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On Rob Ojeda's previous post about matt centres, I was feeling just a little flippant and posted a way to do them.
Anyone who has played with gold will recognize the joke. But I realized a lot of poeple here haven't actually done gilding on glass and can be easily fooled. Some took me seriously.
Sure, what you could do a nice matt centre using acid etching, but really, would you? Do you know how nasty that stuff is?
It's not that hard to gild. Go back and read some old posts. There's plenty of info there. Get some leaf and have a go. Don't worry about losing a few sheets.
Not wanting anyone to get the wrong impression, or be baffled with bulls**t, I thought I'd better post a straight reply.
There's two main ways to get a matt gild on glass. One is to water gild over varnish or oil size (gold size). The other is to do surface gilding, sticking the gold onto tacky size.
The first means you can do both a bright outline and the matt centre in a single gild. The second gives you a more matt finish for a greater contrast with the bright, water-gilded outline.
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Hey Bruce, that is the easy way. I am trying the bagged on size trick that I saw on your website. C'mon now don't be shy let us in on all those tricks you use. Ever do mother of pearl inlays?
------------------ -------------------------------------------------- "A wise man once said that, or was it a wise guy?"
Funny you should ask because shell inlays are one thing I've never used. It hasn't been easy to source any shell here. I know I could get some if I tried. I just haven't gotten around to it. They look great though.
I think I put a fair amount of info on my website about how I work. There's no secrets. I just like to play.
One of the things I did a few weeks ago turned out well. It was really simple too.
Paint quick gold size onto the glass. Crumble up a plastic bag into a small lump and scrape it through the size in lines. Scrape again in the cross hatch pattern. Keep scraping smaller sections in both directions until it looks woven and the size starts to set up and doesn't flow any more.
When it gets to a late gilding tack, water gild. It comes out a beautiful hand-woven hatch pattern. Some parts, where you scraped firmly, will be bright. Thicker sections of size are matt.
You can make up the water size with alcohol (metho) added to help it wet.
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Mother of Pearl (abalone shell) and other shaved shell products are available through Rick Glawson's Esoteric Sign Supplies, in Wilmington, CA. They aren't cheap but they are available. Have fun.
------------------ "If it isn't fun, why do it?" Signmike@aol.com Mike Languein Doctor of Letters BS, MS, PhD ___________________
You know what BS is, MS is More of the Same, and it's Piled Higher and Deeper here
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