gesso

[vintage frames]

Well the material cost of a compo beading is a few pence compared to the price of slicing the casting off a moulding you had to buy in. But that would be an ok thing to do if it's a one off or a repair situation. If however you're producing several frames with added ornament - compo is the way to go.
While you're there, can I congratulate you on the quality of your production. It's lovely to see someone doing good work with veneers. Oh, and thanks for making this forum a bit more interesting of late.

[prospero]

I recently restored a frame with a beaded sight edge - several bits of which were missing.

May intention was to cast a section and replace the missing bits, but when I tried I was pulling it off with the plasticine.
Further poking revealed the whole lot was only just clinging on, so rather than pulling off little sections and gluing it down again
I took the whole lot off. I happened to have some unfinished fillet with a similar pattern, so ran it though my router table to remove
the 'lip' and fixed it it. As the beading was mounted on a thin piece of wood it did stand out a bit, but the sight edge of the frame was
quite thin so it actually fitted nicely.

** There is some stuff, 'Das Pronto' which is a cold modelling clay which is handy for frame repair. You can shove it in a crack and
sculpt it to fit and it dries hard and can be sanded later if need be. Or you can roll it to make the 'rope' bits that often come off
swept frames. Also the little cross-ribbon ornaments. Never tried casting with it, but you'd need a hard mould.

[vintage frames]

Good mention of Das Pronto for repairs. The other stuff to consider is Fine Surface Milliput. Restorers use it a lot for ceramics but it is very soft and maleable before setting and so would be able to be cast. In fact you can use it to make a cast and then - cast from it! Tiranti would have a release agent for using with it.

[Bertie]

Well the material cost of a compo beading is a few pence compared to the price of slicing the casting off a moulding you had to buy in. But that would be an ok thing to do if it's a one off or a repair situation. If however you're producing several frames with added ornament - compo is the way to go.
While you're there, can I congratulate you on the quality of your production. It's lovely to see someone doing good work with veneers. Oh, and thanks for making this forum a bit more interesting of late.

Thanks, that's very generous of you to say. Hopefully I can learn enough from here to get various aspects of my framing up to scratch as well.
Oh, and I'm sure after a few more trite questions about gilding my novelty will wear off!

Speaking of... as I'm here, could I go back to basics and ask what you use to lay gold leaf?
I've been variously told:

- a plain 13:1 water to rsg size
- dabbing it with a wet cloth to reactivate the rsg in the bole
- mix of water, rsg size and some meths

Will check out Das Pronto and Milliput, thanks!

[poliopete]

I have never heard of Des Pronto but will investigate. As for Milliput, brilliant stuff, easy to use and has a multitude of uses. I would highly recommend it.

Can I echo the comments re your contribution to this forum.

Peter.

[prospero]

It looks a bit like this.....

[vintage frames]

Speaking of... as I'm here, could I go back to basics and ask what you use to lay gold leaf?
I've been variously told:

- a plain 13:1 water to rsg size
- dabbing it with a wet cloth to reactivate the rsg in the bole
- mix of water, rsg size and some meths

Good grief! Where do you learn things like that?
First thing to say is - get the RSG mix right. Everything hinges on that. See my reply on RSG Gesso post. That is then called the Standard RSG.
After you've sanded the bole with 1000grit papaer, polished with 0000 wire wool and shined with a pure cotton cloth, give the bole a smooth coat of standard RSG diluted x4, ie. 20ml diluted to 80ml.
After that is dry, 20min or so, the gold is ready to be laid.
The water used to wet the bole, now called liquor, is a mix of 60% water and 40% brandy and to that a tiny quantity of standard RSG is dripped in until is goes a bit foggy whilst being stirred.
Now using a #10 round PURE sable watercolour brush called a gilder's pencil, the bole is liberally wetted and the leaf floated on top. We use sable because you can paint on top of wet gold without disturbing the leaf.
See if that makes a difference.

[Not your average framer]

I,m not expecting to be making gesso, but I am learning quite a bit just reading this thread. Great thread!

[Bertie]

Good grief! Where do you learn things like that?

I was told and read these things in various times and places! The internet is a wonderful place but sifting out the correct strands of knowledge can be a hazy process sometimes.

First thing to say is - get the RSG mix right. Everything hinges on that. See my reply on RSG Gesso post. That is then called the Standard RSG.
After you've sanded the bole with 1000grit papaer, polished with 0000 wire wool and shined with a pure cotton cloth, give the bole a smooth coat of standard RSG diluted x4, ie. 20ml diluted to 80ml.
After that is dry, 20min or so, the gold is ready to be laid.
The water used to wet the bole, now called liquor, is a mix of 60% water and 40% brandy and to that a tiny quantity of standard RSG is dripped in until is goes a bit foggy whilst being stirred.
Now using a #10 round PURE sable watercolour brush called a gilder's pencil, the bole is liberally wetted and the leaf floated on top. We use sable because you can paint on top of wet gold without disturbing the leaf.
See if that makes a difference.

This is enormously helpful. The standard RSG mix I had right... the bole I hadn't been polishing as high as 1000 grit plus 0000 plus cloth, but shall now do so.

And the liquor mix is just what I needed too. I'm curious about the inclusion of brandy though. You said in your other post that it helps reduce surface tension.. but why brandy as opposed to another high alcohol-content tipple? And are we talking Cognac or will Tesco's Finest do?

Many thanks once again.

[vintage frames]

I'm guessing we use brandy, distilled from wine, because it's the cleanest liquor. I know that by having it in the gilder's liquor mix, it accelerates the evaporation of the water and pulls the gold down onto the gesso/bole. And it smells nice. I get mine from Aldi, the cheapest price.

[Bertie]

Plus it's better to have a nip of than meths if the sanding of gesso gets too much to bear...