Crafts Decorate Glass Painting Tutorials. May 17th, 2024

Gilding glass with gold leaf sheets

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Gilding is a process of adhering thin gold leaf sheets to any surface. Gilding furniture and art is popular for home decor. It gives it an exquisite appearance.

Today, I am sharing an extremely simple technique to gilding glass for glass painting projects. You need a special adhesive and gold leaf sheets to complete this project.

For my tips and materials checkout vitrail glass painting. Once you have completed your artwork it’s time to gild the background.

Material

You will need:

A paintbrush or foam brush

Gilding Glass with gold leaf sheets

Start by applying a thin layer of gilding glue with a paintbrush or foam brush on the backside of the glass. I noticed that foam brush helps reduce streaks formation. Work in only one direction. This will ensure a neat look when gilding is done.

Allow the glue to dry for 5 minutes or till it becomes transparent at about 60% of the space.

Now carefully remove a gold leaf sheet. It’s very delicate so work with patience. Make sure there is no air disturbance in your working space.

Try to avoid the gold leaf getting wrinkly on the touch to surface. It is very delicate so work carefully with it. However, at the same time you may like the wrinkled-look more than the smooth one and intentionally do it.

Place gold leaf sheets one-by-one on the glue to cover the entire surface or portion. Ensure there is no space between the glass surface and gold leaf sheet. Lightly pat with your fingers to ensure it is sticking to the glass.

You can also use a dry foam brush to pat and smooth the sheets on the surface.

Let it stay there for about 5-10 minutes.

Now use a dry foam brush to remove the excess buy brushing it off the surface.

This is a very golden frame but this was just to show you the technique. You can use this technique to make unique projects with touches of gold in the background. Inside a pattern or the outside. Possibilities are endless!