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How a Frame Finds Its Match
BY JOE SATRAN
N A RECENT AFTERNOON at Julius Lowy Frame and Restoration
Co., a three-by-four frame sat on
a work table, shining with freshly-applied gold leaf. The craftsmen at Lowy,
as it’s known, still apply gold leaf by hand, a
painstaking process that starts with coating
a wood frame with successive layers of gesso,
yellow clay, red clay and water. A gilder will
rub a gilding brush on his or her forehead to
coat it with oil and make it slightly adhesive,
and pick up a sheet of gold with the tip of the
brush. The gold leaf is so thin it wags erratically in the air, like a catfish yanked out of a
river by an expert noodler. The gilder gently
lowers the gold onto the wet surface of the
clay. The molecular attraction of the wet clay
bonds gold to the frame instantly, so the tiniest stray gesture could ruin it.
“Two and a half hours,” the glider said, sigh-
O
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF JULIUS LOWY FRAME
& RESTORING COMPANY, INC., NEW YORK, NY
HUFFINGTON
10.28.12