Hand-finishing topic _ Faux leaf overlap marks

[Not your average framer]

Over the years I've tried various ways of producing faux leaf overlap marks on painted finishes and can achieve some very reasonable results, but the goal has always been to produce faux leaf overlaps which are so perfect that they cannot be distiguished from the real thing.

Those who are not into hand-finishing will probably think this is nuts, (I'm sorry for boring you guys), but some of our fraturnity who are really into hand finishing will know why it's such a big thing to try and do this.

I can reasonably well achieve most of the effect, but I'm still struggling with reliably producing the very fine (0.25mm or idealy even narrower) dark line at one end of the overlap. I've tried producing this effect by masking and painting, (which is not always as repeatable as i would like), or by scoring and filling a line (which can often look too contrived if I over do it).

Does anyone know of any other methods worth trying, please?

[prospero]

Now you are ringing my bell there M8. I may be sh*te at everything else, but when it comes to faux leaf marks you are dealing with the capo del monte.

This is using Liberon Gilt Varnish

For 'watergilding' marks, I just paint them one with a thin brush. No need to be finicky, one quick stroke does it. An element of randomness looks more convincing. Usually I paint them on first, and let them dry a few mins and then stipple on the main coat of gold, fairly dry. Because the varnish is soluble in white spirit, this has a sort of blending effect. If you overdo it, you can always paint the lines in again. When completely dry, which only takes an hour or so, I gently stroke with fine steel wool to expose a bit of the basecoat. After that, I have a ratty old duster which is saturated with wax polish. A good hard polishing with this gives a good burnish. Not like real watergilding is has to be said, but not bad at all. It's a good idea to polish the basecoat (acrlic paint) to a high shine with steel wool before appling the gold. Don't apply fresh wax polish or it will strip the gold. If you want to be really obsessive, the leaf marks should be 3 3/8" apart. This technique looks best on relatively narrow bands such as a sight edge. Not quite so good over wide areas. Looks great on a simple 1/2" rounded profile.

For oil gilding marks the leafs don't overlap, so apply the gold all over, let dry a bit and then stick a piece of masking tape across and brush a lightly loaded brush against the edge of the tape. This builds up a little ridge of gold. When dry, stroke it (don't rub it) with steel wool and buff with the ratty duster. If the leaf lines look too obtrusive, you can dry brush a bit more gold on after.

So basically. it's just keep doodling about until it looks right.


Sorry you asked now aren't you?

[Moglet]

..you are dealing with the capo del monte

He say "Yes!"

[Not your average framer]

Hi Peter,

I do it the same way as you, except I use the Everest "Antique Gold" or "Silver" according to what I am doing. If you look at the edge of a real leaf overlap, the edge is slightly ragged in a very defined way. I do this by masking the area with Scotch "Magic tape", (the non-removable version,)before painting. I leave a folded doubled over tab of tape each end of the masked area to help with removing the tape afterwards with the aid of the hot air gun. The extra tab of doubled over tape is very helpful if the tape does not come off in one piece.

I cut the tape with a heated blade to reveal the area I want to paint and remove that section before painting the faux overlap. The heated blade has to be hot enough to slightly frizz the edge which will show after painting and the masking has been removed.

Where I want the dark line at one end, I heat the blade even hotter and push the blade into the basecoat and rub a mix of "Payne's grey", "Prussian blue" and a hint of "Alizian Crimson" into the resulting very fine and subtile score line, then thoughly wiping off and surplus paint. The difficulty is in not overdoing the effect, which can make it too wide and looking contrived, instead of the real thing. The ideal width of the dark line wants to be about 0.1mm for the most realistic effect.

Doing it this way is a lot more difficult that it sounds. I use a small craft knife and a soldering iron to heat up the blade in the craft knife. At present getting the temperature just right is all down to guess work and if I continue to use this method, then I need to find a more exact method of temperature control.

[gesso]

The attention to detail is admirable!
ever tried actually learning to gild ?
your almost there already.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Gesso,

Yes, I already do. I learnt that while I used to be a bookbinder and from time to time I still get around to doing some, but mostly while repairing customers frames, etc. It's not something I push as there's already not enough hours in the day. Eventually I may do more, but the business is currently moving into interesting new directions, which are in addition to what I am already doing, so it's not easy finding the time to do things even now.

[framemaker]

This not something I have ever tried to do, I either do a simple bronze powder/RSG finish stippled on gesso and bole (I rarely use paint grounds) or a leaf gilded finish as the end results are rather different. But if I was going to do faux leaf overlaps on a bronze powder finish how about applying the bronze powder, then painting on the thin leaf overlaps with a isolating varnish/sealer/lacquer. Then distress the surface to remove the gilt either side of the sealed area which with a bit of luck may look OK? I am kind of making this up as I go but its just an idea and who knows it may even work...

[Not your average framer]

Hi Framemaker,

Thanks, that sounds like a promising idea. I will try that in the next few days.

[Not your average framer]

Here's a snapshot I did last week, but could not get it to upload. Each time I checked it was not there, but now I find it is. I know that these line are not there with real gold leaf, but I think they look a lot like imitation leaf.

This is the result of my current method with two micro-fine scored and filled lines less than 0.05 mm wide. They are very fine lines indeed and were not at all easy to do at first, but I now find I can do them really quickly having had a bit of practice.

[img=http://img111.imagevenue.com/loc27/th_50343_Faux_leaf_overlap_122_27lo.jpg]