We have been teaching polymer gilding since 2016 to this day. First of all, our master classes are adapted for icon painters, but the gilding technology itself will be of interest to a large circle of craftsmen who want to learn this ancient method of applying gold leaf.

прорезь орнамента цировкой графьей
Extensive gilding experience since 2008
and training since 2016

Our basic two-day "Lesson on gilding the background of an icon and ornament on a halo with embossing" is equally suitable for complete beginners and for those who want to learn and bring something new to their work.

Мастер-класс по золочению
In the beginning, the main thing is desire, not experience!
For any skill level

In addition to regular lessons on gilding in Moscow and St. Petersburg, we have organized and conducted training in Ukraine, Poland, Serbia, Greece, Finland, Latvia and even Lebanon.

Монах в Ливане
Bulgaria and other countries are next.
We have a lot of knowledge from all over the world!

Table of contents

Timetable of classes

Урок по золочению фона иконы и орнамента на нимбе с чеканкойДвойная позолота и холодная ювелирная эмальРазработка и комбинирование орнамента, итоговый урок
Январь 202123-24 (суббота и воскресенье)31 (воскресенье)
Февраль 20216-7 (суббота и воскресенье)
27-28 (суббота и воскресенье)
Март 20216-7 (суббота и воскресенье)
13-14 (суббота и воскресенье)
28 (воскресенье)
Апрель 20213-4 (суббота и воскресенье)
17-18 (суббота и воскресенье)
24 (суббота)
Май 202115-16 (суббота и воскресенье)23 (воскресенье)
Июнь 20215-6 (суббота и воскресенье)
26-27 (суббота и воскресенье)
13 (воскресенье)
Июль 202117-18 (суббота и воскресенье)25 (воскресенье)10-11 (суббота и воскресенье)
Август 2021Не планируетсяНе планируется
Сентябрь 202111-12 (суббота и воскресенье)
18-19 (суббота и воскресенье)
Октябрь 202116-17 (суббота и воскресенье)
30-31 (суббота и воскресенье)
24 (воскресенье)
Ноябрь 202113-14 (суббота и воскресенье)
27-28 (суббота и воскресенье)
20-21 (суббота и воскресенье)
Декабрь 20214-5 (суббота и воскресенье)12 (воскресенье)

Lesson on gilding the background of the icon and ornament on a halo with embossing.

Updated two-day option.

In this lesson, you will learn how to smoothly and without errors ( without joints, turbidity, yellow spots ) lay the gold leaf in one layer , polish it correctly with an agate tooth, so that there is a uniform polishing of the surface, and not shading with agate.
  • Let’s talk about how to choose the right adhesive and polymer proportions for gilding, about the required quality of levkas;
  • we will also learn how to correctly compose, transfer and cut out the ornament with a pattern (graph) on the icon-painting board and refine it on gold;
  • As a result, we will make a selective polishing of the halo (the ornament is glossy on the inside, and the background is matte on the outside) and embossing with curly punches on the outside.

It is this technique that can be found on most of the gilded old Russian icons in art museums and temples.

At the end of the master class, you will have a 15 * 20 cm board with a gilded matte background and a carved halo with selective polishing with agate teeth and chasing. The board will be ready to paint the image of the saint. And most importantly, you will gain the most important skills in working with gold, you will understand how to manage this process and you will no longer be afraid to work with gold leaf.
Equally suitable for both beginners and experienced icon painters.
The cost of a master class on gilding 6000 rubles + board + gold . Time Saturday and Sunday from 15.00 to 20.00
15 * 20 cm. Exactly laid and polished gold, chasing on a carved halo. The board is prepared for writing the image of the saint. The work was completed by the student in 2 days in the lesson.
This lesson was born with us 6 years after the beginning of our creative teaching path.
It is a more perfect version of our classic workshops on Plain Gilding and Carved Gilding with Embossing (no longer available). For 6 years, the information that we could and would like to give to our students has tripled, and the time was limited to one day. Now there is an opportunity to study in a more comfortable mode – in 2 days on a 15 * 20 cm board.

Sign up for a gilding lesson (2 days, 5 hours each)

Lesson on double gilding and cold jewelry enamel

When you have already learned carved gilding and embossing with us and have worked in this technique, over time there is a desire to learn something else interesting, moreover, exclusive.
  • For those who want to continue their studies further, we have developed a lesson in which we show two rare techniques for decorating an icon-painting board – double gilding (two colors of gold, for example, a yellow gold background, and the ornament on it is made of green or white) and applying cold jewelry enamel. which is poured into a halo, fields, corners and cartouches of iconographic ornament.
  • Such techniques for decorating icons allow the icon painter / gilder to double or more the level and cost of the work performed on the icon for the customer.
At the end of the master class, you will have in your hands a 10 * 13cm board with a gilded carved halo with double gilding (you can also do it with embossing), ready to paint the image of a saint. There will also be a planchette with a rosette ornament, artistically filled with enamel, with which you can demonstrate to the customer an example of the work.
Usually, for this master class, no one is afraid of gold leaf and working with it, but we will always be happy to answer your questions that arose in the process of working in the gilding techniques that you studied with us earlier.
This master class is only suitable for those who have already been trained in carved gilding with us. Ideally, do a little homework at home (but not required).

