Hello Everyone
Just had another gold workshop here at my shop. Erik Winkler and his dad Ferry came from the Netherlands to take my gilding course. There pieces came out looking very nice ,both decided to go for different colour schemes. Over the four day's they learnt Pearl inlay, water gilding and matt gilding, letter shading /glue chipping / acid stippling with micas and silvering as part of the course. I think you may be seeing some of Amsterdam in gilded and silvered glass next time you visit the area. Erik will probably post some more photos when he returns and tell you how they got on.
Dave


Ferry, Eriks dad

Eriks piece

Erik

Nice Dave, thanks for the photos.. looking forward for more.

From the looks of the smiles they had a good time (unless the Englishman coerced them), learned a lot, and have some beautiful glass pieces to hang on the wall and use as samples.

Well done!

Danny

Crikey!....lucky skunks!

Nice, nice design to take home as a very memorable finished project....


I noticed in the background of the photos a united cigar and la azora cigar panel...
the seem to be everywhere...are those from a mail order company?

Aho

Yes the lads were very happy with the result Danny. We had a very good print on both pulls of the screen especially for consistent registration.
Just ordered another 6 La Azora signs from the town of machine Tony....they reckon about a weeks delivery.
Aho

Dave,
Be careful.Those glass signs might not make it to the U.K.The stage from Machine go's through Snow Hill and It's against the law to transport glass sign through there.

Just got home yesterday at 20:00 O 'Clock.
Put my piece on the couch and looked at it with some amacement.
Shall i post my experience here or put on a new topic?

here ......

I used to live very near Torquay, a very nice place to live.

It looks like it was a very productive workshop. Is it an annual event?

What a nice project to do.

Richard

Dave Smith's Goldleaf Workshop had everything I hoped for.
We not only learnt the first basics, but almost all the techniques used into making an elaborate Victorian glass sign.
Dave showed us some modern shortcuts using vinyl, but still did his best to keep the original "old handmade look" as well.
First day: 14 hours nonstop working (5 minutes for some homemade sandwiches).
Second day: 12 hours nonstop (5 minutes for homemade sandwiches and 3 minutes for a toilet visit that Indian food is a killer ).
Third day: 10 hours working (also having some chitchat Letterhead history and gossip Hahah! ).
Fourth day: 10 hours working (also looking into Dave's nice book collection).

Step by steps learnt:
Design being made and silkscreen prepared.
Handcut masks.
Acid etching with micca
Watergilding.
Backing up with black and colours: brushing, blending, stippling etc
Shading with Asphaltum.
Gilding with oils size.
Laying in Abalone and Mother of Pearl shells horizontal and vertically.
How to cut a small strip of glass due to bumping it to a metal bracket.
And lots more!

Now Dave thought us all the techniques is up to me to show if I have any talent.
If my new glass projects are turning out like n it sure isn't the lack of techniques learnt at Dave's, but solely my incompetence of working.
Feels like a heave burnden on my shoulders. Will rest and look at the finished piece for a week, try to collect all ingrediënts needed, prepare and reorganize a corner of my signshop and first design an elaborate piece before starting the Erik Winkler glass-line. haha


Some photo's


It is me cleaning the glass with Bon Ami prior to watergilding.




Cleaning cleaning cleaning.



Ferry heating the gilding.




Burnish gilding.



Dave Smith's Design.




Heating the second gilding.




Smile! And don't burn the gelatine.




"Enamel paint Ferry".




"Thin it with terpentine".




Panels all backed up with colours.




Smile!




Chipped glass.




Silvering?




First coat of black on the sides.




Finished pieces

Wow boys you did real well there!-Great pics everybody cheers!

That dave Smiff chaps a real clever fella- his workshops are well worth the effort and $$

Good photos Erik. Excuse the mess of the workshop. you can see through the garage door the new extended part of my workshop being built which will be better for me and more workshops.
Looking forward to a bit more space. The silvering is usually done on a silvering table but we made this up for these small panels.
I think they liked the handmade sandwiches.
Dave

Margaret.
I will be having some more Workshops next year once the workshop extension is finished.
It was always easier and better for space to keep the workshop to a smaller number of people.
I found by keeping it to 3-5 people I could teach more techniques and help people better.
Send me your details if your interested for next year. I will be running 6 workshops.
Thanks
Dave

The workshop photos are great. The work is beautifully produced and the steps are very helpful to the viewers. Question: The 11th photo shows an image on the face of the glass. Is this achieved through a screenprinted (on the face) image or has an opaque (line) transparency been placed on the face as a guide to laying the leaf? If screenprinted I am assuming that two screens were required, one forward and one reverse. If the transparency used in making the screen were used as a guide it would elimate preparing a second screen.

Please keep up the fine posts. It can be intimidating but also very motivating. Bob

If I ever get the money...

I'll take a ship... across the great sea...
over to England, and I'll take that workshop...
like an excited gilder, with enthusiasm!

I'll mimick Dave Smith, imitating his ways, hoping
that my project will look as good as his.

Those are powerful projects, and they speak to me.

Nice gilding, very nice gilding!

The name's Blake, my friend...and I'd be tickled to join your little workshop.

-Aho!

Listen Blake.
Your welcome anytime here you should come over with that man Dickinson ,you should all come over ,If I one the Lottery I would pay for you all to come here. Have you seen in the news recently about the rd they plan to build across the waters to the coast of the US around 2020 .My wife said I am not aloud to go to the States anymore as I have been 30 times now,we shall see about that!. These guys enjoyed them selves like you see. Keep an eye out for Erik's and his dad's work in Amsterdam . Next year the workshops will be part of a nostalgic trip to London to view all the top class glass signs and there's lots of them! Doug B has the list.............
Robert the image of black lines you can see is like you said an opaque (line) transparency to help them gild the glass.
Hope this helps...
Dave

Since I just saw the nice results of the Dan Sawatsky workshop.
I thought it was about time to show the final results of mine pieces made at Dave's.
They are hanging in our firm with nice black frames.

Since the workshop I am constantly organizing the firm, buying ingrediënts in Amercia, Canada, Germany, England and Nederland.
It costs a fortune, I repeat: Not a small fortune, but a fortune!

Besides the costs, I am amazed how long it takes to get all the ingredients and tools I need.
I think I will have everything in about 4 more weeks, untill then I am getting old and grey....

But then again, with all my frustrations I still have the 2 nice study-pieces on the wall and every now and then I look at them and realize why i am making such efford.
Hope you like them....

You done a nice job of framing those Eric. I really like the black against the panel. What colour frame did your dad use for his?
Dave

Dave old boy,

My dad and I were standing with my mother in the framing-shop for almost 1,5 hour haha.
It was a family arangement
We had about 200 framestyles in our hand and both came up with exactly the same frames styles...
No colour, since colour will destract the attention from the panel.
A good 'cut to the bone' profile with some different rectangular grooves to show that this is not just a piece of glas, but something that represents a lot of work and craftmanship...
In retrospect we could not have chosen a better frame for our glass work, but then again it is all a matter of taste.