I few months ago I took a gilding class from a Russian Lady. I bought some supplies from her, including some glue to use in making the bole and attaching the gold. I recently found out my blood mercury level is high (3 times the max according to blood tests). In asking various sources, I found out the Russian Glue still may be using…

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Thanks, George. I am going to try some of the Paint Laboratory and have them color match it. I have used the other metallics such as Krylon, and they are shinier than I am looking for. I will let you know how it goes.

Ann

Thanks! I’ll look into that!

I am making 8 large frames, and they need to be metallic, but not gilded with real gold. I am not sure what paint would be best to use – or something I should just look for to avoid?

1. Some of that Schminke oil based gold powder

https://www.schmincke.de/en/products/pigments-and-bronzes/bronzes

2. Gold interior…

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I don’t know what VAE means… I guess my question boils down to making sure that if I put hard gesso over what is there, it’s not going to act like hard over soft, which would delaminate. I can wait for your article if that will explain it, but I think get my question about how “hard” is the Artefax gesso compared to the recipies I sent.

Thanks

Ann

However, if the hard gesso is “harder” than what is on there already, it would cause problems. So I need to find out the exact recipe for what was used by Artefax. I’ll call and ask them next week.

Great, thanks, I just want to make sure it is ok to put the Soft Gesso over the gesso on the Artefax panels – I am thinking you must know the recipe and know if it “harder” than the Soft recipe. @georgeohanlon Thanks, Ann

Also, I forgot to mention that hard gesso can never be applied over soft because it will delaminate. So I was wondering about the formula for the gesso on the acm panels, to make sure it is ok to put some coats of soft gesso over it. @georgeohanlon

His hard and soft gesso recipes have different glue to whiting ratios:

Hard Gesso Ingredients:

100 Grams Full Strength Rabbit Skin Glue Solution (10%)

50 Additional ML Distilled Water

100 Grams Whiting

(Ratio: 2:1:2)

Soft Gesso Ingredients:

150 Grams Full Strength Rabbit Skin Glue Solution (10%)

150 Additional ML Distilled Water

300 Grams…

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BTW, this wasn’t a defect from the manufacturer. I didn’t ask about textures, so this is standard.

I have some large gessoed panels from Artefex. They have a rather orange peel texture in the gesso, so I would want to either sand it smooth (for faces and sgraffito and gilding) or add some more gesso on top. I have been taking Charles Douglas class that includes gilding, punchwork, sgraffito, and in taking that class I learned he has…

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All right then, there they go into the trash…. Thanks!

Ann

Ugh. I have so many tubes of Mussini that have the Damar in them – is there something I can add to it when I use them that will counteract the risk of cracking. Right now I am planning to toss them, even the cobol blue, etc.

Thanks,

Ann

Thanks, I like the background, but the face is so ….. emotionless so that part I am not fond of. Maybe technically ok, but I think more emotion is needed. Just a little.

Ann

Thanks so much! No more wine, vinegar, or vodka in the egg yolk then. I have never paid attention to the amount of water to add to the egg, but now I’ll go read that article that was just published on that. Thanks for your input, and your irises are lovely!

Ann

Thanks for the tip!

I am going through all my oil paints, and I am wondering if you have list of brands that you have found issues with and I should therefore consider tossing. For example I have a lot of Mussini like the one in the picture. Do those have additives I don’t want in my paintings?

Thanks,

Ann

Hi Koo,

I didn’t have time earlier to give a full response. First of all, thank you so much for all the detail you shared about how you make an egg emulsion, as well as all the historical context—which I didn’t know anything about.

I’d also like to ask how long you keep the egg emulsion after you’ve made it. I used to keep mine for months: I’d mix…

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I am working on these large panels of icons of various saints (attached below). I need to put a red line around all the halos, and it has to be exact and the same width. Is it safe to use those Krylon Oil based markers, or can I get an empty one (they abound) and make a mixture of linseed oil, paint, and some mineral spirits to make my own. …

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Thanks so much for your notes. I originally studied at the Prosopon school, where the recipe was to add a little wine or vinegar to the mix. Since I like to create a first chaos layer (Roskrysh) I’m going to stick to just water, as it requires a rather thin mixture of egg and water…. This one is from about 10 years ago, but the background…

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Thank you! Just egg yolk and distilled water it is. I was watching this video on how those spanish statues were made with the sgraffito all over the cloth, and it looked like all they used was egg yolk.

I was looking at Fr. Gunin’s icons, and I saw he uses this recipe for Egg Emulsion… good idea? bad idea?

Thanks, Ann

• Egg emulsion medium: egg yolk (1 part), water (2 parts), white vinegar (1.5 parts), several drops of gallipot mastic. I use Mastixfirnis by “Schmincke”. But it is not necessary, you can easily replace it with dammar varnish,…

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Thanks so much, George!. Being a member of the this group is the best thing I ever did.

-Ann

Thanks, I know I have to use the Schminke medium instead of linseed, but I’m assuming also that it’s OK to use the linseed in the underpainting if I leave it to dry first.

I know that I should use the Schminke Bronze Medium with their Bronze powders – but I need to paint an undercoat of something like a transparent yellow iron oxide or a raw sienna…. should I use the linseed oil medium under the Schminke Medium, or something like Liquin or ? I have done some reading and found that it is critical to let…

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