Liberon Gilt Creams

[Woodworks by John]

I'm looking for opinions/experience of anyone who has used the gilt creams. I just finished a water gilding class at the LV show ----- expensive process to do. I have a small run of plein air frames (poplar mtrl.) that I need to achieve the gold finish on. Has anyone made them?, what did you use to finish them? Marty kept referring to a "krylon finish" and as I look through the Liberon catalog the creams seem to give that look. I would appreciate advice or opinion from any one who had done this type of finish.

Thanks, John

 

[JRB]

John, if your looking for a replacement for gold leaf or even composition leaf, you are not going to find it in a cream, wax, or paint. Nothing will even come close. All these other mediums end up looking like paint. Some will even turn black wherever you touch it with your hands.

That Krylon finish Marty was referring to could be a clear coat, such as Krylon crystal clear, or a mat finish, Krylon mat finish spray, or it could be a can of Krylon gold spray paint. That one comes in several shades. I was not at the class, so I would not know.

Sometimes the effort expended on trying to make other finishes look like a leaf finish, could have been spent on doing the real thing, in a lot less time.

Water gilding is not the only way of applying gold leaf. You could also do a traditional varnish size instead of water gilding. It's not as nice as water gilding, but it's a whole lot nicer than creams or waxes or paint.

John

 

[Jack Cee]

I would not recommend gilt creams for an original finish for a gold frame; they work fine on restoring a frame but probably not an original finish.

Jack Cee

 

[Reynard]

There is a burnishing paint called chrysolyte available over here.It gives the closest finish to water gilding that I have ever seen but the whole proces takes about as long to do so whats the point?

The gilt creams will never come close to achieving the finish you want.They can be good for other types of finishes but they are nothing like real gold or even metal leaf.

You could also mess around with bronze powders too which can also be burnished but they tend to knacker your agate burnishers in no time at all.

There is no real short cut to producing a good gold finish.You need to do the work unfortunately.