My evenings for the past few weeks have been taken up learning a new skill.

I had never gilded onto paper before, well I can safely say I have now.

There are two distinct kinds of gilding when it comes to gilding on paper or parchment.

Raised gilding involves laying leaf onto a gesso base and when carried out in the traditional manner involves such a considerable degree of skill and time that 23 carat gold leaf is normally used.

But I was interested in what is called flat gilding and how to apply gold leaf, and the various techniques of getting composition leaf, or Dutch metal as it is also known, onto paper

I found numerous methods, some of them very old, many of them very new and some of them a blend of the two. The following methods worked for me.

All through these experiments I was using a brush or a wide flat nibbed pen and working on a heavy acid free cartridge paper.

I like traditional ways of doing things, so I looked first at the traditional methods of flat gilding.

Adhesives have been obtained from fish glue, hide glue, rabbit skin glue, egg yolk and acacia gum (gum ammoniac) to mention the most popular.

The basic idea of these traditional sizes is that the size is allowed to dry, then is re-moistened by exhaling on it. This imparts just enough moisture to allow the gold to adhere to the size.

I decided to follow a recipe I was given by a calligrapher friend of mine.

Place a few crystals of gum ammoniac in a small plastic or glass container with a tight-fitting lid. Barely cover the crystals with water. Allow crystals to soak for 12 to 24 hours, shaking occasionally, until the liquid is milky. Strain through a piece of nylon stocking to remove any impurities.

The gum ammoniac I was using was old but serviceable. Well, it did turn milky and my wife did sacrifice a pair of tights.

I painted some letters onto one of the papers I was using and allowed it to dry overnight, the next day having everything ready, the first thing I realised was that I should have added a little red pigment to the size to make it more visible on the paper, (I later made up some more and coloured the size dark red, a traditional background colour) but anyway I breathed warmly where I knew the letters to be and immediately laid the leaf and gently pressed it through the cotton wool pad.

I have to say the first results weren’t bad, I was expecting for there to be places where the gold did not stick and their were a few such places, but I simply repeated the procedure and added small patches of leaf until it was covered.

I allowed everything to dry, in fact I probably gave it longer than was needed but I was a little anxious about brushing away the surplus leaf lest all the leaf came off! But it was okay. I remember the late Margaret Adams showing me how to breathe on a size to reactivate the adhesive. And she had her own way of how to apply gold leaf.

I think my first foray into flat gilding on paper was a small success, this very ancient method has stood the test of time, my only concern about this size, well any water based size really, is that the paper might warp unless it is quite a heavy paper, the paper I was using was 230 gsm acid free cartridge and I saw no sign of the paper warping, but I mention it in passing.

Where can you get gum ammoniac or acacia gum as it is also known? Well I would look on eBay but any art store should carry it.

I hope my description of this simple method of flat gilding is clear to you.

There is a good website that deals with gilding in its many forms, and has a whole page devoted to the gilding process including how to apply the gold leaf.