The Gilding Arts Newsletter

The Gilding Arts
Newsletter
...an educational resource
for Gold Leaf Gilding
CHARLES DOUGLAS
GILDING STUDIO
Seattle, WA
In This Issue
The Seattle Art Fair
Gilding Class Schedule
Letter from Gilder Charles
Douglas
August 9, 2015
The Seattle Art Fair arrives
at Century Link Field!
Goings on...in the Gilded
Artworld
Newsletter Archive
Quick Links
Quick Links
Workshop Registration
Form (for mail-in
registration only)
A Gilder's Journal
(Blog)
Gilding Studio...on
Twitter
Frye Art Museum
Seattle Art Museum
Society of Gilders
Lalla Essaydi, Harem Beauty, Jenkins Johnson, San Francisco
The long-anticipated Seattle Art Fair made its wellreceived impact last week (July 30 - Aug. 2, 2015), the
first major international art fair for Seattle hosting 62
galleries including Seattle's Roq la Rue, New
York/Tokyo's Kaikai Kiki, Tokyo's Koki Arts, and New
York's David Zwirner, Gagosian, Pace, and Adelson
Galleries. Many thanks to Paul Allen and and his team
at Vulcan for the vision; plans are reportedly set for two
Metropolitan Museum
of Art
more years with a thoughtful eye on the future.
The Fricke Collection
Palace of Versailles
Museo ThyssenBornemisza
Sepp Leaf Products
Join our list
Takashi Murakami, Yume Lion (The Dream Lion), 2009, Bronze
with platinum leaf on marble base. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery
Viewing Murakami's Dream Lion was a special treat
with its beautifully laid platinum leaf and subtle shifting
of tones. Its presence provided backdrop to a
conversation with Kaikai Kiki Gallery on gilding and
the art of Chiho Aoshima whose work can also be seen
at the Seattle Asian Art Museum through October 2nd.
Chiho Aoshima, (Reverse gilding and painting on acrylic), Kaikai
Kiki, Tokyo
Alyssa Monks, Grounded, 2014, Forum
Gallery, New York
And always good of course to find friends and
colleagues...
Roger Waterhouse, Artsite LTD
Denise Bisio, Artsite LTD (L)
& friend,
Richard Boerth (Atelier Richard
Boerth) Gilder, Framemaker,
Seattle Artist, Matt Jones
(Gasworks Gallery)
All in all, an exciting
(ad)venture and another
indication of Seattle's
Seattle Artist, Jeff Mihalyo
determination to grow.
Although framing was sparse a few gilded pieces were
included throughout the fair, including the Andrew
Wyeth watercolor Seated by a Tree (1973) and the Jacob
Collins Candace, both from Adelson Galleries.
Andrew Wyeth, Seated by a Tree (1973), Adelson
Galleries, New York
Jacob Collins, Candace, Adelson Galleries, New
York
Georg Baselitz, Oil on Canvas,
Gagosian Gallery, New York
Lalla Essaydi, Harem Beauty, Jenkins Johnson,
San Francisco
~
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2015 Fall Gilding Workshops
Registration
New York City
Glass Gilding: for Mirror-Making
& Glass Art
(based on Verre Églomisé)
September 9, 2015
(Class Fee: $250)
~
Oil Gilding...and other Mordants
September 10, 2015
(Class Fee: $225)
~
New!
Gilding for Works of Art
on canvas, paper, and panels
...a Study for Fine Artists
September 11, 2015
(Class Fee: $275)
~
Traditional Gesso:
Preparing the Foundation for
Traditional Water Gilding
(A One Day Intensive on Gesso)
September 14, 2015
(Class Fee: $225)
Seattle
New!
Gilding for Works of Art
on canvas, paper, and panels
...a Study for Fine Artists
September 19, 2015
December 12, 2015
(Class Fee: $275)
Sept. 19
Dec. 12
~
Introduction to
Traditional Water Gilding
September 25, 26, 27, 2015
(Class Fee: $650)
~
Oil Gilding
...and other Mordants
October 24, 2015
(Class Fee: $225)
Artistic Passion in Progress! NY Water
Gilding Workshop, June, 2015
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Greetings from Charles Douglas Gilding Studio
Dear Friends,
Greetings and happy
Summer! Before we
know it it'll be
September which will
bring me back to new
and old friends in New
York to guide a
growing number of
students through four
days of intensive
gilding study!
Photo by Renée Riccardo
What stands out as a high point during this busy
gilding year is the sponsorship of Sepp Leaf
Products in New York who share my passion in
enhancing the educational outreach in the art of
gilding. Now with the added East Coast location
through the gracious addition of Sepp Leaf's
showroom studio in lower Manhattan, students
have the additional opportunity to learn various
gold leaf gilding methods and techniques. Between
New York and Seattle I have had the pleasure to
work with, get to know, and share ideas with
artists and students who in their dedication, have
traveled from such places as California, Utah,
Montana, North Carolina, Nevada, Sweden,
Ireland, and Canada.
