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3 Questions on Gilding plastic letters

Hand Lettering topics: Sign Making, Design, Fabrication, Letterheads, Sign Books.

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Steven Vigeant
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3 Questions on Gilding plastic letters

Post by Steven Vigeant »

I'm doing an old style sign which is rare around here. So rare that no one cares that the letters are going to be plastic. Anyway, Daddy Finegold suggested once that I paint them first with flat metal primer or something. Last time I didn't have any and I used a tinted Z-prime on cast plastic. I guess it was OK but it seemed too dry and brittle somehow. Question: Would it be good to have Gemini flat clear some gold plastic? Or sand them? Or What's the best spray primer?
Question 2: I realize that clearing dulls the guild some but can that be approriate for slightly antiqueing the work? Question 3: Which other alloy under 23k is recommended for a slighly less new looking sign?
Thanks in advance for helping out a green horn in the"AD" times. (After Daddy)
Mike Jackson
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Post by Mike Jackson »

Steve,
You might hear for Cam Bortz on this one. I believe he was doing some demos at some of the meetings where he applied gold size to the letters and then wiped them down to create a brilliant gild. To be real honest, I haven't seen that done, but I get the impression the size was applied directly onto the plastic. Maybe Cam will inform us again here. I wouldn't mind seeing a few photos of the steps.

The movie industry is great at making new things, including signs, look old and weathered. They come around with a special spray, shot from a regular spray gun, that gives ten years of patina and "dust" to anything. I am sure that spraying it over gold letters would dull them.

We did a sign for Gerry Spence here in town a long time ago and I carved an eagle for each side. We gilded it and put it up on a pair of projecting beams in front of his "fort" law office. It looked good to me, but being brand new 23k gold, it was quite bright and reflective. They wanted it toned down. I made up a solution of turpentine and burnt umber tinting paint and gave it a good layer. I immediately wiped it down with a cotton rag which dulled the gold and left some umber residue in the creases and depressions. It worked fine for this instance. I didn't have to worry about a clear finished breaking down and peeling.

Hope these comments help.
Mike Jackson
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Golden Era Studios
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Jackson Hole, WY

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Danny Baronian
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Post by Danny Baronian »

At Rick's last Conclave (who'd have known?), Dave Trujillo (spl?) had just finished a glass piece for himself that was mounted in an ornate, gilded frame. He was working on the frame at the time which was quite bright, toning it down with several dilutions of asphaltum. It aged the new frame nicely.

It was used for that purpose on many of the jobs that came through Rick's shop. I would imagine it's similar to Mike's use of burnt umber. I'd never clear over gold though.
Danny Baronian
Baronian Mfg.
CNC Routing & Fabrication
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cam bortz
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Post by cam bortz »

Order your letters in white. Don't prime the letters; they are fine as they are. Wipe them down with alcohol to clear off any dust and grease. If they have mounting studs, screw them in now so you have can handle the letters without fingerprints Size them with Lefranc 12-hour tinted with chrome yellow. Really slop in on, get it into all the corners. Then take a CLEAN, NEW CLOTH - no dusty, linty shop rags - and wipe the fresh size right off. As much as you can. Size and wipe your letters one at a time; you want that size to be wet when you wipe it off. The letters will look almost, but not quite, as white as they were out of the box.

Put them down and go do something else for six hours. Don't mess with them, no touching, no making dust nearby, no "seeing if they are ready". The standard "knuckle test" won't work here, you just have to trust me and wait six hours. Gild the letters with LOOSE leaf (NOT patent) rolled GENTLY out of the book or with a tip. Use a tip to GENTLY push leaf into corners, it will break; fill you cracks with larger skewings (you'll have plenty!) Polish them with a soft gilders brush or a dry water size brush.

Practice on a couple of letters until you "get it" then do them all. This is tedious work, so be patient, but the reward is a gild you can shave in :D . I've done about a dozen large signs with this method. The oldest is now three years old outdoors and still looks great; the gild, in the sun, is spectacular.

A note on letters. Some municipalities and hysterical zones insist on wood or metal letters out of a misguided "no plastic" idea. This is patent nonsense. As far as I am concerned, letters are as they appear - if they are gilded, they are gold letters, and the underlying material is, well, immaterial. It's only purpose is to display the gold, for as long as possible. Since gilded plastic letters look identical to gilded wood or metal letters, it should make no difference to anyone what they are made of under the gold, it's the gold that matters.
Steven Vigeant
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Post by Steven Vigeant »

Thanks Cam, I mean Wow! I'm going to try it your way. I think the alcohol is key here. The reason I wanted to prime was because of crawling, which might actually have been Wunda size on plex where it crawled. Once when Rick was trying to impress upon me the proper ammount of size he said. "Look, I could take the corner of my T-shirt and put a little size on it and do the whole job by just spreading the size out super thin." You more or less do that with your method right? Once its slopped on you know its everywhere and then you "T-shirt" it down so its barely there, right? The problem I hate as a beginner is the holidays. If you miss a spot its either so tedious and ugly to do any touch up.

One can really sense the reality of the torch of Rick's knowledge being passed on. The need and the responsibilty to try and maintain some of his standards.
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