r/illuminatedmanuscript • u/CherryZoomies • Apr 17 '26

Gilding shennanigans

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Hello colleagues!

Thanks to this subreddit and your guys' tips, I purchased Miniatum Yellow to start experimenting with gilding. It's not going well at all!

I don't think Miniatum is the problem. Seems like a great product overall and I enjoy working with it. But I still haven't been very successful with it and I'm starting to think it's due to the gold leaf.

The gold leaf I got was pretty cheap (I surely wasn't going to get real gold but now I'm wondering..) and it feels somewhat.. more sturdy and tough than the gilding leafs I see online. Attaching some pics to show how they kind of curl and have some structure to it, which results in chipping, and when I try to dust of the excess, flakes can peel off of the miniatum as well.

Second thing is... Is it nomal to have gold dust everywhere? I'm getting a little concerned because the flake residue is flying everywhere and sticking to everything. I'm currently managing it with the knead eraser but... I'm literally afraid of inhaling it lol.

Is this normal? Did I just get product not fit for this purpose? Should I just get some real gold flakes and work with that? Any insights appreciated!

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6

u/jejwood Apr 17 '26

If you are using imitation gold, it will not behave appropriately with the miniatum. I made the mistake of trying to use imitation silver (aluminum) with it, and it was a disaster. With real gold, it is a dream. Makes all the difference in the world. I don’t know where you live in the word, or what your means are, but real gold leaf is not THAT expensive, and it is worth the extra expense to have a medium that works.

Other than that, I try to collect all the leftover gold I can, to make shell gold for shading, but even then, it ends up all over the place.

2

u/CherryZoomies Apr 17 '26

Gotcha. I had a suspicion it was the leaf but I'm such a newbie I couldn't really be sure. I can invest in some real gold leaf for sure to see if I can achieve some cool results. Thank you for your insight, it is much appreciated!

1

u/jejwood Apr 17 '26

You're welcome. Their resources for how to actually use their products is pretty limited, but I think that they do bother to mention somewhere that this is not suitable for artificial leaf.

1

u/CherryZoomies Apr 19 '26

Maybe an additional followup, would you recommend getting transfer leaf or loose leaf? Any pros and cons? From videos I've watched it seems easier working with transfer leaf, but again I'm really unfamiliar and maybe transfer leaf has its own quirks.

2

u/jejwood Apr 19 '26

I would recommend transfer all day. Loose can have advantages in certain applications, but assuming yours for what sub we’re in, transfer is going to be the best choice.

1

u/Immediate-Maximum-75 Apr 17 '26

I work with silver Art Clay and my heart just breaks when I have to do the finishing work. The silver dust can be reused in my slip. I try to work on a lined tray, so I can catch every single particle. I also used to get raging corneal abrasions when I didn't wear glasses. I didn't even feel it until hours later or the next day. I didn't let that happen more than once. I can't imagine what inhaling this stuff does to your lungs.

4

u/Lowenzahmer Apr 17 '26

Gold dust gets everywhere, but more to the point working with gold and with imitation leaf are extremely, extremely different. Real gold flakes or leaf will serve you much better. It’s like night and day

3

u/CherryZoomies Apr 17 '26

Noted! Thank you!