Читать книгу Handicraft Simplified Procedure and Projects in Leather, Celluloid, Metal, Wood, Batik, Rope, Cordage, Yarn, Horsehair, Pottery, Weaving, Stone, Primitive Indian Craft - Lester Griswold - Страница 32

Gold Tooling or the application of gold leaf to leather with heated brass type or hand tools is a machine process commercially but may be successfully done by hand, as it was by the bookbinders of the Middle Ages.

Tools: Brass Hand Tools, Tracing Paper, Wood Mallet.

Materials: Gold Leaf, Size, Turpentine, Gasoline, (Oxalic acid solution). A piece of leather of the desired size, cut from Calf, Steer or Goat. The darker shades of dyed leather are best.

Instruction:

1.Transfer the outline design to the leather as previously described, and leave the tracing in position. (Hold with paper clips).

2.Apply cold hand tools. These may be design elements or seals, crests or monograms. The tool is struck lightly with the mallet to impress the design through the paper on the leather. This process is known as blind tooling.

3.Remove the paper and impress the tools on the leather in the same positions as before to deepen the depressions.

4.Wash the surface of the leather with a thin solution of oxalic acid to remove any greasy finger prints and gently pat dry with absorbent cotton.

5.Apply a coat of gold size to each impression and permit to dry until it becomes “tacky.”

6.Coat the remaining portion of the leather evenly with vaseline by rubbing a little on with a smooth cloth. This must not come in contact with the design to be gilded.

7.Place a sheet of tissue carrying the gold leaf against the leather gold side down, and press it into the smooth sized areas with the fingers. Apply the cold tools against the tissue to the impressions previously stamped.

8.Heat the brass tools in a sootless flame until they hiss when touched with a damp cloth. Remove the tissue and apply the warm tool with light pressure to the gilded impression for a moment. This sets the size and clearly defines the impression. The operation should be quickly done and care taken to position the tool exactly, so that a clear cut margin will be left. Straight lines are gilded by means of a heated roller which follows the grooves traced on the design.

9.After the leather is entirely dry remove the excess gold with a cloth moistened in turpentine. Remove the turpentine and vaseline with gasoline.