Street numbers on fanlight glass at a premises in North London. There is a process to producing street numbers in gold on glass.
There are processes if using 23ct genuine gold leaf. There is either a water gilding method, which creates a mirror, reflective finish, or a matte finish created by oil gilding.
Not only is the external view different when it comes to the processes but so is the internal view. A reflective finish has to have the gold covered with black paint to create the mirror look & make the gold fully opaque. Matte fished gold can look the same on the reverse as its less vital the gold is covered in black paint to make fully opaque.
Once the gilding process is chosen, the next decision is the typeface & other elements such as an outline & cast shadow. This project was requested for both outline & shadow. They typeface chosen was a fine traditional Trajan Roman. Once decided the artwork is then created on paper to form templates.
The street numbers on paper as templates are then taken to site. The artwork is aligned with centre markings made on the glass. Once in place, ensuring the numbers are level & straight the drawing of the street numbers is traced onto the outside of the glass.
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This gives a far more precise & neat finish & can prove a better option than to sketch out over & over on the glass without any artwork as a template.
The next step is to start painting on the internal side of the glass. The outlines are produced first along with the cast shadow, as this is all in black.
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The black paint is given dry time & requires curing. Specialist products are used to assist with this. Once dry, the oil gilding (size) is brush applied to the body of the numbers (fill). This is a fast drying oil that works like a glue for the gold to stick to. The ‘Size’ has to be given time to set and become just slightly tacky before the leaf is applied.
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The gold is then applied, which is a delicate process. Once all the gold is applied its to be given time to set and dry to the numbers.
Once fully dry, the excess gold is burnished off leaving only the gold applied to where the ‘Size’ was painted.
To give a more professional finish, an outline is painted over the edges of the gold to match the outline showing on the outside of the glass.
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The final part of the project is to apply a coat of clear varnish covering the street numbers.
This protects the gold & allows for window cleaning without it affecting the numbers, so giving longevity. As can be seen, the outlines on the reverse side look crisp & neat. All that then remains is a window clean to remove grease marks, but this can be achieved once the varnish has hardened.
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Hand Painted Traditional & Contemporary Sign writing in London
Sign writer: Traditional Signs of London
info@traditionalsignsoflondon.uk