momiji-en, gold leafed windows, inside door

This may be the longest of my posts. The clients, Bill Cook and Gwil Evans, were the greatest joy to work for. They kept a high end Nikon camera shooting large resolution images continuously, then hooked me up with a disc of the pics. What a treat. 

The very first step was to create the vector file. I photographed a hand calligraphed wooden sign panel done for them by a Japanese friend, imported the image, vectorized it, saved the right parts, then did a small bit of editing to the vectors. The name Momiji-en was chosen for their gorgeous Japanese influenced home and amazing garden from a Japanese friend. Here's a very worthwhile link to more on them, their garden, and their work.

Aligning & taping the positive to the front of the glass.

On the backside of the glass, 3 wood blocks for screen stops hold the image area of the screen directly in line with the positive.

The first gild drying, not yet burnished.

I have a paper trough taped to the glass to catch the loose gold skewings. A large wad of cotton removes any lose gold, and polishes what's glued down with size to a brilliant shine.

My collection of skewings.

A golden mirror making me look good. Unprotected, the gold scratches easily.

The gold overlaps the image area; otherwise black ink will show throw from the front after printing. The bath towel catches extra size that ran down the glass.

Double checking from the work side. Looking through the image area of the screen to see that there's plenty of gold coverage.

The tape around the inside perimeter of the screen makes for easy cleanup.

The flood coat.

Pushing down on the double stick tape.

Vertical screen printing.

And the second pass. I'm printing 'off contact', so the screen is about 1/16" or 3/32" from the glass. I have spacers taped under the screen frame.

Slip...splat...  Nope, not happening!?

Only a portion of the gold is saved. Most gets scrubbed off and is pretty much non-reclaimable.

I'm using a slow drying gloss enamel ink so I've come back the following day to gently scrub off the extra gold.

I really like this glass.

The last step was to bump the screen 1/4" over and 1/4" down to print a drop shadow. This is the finished work.