Gilding on Paper or Parchment
Table of Contents
2016.April.20, 10:00 am
260 Chandler, Columbia UniversityRecipe:
Fol 10vTranscription:
<head>Assiete d<m>or</m> de foeuille sur <m>parchemin</m></lb>ou <m>papier</m></head>
<ab>Fais colle d<m>amydon</m> fort clere & qui ne demonstre poinct</lb>
avoyr de corps Et en fais six ou cinq couches & sur la</lb>
derniere estant demy seiche aplique ton <m>or</m></ab>
</div>
Translation:
<head>Layer of <m>gold</m> leaf on <m>parchment</m> or <m>paper</m></head>
<ab>Make a very transparent <m>starch glue</m> <sup><m>colle d’amydon</m></sup> with little body. And apply six or five layers, and when the last is almost dry, apply your <m>gold</m>.</ab>
Materials:
- Wheat Starch Paste
- Gold Leaf
- Paper (SOURCE)
- Parchment, hair side (SOURCE)
- Parchment, flesh side (SOURCE)
- Distilled water
- Tools:
- Gilder's set:
- Cushion
- Gilder's tip
- Gilder's knife
- Wooden Spoon
- Hotplate
- Egg brush
- Humidifier
- Palette Knife
- Tin can
- Styrofoam screen
- Cardboard
- Masking Tape
- Gauze
- Gilder's set:
Process:
I first took the wheat starch paste out of the fridge. It was gelatinous from the cold. Additionally the paste was not as clear as the recipe suggested. I put a pot of water on the hotplate and waited for it to boil. I then placed the container of starch glue in the pot so that the starch molecules would expand and absorb more water, becoming thinner.
I poured more distilled water into the starch glue so that it became clearer and thus less tacky. Using a palette knife, I placed a small amount of glue into a new beaker. I then poured a small amount of hot water from the pot on the hotplate into a tin can. I placed the beaker into the tin can so that it would not congeal while being used.
I turned on the humidifier to create the right atmosphere for gilding. I set up the styrofoam screen around the area in which I was going to gild so that the work would not be disturbed by the airflow in the lab. I cut out two squares of parchment and one square of paper. I taped the parchment (one on the hair side and one on the flesh side) and the paper to a piece of cardboard and labelled them.
I set up the gilding cushion behind the styrofoam screen and using the gilder's knife, slowly placed a gold leaf onto the cushion.The gold is so delicate that any fast movements can make it fold over on itself or break. I then cut the leaf in quarters by placing the edge of the knife on one edge and slowly slicing done without creasing the edges.
Then I took an egg paintbrush and painted five coats of starch glue on the flesh side of the parchment. I was careful to push away any clumps of glue with the edge of my brush before laying down the gold.
I slowly picked up one of the quarters of gold leaf with the guilder's tip and moved it on the glued portion of the parchment. I was careful not to get glue on the gilder's tip.
I then used a gilder's brush to press down the areas with bumps while it was still wet. I did not want burnish it as the author-practitioner did not specify to do so in this recipe; however, he has a recipe on 29v which does specify to burnish. The gilder's brush proved too rough though so I taped a piece of gauze to the opposite end of the brush and dabbed with that. It was much gentler and did not tear the gold. The result was smoother than before
I repeated this procedure with the hair side of the parchment. I applied five thin coats of glue and then slowly transferred a piece of gold leaf onto the glued area with the gilder's tip. However, I moved too quickly and the gold leaf ripped.
I only dabbed the gilding on the hair wide with the gauze tool because it was already so delicate.
I applied five layers of glue to the paper swatch. The glue seeped through because paper is more porous and thinner than parchment. I used the gilder's tip to lay down the gold leaf and then dabbed it with the gauze tool and the gilder's brush.
Here are the final results:
2016.April. 28, 10:00 am
260 Chandler, Columbia UniversityA week later, the samples had totally dried. The paper remained flat although the two pieces of parchment curled into their original shape. You can also see the hair grain on the hair side of the parchment through the gold. The glue is strong enough for the paper and the flesh side however the edges of the gold did not perfectly adhere to the hair side.
Conclusions and observations:
- Five coats of glue was more than necessary for the swatch of paper because it bled through and nearly teared. The recipe on 29v uses a more watery version of the "colle d'amydon", called "eau d'amydon" and only applies three coats to paper. Perhaps this is more appropriate. So much glue is appropriate for parchment.
- The gold adhered better on the flesh side than the hair side. This is likely because the hair side had been shaved off so much that the gold had little to adhere to.
- The gold leaf lay down flattest on the paper.
- It would be very difficult to remove the excess glue after it had dried on paper because it might rip.
- One would need to have laid the glue down in the exact place one wanted it. It is unclear how the other parts of gold would have been removed.
- This process is much more difficult than it would have been in the sixteenth century. The gold leaf was twice as heavy and less flexible because it was derived from flattened coins. Also it is unlikely that the gilder's tip would have been necessary because the gold would not have been so delicate.
- The warped parchment is very common because parchment is made from hides which were originally shaped like the animal from which they came and were then flattened; as a result, they tend to warp into their original form. Paper on the other hand is made in a mold so it naturally has a flat shape.
- The gold leaf lay very flat which is interesting because I did not burnish the gold as I did with the recipe from 29v