Traditional Water Gilding: Applying 23k Gold Leaf

A close up view of wetting the clay bole with water and alcohol to reactivate the glue within the bole and then applying the leaf to the thin layer of water floating on top of the clay. This, and the following burnishing with the agate stone, is what will bond the gold to the surface.

[Allaraina]

This is incredibly helpful, thank you! I am unable to travel at the moment, but have decided to jump into water gilding with both feet. Self taught is not particularly how I prefer to learn a skill that requires expensive materials, so this is REALLY helpful.

[Chava]

You make it look so easy my gold leafs rip when I bring them down like you do

[gildingstudio]

Thank you. Whether to apply bole and gild on an existing finish or antique depends on a number of factors. However, if the frame was water gilded then you could either reactivate the glue embedded in the existing bole or apply new if needed. Best practice is to use the method that was originally used on a piece although some older frames or furniture may have a different method used over the original method. I am working on a settee right now in fact that was oil gilded over old water gilding. Hope this helps a bit! I'm doing a variety of classes in NY and Seattle if interested :). Thanks for writing! gildingstudio.com

[meibos]

This is wonderful! If you were restoring an old piece 1901, would you apply the bole over the area that remains or use a water based size, or oil?

[chanding]

Thanks for your video, if you apply two layers of leaf, how long do you wait before the second application, do you just use regular size? :)

[michaelflint]

Nice work. Maybe a small amount of commentary would enhance the film