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Water gilding woes

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

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Kyrie-Anne McCune
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jun 02, 2020 5:41 pm

Water gilding woes

Post by Kyrie-Anne McCune »

Hello all!

I don't suppose any one could possibly help trouble shoot at all?
After polishing down the glass to remove any slight film on the float glass and cleaning down with bon ami, I started my water gilding process. Everything was fine as before until I flipped the glass and noticed some almost tarished areas in the gold. The only difference to my usual gilding day was the room temp (hotter day than usual in a 3rd floor flat 🙈). I've tried to have a good think on what was causing it but there's nothing in particular I can put my finger on, weirdly enough the chappy who taught me water gilding has also recently had this problem and is trying to also trouble shoot it.

If anyone's had similar issues or any ideas it'd be hugely appreciated!

Cheers!
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Kyrie-Anne
Serpentine Signs Uk
Andrew Lawrence
Posts: 61
Joined: Sat Jun 29, 2013 1:06 pm

Re: Water gilding woes

Post by Andrew Lawrence »

Looks like something wasn't clean. Whether it was your glass, your tip, your brush or your size.

You can clean your tip and watersize brush with dawn, just let it dry fully before using.

Clean out your size jar with dawn and give it a good rinse.

After you put bon ami on the glass, take a few paper towels lightly dampened with distilled water and
scrub the glass again. Do a final cleaning with Sprayway.
Kyrie-Anne McCune
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jun 02, 2020 5:41 pm

Re: Water gilding woes

Post by Kyrie-Anne McCune »

Thanks so much for your feedback!
Shall make sure everything is squeaky clean :)
Kyrie-Anne
Serpentine Signs Uk
Doug Bernhardt
Posts: 1077
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2004 9:29 am
Location: Ottawa Canada
Contact:

Re: Water gilding woes

Post by Doug Bernhardt »

When cleaning the glass (I also think that's the problem) some of the best guys I know also clean and rinse (distilled) about three times. Also be sure to not let anything ahead of you dry once you start the process
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