Gilding Grounds used with Gold Leaf

Grounds serve a two fold purpose, they act as filler if working on bare wood and as composition or genuine gold leaf is so thin, they  serve to give gold a warmer colour, also if you are creating an aged finish the deep red colour will show through the gold giving a very authentic appearance as the picture on the right clearly shows.

You can use Armenian bole for this purpose, many do, but I choose to use a simple red ochre earth pigment which gives good results I feel

This ground is simply mixed with water if working with a wood or porous surface, or it may be mixed with size if you are thinking of working on a non porous surface such as glass or metal.

Full instructions and recipes for all the process's on this site can be obtained by downloading the free manuals on this subject contained on the downloads page.

For those interested in using silver leaf you should note that the colour of the ground should be blue not red.