Book Edge Gilding
How To Gild Book Edges
An Introduction to the Art of Book Edge Gilding
There’s something about the simplicity of gilding book edges which draws me, the beating of the egg white to make glair, lining the book up in the Finishing Press, laying the glair along the edges, padding on the bole, polishing and burnishing, laying the gold…
There’s not much mess or any dust and the result is simply beautiful, the book’s edges shining with bright 23-24k gold leaf, the color of the clay bole coming through in areas where I guide that to happen or simply leave it when it does so on its own.
I have them lined up in my tall Mahogany-colored bookcase, each book end showing its own personality with the colors of the bole sometimes see, blues, greens, red.
Perhaps one day I’ll teach this class in-person. For right now Online lends itself well to the method since there’s drying time to consider, much like other forms of gilding, but since a book edge is perhaps 7-12 inches in general each process can be fairly short so with the Online approach we can stop and come back, review recordings, ask questions along the way.
There are many approaches to gilding book edges, much of it due to the variety of papers that have been used for books over the years and the techniques in using them in books. Sometimes a closed bound book will have a perceptible ‘dip’ so this gilding is called Gilding in the Round. Another quite different form of bookmaking and therefore gilding is deckled edges of differing height; this gilding cannot be burnished due to this design so it’s called Rough Edge gilding. It’s simply gilded with the transparent glair (egg white) and is much more vulnerable to wear since burnishing not only makes gold leaf shine but also compresses it into the surface.
Students who attend this Online class learn the traditional and essential steps to successfully gild a bright gilded edge and a satin-toned Rough Edge including these various steps:
Prepare the edges of the book with powder
Line up the book edge in the Finishing Press
Sand to smooth the Book Edges
Prepare Glair (beaten egg white and separating the albumen)
Size the Book Edges
Prepare and Apply the Bole size
Polish the Bole
Apply the Glair Size and gild the edges in 23k gold leaf
Set the gold leaf
Burnish the gold leaf
For those interested in a Book Edge Gilding Class Visit the Book a Class section and browse the current schedule for class listings. And remember to look at the Archive a classes as well as all classes are both Live and Recorded so you may find a previous class Recording series is still available for Registration and Viewing.
A gilding kit has been put together especially for the class How To Gild Book Edges and is available through Gilded Planet. Students will learn how to gild the edges of a book that is already bound rather than gilding pages of books in production. This approach allows anyone with the tools, a Finishing Press and a book to gild its edges and is am enjoyable and relaxing way to learn one of the many methods of gold leaf gilding and how to gild the edges of books! ~