Deadman double-matte gild technique

[Steven Vigeant]

I'd like to think my gilding is finally improving thanks to Ron Pecell and others who were so patient with me at the Deadman meet. I've also had lots of help in the past from Rick Glawson, Dave Guthrie and Kent Smith. I have been stuck on the idea of incorporating vinyl into the jobs mainly to keep up speed and reduce the budget and trip charges. In Signcraft I was quoted as saying Rick "told me how to gild over vinyl." What he actually said was "if one has pride in their work they won't use vinyl, but if it is used then the following techinque is possible. I have adapted his techiques as follows. I'd like to hear comment on how my version of the technique has evolved to this point.

This is what happened on a recent job: I put down a vinyl outline in reverse. I then overlayed a paintmask on top of the outline leaving only the gild area open. I sprayed the gild area with Frog Juice, then I buffed out the clearcoat with 0000 steel wool as prescribed by Rick. I had a big failure at this point. When I tried to wash the area with water the clearcoat started to wipe off. It was so bad I could easily take it all off. I was using the last of an old can but I was shocked. (Later I noticed in an old Esoteric cataloq that "Frog Juice doesn't have great glass adhesion") I tried again with a new can. I was traumatized enough that I realized that watergilding over buffed Frog Juice is really rough, lots of holidays as I remember it. I decided to try something similar to what what John Studden was doing at the Deadman meet. I quick-sized over the buffed Juice and put loose leaf on that. It came out soo good, with a deep bright matte that it almost seems like I know what I'm doing, which would be a stretch

Thanks for viewing my checkered evolution and any tips would be appreciated.

[Roderick Treece]

Steven,

I would have used a quick or slow size depending on how fast you want to water guild over it.

Over the course of time it seems that I have gotten to the point where I am no longer backing up guilding jobs by hand.If the images are large I would do them by hand.It's not like I miss it that much ether.
In an effort to make my glass work as affordable as possible i've been turning the backing up and laying down of the base images ie Outlines,drop shadows,and matt centers into mecanical processes.That leaves me more time for the custom hand details.

I use screen printing alot for my backing.When I use vinyl mask I try to accomplish as much as possible useing 1 mask.Outlines,drop shadows,and matt centers can all be produced with a single mask.
The most important thing is having test spots for everything so you know qhen to pull the mask off.Do any clear varnish work last so as not to get any splatter of paint in those areas.

Roderick