Moon Gold

22ct Moon gold on brown bole.

Moon Gold and Gesso

Parcel Gilded Frame

On this frame only the inner section is coated in gesso, bole, and then water gilded in 22ct moon gold on grey bole. The rest of the frame will be painted directly on the wood grain.

Wide Handmade Frames

Here are some pictures of most of the stages involved in making a handmade frame.

Mount and Frame

A corner photo of a watercolour which is mounted, and framed in a gilded and painted frame.

Moon Gold Frame

Small Scoop Frame

This little frame has moon gold gilding, with the inner section is painted with colour washes. It will next have some wax and pigments to add more colours and to give a distressed look to the paint finish.

Small Gilded Frame

This is the little frame from yesterday after it has been gilded with 22ct Moon gold.

Moon Gold with Distressed Paint

Frames in Progress

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

Black Red Moon

22ct Moon gold on red bole with black painted sections.

22ct Moon Gold

A frame with two sections gilded with 22ct moon gold. The middle section and sides will be painted.

A rush job

This frame has been an urgent job for one of my favourite clients, I finished it today. It is a scoop frame which has had the back edge cut off to make it a little customised. The gilding is in 22ct moon gold, and the scoop and sides have a paint/wash finish.

Before and after...

The same painting seen in two different framing styles. 'Before' is in the heavy and traditional fluted cove frame. 'After' is in the 22ct moon gold and painted frame.

Step frame

This frame was made by taking a flat moulding and then adding the raised step, this was made from some offcuts from another job, where I had to cut the back of a moulding. The frame was then gessoed, black bole was painted on just the top flat and it was water gilded in 22ct moon gold. The gilding was distressed lightly and then burnished. The inner and outer part of the frame were then painted in primer and a grey white before being aged with wax and rottenstone.  

Painted sections

The frame from the previous post after gilding in 22ct moon gold and after the middle scoop has been painted. The larger frame is gilded in 12ct white gold, although this is covered in masking tape while the middle section is being painted.

Gilding frames...

The photo above shows lots of frames on the rack, either just been gilded in 23.5ct medium deep gold leaf, or are about to be gilded. The frame below has two sections painted with red bole and it will be gilded in 22ct moon gold. This is one of our most used frame profiles, about 2" (50mm) wide, scoop shape with some shape to the inner and outer sections.

Gilded slips

Lots of frame slips that have been water gilded in 22ct moon gold.

Moon gold

A cove shaped frame with water gilded 22ct moon gold inner and outer edges. Moon gold is made by adding approx 2 parts palladium to 22 parts gold, it has a great colour which is suited to contemporary artwork. Here I am just about to lightly distress the gilded with 0000 wire wool, the scoop and side sections will then be painted.

Gold Leaf

23.5ct Medium Deep Gold Leaf

22ct Moon Gold Leaf

18ct Lemon Gold Leaf

16ct Green Gold Leaf

12ct White Gold Leaf

These are some of the different types of gold leaf that are used in gilding picture frames. It is difficult to photograph the colours, but in reality they look quite different to each other. The gold leaves come in books of 25 sheets, each sheet is about 80mm x 80mm.