How to Gild Yourself a Tarot Deck

Queen of Pentacle

I was wandering if some of you ever tryed to gild your own deck.
I mean the image (not the edge)?

It seem an interesting idea, some deck could really be enhanced this way, but I don't know how to proceed
wha tto use ? Foil, gold (or silver) inks or pen?

Does it stand use? Do you varnish it after?

If you have any suggestion, method, advice or (curious me) pics, that would be grand.

Thank you in advance for your time

Marie
 

WinterRose

I've never done it with tarot decks, but I used to do a lot of medieval-style calligraphy and illuminations, and gilding was very popular then. I've learned from experience that gilding is expensive, difficult and messy. To do a whole deck...ooh, that'd be very expensive. I tried a number of different methods - pens looked cheap and inks lost their colour. Then I tried Windsor and Newton's Gold Imitation Gouache. Perfect. It's cheap, comes in a tube and can be applied with a brush straight from the tube, easy to work with and keeps its colour really well. No mess, no fading, and little expense. It also doesn;t flake off very easily - I have pieces knocking around in a folder from years ago that are still as vibrant as when I first did them. If you want to gild your deck, I'd suggest using that. Given that most decks are coated, you might want to try rubbing an eraser over the area you want to gild first, just to roughen it up a little so the paint takes.
 

SolSionnach

Actually, there was a thread here recently on using some kind of craft paint/something or other to gild the *edges* of a deck. I can't find it, or remember who was doing it, but it was about 4-6 months ago, I think.

Anybody remember?
 

Queen of Pentacle

CelticDruidess ans Sravana

thank you both of you.

I find the thread about gilding edges, but frankly, ti don't seem too conclusive.... And frome experience, I am quite positive that the cards will glue together.

But I will surely try Windsor & Newton golden gouache, it may be just what I wanted. I appreciated the technical help, as I would'nt have tough by myself of "erasing" the finisk first.

Thanks you both for the information.
 

Oddity

CelticDruidess: is this gouache water-resistant when dry? I've never tried it, but now you made me curious. :)

Last year I made a couple of art cards and wanted to put gold details on them with some kind of paint that would be waterproof and stay on no matter what.
I love crafting and have collected lots of supplies over the years, so I gathered what I had and tried all of it... I tried pens (didn't give enough detail) and acrylics (the paint was too thick) but then I found a little jar of enamel hobby colour, the kind model-makers and gamers use. It's great for metallic effects, it covers a lot better than the acrylic I had and is thinner, so you can apply it with a tiny brush and get fine details. If you use this, be sure to do it in a well-ventilated area because it is not healthy to breathe the fumes for too long.

I don't know how it will hold up over the years, or if there will be any bad effects on the paper in the long run due to the solvents in the paint. It's not really made for painting on paper, but on metal and plastic. (It will stick to ANYTHING.) But so far it looks good.

Otherwise, I've used metallic acrylic paint diluted with water just to put a "shimmer" on a paper surface - diluted like that, it doesn't cover well and you can still see what's underneath, but the effect is pretty.
 

canid

sravana said:
Actually, there was a thread here recently on using some kind of craft paint/something or other to gild the *edges* of a deck. I can't find it, or remember who was doing it, but it was about 4-6 months ago, I think.

Anybody remember?
Click to expand...

Wasn't it in a thread about aging a deck?
 

Queen of Pentacle

In fact there were two different threads

One was about gilding tarot edge.

The other was a question "what is the oldest tarot". A tarot reader' client suggested that his (her) tarot deck was a relatively new one, so he (she) wanted to show her the most ancient possible deck. After contemplating the visconti and so, many members suggested ways to age any deck (someone even mentionned zapping if I recall)

But so far I have been unlucky with the search engine... Don't seem to work at all theses last days.
Hope it may help.
 

strings of life

I did a search on "gild" and "gilding" and can't find any other specific threads except this one.

I remember a few posts from shadowdancer where she shared photos of her gilded Deviant Moon (with green edges if I recall correctly).

I would live to have dark red/maroon gilt edges, dark red metallic or even gold edges on my Tarot of Vampyres deck. I trimmed it over the weekend (photos here) and think it would look great.

If you have done so, do you have any pointers? I can going to PM shadowdancer too and ask her as well.
 
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