This post is not intended to cover everything than can or should be used when gilding or sign painting, but is here just to give you a run down of some of the things I have referred to in writing these blog posts. I will try to cover everything in what I think is a sensible order. 1 - Firstly I have a selection of brushes or quills which are mostly long bristle chisel style brushes, but I think I have one or two liner brushes. These are pretty much just a starter kit that I p

I bought some Flamboyant Blue paint from Wrights of Lymme and went straight into painting my sign. I was shocked to see that the paint was nothing like any of the One Shot paints I had previously used. Rather than being opaque, this paint is translucent. Always, alway, always check before you jump right in. I wouldn't say I am displeased with the effect it has given me, I was just expecting something different. It looks more like a stained glass window effect now. Oh well, it

I decided to take my sign into the print rooms at the university to see if I could decide what colour to paint the glass. I thought it was better to use a blue as it would contrast the yellow / orange of the gold. #reverseglass #typography #type #handpainted #signwriting #alwayshandpaint #graphicdesign #signage #illustration #design #signpainting #sign #gold #gilding #goldleaf

I couldn't resist having a look at my handy work. So I should explain that during the many times of having to pick up the glass and put it away for the night, then getting it out again, it collected fingerprints which I decided I wanted to get rid of. I used the Avery Dennison Surface Cleaner spray to clean the glass and noticed almost immediately that it was starting to take off some of the outline of the letters. My project is about physical methods of making things as appo

With the gold removed from the places I didn't want it, it was time to start the oil gilding process. Oil gilding requires an oil based size (glue) to be applied to the glass evenly and allowed to become tacky enough to take the gold. The size I chose was 3hr size which takes three hours to fully dry and would therefore give me plenty of time to apply the gold. The size doesn't become workable straight away, and I had to wait for a couple of hours but it gave me a nice big wi

With the first gild having been laid, I found that there were lots of gaps, so I went back over it repeating the process from the previous day and let it dry for another night. When I was happy that I had taken care of the holes I dusted off any loose gold and gave the gild a burnish with some rolled cotton. I was a bit unsure how much or how hard to do the burnishing, and decided that I didn't want to push things too far and end up removing the gold I'd applied. To protect t

I decided that I wanted to try a few different techniques for my gold sign, the first being water gilding which gives a nice mirror like finish to the gold, and the second is oil gilding which gives more of a matt finish. To incorporate both styles, I decided to attempt what is known as the Boston Style which involves having lettering outlined in black, with an inner line of water gilded 23ct gold, and an internal oil gild which I will do in 18ct lemon gold. Gold leaf is an e

I decided to start a larger piece of reverse gilded glass today and was spurred on when I checked my Instagram feed this morning. Harry Mytton has just completed this window sign for a soon to open wine bar in Chester called Picnic, so I decided to throw my stuff in the car and head out to see it first hand, and hopefully catch up with Harry. Unfortunately Harry was not on site, having completed that part of the job the previous day, but it didn't stop me getting some picture

So I've seen a quick demo on how reverse glass gilding is done, and had a couple of tries on a smaller scale. I've also tried my hand at some basic signwriting, so now it's time to dive in to something big. Someone once said 'go big or go home' and that's what I intend to do. I'm feeling inspired after having seen some great work by Harry Mytton Signs (@harrymyttonsigns) in Chester today. Shame I didn't get to bump into Harry, he's a really nice bloke, he commented on my Inst

I will say this again. The first thing to remember when doing reverse painted glass is to reverse your template so that it can be placed on what would be the outside of the glass so that you can paint it on the reverse. Seems simple enough, but when you're painting on a piece of glass it's not as easy to remember than if you were painting on a window. If for some reason you decide to forget the above which should be embedded into your brain like a mantra, or one of those anno

David Smith is a British signwriter, glass gilder, lettering artist, and mirror maker; and that's only the surface of this man's talents. He specialises in Victorian style clear cut, bevelled glass, reverse painted mirrors that he produces from his own studio in Torquay. I think I first came across David's art when I found a video about his work with Jamerson Whiskey, and since then his name just keeps coming up. It seems like most of the guests, the majority of whom are from

I picked up a cracking book on William Morris from the Lowry Museum shop the other week. I'm currently writing a piece about sign writing and making a comparison between the devaluation by society of skilled crafts in the modern day, and I suppose, the same sort of thing that was going on in William Morris' day. I'm about halfway through the book, which I pretty much found by accident, and I feel like it is the foundation that I am going to build my essay on. #WilliamMorris #

Here is a link to a post on my Instagram profile that shows the process of laser etching. #3dlettering #signwriting #signpainting #lettering #lazeretching #Graphicdesign #graphics

I decided that the best way for me to learn the skills that I want to apply to my negotiated practice project, was for me to attend a course on Sign-writing at the School of Decorative Art, since those kinds of skills aren't taught at University anymore, which is a great shame. I have always been interested in painted signs, and had noticed ghost signs around me growing up. I also used to live in Middlewich which is the meeting points of 3 canals, so I often saw examples of n

I really enjoyed my trip to Bury Transport museum, there are plenty of examples of old school signage and sign painted logos, including the examples of Gill Sans typography which is synonymous with the British Railway network. There's even a cool example of some chalk typography in the Manager's office which harks back to a time when sign writing and typography were taught using hand drawn methods. From my research, I think that the 'Still' typography was done by Liz Collini.

In addition to the castle and the grounds, Penrhyn also plays host to a modest railway museum, with some good examples of engines that would have operated in the mines that helped to provide the wealth for the family that owned the castle. I was particularly interested in the sign writing, letterforms, and coach-lining (pin-striping). #penrhyncastle #nationaltrust #signwriting #signpainting