Gettin' back at the gilding

Have a project due next weekend that has to be gilded, well... it's been almost as long since I did gilding as it was since I played with leather on the makin' end.

It's a Christmas ornament for my tree, figured that was a good "see how I do after so long" project.

Leather from a cheap belly

black createx airbrush acrylic to give a better surface for the sizing (the sticky stuff) to bond to

gum trag for edges and back (wanted a firmer finish back there for an ornament)

sizing

"gold" leaf (copper/tin fake gold, much cheaper, also easier to handle any mess ups.)

acrylic "inks" (transparent acrylics with extra small pigment size)

gilding spray sealer

The design is just lined in with a scribe instead of full tooling as this was about the gilding and inking, and the circle isn't cut as close to perfect as I would have gone for on a "real" project... just not enough time to go for as good as I would have liked to if not for looming deadlines on projects for others.

I love it on the tree. I'll likely end up making myself some more of these after the commitment projects are done. :-)