In a little more than a month we'll be studying
glass gilding for mirror -making, oil gilding, gesso
preparation for water gilding, as well as exploring
an intriguing new workshop: Gilding for Fine
Artists, designed for painters who wish to employ
gold leaf directly to their works of art.
(Spots are filling so if you're interested in joining
us, now is a good time!)
Meanwhile...thank you to those who continue to
write with their thoughtful questions and to those
who I continue to meet along the way...
Peace, Health, and Clarity
~ Charles
"Write two poems and call me in the morning. That's
my prescription for you today, world, and for me.
~ Sandra Cisneros, American Poet and Author
(1954- )
~
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Gold Leaf Gilding... A Conversation
Questions
Submitted
by our Members
from around the World.
Q. Hi Charles, I'm a
beginner in water gliding.
Recently I did a white
gold polish on a piece of
maple wood flat surface.
Traditional Gesso & Red Bole on
Canvas
I did 8 coats of Gesso, and 5 coats of bole. I let it dry
about 4 to 5 hrs and I began polishing. However, I
couldn't get to a good clean finish. Am I missing some
steps? I gilded the surface twice with 13k white gold.
There is another question. Why do people tend to use
12k white gold or 22k gold instead of 13k white gold, or
24k gold? Is that the reason why I can't create a nice
clean finish? Please help.
~ Browning, NY
A. Hi Browning...Water gilding needs to be seen as a
system with all of the different parts working together to
achieve a particular result. The very first step which you
didn't mention is the application of a layer of a 10%
rabbit skin glue solution to seal the wood before
applying gesso.
When you say "polish" I assume you mean burnish, the
term for compressing the gold into the surface with a
burnisher, usually made of agate, making the gold shine.
The number of gesso coats you are applying should be
enough to give you a fairly decent, smooth burnish
although I generally use 14 coats of gesso along with 5
coats of bole. However, a good burnish depends in part
upon the recipes you are using for the gesso and bole
which include the strength of the glue and the ratio
between the amount of glue to whiting (calcium
carbonate) for the gesso and the ratio between the glue
and bole, the addition of water and the viscosity of the
clay itself. All of these factors, among a few others,
contribute to how the gilding will appear.
If you can provide me with further details on how you
approached your project and the gesso and bole recipes
you used we can take a further look into what's
happening.
As for why gilders tend to use 12k or 22k rather than
13k or 24k, good question! There are probably a lot of
different answers to this. My view is that 22k is still
high enough in gold content to appear as 'gold' without
shifting too far into a different tonal spectrum. Also, the
silver content makes 22k perhaps easier and quicker to
handle which may be important for companies geared
towards high productivity and is also less expensive
than 23k. I use 23k though over 22k because I find it is a
little more malleable and wraps around ornamentation a
littler more effectively.
12kt, being essentially 50/50 gold to silver, strikes a nice
balance between the malleability of gold without
overtaking the look of silver. 24kt, meanwhile, has a
beautiful, deep rich gold appearance although it is very
soft and may not be practical on a daily basis for an
industry such as picture framing if productivity is an
issue. It may, however, be the first choice for Sacred
Works due to 24kt's purity and therefore spiritual
symbolism. A high gold content leaf such as 23.75k is
desirable for exterior work as gold does not tarnish.
When gold leaf tarnishes it's the silver or copper content
within the lower kt leaf that is tarnishing, not the gold.
These different karat leafs, however, do get used and
offer an interesting array of color choices to compliment
works of art and may also be useful in color-matching in
restoration, conservation, reproductions, and replicas. I
don't think the karat leaf you have chosen though is
necessarily contributing to the difficulties you have had
in achieving a smooth, burnished appearance.
~
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Goings on...in the Gilded Artworld
During the week of
June 22, 2015 Sepp
Leaf Products played
host to Seattle's
Charles Douglas
Gilding Studio for
their inaugural
gilding workshop
offering what was a
The Maine Monument at Central Park,
gilded
bronze (Photo courtesy of Central
very lively three-day
Park Conservancy)
intensive study in
Traditional Water Gilding. The brainchild of Peter Sepp,
Lauren Sepp, and gilder Charles Douglas, gold leaf
gilding workshops will be held at the Sepp Leaf
Downtown New York Showroom Studio at various
times throughout each year offering instruction in
techniques from traditional water gilding, oil gilding,
and glass gilding to restoration, gilding for Fine Artists,
and guided gilded art tours throughout New York City.
Stay tuned!
Popping by to say hello was the ever elegant Master
Gilder and Restorer Giovanni Bucchi, exchanging views
on life and gilding. Also here to discuss his new ventures
was Contemporary Artist, Frame Conservator, and Fine
Art Services Consultant R.Wayne Reynolds, the former
head of the gilding
department at Lowy's.
Sepp Leaf's resident expert
Mark Randall !
Giovanni Bucchi
Laura, keeping everything moving Deborah, keeping an eye on things
behind the scenes
- and always with a smile!
Gilded Dome Replica in the
Sepp Leaf Showroom
Students at work!
Many thanks to Peter, Lauren, Mark and the rest of the
friendly staff at Sepp Leaf for helping to make these East
Coast gilding classes possible and for providing a
welcoming environment for the students!
