Gilding Areas Around the Chipped Glass

[Bobbie Rochow]

I am chipping my glass right now, & I wondering, if I am to water gild parts of the glass after chipping it, do I need to cover the chipped part to keep the gold from sticking in those cracks, incase some of it gets in there?

I hope this is not a stupid question (there will probably be many more to come!), I have never been to a gilder's meet, so there are so many things I do not know. I am learning from all of you!

[Kent Smith]

You said you wanted to gild around it which is simple and the gild can easily be cleaned out of the chip if that is the effect you are after. You can use a toothbrush for stubborn areas just like cleaning up etching.

If you are interested in gilding the chipped area, here are the directions:

Well...glue chipped glass is best angel gilded as it will stick to the facets and fill the crevices.
Having said that, it is possible to get a credible job done by leaf gilding. I describe the process in the book and it is in the second video. Basically, water gild for essentially a single gild. This will get most of the facets and certainly the bright line. What I mean by essentially, is that youj must pay attention to the bright line area and make sure it is well gilded with the water gild. Because much of the chip will appear somewhat matte finish, once you have the water gild done, there will be many holidays in the gild and they are best gilded with clear oil size or varnish size. My preference is to back up the entire graphic with the size as you would backing paint, which will toughen the backup and ensure that all of the areas are completely gilded.

[Bobbie Rochow]

Thank you Kent, you are so helpful! I have your book also, so that will help also.

Hope you are doing well!

[Mike Jackson]

Hi Bobbie,
Asking initial questions is a great start, but you will gain SO much more by actually doing little test samples. I suspect most here have piles and piles of tests. In this case I believe you will find you can water gild the open areas, but anywhere the water gild gets into the chipped areas, it will take some care and effort to get the gold out of all the small crevices. You might also find you should mix your geletin size a little weaker for this kind of job, and especially not stronger. But, it takes some experimenting to iron out all the little details. Make tests!!!!!

Mike Jackson

[Dale Feicke]

Talk about making samples......many years ago, there were two brothers, the Raiford's, from Texas. A couple of articles about them appeared in Signs of the Times, along with tons of "samples" of their work. Seems that when they got a bid on a job, they'd do an actual miniature of the full-size job, gilded, chipped, etc. They did some really beautiful work.

I wrote them a letter telling them how much I admired their work. A month or so later, I got back a 4 - page letter from them, detailing some of the steps they did, and a couple of how-to's, and a couple of wooden "sticks" they used to manipulate the leaf.

They were quite old at the time of the articles, so I always hoped they had had the chance to pass on some of their gifts to someone else before they passed on. And what a beautiful collection someone must have if their samples have survived.