The cost of a master class on gilding 4000 rubles + board + gold. Time from 15.00 to 19.00

Please also read the information: “What to take with you to the lesson, what is included in the price, where to go, etc.?”

мастер класс по холодной эмали
Example of work with enamel

Sign up for training in double gilding and cold enamel (4 hours)

Final lesson. Development and combination of ornament.

This lesson was made in order to harmoniously bring together the techniques of gilding and decorating icons that you studied in our lessons before.
  • Unlike previous master classes, we do not study new gilding techniques, but we do other, no less important work – we learn how to independently develop an ornament, taking as a basis various elements from books on ornament and modifying them so that they look organically in relation to the icon … Using 3-5 pieces of the same ornaments familiar to everyone constantly from year to year is not an option for true connoisseurs of their own work.
  • The second important skill learned in the lesson is the correct combination of ornamental elements on the board along with the image of a saint. In words, it seems easy, but in the process of work, none of the participants with a lot of experience in gilding (and the most skillful and hardworking of our students come to us for this lesson, who decided to go through the learning process according to our program to the end) did not say that it was it was easy. For 12 hours (2 days for 6 hours), participants receive a huge amount of knowledge regarding this subject.
We will provide a variety of ornamental elements (fields, corners, cartouches, halos, etc.), from which it will be possible, under our leadership, to compose an integral version of decorating an icon-painting board, as well as several typical traces of images of saints (you can bring your own, but you must first agree it’s with us).
Only those who have already been trained in our program can take part in training under this program (master classes on smooth and carved gilding , as well as double gilding and cold jewelry enamel ).
The cost of a master class on gilding 6000 rubles + board + gold. The time is from 14.00 to 20.00 two days in a row (Saturday and Sunday).
урок по разработке и комбинированию орнамента
Preparation of complex carvings by our students

Sign up for a final lesson on the design and combination of an ornament

What to take with you to the lesson, what is included in the price, where to go, etc.?

Click the items below to expand them.

Our studio is located 7 minutes by bus from Bratislavskaya metro station, for your convenience we will meet you in the metro in the center of the hall half an hour before the start of the master class (at 14:30). If you are by car, we will send you where to go. Since this studio is private, we will send you a detailed address and location map after booking a master class via SMS. Thank you for your understanding =)

The cost of master classes already includes the use of all the tools and materials that may be needed, except for boards and gold leaf. They can be purchased from us, or you can bring with you.
We have a little board – 600r
Gold 2 leaves with us – 600r
Each lesson has its own board and gold, each time we start gilding from a clean board.
Board size – 10 * 13cm , maybe a couple of centimeters more. Larger boards are not suitable, since then you are guaranteed not to have time to do the entire volume of work in 5 hours and will not be able to get what you came to study for – completely all the knowledge about the gilding technique , which we show you at the master class. Our task at the master class is to fully see and independently repeat the technique of the studied type of gilding on a small board, so that later on your own in the workshop / at home you can scale it and apply it on an icon of any size.
Also, due to the acceleration of the gilding process , boards with an ark will not suit you, but we will definitely tell you what are the features of gilding of this type of board.
Natural levkas therefore acrylic levkas, as well as boards of Shchigrovsky production and sold in the “Orthodox Word” store, will not work.
In our opinion 50% success polymer gilding – high-quality levkas, properly welded and correctly applied. We will definitely talk about what gesso should be at our master classes on smooth and carved gilding.
We bring boards without a pattern ! But for a lesson on smooth gilding, you can take a cut with you, so that later you can outline the outline (silhouette) of the saint.

Gold is only suitable for free, not transfer , ideally, the gold of the Rarity company, but you can take any other good. We do not really recommend taking cheap Chinese gold, which is often sold in Russia under the Italian or German brand. In general, we will talk a lot about gold and will talk in detail at master classes.

It is better to take high-quality gold at a higher price (usually by 5-10%) and gild easily in one layer than to take bad and full of holes and not be able to put it in 1 layer, thereby increasing the cost of your work by 200-300%! And if it starts to oxidize … Why is the price so low?

