This is the last in our festive How To Gild series, leading up to Christmas. We thought we'd end with an easy but incredibly effective tutorial.
Having used the walnuts to demonstrate using loose and transfer leaf, we wanted to take you a little further down the gilding route to create your very own project.
We hope that this will show you how very easy it is to create something really fabulous from something very ordinary, using the techniques we've demonstrated in our How To Gild series.
To make your own gilded container
you will need:
An empty, clean paint tin
Step 1
Paint the tin using emulsion.
Step 2
Carefully paint on size using the smaller brush. The size needs to be applied only where you want the leaf to stick so bear in mind the eventual pattern that you'd like, whether that be swirls...or thick waves....or finer curves.
Step 3
When the size has dried, apply the leaf over all the sized sections. It is possible (and straightforward) to interchange the colour of leaf you use. Here we have used both gold and variegated leaf to gorgeous effect:
Step 4
To ensure durability, apply Liberon Finishing Oil, or wax (which will need buffing). However, we've had these pots for several years now, left unfinished, and they
have lasted beautifully.
Step 5
Stand back and admire your gilding handiwork...
To make these projects as easy as possible, we have put together a Gilding Kit full of the essentials to get you going with your gilding.
When you open your Gilding Kit, you will find:
a wooden-handled bristle brush
a packet of steel wool
a pot of size
a pot of base coat
a pot of antiquing wax
a pack of loose gilding leaf
two walnuts
Our Gilding Kit is £14.99 (plus £4 carriage, if you'd like one sent to you), which is a huge saving on the sum total.
Most of the items included are usually only available in large quantites, when bought separately, so if storage is an issue for you then this is the way to go.
We hope you love it as much as we do.
Happy Gilding.
