Gilded Church Panel

This is a pretty awful picture (sorry!) of parts of a church panel I've been gilding. It's so big that it was cut into three sections. This is it in the spray booth. Traditionally, oil gilding was protected by a shellac based finish. These days, gold is often sprayed with a two-pack clear lacquer. It can give the leaf a very lovely finish. The only problem I've found with this technique, is that silver and white gold can go a little green as even the clear lacquers seem to have a slight yellow tint to them. With yellow gold that isn't a problem at all. If anything, it adds to the depth of the colour.