Progress

Tom and I made progress on the Panagia and apse.
I worked extensively on the border and almost completed it.

Then, we both worked on applying gold leaf for a good ten
hours.


Each gold leaf is pressed on a paper, and there are 25 leaves in a book. We have used 32 books so far.


First, the wall is rolled in an oil based glue than sets for 5 hours to become tacky enough to accept the gold. It is workable for about 8 hours after that. Each leaf is pressed onto the wall and rubbed smooth with fingers and then the paper is removed.

The gold leaf is thinner than tissue and is too delicate to be handled on its own. Each leaf is lined up with the others, and is built up from the bottom, not unlike building many towers, then filling in the spaces in between.

Any missed spots are touched up with leftover gold stuck to the paper from overlapping. With a more 14-16 hour days, we should finish the gold leaf early next week.


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