Expressions…And Other Oddities

Each field of life has its own way of talking, what we think of as nomenclature; expressions, idioms, or sometimes just a professional shorthand. So, as a little enlightenment (levity?) I list below a few of these turns of phrase or what have you that I have come across since I invented gilding…4,000 years ago. Or so.

Tifflings Anyone?

Skewings: Those little bits of leaf that are mere remnants of gold leaf that were actually used for something on a gilded project. These tiny bits on the table or floor could actually add up in a large company doing large frames, but for most they may at best be helpful somewhere down the road for spot gilding (I’m getting to tha!) but otherwise they end up getting mixed in what other forms of dust lay about and best left to return from whence they came.

Tifflings: The English word for - you guessed it - skewings! (See above)

Spot Gilding: Gilding the spots you missed the first time!

Gold Gild or it’s partner, Gold Gilding: Throughout the span of my years as a gilder my chosen field has always been known as gold leaf gilding. I remember because that’s what I wrote on my resumes when I wasn’t making any money. But now with the advent of Google someone decided to leave out a word and now it seems to have gone viral! Gold Gilding! Goodness sake, now I need to see my therapist. (Any New Yorkers out there?)

7 to 1, or even 4 to 1 or perhaps 5 to 1 (written 5:1)…Curious? What it is is 7 parts of distilled water to 1 part of 10% RSG (rabbit skin glue. Yeah, I know…). We use this concoction over water gilded gold leaf as a form of protection when the leaf isn’t burnished since burnishing compresses the gold into the surface and unburnished leaf isn’t afforded that so the 7:1 - or 4:1, 5:1) compensates. It’s also a nice way of cleaning those areas of little tifflings (!) and creates a somewhat more contrasting element to the burnished sections of the object. (See? I told you it was serious!)

Bole…Clay Bole…Clay: Water Gilding requires gesso to fill the grain of wood and to allow the gold leaf to be burnished. It also benefits from a few layers of Clay bole. Or Clay. Or Bole. See, we can’t quite make up our minds which it is. And then we add a 10% mixture of rsg to it. Or gelatin, depending on our choice. Or mood. And once this glue (the RSG….or Gelatin) is added we then call it Clay. Or Clay Bole. Or just Bole. It doesn’t seem to matter whether we have glue in it or not, it is it is.

The Tip: This is the flat, soft, often squirrel hair or Sable hair brush (of sorts) that we use to pick up gold leaf (to gold gild!). I have no idea where this name came from for this handy little tool but I’m sure someone will write in soon to enlighten me! And the Tip has always been made with…a cardboard handle? Hmmm.

Gold Gild: Yes, I know I used this one already. But you see, in the world of SEO ( search engine optimization) we have these things called Keywords and folks have really been using gold gild a lot to find us esoteric gilders and my SEO guru says I need to use it more…

Interlaggio: Even my gilder friends are stumped when I use this one (that’s why I like it!:)). It’s a small piece of fabric (or Japanese or Mulberry paper) used over a mitre or joint to help prevent cracking of the gesso. A great term, even if no one else remembers it. Or maybe I’m wring? Ha! Never :).

Ancient Mordants: Mordant is simply another word for adhesive, it just sounds better. Many of these mordants over the centuries come from the Vegetal Kingdon such as Garlic, Gum Ammoniac, Figg Juice. Others take us back to the 12thc as described in the Treatise by the Benedictine Monk Theophilos. Believe me, you don’t want to go there. ~

So this is the beginning of which I’m sure to add to. Over time. Or not. ~ Happy gilding!