Well, so far. I got the gilding down tonight. This makes me insanely happy, since it was probably the part I was most worried about.
St. Michael the Archangel, patron of Constantinople. Naturally.The red stuff is called bole. It’s a mixture of red clay and animal skin glue. This is the adhesive for the gold leaf.GOLD LEAFS. Okay, it’s composite gold. I was too afraid to invest in the real stuff just yet. I figure after some more practice if it looks like I can get this technique down, I will take the leap of faith to the 23kt sheets.
HOLY SHINY. LITERALLY.
I did it! I applied gold leaf for the first time ever!
There are a little gaps, but it’s all fixable using shell gold, which is using the leftover leaf and mixing it with gum arabic to make a paint.
After the pictures were taken, I burnished the leaf, and used a modern sealant that came with the leaf because, well, I’m a rookie, and I’d rather be careful while I learn. So tomorrow I will try mixing the natural pigments into egg tempera, which is going to be the next hurdle.
Anna's New Rome 