Metal Leaf

This frame has been gilded using acrylic size and metal leaf. In this case I used transfer leaf, which means that each leaf of imitation gold has been pressed on to a piece of backing paper, the leaf is easy to handle and is simply placed on the sticky size and rubbed onto the surface, the pressure adheres the leaf to the size and it is removed from the backing paper.

Aluminium Leaf

Frames in Progress

The larger frames are water gilded with moon gold, the small frames are acrylic size gilded with aluminium leaf.

Re-finishing a frame

This vintage Louis XIV style frame had a painted finish, it needs an antique style gilt finish so is being re-finished. Some repairs were made to damaged/missing areas, then it was painted with Zinsser primer, next came a coat of black paint, and then red/brown. Now it is ready to be gilded with acrylic size and metal leaf. 

Metal leaf box

This box frame has been gilded with metal leaf using acrylic size (also called Wunda size), it was then sealed with an acrylic varnish before being given a coat of wax to add a little interest to the finish.

Re-gilded swept

This antique swept frame had a dull paint finish, it has been re-finished in metal leaf, sealed with shellac, waxed, and dusted with pigment.

Finished custom frame

This is the customised frame that has been in a couple of recent posts, it has now been finished. The gilding was distressed a little and masked off, and the outer section was painted with acrylic primer and then with an off-white. Then some watered down paint was flicked and splattered carefully all over. The frame was finished with some sealer and oak wax.
The inner frame is painted grey, then has the same paint wash flicked all over before being finished with oak wax.

Metal leaf and acrylic size

           

This is the frame from a few days ago which I modified, it has been painted with several layers of gesso, then it was sanded and the area to be gilded was painted with a red water based paint. Next I masked off the area where the gilding would be and brushed on an acrylic gold size, once the size became tacky I applied the metal leaf.