Four days are dedicated to unveiling the magical phases, where wood, a living and ductile material, sparkles with the most precious of metals. From 20th to 24th February CHIODELLI ARTE invites you to admire the chinoiserie and the gold leaf gilding technique, a live event with its artisan decorators on stage, in the Petrovsky Passage Bosco Casa store in Moscow.
CHIODELLI ARTE and Bosco Casa, partners in the recently inaugurated store, demonstrate the ancient technique of gouache gilding – a process that requires dexterity and experience. Gold, but also silver and copper, are applied with this technique to create luminescent and precious finishes.
But what exactly is gouache gilding? The gold leaf is obtained by hammering the metal between two thick layers of leather in order to make it thin and manageable. The wood on which it is applied must first be treated with a special clay, known as Armenian bole. Once the Armenian bole is dry, the gilder compresses, fixes, and polishes the leaf on the wood using the burnisher, which is an extremely smooth agate stone. There are different methods used for gilding, and the gouache is the most common one used since ancient times. To obtain good results takes years of experience, as its procedure is as delicate as it is fascinating.
“These are ancient knowledge, inherited by our family and business history,” underlines Marco Chiodelli Bussandri, President of CHIODELLI ARTE “which we love to keep alive, enhance and transfer every day in the creation of our furniture and which we proudly show today in a dedicated event”.
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