Fun watching... Hey, there's 3 shades of paint on your hands too! Ha ha. It appears you are human after all. Just kiddin with ya, Thanks for sharing the processes.

Dave, I don't know what to say anymore. Amazing. Thanks for allways making the time to share, I hear that's what letterheads is all about. I learn a lot by looking at everyones work here. You seem to go over the top on things, love it! Them gypsies are lucky! I had a very good Christmas and new year...

Beautiful there, and your son appears to be quite the athlete.

I allways get a 50% deposit before supplying any layouts/sketches. I find out what thier budget is first. My customers know that a deposit is allways going to be required, they don't seem to have a problem with this.

Thanks Mike, I did plan this thing out for the most part. The letter shading came after though. The background is going to have some blending effects as well. Trying to work around letters I thought would be more difficult then shading inside of the letters. I did'nt mention that inside of the lette...

Sorry Larry,

I was typing while you posted. Thanks for your reply and I will check out that link.

Thanks again, Jerry

Thanks Billy Bob and Kelly for the responses. I have some time to finish this during the holidays and only have the asphaltum for blending at this time. I've seen blended asphaltum and really liked the look. I guess I'll be blending it as I go. I've done some practice blending and it took a while to...

I am wanting to do a blend using asphaltum. This would be in the matte center part of bright oulined letters.The top of the letter would be the darker part and would gradiate to just the oil size. I thought of applying the asphaltum half way down or so, letting dry, and then gently removing where ne...

Ha Ha... I did'nt see that Danny. A big difference a letter can make. I fixed it.

I'm not sure how old the gold is Danny. It does'nt appear old at all. It was hard working with due to a lot of pin holes and sticking to the paper here and there. I will save it for surface gilding. Pat, I did a final gild before I hit the hay and this morning same thing. It had a patchy matte look ...

Here's the deal. O.K., everythings giong as usual, I laid some white gold - no problem. Laid some 23k, no problem. These are both Monarch, and all of this is on the same piece of glass. A freind owed me so he gave me some Giusto Manetti 18k. This is all water gilded. This is all done back to back an...

Looks Good!

Don't know if anyone saw this, I thought it was a good deal. Got mine comin, got all three volumes and the door plates. I've allways wanted Mikes stuff as well and plan on getting some here and there when I can, same with Dave's. Over the years I've been making my own on various jobs and have my own...

VERY nice Dave! Thanks for the close ups, love to see the detail.

Cripe, that's beautiful! A real work of art there.

I'm glad to see this was just a good learning experience and not a serious injury! Keep on going Erik, the learning never ends. (for all of us).

Wow, beautiful Dave. That's quite a layout too. You never cease to amaze!

Mike, Having it shipped was my first consideration. I got to thinking just how much it would cost for packaging and shipping on a 100 lb shipment. I thought that I could make do with the 70 grit for now untill I have the extra time to drive. I've got a few days off here for the holiday and really wa...

Thanks Kent, just the answer I wanted to hear. I'm on it!

I was mainly worried about the rougher grit eating away the vinyl stencil. Could I use less psi and be very careful and still get an etch without eating the stencil? I guess I'll find out because I just picked up the 70 grit!

It takes me about a 3 hour or so round trip to pick up some 100 grit or above aluminum oxide blast media, haven't been able to find anyone closer. My question is will 70 grit work out allright? I found a place about 15 minutes from me that carries the 70 grit. If I use the 70 grit is there something...

Thanks Larry, Looks like I'm going to have to order me up an angel gilding kit from Sarah. Been putting it for too long here. Now I know what to put on my Christmas list. Also, I figured you didn't use 12k, it just appeared white in the pic. Silvering would have went well with the color scheme too I...

Thanks Larry for the quick response. I really like the way this looks. That inset shade is great, the acid etched boarders too. So, you basically fit the pieces as close as you could, cutting here and there using various arrangements and then filled the cracks. Looks like you got things to fit prett...

In Larry's Martins Cigar sign, He states "the letter centers are filled with abalone pieces which were backed by aluminum leaf." Are these actual many pieces or is this how it came in the sheet. If it is many little pieces did they all have to be butted up perfectly (which looks very time ...

I learned the hard way not to rush any gilding job. I use a brush for the back up after laying the gold, that's the way I like to do it. Spent too many years learning to letter and when I have used a screen it didn't feel as good, didn't look as good either. I learned to gild from the gold leaf tech...

THATS what I need. Thanks for the box pictures..... Ideas.

Absolutley beautiful work there Tony. Thanks for sharing the steps. I'm sure this will look more than great, hopefully I will be able to see it some day. Wish I could be out there painting with ya. Wonderful work on these renderings.

Absolutley beautiful work there Tony. Thanks for sharing the steps. I'm sure this will look more than great, hopefully I will be able to see it some day. Wish I could be out there painting with ya. Wonderful work on these renderings.

Thanks Larry, will do!

I currently have quite a bit of 18k loose leaf and a shortage of 23k. I have some side projects I'd like to be working on that are personal (non-customer) and was wondering how big of a difference would it make to use the 18k instead of the 23k. This is for glass, water gild. I've allways just went ...