Gilding Techniques
Great iconography masters of the past used gilding and gold embellishment techniques on their icons.
Water Gilding
Water gilding is the oldest, most beautiful, but also the laborious and most complex gilding method. The gold leaf is placed on a layer of bolus, a red clay traditionally originating from Armenia. After burnishing with agate stone, a mirror-like appearance is obtained.
Kölner KGGG
Modern water gilding method improved by Kölner Vergolderprodukte that gives gold a more lustrous finish.
Oil gilding
Oil gilding (also known as mordant gilding) involves placing gold leaf over an oil-based adhesive that can be applied with a brush to the plaster. This type of gilding cannot be burnished.
Chrysography
Linear patterns or writing in gold. The gold is glued onto a water-based mordant or an adhesive made from beer.
Pastiglia
Creation of a relief ornament by applying hot, liquid plaster with a brush before gilding.
Puncture
Engraving in gold by printing or stamping patterns using a punch, the tip of which is shaped like a figure or motif.
Granulation
Gold stamping
by means of numerous tiny dots, in a texture that allows for a contrast to be obtained between the shiny surface of burnished gold and the opaque, “sparkling” surface of granulated gold.
Burnishing
Burnishing is the polishing of gold leaf, currently done with agate stone tools. In the past, other hard stones such as hematite or even animal teeth, such as from dogs or wolves, were also used. To be burnished, the metal leaf needs to be placed on the Armenian bolus and not on a mordant, and the end result is a mirror-like surface.
