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I met with a couple who need over 300 peices restored. They range from lettering on wood peices,gilded glass, water slides and other things.
I've had some of the peices they gave under the magnifying glass to try and determine if they are gilded or painted. It's very hard to tell.
Also, they want them to look authentic, so do I. On the peices pictured here would you gild or paint. If paint I thought I would mix bronzing
powder with a semi gloss clear to avoid a "too" glossy look. What might be your suggestions?
Here are some other peices they need duplicated and/or restored.
There is enough work from these people to keep me busy for quite a while.
I'll be working on the wood peices posted here first. Any and all input will be greatly appreciated!
Hi Jerry,
Sounds like you have some fun work to do. I would look at each project on its own merits. The spool cabinets that I have, have water transfer decals for decoration. I would first clean with a cleaner that does not damage the existing finish. Squeegee clear lacquer into the chipped areas to level. Make identical water transfer decals to overlay the design and lettering. Use the closest screenable bronze powder and colors that matches what is there. Use flattened clear lacquer on the top or last coat to match the finish that is on the cabinet. This will take some testing. Trying to touch up the damaged areas and have it match would be impossible. It may match today but not a few years from now. Its like trying to match a metal flake or candy finish on a car. The powder will not lay the same and the light will reflect differently at different angles and the repair will show.
When you make the decals, make extras to sell and spares for furure work.
This how I would do it. I would like to hear other ideas...
Your right, there is a fair amount that will have to be done creating water slide decals. The projects that they have given me so far upon close examination appear to be hand lettered or screen printed. Under the high powered magnifying glass I can see where the paint or ink has followed the cracks in the grain of the wood. I don't plan on any touch up on any of these, only complete restoration. Using a flattened clear over the top of the finished lettering sounds like a good idea. I was wondering what would be the best choice for the lettering paint, making up my own I imagine. In the end I'm thinking it would be quicker and more economical to just hand letter. What would be a good safe cleaner?
This is going to be fun. I'll be taking lots of notes and copying some of the old letter styles for future font creation. Some of this stuff is amazing. They are not in any hurry so it appears I could be on this for quite a spell.
Eventhough this is your work, I would restrain as much as possible of actually restoring most of the signs.
As James alread said it is almost impossible to match the same colours.
During my study in Arthistory at the University I was traint by some of the best resaurators of the world and they normally only cleaned the surface.
Second they carefully disolved the top coat of varnish and just put down a new one, which will stay in good condition for another 50 years or so.
Ferry important in cleaning this old varnish layer is that you do NOT go to deep, this is done a lot by art dealers from 1500 untill now who scratched the varnish with pummes and sometimes went to deep and so erased all the details of for instance a portrait (eyelids, glossy point in the eys etc; which made the portraits now look very flat).
This is ofcourse the same when dealing with the thin goldleaf or bronz paints.
After cleaning i would suggest maybe using SIGN RESTORING CLEAR (4003) http://www.1shot.com/product-clears.html.
Good luck, would love to see more photo's of those fortunate people their collection.
I agree Erik that some of the pieces they want restored I would leave alone, and I told them so. Then there are the ones that have the lettering worn off in places. They said that they are not concerned with devaluating anything by restoration, and have made up thier mind this is what they want to do. They allready had one peice redone by someone in california and they were not happy with the results, it looked too new, very out of place. They just want it done right. There are quite a few peices that they have 2 or more of and they have already stripped and refinished the worn ones and have a well preserved one to copy. They did a very good job, looks old. They are going to have someone do this wether it is me or somebody else.
After sleeping on this I think where hand lettering is applicable I'll go over the letters very lightly with something that might add some age after lettering.
As a suggestion for cleaning, use mild soap and water. My favorites are to rub up castile bar soap with a wet wad of cotton or soft cloth or use Murphy's Oil Soap.
I have found that just drowning the gild will give it enough of an antique look to satisfy. Add a little flattening paste to the enamels to just know the sheen off and they will look many years older.
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads