Swamped

I have been swamped with replies to the mailout re the book... thank you all.
I have just discovered the page where you can see your comments. I thought they would just appear, somewhere, and since they didnt, I assumed no comments, no readers. So that's ok.  Then there they were.
There are messages from a Nichole, a Michelle and a Trillium. Who are you? I could not see how to find out who you are so I could reply.
This technology is moving so fast I am running all day to keep up. Just getting a new post on the website was enough to take a lie down. It is some time since I had done anything on it, and it was way overdue. I had forgotten how to get the pictures up, and to resize them, and the rest. Then the type went very strange and that was it for me.

Laying silver leaf for a mirror

There is a huge market in the US for gilding, loads of interested people who do it, commission it, collect it.  The book will do well there, but I need help with its distribution. If anyone reading this has any idea how to find some help for me, please say!  But directly, francesfederer@gmail.com, please.

Thats it for today, have a good one, f

Gold Leaf etc

Update....

Every day I creep inexorably towards the completion of this book. It is a steep learning curve, nearly every aspect is new and unchartered territory.
For instance, who knew that indexing is a serious, accredited profession?
I have an indexer in place; I still need a proof reader; I have a date for completion of the production and presentation to the printers (end June) ; I have the price settled, £19.99, a little more than the handbooks out there, but still under the magic £20; the Foreword is coming, from Bill Gudenrath, (Corning Museum of Glass, USA) good man.   I also nearly have the cover.... pink and gold!  Yeh.

What else? Yes, a little thing, the publicity machine.
I will have to rejig the website, dreading that part. And figure out how to get known and talked about. (No point doing all this work and having no-one know). So I will have to contact a zillion organizations, (e.g society of gilders) dealers, students, customers, collectors... and then get it reviewed!

I think the book will be well received. There are a lot of students waiting for it, and Sue Govani, who manages  the online store, http://www.goldleafsupplies.co.uk/, who recently came on the course and had loads of pics done for her, and my site, assures me the interest in glass gilding is stronger than ever. She expects to sell plenty. Lets hope that will be repeated in all the other gilding supplies stores, and there are many!

People have been extraordinarily supportive.... so many current and former students have steeped up and helped in some way or another.  I have still to write the Acknowledgments page.

Thank you all, have a lovely day, f

Recent possible pics for publicity... if not for the book.

So, for anybody reading this, this is what I look like these days!

New happenings

I have been invited to a couple of good things recently:
West Dean College, to teach a one-day course in Nov this year and a 5 day one in Feb. 2013. I was delighted to be asked, West Dean is an excellent centre for learning.
And, invited to exhibit at the Goldsmiths Company, City of London,  Gold: Power and Allure. An example of gilded glass will complement their exhibition and once again, I am very pleased. 1 June to 28 July.
www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk
All good stuff!   Have a good day.

Writing and publishing a book, the story continues

Just when I thought we were completing, I saw that further work had to be done.
Interesting process, this, trying to explain to a total beginner how to carry out quite a skilled operation, with words and pictures. I have redone the Mirror Project completely, simplified it right down to the basics, and had an inexperienced friend, Helene, follow it while I stood there, mostly silently, correcting my instructions.
Stefan, my special person, retook the pics and we are in business, I do hope.
The test was a success! Helene was delighted to have learned a new process, as was I to have enabled it to happen.

This pic. Laying silver leaf on the glass for the mirror. 

Once a few glitches have been ironed out, like how to include the template into the document, which has been a nightmare due to strange corruptions going on in my (it can't be mine, must be someone else's) computer, we will be able to get it tested by the Testing Team.
Then I continue with the book production process.
I have two superb professionals helping me with this, my editor, Jane, and Patrick Armstrong, www.bookproductionservices.co.uk who produces books. He is going to set it all up and get it ready for the printers.
Bill Gudenrath of Corning Museum of Glass, NY, is writing the Foreword; I wait with baited breath.
So all in all I am getting the support that is so necessary for a project like this and am very grateful. I almost went with a Vanity publishing house which would have been a great mistake; this is a huge learning curve.
So onwards.... More soon and if you have been reading this by any chance, good. And thank you, and do give me feedback.

the trials continue

Just when I thought the thing was nearing completion, feedback from the editor, whose daughter tested the Project, was really depressing. But for her mum standing there she would have given up 'at the first hurdle'. Great.

The templates were too many (3) and impossible to fathom. I half suspected this, so, back to the drawing board to massively simplify the whole project chapter.

But, must not be discouraged. The fact is this is a difficult book to put together, which goes some way to explain why, to date, no publication on the subject has yet appeared. In spite of reverse gilding on glass (verre eglomise) becoming more and more widely used and recognised.

So that is the state so far... more soon.