Thanks for sharing Alfred! Seeing your posts have been extremely helpful and inspiring and I encourage you to keep sharing your work, which is amazing by the way! I especially like your idea to use a suction lifter as a counter balance and would be interested in seeing more photos of this to see how...

Fantastic tip, Andrew! The thought to use clothespins to scratch a pinstripe into gold and skip backing paint is a great show of ingenuity to acheive something that could have easily taken 10x the amount of time if done with books of gold, backing paint and trimming. It looks amazing! On a related n...

Danny- hope you have a fast recovery

Hey Jamie- I’m a fellow Michigander and would recommend checking into Ronan Aquacote. It’s a waterbased enamel- it covers like 1shot and works great on wood, plastic, banners and glass. It dries to a high gloss insanely fast and won’t fume up your house. It smells kinda like tempera paint or clay. P...

I came across a section from a text from 1923 which describes a process of glue chipping areas of plate glass that have been acid embossed. See section 76- half way through the paragraph describes a method of using an asphaltum resist and acid embossing to prepare glass for glue chipping. I was unde...

Here's an example of the metal frame I was describing. I got the idea from seeing old nameplates

Thanks Lee - I like your idea of using shellac as a barrier and will be experimenting with this. I did another sign like this using the method as described, but used Alphanamel for the background and experienced some bleeding. Alphanamel feels like 1Shot paint with more extender added. I found it di...

I came across a tip in an older gilders book that recommended wiping the blade of the knife between an empty page in your gilders book. I gave it a try and it works great and is much faster than stopping to clean the knife with alcohol and cotton when encountering this issue. The knife picks up the ...

I've ordered from Morning Calm, and received well packaged and good quality shell. Aqua Blue Maui sells abalone and seem to have a wide variety of abalone with veneers over them to get intense and vibrant colors. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has tried Aqua Blue Maui and see some examples of t...

Shadazzle has some suspect copy on the side of the product packaging, "leaves a protective coating". I haven't noticed any adhesion or cloudiness from using it, but curious to hear from others who have tried it. Screen Shot 2018-03-22 at 11.31.19 AM.png In my experience with Shadazzle, it ...

That's sad to hear of the passing of John Hastings. After listening to this talk, it's clear that John had a vast understanding of the business and deep respect for the tradition of gold beating. I was lucky enough to get a copy from Andrew and the book is worth it alone for the republishing of the ...

Bob, Aquacoat is not formulated for glass. For glass backgrounds, try Ronan japan colors, 1shot art and poster color, or 1 shot enamels. In use of gilding, search the forum for "back up paint" or "backing up". The aforementioned are not tough enough to take a scrubbing during sur...

I'm assuming you are looking for that Grifhold razor holder mentioned in LeBlanc's book that holds full razroblades that is no longer available. Tim Tyler is selling his own version of these old Grifhold holders... and they are really nice. Aluminum construction and they hold blades without any modi...

Interesting application. Is the damar varnish the heavier damar or the picture finish damar? The picture varnish seems too thin for this process. Thank you. Bob. 00488-3104-2ww-m.jpg Here's the dammar I used from Blick. It's Windsor & Newton and sets up pretty fast with the majority of the varn...

Have you tried adding a couple drops of detergent to your size to help the beading issue? I keep a little bottle of detergent in my kit for this purpose. I have a 2oz travel size squeeze bottle that I picked up from Walgreens that is filled with clear dishwashing detergent (Dawn free and clear). As ...

There was some nice signs and a little sign painter scene in the Guillermo del Toro film, "The Shape of Water" (which was great by the way). Does anyone know who worked on them?

There was some nice signs and a little sign painter scene in the Guillermo del Toro film, "The Shape of Water" (which was great by the way). Does anyone know who worked on them?

Mike, The wealth of knowledge and talent you have shared and enabled here is phenomenal. I’m so thankful of you and Danny keeping this going and aren’t hesitant to share. I’ve been lurking on this site for years and finally posted a thread to contribute this week. Seriously, thank you for everything...

Aluminum foil can be used to protect gilds and used to add an interesting, fast and cost-efficient matte depth effect to your reverse glass work. This method is briefly outlined in Kent Smith’s addendum to Gold Leaf Techniques and recommended to me by a fellow Detroit-based letterhead, Mark Casey. T...

I've only tried 1shot and Japan colors on glass. I've read that it's always better to use quality paints as there are finer pigments that lend to better coverage, color, and longevity of how long the sign will last. That being said, I've never tried cheaper interior or exterior house paints availabl...

Here's my easel...Double-sided of course because you need to see both sides...The top and bottom bars are fully adjustable for height, so it can take a panel up to around 1.8 metres...they are open channelled, so the width is unlimited...the limit is on how heavy or awkward you want a long sheet of...

@Larry This is extremely helpful to see a setup like this. Thanks for taking the time to post a reply; feel free to email or shoot me a personal message for a free font license of your choice from my foundry https://www.myfonts.com/foundry/Match_and_Kerosene/ if you're into anything. A lot of them a...

I'm just getting started with basic reverse glass work and need some help with getting an easel setup specifically to do glass work. I have a small sign painting shop setup in my garage that I've been self-teaching in for the last few years. My sign easel is setup for electro-pouncing: A steel sheet...