Illumination Art with Traditional Gesso & Gold Powder 4-week Online Course
Illumination Art with Traditional Gesso & Gold Powder 4-week Online Course
Date: May 10-17-24-31
Time: 8PM Hanoi time GMT+7
Online class via Zoom, recordings will be provided.
Registration opens from March 15 to April 26. Zoom class link and handouts will be sent by email on April 27, 2026.
This workshop is open to all level artists and calligraphers.
Illumination is the art of decorating manuscripts through the careful application of gold and silver. Technically, illumination involves attaching precious metal leaf or powder onto the design using adhesives made from natural ingredients, then burnishing the surface until it achieves a glorious shine. That practice, however, varies from nation to nation, influenced by local weather conditions, the types of surface materials available, regional techniques, and cultural preferences.
Gesso for illumination is a specialized, raised ground used in medieval manuscript and panel painting to create a dimensional base for gold leaf, enhancing its brilliance and enabling a mirror-like shine. Unlike gesso used in water gilding, this traditional, protein-based mixture historically composed of materials such as plaster, white lead, and animal glue is applied in successive thin layers, each allowed to dry and be gently built up to the desired relief. Once shaped and smoothed, the surface can be lightly reactivated with breath to properly receive the gold leaf, producing a luminous, enduring effect that highlights the ornamentation and depth of illuminated decoration.
In this workshop, we will learn to make gesso following ancient recipes then apply gilding techniques to various materials like paper and parchment. We will also explore the factors that influence gesso’s success, such as grinding time and the proper proportions of ingredients. The results of applying gold leaf to gesso will reveal these factors’ impact. Too dry gesso can prevent gold from adhering or crack under burnishing, while wet gesso can dull the gold burnish and loose its brilliance. Finally, we will consider gesso’s diverse applications in both contemporary and traditional art forms.
In the second half of the course, we will explore the preparation and use of gold powder. We will learn traditional methods of grinding gold leaf into fine powder, preparing suitable binders, and applying gold powder in painting to observe how it behaves differently from leaf in terms of texture, luminosity, and control.
Materials
This workshop does not include materials, please prepare by yourself as following list
Base powder: Plaster or Calcium Sulfate or Calcium Carbonate
Titanium White Pigment
Sugar
High Tack Fish glue
Measurement spoon of 1ml
Glass muller
Glass plate for grinding
Dog tooth & pencil Agate burnishers
Dampen dish
23K transfer gold leaf (5 leaves)
* I would recommend you take the course before buying materials. I will explain each in detail.
* If you want to learn how to use loose gold leaf, I will also demonstrate in the class and provide proper tool list. However, it can be quite difficult to get all required tools so please decide to buy or not after the course.
Cirriculum
Week 1: Making gesso
Explain the ingredients used in illumination gesso and their effects.
Prepare gilding tools: gilder’s pad (gold leaf cushion), gilder’s knife, gilder’s tips and burnisher
Apply gesso on gilding chart & samples
Week 2: Leaf application
Adjust the gesso before gilding: scraping, sanding & burnishing
Activate the gesso
Gild and burnish gold leaf
Week 3: Making shell gold & alternative powders
How to grind gold leaf
How to wash gold powder
Storage & usage
How to choose and use alternative powders
Week 4: Painting techniques with gold powder
How to prepare the base for painting gold powder (application from Islamic illumination vs. Japanese Buddhist Art techniques)
How to use brush to apply gold powder in area, thin lines and more
How to paint gradation with gold powder
