Community Projects 2026
For this year’s Community Project at the 2026 Conference, we assisted the historic Gibbes Museum of Art with the restoration of two antique frames. A special thank you to our wonderful sponsor, Sepp Leaf, and to Compleat Sculptor, for their generous donation of materials for this project. Take a look at the remarkable before-and-after below!
Additionally, the Society of Gilders hosted a Kids Gilding Event on Wednesday, June 17, at the Gibbes Museum of Art, where children were introduced to the art and history of gilding. Participants enjoyed a live presentation by Richard Walker of Watergild Studios in Hampshire, England, who shared insights into the history of gilding and its modern-day applications.
The children then created and decorated their own miniature gilded frames, gaining hands-on experience with traditional gilding techniques. We ended the morning with a tour of the museum, exploring examples of gilding and decorative frames featured in the artwork on display.
This educational program was made possible in part through the generous support of our sponsor, Easy Leaf. Thank you for helping us inspire the next generation of gilders!
Community Projects 2024
For our community project in 2024, we paid homage to our generous hosts – the American College of the Building Arts, by completing three projects. Their library houses the Jefferson Collection of rare and historic books, as well as a painting of Thomas Jefferson. Our thanks go out to Micki and Mitch Cavanah of Reed’s Gold Leaf, who donated and demonstrated the restoration process on an antique frame for a painting of Thomas Jefferson. The second project was a reverse glass gilded sign exhibiting the ACBA logo with textural embellishments. Our thanks to Sean Michael Felix for his beautiful rendition of the ACBA logo. Volunteers worked together to apply 4 different colors of genuine leaf onto the letters. Glass gilding techniques included using Kolner Ceramic Size. Peter Miller of P.H. Miller Studios, provided the exquisite custom frame for the glass logo. In the third project, volunteers replaced the old vinyl building address numbers with new gilded numbers. Thanks to W& B Gold leaf for their generous donation of gold for all three projects as well as to all our conference attendees who volunteered!
Asheville, North Carolina 2022 Conference
The community project for our 2022 conference was focused on the YMI Cultural Center of Asheville. Through generous donations from Francis Lestingi (who created a beautifully carved mahogany sign), Easy Leaf Products (donation of Manetti 22k and 23.75K gold leaf and other gilding supplies), and Reed’s Gold Leaf (donation of the antique picture frame), we were able to accomplish our goal. Throughout the week, conference attendees volunteered to assist in gilding the carved lettering for the sign and helped in restoring/gilding the antique picture frame. Thanks to all who helped make this project a success!
