Jamie Buxton
10-14-2005, 12:34 AM
Here's a trio of dressers which use a new medium for me: metallic leaf. (Metallic leaf is like gold leaf, except that it may be made from non-gold metals.) I like the contrast between the organic wood and the inorganic metal.
24747 Click on the thumbnail for a bigger shot.
The dressers are each 38" wide by 38" tall by 22" deep. Here's a close-up of the middle dresser.
24748
The woodwork is rather plain, so the metal decoration can be the primary focus of the design. It is all red oak, solid except for the drawer bottoms and carcass backs. The carcass joint at the upper corners is a blind mitered finger joint which was discussed in http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=189659&postcount=1.
Metal leaf is fairly easy to apply. On these dressers, I first filled the oak grain, and then applied two coats of sanding sealer. The grain filler and the sealer provide a flat substrate for the leaf. The leaf is so thin that the pores in red oak are huge chasms in comparison. After the sanding sealer, I applied what gilders call "size". Woodworkers would call it varnish. When has cured to the tacky stage, it is ready for leafing. The metallic leaf is supplied in sheets about 5" square. You just float a leaf over the tacky size, and tamp it down. There's an immediate bond. The leaf is so thin that when you rub it lightly, the non-bonded leaf tears away and practically evaporates. After the leaf is bonded, I washed it with alcohol, and applied the clear top coat. I found the alcohol wash necessary because I use waterborne finishes. There's evidently some oil or wax on the leaf left from manufacturing, and the waterborne varnish doesn't flow out properly on the metal unless I do the alcohol wash first.
The leaf on this dresser is copper. Copper and its compounds can have many different colors. There's two kinds of leaf on this dresser: the straight copper, and a mottled leaf. The mottled leaf comes that way from the manufacturer. It is also possible to color copper yourself by applying various mild acids. (David Marks does some work with this approach.) However, in my test runs, I had difficulty keeping the acids off the oak, so I used the pre-mottled leaf.
24747 Click on the thumbnail for a bigger shot.
The dressers are each 38" wide by 38" tall by 22" deep. Here's a close-up of the middle dresser.
24748
The woodwork is rather plain, so the metal decoration can be the primary focus of the design. It is all red oak, solid except for the drawer bottoms and carcass backs. The carcass joint at the upper corners is a blind mitered finger joint which was discussed in http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=189659&postcount=1.
Metal leaf is fairly easy to apply. On these dressers, I first filled the oak grain, and then applied two coats of sanding sealer. The grain filler and the sealer provide a flat substrate for the leaf. The leaf is so thin that the pores in red oak are huge chasms in comparison. After the sanding sealer, I applied what gilders call "size". Woodworkers would call it varnish. When has cured to the tacky stage, it is ready for leafing. The metallic leaf is supplied in sheets about 5" square. You just float a leaf over the tacky size, and tamp it down. There's an immediate bond. The leaf is so thin that when you rub it lightly, the non-bonded leaf tears away and practically evaporates. After the leaf is bonded, I washed it with alcohol, and applied the clear top coat. I found the alcohol wash necessary because I use waterborne finishes. There's evidently some oil or wax on the leaf left from manufacturing, and the waterborne varnish doesn't flow out properly on the metal unless I do the alcohol wash first.
The leaf on this dresser is copper. Copper and its compounds can have many different colors. There's two kinds of leaf on this dresser: the straight copper, and a mottled leaf. The mottled leaf comes that way from the manufacturer. It is also possible to color copper yourself by applying various mild acids. (David Marks does some work with this approach.) However, in my test runs, I had difficulty keeping the acids off the oak, so I used the pre-mottled leaf.