Gilding at the CMA

At the Cleveland Museum of Art, I had the privilege of participating in a month-long gilding workshop with fellow conservation interns and visiting technicians, taught by the CMA frame conservation technician, David Piurek. During this time, I learned important preparative techniques for the surface to be gilt, different processes for gilding, such as water gilding and mordant gilding (using oil, acrylic resins, and other mediums as mordants), and various finishing & decorative techniques used for frame or furniture restoration and reproduction. As part of the workshop, I created numerous sample panels, experimented with different colors of bole (as well as mixing custom colors to use for a frame treatment I worked on during my time at the CMA) and different kinds of metal leaf (ranging from high-karat yellow/rose/white gold, to silver and palladium).

See my reel of the June 2024 gilding workshop on the CMA’s Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8t-UoBus9u/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet