Goldenberg: Gilding on Parchment work flow

Workflow and Safety Protocol for Starch Glue

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Transcription: 

Translation: Layer of gold leaf on parchment or paper Make a very transparent starch glue with little body. And apply six or five layers, and when the last is almost dry, apply your gold

Materials Needed:^[a][b][c][d]

• Distilled Water  (boiling)
• Parchment
• Paper
• Flour^[e][f][g]
• Gold leaf

Tools Needed:

• Kettle
• Spoon
• Large Beaker
• Hot plate
• Cellophane
• Rubber band
• Masking tape (label)
• Pen
• Gilder’s set: including cushion, gilders brush etc.
• Smaller egg brush
• Burnisher
• Sieve
• Humidifier

Workstation Setup:

• All materials and tools will be laid out close to the hot plate and kettle. On same lab table, parchment and paper will be laid out ahead of time (but far from hot plate).

Outline of your Experiment:

1. Set up gilding area: if you need to cut your goldleaf, we do that before you make your glue ready. Turn on humidifier
2. Remove gold leaf from packaging
3. Use tweezers to remove protective sheet from gold leaf
4. Lightly rub gilder’s tip on your wrist skin or behind your ears or on forehead to create static
5. Lightly tap the gold leaf sheet at the top with the gilder’s tip so that it adheres to the tip
6. Get water from tap and fill kettle. Turn on kettle. Wait until water is boiled.
7. Pour water into large beaker.
8. Slowly pour flour through a sieve into boiling water while stirring.
9. Put mixture on hot plate and allow to boil and remove from hot plate. (While manuscript does not specify how much to use, it says “thin” so the mixture will be mostly water). For 10-40 minutes (more about consistency than timing between 10-40min probably).
10. Turn off hot plate
11. Pour into glass beaker and move to the gilding area with parchment and paper.

1. Put on humidifier
2. Prepare the gilding screen to cover panel area etc
3. Take three cardboard panels and stand them up lengthwise on the table top (this is to prevent any dramatic changes in air pressure around the gilding station)
4. Place gilder’s cushion and starch glue (keep it warm by placing a small beaker of starch glue into a bigger beaker with hot water) prepared panel on the table top
5. Prepare the gilder’s cushion (I’m not completely sure how this works but from the photo it looked like the cushion was placed on the table and  then a small protective shield was placed around it)
6. Remove gold leaf from packaging using gilder’s knife
7. Coat parchment and paper with five to six layers of starch glue (do not wait in between to dry) alternating directions in broad strokes to avoid clumping.
8. Use gilder’s knife to carefully transfer the gold leaf to the cushion
9. Be sure that no one is walking by or otherwise producing wind in the vicinity
10. Use gilders knife to cut the gold leaf on the cushion into four equal squares
11. Use a firm pressing motion and a very slight sawing motion at the end to separate the delicate gold leaf
12. Be sure to move knife slowly as the leaf may attach to the knife or be picked up by the wind produced by it
13. Take gilder’s tip and rub it on the inside of our wrist, behind the ear, or across the forehead in order to create static
14. Light tap one edge of one of the gold leaf squares you have created
15. Have your partner apply starch glue to the square panel with a paintbrush Lightly place the gold leaf on the sized panel square
16. Use burnisher to carefully smooth the surface of the gold leaf.
17. Use gilder’s brush to remove excess gold
18. Repeat steps 14-18 for each square of gold leaf created.
19. Dispose of sizing glue in Non-hazardous liquid waste
20. Wash paintbrush with soap and water in the sink (non - toxic materials)
21. Place panel on bench top and allow to dry pack and store cushion, knife, gilder’s tip, and protective panel in appropriate places
22. Dispose of newspaper
23. Wipe down tabletop

Waste Management Plan

All materials are non-toxic and can be disposed of in sink or garbage.