A week or so back we travelled down to Bournemouth for a Gilding and Gesso course run by Pierre Lafrance of Galerie Lafrance, who is extremely knowledgeable and skilled - as well as being a very nice chap indeed!
Pierre has over 40 years experience in art restoration and has been a Fine Art Trade Guild member for 15 years or more. He is the recommended restorer that we use at Swan Artworks and his 'before and after' case studies are really very impressive!
The first days course covered all aspects of gesso-work, including decorative effects...Shown here is a sample of 'sgrafito' - where a design is pressed into damp gesso, and 'pastiglia' which is a design built up with layers of cooling gesso.
There was lots of heating of pots of rabbit skin glue and gesso mixes, up to six or eight layers of gesso, then different clays and boles, smoothing and polishing...
This was a part I particularly enjoyed, and just a small taste of it had me brimming with ideas to create some really interesting and unique finishes... (watch this space for a new range of hand finishes!)
The 2nd day was all about gilding, from traditional oil and water gilding to more modern techniques and materials. We tried different types of gold leaf (some of it 22 or 24 carat!) and metal leaf with various techniques and types of size, burnishing and distressing.
We also used Pierre's own gold creme lustre as a highly versatile alternative to gold leaf finishes.
Certainly Pierre's demonstration of traditional water gilding was eye opening and fascinating... The sheer patience needed just to delicately manoeuvre the fragile sheets of loose gold leaf onto the suede cushion for trimming...
The little parchment screen you see attached to the suede cushion he is holding, is to contain the gold leaf which flutters away on the slightest draught or breath. He picks up the gold leaf on a very long fine comb-like array of badger hairs called 'gilder's tips' which hold the leaf by static or the faintest moistness from being brushed over the skin.
The wood is sized with very diluted rabbit skin glue, little more than water (hence the term 'water gilding') and the gold leaf very carefully and painstakingly applied with the tips. Extremely tricky!
(Apologies for the poor pictures - we didn't take a camera so these were taken on Tony's mobile phone!)
We shall not look at those big ornately gilded frames in galleries and museums now without a new appreciation and understanding of the huge amount of work, skill, time and patience that went into it! And with our quick and modern methods these days, traditional techniques like this and all the knowledge that goes along with them are slowly being lost.
All in all we came away tired but inspired and with new skills and knowledge we can't wait to incorporate into our own hand finishes.
So thank you to Pierre for sharing some of his considerable knowledge and for showing us around his wonderful workshop. If you are interested in any of his tailored courses you can find out more and contact him through his website at http://www.galerielafrance.co.uk/
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