Recipe for Gesso used in gold leaf gilding

Question

I would like to fabricate my own gesso to do gold leaf gilding on a calligraphy work to give some volume to the gilded areas.

I am looking for a traditional recipe to prepare it at home.

Answer 1

Most of the recipes I've seen online are for acrylic gesso to prime canvases before painting. I'm not sure they would work the same for your purposes.

However, I did locate one recipe specifically for gilding from an SCA member's website:

• 1 part sugar water (the sticky part that allows the gold to adhere)
• 4 parts liquitex acrylic gesso (adds the bulk to your gesso)
• 5 parts liquitex gloss varnish medium (keeps the gesso together, hardening with a smooth finish)
• Color to suit (red for work with gold and blue for silver)

It goes on to give instructions for the gilding process as well, including how to use the gesso:

Lay the Gesso – Start your area of gesso in the middle of your design and pull it outwards towards the edges*. It is ideal to let this gesso dry for 6-8 hours. DO NOT to get air bubbles in your gesso when you stir. Gently fold your gesso to remix it. If you do have air bubbles in your laid gesso there will be pits in the surface after it dries. To remove the bubbles from gesso that you’ve just laid take a pin and gently pop them before it begins to dry. It has been my experience that the key to beautiful raised gilding is an even surface tension to the "bubble" of gesso that you lay down. To create an even surface tension to your gesso you should first drop a large puddle of the gesso into the space you will be gilding, then using your brush pull the edges of the puddle outwards to the fill your designed space. This gesso is not designed for flat gilding and your design should be filled in with puddles of the gesso that create small domes on your page.

(source: The Scribal Art of Elizabth de Nevell)

Answer 2

Gesso may lend better adherence due to the quality of providing “tooth” for a surface. Gesso also acts as a primer for your substrate to prevent absorption of art supplies added later into the material beneath. I would not think it appropriate for adhering gilding flakes. I’ve seen other adhesives used and there are some videos on YouTube if you are interested.

However, I think you are looking for adhesive sizing for gilding it is kind of like a thin gel that gets tacky when it’s allowed to dry for a short duration. When it sets up then you can apply the metallic foil using a brush or laying it on the sizing and it will stick to that adhesive. Then you can burnish it, smoothing your surface.

Technical gelatin can be bought online for this purpose. I’ve used Mona Lisa Adhesive Size to adhere leaf. It worked but I wondered the same question - how to DIY this at home. http://www.goldreverre.com/resource/watersize.php

Perhaps some type of gelatin (not a thick consistency) mixed with a glue could work for this purpose? Let me know if you figure it out.

Answer 3

There are a lot of different recipes in the internet but they are all based in the same ingredients: white glue, white paint, talcum powder and water. The idea is just to mix the first three ingredients and then to add water until you get the desired consistency.

You can take a look at different recipes here, here or here.