You can also take a pen and a notebook with you, you will have to write down a lot. If you wear glasses or use a magnifying glass while working, be sure to take them with you!

To reserve a place, after registering for a master class, you will need to make an advance payment of 500 rubles (by transfer to a card). In case of your failure to appear, the prepayment is not refundable! If you want to reschedule your reservation, you must do this no later than 5 days before the start of the master class. All booking conditions are flexible, they can be discussed by phone.

Frequently asked Questions

Click the items below to expand them.

Briefly: The first two lessons ( smooth gilding and carved and embossed ) will work equally well for your first try.

More details: We have 2 basic lessons – a master class on smooth gilding (backgrounds, halos without ornament) and a master class on carved gilding and embossing (ornament and embossing, respectively). These lessons usually stand side by side on our schedule, smooth gilding on Saturday and carved gilding on Sunday. This is done only for the convenience of our students from other cities, who are often comfortable with the arrival in Moscow to cover the maximum of knowledge and skills.

You can go through them in turn, ideally with a break for a month in order to have time to consolidate your knowledge – at least once to work in the technique that we did in the previous lesson. You can go through first carved gilding, then smooth, or vice versa. These are master classes one level of difficulty, on them accents are given to different moments in the gilding of the icon – smooth gilding is dedicated to how high quality, put the gold leaf evenly so that it lies without joints, without sticking, without yellow spots, as well as how to properly polish it with an agate clove; carved gilding with embossing – an emphasis on how correctly arrange and translate the ornament, as it is cut out with a matting so that there are no holes in the places of the cut (we put gold in 1 layer , we don’t need holes), and then all this beauty – correctly and accurately minted with the help of special curly punches.

In a word, smooth gilding – how to put gold, carved – how to decorate it.

Briefly: Yes, you can study even without the slightest experience in icon painting.

More details: As strange as it may sound, the gilding technique itself has nothing to do with icon painting. You can be a talented artist, but gilding is a little careless because of habit, or you can be completely far from art and do everything technologically correct and neat in the end. Our gilding lessons are simply adapted to icon painting, but you can also apply this technique in other areas of activity, for example, in gilding furniture or interiors. Therefore, you can learn gilding at any stage of your icon painting path: and only by entering an icon painting school, and if you are already an experienced honored icon painter, and even without even studying icon painting at all.

Icon painting is rather creativity, gilding is a craft.

Briefly: Fine! However, if you came to our website and this page, it means, most likely, you still have some questions and / or difficulties in gilding icons. We promise to help you figure it out!

More details: All of us were taught icon painting and gilding at the icon painting school / university. However, often little attention is paid to gilding, which is understandable – education is focused primarily on the icon painting canon, drawing, the study of various iconographic schools, etc. Nevertheless, from time to time in educational institutions they approach gilding, but somehow it is not completely clear. And the result is average, often the icon painters are forced to use the services of third-party gilders.
Our technique of gilding icons has a lot of differences from standard gilding on polymer. And even more so, it is completely different from the “standard” program of gilding on Mordan. Well, let’s talk in more detail than many other teachers. In any case, we guarantee that even with extensive experience in gilding on polymer, there will be many new discoveries for you in our lessons! Real masters are always in the learning process =)

Briefly: No, unfortunately gilding training is impossible without your personal presence.

More details: In our world, you can learn how to create many things without leaving your home – all kinds of trainings, YouTube videos and online training help you get basic knowledge about the subject, write your first icon or painting. Such online courses help a lot, but not in all areas it is possible to conduct such training efficiently. At the moment, it is impossible to take your hand through the video and show how to nail down that sheet of gold correctly, so as not to get holes in the end, or how to correctly apply the polymer and set the chasing. Alas, such handicraft items do not lend themselves to translation online, in contrast to icon painting, for example. Try to learn, say, a blacksmith’s craft on YouTube and forge a nail .. =)

Briefly: At the moment, nothing. Perhaps in the future we will be doing such gilding sessions , we will definitely write about it to everyone!

More details: How do master classes differ from gilding lessons / courses? In a short time (4-5 hours), on a small board 10 * 13cm, we do all the work from preparing the levkas to polishing with agates and chasing. We show you all the techniques clearly, concisely, specifically, with live examples, we warn you against mistakes, etc. Having studied the technique, you will be able to independently scale its application even on a board of 100 * 200cm, there is no difference in technology here. The only thing that is not given in the master class is your experience, your own tactile and other experience. However, it is impossible to give it in a week of work, just spend 7 times more money on it on extended courses. We offer you to gain experience on your own, free of charge. Every next board you gilded will be of better and better quality.

Briefly: Yes, if there are enough participants. In some cases, the training may be free of charge for you as an organizer.

