Gilding, part two

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  • November 15, 2009 at 1:28 am #7542
    Festus
    Participant

    With the help of a cooler burning alcohol lamp and my new infrared thermometer, I just successfully gilded two dags. I heated them to between 60-70C and maintained the temp for about 5 minutes. But they both ended up a little lighter than before gilding. One dag was a little light to begin with, so this wasn’t a good thing. But I think there good enough to seal up and keep anyway. I was just pleased that I didn’t thoroughly cook them like the plate I tried to do with the propane torch.

    Confucius say, “Learning curve is long, but it is steep”

    November 15, 2009 at 10:49 pm #8691
    Festus
    Participant

    I made a really nice dag this afternoon. Probably my best yet. I just gilded it and am not pleased with the results. The darker tones look really good, but the highlights look horrible. My models skin lost all definition. Just looks fake and pasty. Is the gilding step really needed? They look much better without it.

    November 16, 2009 at 12:06 am #8693
    CasedImage
    Keymaster

    Hi Festus, do you have access to a flatbed scanner or can yo take a digtial image of the plate? Posting that here will help with getting good advice as to what’s going wrong

    www.CasedImage.com

    November 16, 2009 at 3:53 am #8697
    Festus
    Participant

    My dags have been contact prints from digital positives. I think I need to reduce contrast a bit more. That should get my highlights a little darker without making everything else TOO dark. The highlights on this one were kinda borderline “too light”. The darker parts of the dag took the gilding very nicely, turning a nice antiquey brown. The highlights just lightened up and lost what little definition they had. They kinda have that solarized look that I’ve seen on some plates, but not as extreme. There were also these little…snowflakes…that appeared within the light areas. I’ll see about getting it posted so everyone can see.

    November 21, 2009 at 8:29 pm #8727
    Festus
    Participant

    Here’s the dag that didn’t take the gilding well. The scan is lighter than the actual plate. The darker areas looked perfect. It was just her skin that lightened up and lost all detail.

    November 21, 2009 at 8:47 pm #8729
    Festus
    Participant

    Okay. HERE’S the dag that didn’t take the gilding well…I hope?

     

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