Meanwhile, back in Seattle...a glass gilding project
currently underway at Charles Douglas Gilding Studio is
a set of custom Vanities brought in by New Dimensions
Frame and Mirror in Bellevue, WA, requiring 1,000
leaves of Manetti 6kt white gold leaf gilded onto 52
square feet of glass of various shapes and lengths. The
studio sample chosen for the project involves thorough
cleaning of the glass before speckling the back of the
glass with lampblack Japan. Gilding follows with a very
weak gelatin size, light distressing, and backed-up with
flat black enamel.
The gilding is the same
method used in the elaborate
gilding, etching, and painting
of verre églomisé and the
same process Charles used in
his years
of gilding the logos of Saks
Fifth Avenue's logos on its
entranceway doors. Look for
final photographs in the Fall issue!
An intriguing aspect of the art of gilding is that it has a
presence and deep-rooted history in so many countries,
each displaying diverse techniques, from Tibet, China,
Thailand, Japan, Egypt, Indonesia, to France, Germany,
Italy, Spain, Russia and beyond; developed internally
and sometimes crossing borders, whether Italian gilders
brought to Spain for work or for the development of the
Peruvian Cuzco school of painters.
Photos here show the gilding at Harbin Bliss Temple in
Harbin, China during the sacred day of May 25, 2015
(Buddah's Birthday).
The possibilities of an
artistic and cultural
exchange around the art of
gilding is being explored
by Charles Douglas. Any
developments will be announced in The Gilding Arts
Newsletter.
On another note...Swedish gilder and restorer Malin
Isaksson has been asked to give a talk on gilding at the
Rotary Club conference at the Hotell Gyllene Uttern in
Granna, Sweden...And for those who have access to
Picture Framing Magazine, look for the current August,
2015 issue for a wonderful article by William Adair:
Sgraffito & Granito: Revitalizing an Ancient Technique.
These two surface treatments of Italian origin are two
among others where gesso is manipulated for
embellishment including punchwork where metal
punches are used to hammer designs directly onto gilded
gesso. Examples of this technique can often be seen on
antique Italian picture frames as well as early Icons
where halos and background punchwork is elaborate. As
always, Bill Adair does a wonderful job in taking us
along this age-old journey of gilding. ~
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Gilding in...
Florence, Italy
This October brings me to beautiful Florence to study
the Florentine method of Traditional Water Gilding with
gilder and restorer Roberto Passeri, author of many
publications on restoration of gilded objects and a
former member of the admissions review commission at
the Opificio delle Pietre Dure school.
This very special class will be held at Florenceart
Artisan Studio and School of Decorative Arts run by
artist and instructor Alison Wooley who has arranged
accommodations in the heart of Florence with a terrace
view of the city.
Time of course will be taken to view the museums of
Rome and Florence, to taste the wine of Tuscany, and
visit the villages of the Cinque Terra on the Italian
Riviera. And with special thanks to Peter Sepp at Sepp
Leaf Products, a visit will be made to the Gold Beating
Plant of Giusto Manetti Battiloro in Florence,
manufacturer of one of my personal favorite lines of
gold leaf due to its high quality, consistency, and range
of colors. (Look for an upcoming article on this visit to
Manetti!)
An exciting time lies ahead and I look forward to
sharing this new knowledge in Italian gilding with my
students in 2016!
~
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Gold Leaf Gilding
Gilding: Using the Gilder's Pad
~ Charles Douglas Gilding Studio
Workshop Summaries
Oil Gilding...and other mordants
A one day intensive in acquiring the skills to execute a
proper oil gilded surface. Explore the options for
preparing grounds and choosing among a variety of oil
sizes and other mordants for use on such surfaces as
wood, glass, metal, and stone.
Glass Gilding as used in Verre Églomisé
A one day intensive as an introduction to the art of
glass gilding, the basis for verre églomisé. Learn to
apply genuine 12kt white gold, preparing glass for
gilding, making gelatin size, & creating special effects
including candle-smoked glass, abrading gold leaf, and
the combined use of water color additives.
Introduction to Traditional Water Gilding
Traditional Water Gilding is an ancient craft that goes
back over 4,000 years ago to the early Egyptians. This
popular workshop is an intensive, hands-on class that
introduces the student to each step in the water gilding
method as used on furniture, picture frames, and
architectural detail. Learn to prepare gesso & clay bole
grounds & lay & burnish genuine 23kt gold leaf. A
field trip to the Frye Art Museum to view and study the
gilded frame collection is included.
Gilding for works of art on Canvas, Paper, and
Panels...a Study for Fine Artists (New!)
Gold leaf has been used for centuries as both a
component and surface background for works of art.
From the earliest examples of iconography & 18th c
Peruvian painters to Gustav Klimt and the modern day
works of contemporary artists. This long-awaited one
day intensive introduces the student to the methods &
options available for the use of genuine gold leaf as a
component within works of art.
24kt Oil Gilded Altar for the Hari Krishna Temple,
Sammamish, WA
~
Class Size limited to 8 Students
For more information visit www.gildingstudio.com
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