People have been wondering if I would start another icon. Now that we are into Autumn, and I normally produce one by around Christmas, this photo should answer the question. Every week, more or less, I will post some progress on this icon.
It's called "Our Lady In Throne", and it has the figures of Christ and his mother Mary seated on a religious-orthodox throne. This icon is a bit larger than twice as large as the ones I have been attempting before.
I took this photo after laying down the gold leaf. You can tell by the lines and the ragged edges that the gold is still in a rough state. I'll carefully brush away the excess gold and flatten and seal the gold in place. People wonder how much gold goes into an icon. The market price, give or take, is around $1113 USD per ounce. I believe I've used around a tenth of an ounce, so I am estimating that the gold in my projects costs $120 to $150 dollars, making "gilding night" an expensive enough way to spend a couple of hours in the service of creating artwork. Of course, larger icons require more gold, and likely it costs more if I used a more advanced technique than laying gold leaf.
Some people gild for a hobby or even as a profession. I'll need many more tries before I could be that good at it.
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