Welcome to our How To Gild series.
Heading towards Christmas is absolutely the right time to be thinking about gilding. Once you get the hang of it (and you will after you've read our instructive posts over the next few weeks), gilding is a gorgeous way to add festive touches to your home.
Just take a closer look at what we've done with these walnuts to demonstrate some of the different techniques that we'll be sharing with you.
Aren't they beautiful?
Let's begin the series by looking at what you need to get started, before we move on to any detailed instruction.
Firstly, if you are going to gild any porous surface, you will need a barrier of some kind to act as a key. You can either use a fontenay base or emulsion, which can be used to give a wonderful range of decorative effects.
Next, you will need size, which is simply another name for the special glue used to stick down metal leaf. Our water-based acrylic size remains tacky indefinitely, giving you all the time in the world to get precisely the effect you want.
In your kit, you will also want a few different kinds of brushes. A large brush for applying the base, another for spreading the sticky size, and then a firmer gilding brush to be used specifically for tamping down delicate metal leaf.
There are various methods of gilding, which we're looking forward to covering in the coming posts, involving metal leaf....
varnishes.....
and gilt creams.....
which all come in various colours....
and all produce slightly different effects.
The gilding products that we stock have all been tested by us. We are confident that they are the best on the market. As always, if you have any questions then please don't hesitate to contact us.
See you next week for our first How To Gild tutorial.....
Fingerprints ON the Fridge At The Picket Fence Romantic Home The Shabby Nest Frugalicious Friday Simply Designing Remodelaholic Chic on a Shoestring Common Ground's Vintage Inspiration Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
