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Signmaking 101... Flash Gilding with Mica Powder

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

Moderators: Ron Percell, Mike Jackson, Danny Baronian

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Darryl Gomes
Posts: 14
Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 7:04 pm
Location: Underwood, Ontario Canada

Signmaking 101... Flash Gilding with Mica Powder

Post by Darryl Gomes »

This will describe how I gild with Mica Powder. It is essentially the same as gold, but using Mica instead of leaf. there is really no substitute for gold, but it is an economical alternative giving similar results when working within a tight budget.

1/ I will paint the sign in a normal fashion and let dry.

2/ Then I use and egg white mixed in a pint of water to put a wash over the sign so mica doesn't stick everywhere(same as for gold).

3/ Size the outline of the letter with quick size. I use quick size because I find that you don't get any brighter shine with slow like you can with real gold.

4/ Wait for the size to come to tack, usually tackier than if you gild with real leaf. More like gilding with aluminum or thicker leaves than gold.

5/ I use a gilders mop but any make-up brush will do to apply the mica powder. gently dip the brush in the bottle of mica and push it around over the size. You don't need a lot to cover a lot of area.

6/ I usually wait an hour or so for the size to dry some more and wipe the sign with water to clean off the excess and the egg wash.

I believe that Mica ia a ground stone and that it will not tarnish like bronze powders will.



I have also mixed it with clear and sprayed it to make gold blends on metallic gold 1-Shot.


Also.. I have used Mica mixed with shellac to back up chipped and gilded glass. This can prove very economical to backing up with oil size and patent leaf to cover the holidays you always get with gilding chipped glass. The colour of "Majestic Gold Mica" that I buy from Canadian Signcrafters seems very close to real gold when used like this. You really have to look close to find the holes in the real gold.

Darryl

P.S.

Mike, I really enjoy reading this forum and you are doing a great job here. I will try and do more of my part and post more often here.

Thank You
Darryl Gomes
Underwood Ontario
Danny Baronian
Site Admin
Posts: 638
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2004 2:16 am
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Post by Danny Baronian »

Darryl,

Do you have any photos of work you've done with the mica? They'd be nice to see posted.

Danny
Danny Baronian
Baronian Mfg.
CNC Routing & Fabrication
http://www.baronian.com
Dan Seese
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2004 11:29 pm
Location: Fort Collins, CO
Contact:

Mica powder on glass

Post by Dan Seese »

The only place I have used the mica powders is on glass.
I apply it in a similar fashion to what is described above, using One Shot fast size. No need for the egg white wash since you are working in reverse on glass. Instead of a gilder's mop, I just use a foam brush and it applies it quite nicely. (How did we get along without foam brushes?)
I've used it as inlines, centers on letters or as letters themselves inside a copy panel.
Since it is so transparent I back it up with a color. You need to experiment with your color choice as it affects the color of the mica powder. Even with the change in color you still get a really cool iridescent effect.
Aluminum and bronzing powders are pretty opaque so they work well for backing up gold or even just backing up a color to increase opacity. Mica powders, on the other hand, are pretty transparent. From some directions it will glow and from other directions you can see right through it.
Also, with bronzing powders and mica powders I always wear a dust mask during application.

On one occasion I was putting a company logo on a conference-room door. Some areas of the logo were gold leaf but some had color and they wanted to be able to see the color from both sides. I sand carved the image into the glass. Then I airbrushed a coat of transparent ink onto the blasted area.
Next I mixed some mica powder (Super White) with clear varnish and airbrushed a layer of that onto the glass so that the mica particles were evenly diffused throughout the image. I then sprayed another coat of transparent ink and finished it with Frog Juice clear.
This gave a stained glass effect. (Similar to transparent cathedral glass as opposed to opalescent glass.) The purpose of the mica powder layer inbetween the 2 layers of transparent ink was to reflect the light back through the ink. Without the mica the color looked great when the light was coming through it but when it was dark behind the glass the color would die. The transparency of the mica powder made it transluscent and the relfectivity of the mica powder made the color stand out even when light wasn't coming through the glass.
By the way, in the gold leaf area, I gilded it, applied a coat of bronze powder (remember the opacity) and then gilded it again, finishing with a coat of clear.

Where did I get the idea to experiment with this? A phone discussion with Rick Glawson, where else?
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