GILDING

Gilding which is a term for “Gold Leaf Decoupage” is the art of covering a specific area using specially designed Gold Leaves. Gilding is an age old process which adds a beautiful dimension to paintings, leather, sculptures, glass, metal, picture frames and much more. The imitation leaf comes in a variety of metallic colours like Gold, Silver and Copper (multicolored too). To allow the Imitation Leaf to adhere to a surface, a gilding adhesive is required.

FACT: Gold Leaf Decoupage has its roots in ancient Traditional Indian Art. The age old royal paintings: Thanjavur Painting and Mysore Painting are relief paintings where the dimensional/embossed surface is decoupaged using original Gold leaf and Arabic Gum.

 

MATERIALS USED FOR GILDING PROJECT:

1. Surface that has to be gilded. This has to be clean and free of oil and dust.
2. Mont Marte Imitation Leaf
3. Mont Marte Leafing Size(water based Gilding adhesive)

Here’s how I made a card using the procedure of Gilding:

1. I took a piece of card stock(I have used a green one here). I applied a thin even layer of the size with a soft brush onto the entire area of the card stock, as the whole area has to be leafed.  I left the card stock for about 25 mins for the size to develop tack.

2. I then applied a copper leaf  by carefully holding the leaf sheet from the corners and laying it over the sized surface. I made sure to use a soft brush to smoothen out the leaf onto the sized surface so that it adheres well.

3. I then ran the piece through my Dream Cut machine to create an embossing pattern onto the gilded surface.

4. I pasted the ornamental gilded piece onto a blank card followed by a handmade flower embellishment.

5. I then applied some leafing size onto the edges of the petals of the handmade flower and kept it aside to achieve the desired tackiness.

6. I placed a sheet of the Gold Leaf onto the flower and brushed off the excess leaf.

7. I then cut out a basic rectangular piece using my Dream Cut machine and placed a sentiment.

Here’s how the project turned out…

I have a couple of other projects too using the Gilding technique. You can hop over to the Itsy Bitsy blog(Click over the titles) to know more about these projects:

TRINKET BOX WITH RELIEF WORK

WALL ART ON CANVAS USING GILDING:

Do let me know how you liked the technique of Gilding and how you have implemented the technique in your creations. I would love to hear from you!!