More details: We will be able to come to your city or country and will be very happy about it! However, for this it will be necessary to organize a master class and gather a certain number of participants so that this event is beneficial for everyone. We have rich experience in organizing both in Russia and in other countries, so if you are interested in inviting us and gathering a group of those who wish, we will help you with everything that we know. Email agatzub@gmail.com orВотсап +7 (977) 724-88-32 , we are always in touch.

Interior gilding on Mordan

At the numerous requests of students working with interiors, we are developing a new master class on gilding uneven surfaces on Mordan – gypsum, wood and metal stucco moldings. Follow the announcements, we will show and tell you everything soon. You can leave a request here
Золочение на мордан
An example of gilding metal on Mordan

Interior gilding on Mordan (in development, you can leave a request)

Master class on applying an assist, covering an icon and more

At the numerous requests of pupils working with icons, we are developing a new master class on the correct application of an assistant according to the old technology on beer wort, and not an acrylic “sticky” (God forbid, its lifespan is 15 years).
We will also practice with you the method of covering icons with gilding and embossing with varnish with linseed oil 50:50 that we use (you can also read about this yourself in our articles on gilding technology and icon painting ).
Follow the announcements, soon we will show and tell you everything. You can leave a request here
Пивное сусло для ассиста
Beer wort for assist

Training in applying an assist and covering an icon (in development, you can leave a request)

Free lesson, gilding with Natalia Pustylnik

Due to numerous requests from our students, we will plan gilding sessions, when it will be possible to gild your work / order under the “supervision” and with the advice of an experienced gilder Natalia as part of a small group.

  • Suitable for those of our students who have already been trained with us, but for various reasons want to “fill their hand” with the direct support of the teacher.
  • However, the knowledge that we give even at our simplest, basic master classes on Smooth gilding and Carved gilding with embossing is more than enough to gain experience on your own. Your next gilded board will get better and better.
Follow the announcements, soon we will show and tell you everything. You can leave a request here
Золочение на полимент
The work process of our students

Free lesson, gilding with Natalia Pustylnik (under construction, you can leave a request)

[Archive] Master class on smooth gilding

Gilding the background of an icon is often difficult for an icon painter, if there is little knowledge about gilding, or they have been obtained without a practical basis.


  • In this master class, you will learn how to smoothly and without errors ( without joints, turbidity, yellow spots ) lay the gold leaf in one layer , polish it correctly with an agate tooth, so that there is exactly a uniform polishing of the surface , and not shading with agate.
  • Let’s talk about how to choose the right adhesive and polymer proportions for gilding, about the required quality of levkas.
At the end of the master class, you will have in your hands a 10 * 13 cm board with a gilded matte background and a glossy polished halo, ready to paint the image of a saint.
And most importantly, you will get the most important skills in working with gold, you will understand how to manage this process and you will no longer be afraid to work with tinsel.
Equally suitable for completely beginners and already experienced icon painters and gilders.

The cost of a master class on gilding is 3000 rubles + board + gold. Time from 15.00 to 20.00

NO MORE PERFORMED! REPLACED BY IMPROVED TWO DAYS VERSION (READ MORE HERE)

Please also read the information: “What to take with you to the lesson, what is included in the price, where to go, etc.?”

Ровно положенное и отполированное золото. Готово к написанию образа святого.
Smoothly laid and polished gold. Ready to paint the image of the saint.

[Archive] Workshop on carved gilding and embossing

Making an icon yourself with a harmonious ornament and embossing is a great pleasure! If, of course, you have all the necessary knowledge and at least minimal practice for this.
  • In this master class, we will learn how to correctly compose , transfer and cut an ornament with a pattern (graph) on an icon-painting board, we will apply gold only on the halo and, as a result, we will selectively polish the halo (the ornament is glossy inside, and the background is matte outside) and chasing with curly punches outside.
  • It is this technique that can be found on most of the gilded old Russian icons in art museums and temples.
At the end of the master class, you will have on your hands a 10 * 13cm board with a gilded carved halo with embossing, ready to paint the image of a saint. And most importantly, you will gain the most important skills in working with gold, you will understand how to manage this process and you will no longer be afraid to work with a gopher.
Equally suitable for both beginners and experienced icon painters.

The cost of a master class on gilding is 3000 rubles + board + gold. Time from 15.00 to 20.00

NO LONGER PERFORMED! REPLACED BY IMPROVED TWO DAYS VERSION (READ MORE HERE)

Please also read the information: “What to take with you to the lesson, what is included in the price, where to go, etc.?”

Мастер-класс по резному золочению и чеканке
Gilded chased halo, ready to paint the image of the saint
Прокрутить вверх
Пролистать наверх
0
YOUR CART
  • Корзина пуста.