Empire Console Table Gilding

Patricelejeune said:

Cleaning the plaster

Couple months ago Patrick acquired a console table which gilding rather than being repaired was plastered over.

The first thing I tried was to clean the plaster to save the original surface

The back feet were easy to clean as the plaster was water based and the decoration was oil based stencil

We tried to take of the plaster with tools without damaging the glod, the plaster being water base and the gold also, water gilding.

We discover the lower part was verdigris, as they say here for "vert de gris" the color of oxidized bronze or copper.

But it appeared the under surface was to damaged, I will have to remove everything to the gesso, whiting. Damn the plaster guy

Click to expand...

Patricelejeune said:

Cleaning the plaster

Couple months ago Patrick acquired a console table which gilding rather than being repaired was plastered over.

The first thing I tried was to clean the plaster to save the original surface

The back feet were easy to clean as the plaster was water based and the decoration was oil based stencil

We tried to take of the plaster with tools without damaging the glod, the plaster being water base and the gold also, water gilding.

We discover the lower part was verdigris, as they say here for "vert de gris" the color of oxidized bronze or copper.

But it appeared the under surface was to damaged, I will have to remove everything to the gesso, whiting. Damn the plaster guy

Click to expand...

Patricelejeune said:

Whiting - Gesso, Clay

This week, I am back on the Empire console table gilding, and after cleaning everyting to the gesso, I started to rebuild it.

After couple layers I did some recutting of the gesso to make it sharper with improvised recutting tools.

First layer of clay is yellow, be sure there is no white left

Then as I found during the stripping process the clay was gray as often in american gilt piece.

Notice that I leaved the yellow in the recess, as it will hide the possible cracks in the gold.

Click to expand...

Patricelejeune said:

Whiting - Gesso, Clay

This week, I am back on the Empire console table gilding, and after cleaning everyting to the gesso, I started to rebuild it.

After couple layers I did some recutting of the gesso to make it sharper with improvised recutting tools.

First layer of clay is yellow, be sure there is no white left

Then as I found during the stripping process the clay was gray as often in american gilt piece.

Notice that I leaved the yellow in the recess, as it will hide the possible cracks in the gold.

Click to expand...

Patricelejeune said:

Finishing up the console table

So I am finally done with the console table. Here were the last days of work

After water gilding, like usual burnishing, sorry about the quality of the picture

Instacoll on the capitals as I could not water gilt them without flooding the original finish. It is a bit like oil gilding, but has the shine of water gilding.

Green clays on the feet, light layers then darker and darker to create an effect with some wear.

A little extra wear then some repair to get the right feeling of an old gilded surfaced repaired, and patina on top of that

Cleaning of the original finish showed a very nice almost undamaged surface

When i am done I look at the before picture, and today I am happy

We will have professional picture taken at on point and I will post them.

Thanks for following that thread

Click to expand...

Patricelejeune said:

Finishing up the console table

So I am finally done with the console table. Here were the last days of work

After water gilding, like usual burnishing, sorry about the quality of the picture

Instacoll on the capitals as I could not water gilt them without flooding the original finish. It is a bit like oil gilding, but has the shine of water gilding.

Green clays on the feet, light layers then darker and darker to create an effect with some wear.

A little extra wear then some repair to get the right feeling of an old gilded surfaced repaired, and patina on top of that

Cleaning of the original finish showed a very nice almost undamaged surface

When i am done I look at the before picture, and today I am happy

We will have professional picture taken at on point and I will post them.

Thanks for following that thread

Click to expand...

Patricelejeune said:

Finishing up the console table

So I am finally done with the console table. Here were the last days of work

After water gilding, like usual burnishing, sorry about the quality of the picture

Instacoll on the capitals as I could not water gilt them without flooding the original finish. It is a bit like oil gilding, but has the shine of water gilding.

Green clays on the feet, light layers then darker and darker to create an effect with some wear.

A little extra wear then some repair to get the right feeling of an old gilded surfaced repaired, and patina on top of that

Cleaning of the original finish showed a very nice almost undamaged surface

When i am done I look at the before picture, and today I am happy

We will have professional picture taken at on point and I will post them.

Thanks for following that thread

Click to expand...