The Framers Forum

This is for anyone who really doesn't want to learn gilding.
It's very simple, very effective and you won't have heard about it before.
Here's what you need to do this - all for around £15.
30ml bottle of acrylic gold size - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143205654203 ... Swhh9b1GZv


100ml bottle of French Polish - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324210887029 ... haoxDeEGzG


Tube of Black acrylic paint - any brand will do, cheap student quality.

122m of gold blocking foil - https://ratchford.co.uk/product/coloure ... llic-foil/


There's enough foil there to get you gilding to the moon and back.

So let's take this plainwood moulding from R&H, A286



Go ahead and paint it whatever way you want, black, blue, yellow or pink with yellow spots.
Now run a length of masking tape across the top so as to expose the front sight edge only. That'd the bit we're going to gild.
Paint this a solid black with the tube of paint.

Now take a square of cotton fabric and fold it into a small pad. Open the bottle of French Polish and get a bit of polish on the pad by tipping it over onto the pad. Squish the polish into the pad a bit and now rub it over the black sight edge.
Wait for a few minutes and do it again.

Leave it now for about 1/2 hour.
Take the acrylic gold size and paint it freely over the black sight edge. It will go on as a milky paint.

Immediately afterwards, peel off the masking tape.
Wait now until the milky effect disappears. That can take up to 1/2 hour.

Cut off a length of the gilding foil.
lay it onto the sight edge and press along firmly with your finger.

Now peel away the foil.
TA - DA!
Now you'll want to be my best friend.

The gilded surface will need sealed with some more French Polish.
Pour a cap full into an old yogurt pot. Add a cap full of meths and now paint this over the gilding.
Aim for long continuous strokes.
The polish will bloom a bit as it dries but don't worry, it should go clear after an hour or so.

You may now be quite delighted with the brightness of the gilding but if you want to tone it down a bit, I'll tell you in my next post.

This is a fantastic post - I'm on holiday at the moment but when I get back I'm going to order those items and do some testing

Looking forward to having a try, Thankyou for info

Thank you very much for this information. Very generous post and can’t wait to try it out.

Dermot, your posts are so informative, I’ll be giving this a try too.
No doubt we’ll all be sitting with shiny new gold projects waiting on your next post to calm it down

Many thanks
Allan

Thank you Dermot. As I like a crib sheet to refer back to, without spending time searching, I've copied your instructions and put them up as a PDF file. I've attached a copy in case it is of use by others (hope you don't mind). Obviously , although the links work today there is no guarantee they will in future. Cliff

Thank you to everyone who commented on my post.
I hope I can add a little bit of simplicity to the ways we can finish frames.
Your support has been very rewarding.

Hi Dermot,
I noticed the delivery charge for one roll of gold foil is -£10.50 and found the following on EBay and wondered if you think this is the same foil?
Regards
Allan

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303527392142 ... media=COPY

I really don't know if that is the same stuff - they do warn that it is only for use with laser printers.
There is this other company -
https://www.profoil.com/product/rpg220 ... oss-foil/

but they too have a delivery charge - £7.95

Both seem to add up to the same £15. Sorry about that.

Top post

Another superb post Vintage Frames.
Thank you for taking the time to explain your processes so succinctly.

Dermot, absolutely no need to apologise!!
I’ll go with your recommendation, you’re right the total cost is still very reasonable (probably just the tight Scotsman coming out of me )

Cheers again
Allan