The Gilder, His Shop and His Tools

Gilding, more than just a job, is an art, and as such the gilder must have an artistic taste; not only, but he has to have learnt the essential drawing elements and be educated to the nature and the characteristics of the ornamental styles of the various ages.

In order to cultivate his artistic taste, the gilder must read books and visit museums and art shows; furthermore, he has to be up dated on the latest materials and equipment.

The art of the gilder is not limited to applying the gold leaf, but is necessary to include the knowledge and the application of the plasterwork, because most of the time the gilding is made on a plaster base.

The gilder also needs to be a skillful decorator, because often he has to make the gilt parts of a larger decoration, and sometimes he may have to realize the entire decoration with gold and lacquer.

The gilder uses two methods of metallization, which take the name of gilding, as it refers to the applications of gold leaf, but the name is also used when applying leaves of any other metal. As previously said, there are two types of metallization: one is the application of metal leaf, while the other is the dredge. In the first case, the very thin metal leaf is put on a prepaid surface, whereas in the second case metal powder is utilized.

The workshop, where the above activities take place, is so much important and determines the good result of the final work. The studio of the gilder has to be spacious, dry, well-aired and well-lit. It has to be divided into two parts: one is where the preparations take place; the other is where the actual gilding happens. This division is necessary to avoid any air movements that may disturb the gilding and to avoid the dust. The gilding workshop has to be scrupulously cleaned in order to avoid that the dust surfacing and ruining the work.

The pieces that have to dry are hung up with hooks to lift them from the floor.

A heating system, or even an electric heater, is also necessary, especially in the winter season, in order to keep the plasters, stuccos and fixative sprays hot.

Here are some suggestions and comments from a frames gilder who has 30 years experience in this field:

Before one begins any work it is important to know exactly what is going to be done, what the best way is to pursue, where to start, what problems may occur, and how to solve them, and lastly how the final work has to come out. One must not begin a new operation, or part of it, without having first finished the previous one. When one uses a new material or technique, it is always better to try them first on a small trial piece. If one has to realize several pieces of the same quality, it is more convenient to “mass produce”, which means that one has to finish the first operation on all the pieces first, and then go to the second stage and so on. Another important point is to have all the tools and materials that are necessary to execute the work.

We are going to take a closer look at the materials used by the gilder, the cleaning and the preservation of them, which are essential parts of the same work to get to a good result.

The Spatula: used to prepare a smooth surface on the plastered objects, to remove the roughness, to plug the holes and pitting. Some are made of wood, but in general they have a tempered steel blade fixed in a hard wood handle, round or oval. The blade is flexible and can be of different shapes and sizes.

The Bietta: There are two main types of this wedge: one is for abrasive paper and canvas, the other one is for abrasive powders. Both are made of hard wood and are relatively small. The first one has a cork sole of 1 cm, fixed to one of the larger faces of the bietta, onto which the sandpaper is put. When decorative parts have to be worked on, the cork sole is substituted by a foam layer. For uneven corners and very ragged edges is used a thick felt sole is used , which is soaked in water or oil, so that it can absorb as much abrasive powder as possible. For some work it is better to use a wood bietta which is made more flexible by cutting some deep slits and by using a sole of elastic rubber. In other cases, especially for moulding, a wood bietta of different sizes is used, with a slit on one side where the sand paper is fixed, while the other side is held.

Suede: this is buckskin, roebuck, suede, sometimes sheepskins, tanned with oil and used to clean up perfectly every surface and take out the greasy traces. When dirty, they must be washed with soap and 1 % of sodium carbonate and rinsed out with lukewarm water.

Sponge: there are different types: natural, vegetable, rubber and plastic materials. Generally only the first one is used, with soft terry toweling proportionally sized to the work. Beside their usual purpose to clean up the surfaces, they are also used to lay wood fillers. They must be washed in the same way described above for the suede.
Modelling tools: They are made of tempered steel, double-bladed, in different shapes from edge to edge. They are used for the stucco decorations, to correct them and to model. They have to be kept polished and clean, especially the working part.

The Raschietto: utilized to scrape and touch up the plastered surfaces. They are available in different shapes according to the mouldings and the decorations that must be touched up. They are made of steel and must always be well sharpened to give the perfect finish.

The gilding pad: is a small board (25x12 cm) with a cotton wool layer covered by calf leather in order to be soft enough. The leather where the gold leaf lays has to be completely clean and without oil. It is good practice every now and then to give it a dusting of chalk in order to remove any oil traces. It would be preferable that the pad is equipped with a parchment paper in order to protect the metal layers.

The gilder’s slice (spatula): is made up in a fan shap of very thin hairs from the Siberian squirrel’s tails, which are fixed between two thin pieces of cardboard. It is used to take the gold leaf from the pad and put it on the frame’s surface. In order to make it able to hold the leaf, it is usually oiled by rubbing it on a cushion of ram fat kept at a temperature of 37 degrees, or simply by making it static with the skin contact.

The gilder knife: it is used to pick up, lay and take off the metal leaves. The blade is approximately 180-200mm long and 25-30mm wide and sharpened in order to cut the gold without damaging the leather of the pad. It can be single or double-edged bladed.

The polishing tools: these differently shaped and squeaky-clean tools of hard stones are used to polish the gold leaf on the unburnished frame. For the gilding, stones of cut, shaped, grinded and polished agate are used. The stones are fixed to a long wood handle that finishes with a metal ring. They have very different shapes according to the items to be polished; therefore it is necessary to have a large selection. In order to keep them clean, they are rubbed now and then on a soft leather pad.

The brushes: There are many types of brushes for gilding and they can vary from work to work. In addition they do not vary so much in quality, as in shape and size. Generally they are made up of ox, swine, badger, boar, bear, squirrel and Siberian squirrel bristle. In order to make the leaf stick to the surface underneath, very soft brushes are used, usually made up of long squirrel hair. The brushes of marten’s hair are better for the so called “gouache” gilding, to dampen and to compress the leaf, so they resist better to the water, and so they remain soft and flexible. Well rounded and refined brushes made from the long and soft hairs from martens are used for mending. The above described brushes must be looked after carefully and the gilder must pay attention not to alter their shape.

For varnishing, very soft flat brushes of different shapes and sizes made of marten’s and Siberian squirrel’s hair are usually preferred; they have to be well refined, round and with soft edges. Whereas round shaped brushes of long ox and swine hair are used for plastering.

Dirty brushes are washed in lukewarm water; white spirit is utilized when they become very dry and hardened.

On the other hand, items and hands that may contain gold traces are washed in a vat full of soapy water. The gold goes to the bottom of the vat. The surface water is filtered and new soaped water is substituted on top; after several months the bottom that contains precious metals is taken out, dried and these residues are then gathered together in an appropriate place and burnt leaving the ashes to be sold to precious metals’ dealer.