New Experiences

I've always loved books with gilded edges. Their fineness, elegance and preciosity fascinates me. So a few time ago when I received as present a book on how to do it I immediately had to try. It took me a few days to gather the tools and find a workshop that agreed to cut my book blocks with their guillotine, but I was all set up and ready to go. As you imagine, the experience was not at all as I expected.

After a day of work I end up frustrated by several unsuccessful trials but I decided if I can’t gild edges, at least I can paint them. That’s how these two vintage fabric journals came into existence. Now they are two of my favorite books.

The funniest thing is that in my frustration I went to the net to search for more info that could help me with the gilding. This is what I found (first hit in Google!). Hilarious!

Gilder's Lament
By Unknown Gilder ca. 17th Century

My size is prepared,
The leaf is laid out,
My agate is polished and smooth.
The press, it is loaded,
The edge has been scraped,
I feel like I'm in the groove.
I put on the size,
I lay on the gold,
My confidence reaching its peak.
I polish the edge,
Till I see by its shine,
The edge of perfection I seek.
I take the book out,
Fan open the leaves,
My heart stops still in mid-beat.
Where has the gold gone,
I look all around.
As the leaf flakes onto my feet.
Oh, where did I err,
I did everything right,
But the gold, it just didn’t stick.
I love the gilt edge,
But the process is such,
That it leaves me feeling quite sick.

So gilding book edges has been a pain in the ass for more than 3 centuries. Why would I even be surprised by my first experience?!

Front Page Treasury

I was so happily surprised this morning to find out that my "Dream Library" Treasury was featured on the front page of Etsy last night. It's the first time one of my collections makes it to the FP and it feels incredibly nice to know that I was able to give some very talented artists the opportunity to sell their work. Congratulations to those that did sell their items -- and I promise I'll try harder for the others too :)

Frame Restoration, Part Two

Frame before and after restoration.

As promised I’m back with a few more pics from the restoration of another frame. This one is my favorite, I bought it in a fair about a year ago but I never got around to restoring it until now. The procedure was the same as here, except for the reintegration of the color as this frame is painted black over a layer of metal leaf.

Making the mold for the missing parts using plasticine.

Filling the mold with gypsum; Removing the pieces from the mold; 

Shaping the pieces to fit in the lacunas.

Fitting the pieces onto the frame; 

Filling the fissures created between the added parts.

Detail of the remade ornament; Sealing the surface with shellac.

Cleaning and varnishing the frame.

 Applying color according to the original surface: over the metal leaf (left) and directly on the new surface (right).

 

Frame after restoration.

After finishing the frame I painted this small copy of a byzantine image that represents the Thrones (angels of Third Order). I like very much this representation but mostly I wanted to have a better reason to hang the frame on the wall besides the restoration itself.

And last but not least, the artist at work :)

Souvenirs

Last week my boyfriend had to go away for a few days to a meeting. I love when he goes on his trips for two reasons. First, I get to have the house all to myself for some time and second... he always brings me something nice and special from his trips. These wonders came from a street fair in Brussels. The leather suitcase is simply breathtaking, and the bottle… so peculiar! I’ve never seen such a thing before, does anyone know what this glass bottle dressed in leather was used for? Unfortunately it does not have a top anymore.
So maybe there are others who like to receive more girly girl stuff, like perfume for example, but that’s me, and nothing else would have made me happier :) Although yeah, some chocolate would also have been good…

Day of Portugal

I thought I'd celebrate this holiday by posting some photos of the city where I live -- Vila do Conde, near Porto. We moved to this small, very calm city half year ago but I still have to discover it all.