaf is to shellac over it to avoid tarnish.

Here are some online resources for gilding information and supplies:

Pandora, Sinopia.com, Auricgold.com

*Best viewed with Quicktime 7 (free download)