Very Unusual Gilding

I think this is the most unusual gilding project I've ever been asked to do. This is a long slender purpose built alcove in a staircase that has a light shining down through it. Today I gilded it with a client and she asked me to leave the gold leaf in its natural state. When leaf is applied to a surface like this, some pieces of the gold don't always attach. Usually when the gold adhesive dries, I'll take a soft brush and remove all the tiny pieces of gold that haven't attached. But my client didn't want that. She loved the gold floating and looking ragged. It took me a while to get my head around that, but when I saw the light shining down through the leaf I realised what an amazing thing she'd designed. It's beautiful! The light catches all the tiny moving fragments of gold and it really looks wonderful. Am so impressed. I've been gilding for years and no one has ever asked me to leave a surface rough before, it is a new concept for me and I really love the look.

The Lovely Clare Lewis

I've had the good fortune to have been working with Clare Lewis this week. There aren't very many of us gilders, so it's a rare pleasure to get to spend time with another one, especially one as lovely as Clare. I get a lot more work done when I smile all day! As well as being a fantastic gilder and great company, she's also a very talented artist www.clare-lewis.co.uk

Gilded Hares

I love these delicate hares. This is an incredible Irish mirror from 1760 with finely carved hoho birds and hares. At the moment it has 3 layers over the original gilding. One layer of bronze pigment, one layer of oil gilding and a further layer of water gilding. I am doing a test area of it to see what's left of the original and couldn't resist working on this lovely little animal. It's a work in progress so in the picture above I've got a further layer of gold to remove. It may seem crazy to scrape off so many layers of gold leaf, but once you see the incredible deftness of the carving and the subtle colour of the original gold, you just HAVE to keep stripping!

Sparkly Nails

Perfect for parties. Use the tiniest amount of gold, sprinkle into nailpolish and make little girls very happy. Although my lovely god-daughter looks a little glum here!

Gilded Swans

Beautiful swans with shimmery gold highlights. I want to keep them.

Red Berries and Ladybirds

I find is very difficult to take good pictures of glass gilding (verre eglomise) because the gold acts as a mirror. This isn't a great shot, but at least you can get a sense of how warm and reflective the gilding is. Using a high carat gold with reds looks gorgeous. And the hand painted ladybirds are clambering up the wall to get to the berries because they like the look of them too.

I'll be starting up my glass gilding classes again when I have time in March. I'm sorry to everyone who has emailed me about the classes I promised for January. The start of the year has been incredibly busy. Usually January is my quietest month, but so far 2011 has been fully booked. I'll send out a new class schedule as soon as I'm able.

Models And Other Stylish Things.

I am leaving my on-site studio today, and I'm quite sad about it. Since the beginning of the year I've been working in a client's house (can't say who, sorry). He is a collecter of beautiful things and his house is often used for photoshoots and films. I've had a room downstairs to make my own, whilst upstairs there's been the click clack of bejewelled shoes and the swish of chanel feathered dresses. I enjoyed all of that. I can't share any pictures of the models, but here are some shots of the work I've been doing for my client. Lots of animals. Swans, dolphins and clawed feet.

Swans to be gilded on the beaks and wing sweep. Perfect for models to recline on.

A Swedish Giltwood Mirror and my old cigar box of colours.

Clawed Feet on a Mahogany Sofa Table. They look quite foul at this stage as the gold is all creased and the shape looks so ugly, but then clawed feet are horrible in a way and that's the point. The table is elegant and serene and then at its base are four crouching nasty looking feet that look as if they might run off like a crab at any moment.