There's an inkjet print taped to the door that shows completed design work and placement. An image of the door is scaled to real size, the chosen screen frame mocked up to scale with the address placed within the screen where I wanted it. This is the fabrication file for the 'film positive' used to 'burn' the screen. I cut black vinyl and stuck it to clear mylar to make my own 'positive'.
The positive is used to expose the screen. It blocks UV light to the red water based emulsion. The emulsion is first evenly coated onto both sides of the screen and allowed to dry in the dark. When exposed to UV light, it hardens. Both the protected image area and non image area will wash out with water, but the protected area washes out first. The screen is then blotted with newsprint paper and allowed to dry. Here I'm double checking to make sure the screen frame does not crash into the sides of the door. It's close.
My gear & I in this small entry mudroom.
Laying gold leaf on the smooth backside of the glass door. The front side is quite textured.
My shop stool makes a nice small work table. There are 2 gilders tips, they have long hairs for carrying the gold from the book to the glass. I use the draftsman's erasure shield to score the gold when I need less than a full leaf. The Pyrex cup has a water size for glass gilding. The recipe is 1 gelatin pill capsule to a pint of warm water. The size brush is never contaminated with anything else.
A book of Italian 23K gold. The 25 leaves are loose between thin paper pages. Pretty cool packaging.
Tearing a leaf in half.
The gold magically clings to the hairs of the gilders tip while I wet my sizing brush.
The window is wet with size cascading down. The gold sort of jumps off the tip and onto the wet film of size.
It does not always jump off and lay perfectly flat. here I'm running more size behind the gold to get it to float. Often it will unfold.
Pinning down the corner so the leaf does not run downhill with the size. Once most of the size drains out, the gold stays put.
Wherever the gold has a fold or wrinkle, or where a leaf butts up to the next, there will be hairline gaps and pinholes. A quality burnished glass job always requires a second gilding. Here the second gild is applied, but not yet burnished.
I'm applying double stick tape to hold the screen to the glass.
Black enamel screen printing ink has been transferred to a bean can and reduced with thinner.
Wood blocks held to the glass with double stick tape work as stops to align the screen. The screen was pre-aligned and the blocks pre-stuck before I got into the ink.
The screen has been flood coated and I make 2 passes with the squeegee.
In total control... I know where all the wet ink is. Just a small bull in a china shop.
Quite cavalier, I reclaim all the unused ink. Note the small piece of newsprint paper for a drop cloth. Silly me. So green, I won't waste any extra.
The backside of the work with all the excess gold scrubbed off.
The finished job from the front with the addition of the printed drop shadow.
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