So I did some more work with a 50/50 mix of LeFranc and Letterhead Sign Supply Quick - Ready to gild around hour 3 or 4 this time. I'm not sure but I am guessing the humidity had something to do with it. It held the leaf really well and came out to a really bright shine. This was reverse glass work ...

Wow Dan - that is pretty drastic. I have a feeling that on outlines it might not matter too much but for big areas it definitely isn't working. I am guessing that there aren't any UV inhibitors in the paint or that it wasn't formulated for this type of use. Really a ... shame though especially on su...

Ah thanks for the clarification Dan - I've heard similar about LSS back up black fading to grey before which is somewhat disconcerting. Were these south facing windows? You think it's possible to cut LSS back up black with Ronan Japan to improve pigmentation? I like using back up black and haven't s...

Hey Dan - Thanks for being so generous in regards to your methods. Is there any reason that you are not using the LSS back up black for your outlining work and instead using this custom mix? Seems like one coat of that would be faster than 2 coats of japan/1shot mix, no? I believe Robert Friese uses...

That's one good looking window Dan! Thanks for posting that. LSS refers to "Letterhead sign supply" - Did a bunch of tests to try and slow down the LSS Quick size and a 50/50 mix with LeFranc 12 hour gets the gild/open times between 1-3 hours. What are your order of operations on jobs like...

Been doing some tests over here - Turns out Rolco Slow doesn't slow down the LSS Quick much even at a 50/50 mix. Gilding was reading at 30 minutes to about an hour and a half or so for the Quick on it's own. However a 50/50 mix with LSS quick and Lefranc 12 hr gave it a nice 1-3.5 hour window for gi...

Was probably just directional burnishing. Dan Seese wrote a good article on it (albeit on glass) http://www.danseesestudios.com/blog/2012/7/6/prismatic-copper-leaf-on-glass-trompe-loeil-secrets-revealed.html Noel Weber & I did this one a few weeks back. Depending on whether it's getting direct o...

Hey Rich - I recently had a job where the only option was to screen size because the logo was way too detailed. I screened the LSS quick size with some Rolco in it. The Rolco didn't slow down the quick size by any means, but it worked really well. Oh and it was a vertically screened job too. Made th...

Hey Pat - I use straight LSS quick size for a lot of my matte only gold jobs. It's ready to gild in about 30 minutes to an hour time and I've even had success screening it vertically believe it or not. However, I have tried to slow the LSS quick size with some rolco slow size and didn't get much hel...

Just to jump in - I've been doing a lot of backing up on Matte window gilds with LSS quick size, then metallic brass one shot, then back up black and finally spar varnish. I can usually do small logos in a day and have never experienced any problems with overlapping on dry times or curing affecting ...

I did a really gnarly roll down gate not too long ago and found a few things that helped. Just pen plot/pounce your pattern as normal, pounce it on the surface on the highest ridges. Take a stabilo and fill in the gaps if needed by hand. Soft or hard fitch is going to be your friend. With letters th...

Had a job come up recently where I was painting on stucco... over elastomeric paint. It's this hybrid waterborne siliconized type paint that they use for houses and typically on stucco - the advantage is that it's good in areas that get a lot of rain/hurricanes/tsunamis and such. The point of the st...

I'll give ya $50 for it which seems like a pretty fair price. Been looking for a copy for a really long time now.

Seeing as how it's not directly over the ghost sign you should just be able to power wash over it with a baking soda and water mix. They've been using it Chicago for decades.

Finally finished the project the other day and took about an hour to get a halfway decent photo of the piece. 23 Karat brightline gild with 18 Karat centers, one shot paints, mother of pearl, abalone, glitter and aluminum all in this one.

Finally finished the project the other day and took about an hour to get a halfway decent photo of the piece. 23 Karat brightline gild with 18 Karat centers, one shot paints, mother of pearl, abalone, glitter and aluminum all in this one.

Broke my arm a few days before the Conclave was set to start, but despite the handicap I was more than happy I went. Big thanks to Dean for hosting and Also to Larry and Glenn for the artwork as well as to John for the expert pulls on the screen. Got a chance to photograph my piece today and got so ...

Broke my arm a few days before the Conclave was set to start, but despite the handicap I was more than happy I went. Big thanks to Dean for hosting and Also to Larry and Glenn for the artwork as well as to John for the expert pulls on the screen. Got a chance to photograph my piece today and got so ...

Really great work Bruce! Love all that ornamentation in the window borders too. Got any photos of the window lettering to the right and left of the door?

Very Cool Dave! Always love those time lapses because you get to see the process from start to end. Looks like the band really likes sign guys because they tapped someone from Austin to do a Neon Sign for another album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd_mQfSNSjU

Talked to Super Sleuth Robare about it and he thought it was a Western Sand Blast piece based off of past auctions. Never saw a trademark on this one. Where'd you look Roderick?

Well the Sign came in one piece! Definitely glue chipped with some cracking on the backing paint and a little tarnishing on the gild. Cloudy day in SF so everything is a little darker than in person.

The reason for the one shot gold paint on the surface gild was in case there were any holidays that happened with the surface gild. That and it's a whole lot easier to lay size over a gold paint where you can see where your the size is going rather than just the glass. A little bit longer of a proce...

Hey Pat - I'll let you know when the piece comes in. Currently it's in transit somewhere in the Chicagoland area so it might be a few before I get it. Was thinking about bringing to Larry's place for him to inspect. You hear that Larry? He's a pretty good sleuth when it comes to stuff like this. Tha...

Hey All - I found this sign on Ebay and after consulting the R&E catalog, I had a feeling it was a genuine piece so I threw in the money quickly on it and won. It's in the mail right now and hopefully arrives in one piece to which I'll give a follow up, just wondering what all you guys think - i...

E. C. Mathews talks about painting signs from the outside of the window in one of his books. I think it was a lot more common back then in the pre-war era.

Thank you so much Pat for that bit of history. There is definitely a noticeable difference between the old and new gilds, with the new appearing darker and the old appearing very bright still after the 60+ years it was done. I'll inspect it further once I am on site again. In other related glass new...

Wow! Pretty sure this was a Chicago sign painter judging by him mentioning Chicago and "Armitage" (a main street in Chicago) in the diary entry. Perhaps one of Atkinson's pupils!

Yeah one thing I noticed was the brightness of the old gold on the glass. They had all the old transoms re-made at one point a few years back because they were all varied. The old glass was a little wavy (very slight) probably due to manufacturing methods. The entire numeral set was based on existin...

I could really use a good chiropractor. I've been in some serious hurt on and off throughout the job. Luckily these were able to be removed, but some of them weighed close to 75 pounds. Attached a photo of the first pair I did. 1 & 5 were mine and the 15 was the only original left on the buildin...