Old and New

A 12ct white gold gilded frame, part of a large order I have just finished, and a nice example of a 17th Century British Louis XIII style carved frame.

Lots of Gilded Frames

Lots of frames being water gilded in 12ct white gold at the moment.

White Gold with Texture

White Gold on Mixed Bole

White Gold

This is one of my favourite frame profiles, it is a custom design and here it is finished in one of my regular water gilded finishes in 12 ct white gold on various bole colours.

Dark Silver and Painted Frame

Recent Gilded Frames - Old and New

The top frames are water gilded in 12ct white gold on an ogee shaped profile. The bottom frame is an early 20th C frame that is being refinished in metal leaf and bronze powder.

Start to Finish

There are lots of stages in between these two photos, from a barewood obeche frame to the 12ct white gold gilded frame, takes a minimum 8 days between the various stages and layers.

White Gold

This deep hockey shaped frame (named because it resembles a hockey stick), has a heavily distressed gilded finish. It is water gilded using 12ct white gold on the face and 9ct white gold on the sides, although you can't really see the subtle colour difference between the different carats in my photo. The leafing is intentionally irregular and patchy to give a rather crude looking finish!

Same Profile, Different Finish

This is the same obeche frame profile but with two different gilded finishes, one is 12ct white gold and the other is 23.5ct gold.

12ct distressed finish

This frame has 12ct white gold water gilding with a distressed paint and waxy finish.

Wide frame profile

A wide shaped moulding that has been water gilded in 12ct white gold, lightly distressed, and then sealed to prevent tarnishing of the silver content. 12ct white gold is 50% silver and 50% gold (12/12) and the silver will darken over time unless it is sealed to stop it oxidising. 

White gold gilded frame

The top photo is after the frame has been gilded in 12ct white gold, and the second two photos are the finished frame after distressing and sealing. 

White gold contemporary frame

Same profile, different finishes

Recent frames

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.

Gilded frames with gesso ornament

Gilded cushion

A cushion shaped moulding with incised corners and random punched star pattern. Water gilded in 12ct white gold.

Washes and glazes

The previous frame is seen here going through various colouring. It was distressed with 0000 wire wool, this way of distressing gilding can look a little severe but that was OK for this frame and the desired finish. 

The images show the effect of different washes or glazes over the gilding. The top photo is after the distressing with wire wool, the frame is shown with a sample which indicates what the final look will be like. The second photo shows a warm glaze, it looks more like gold leaf than white (silver) leaf. The next photo shows the warm glaze is covered with a dark colour which is wiped off to leave a distinct 'blued' look to the frame. The last photo shows the frame after the glazes are built up, and the finish is getting close to the required colour, but some more work still needs to be done...