We scared the living daylights out of a lot of you with our last post when we showed pictures of our copper cross masterwork completely coated with a matte yellow primer, but hopefully we’re on our way to redeeming ourselves with this entry.  As you can see, we’ve finally started the gilding process!  We’re about a quarter of the way done at this point.

We worked late into the night to keep up with the drying times of the glue (size).  But finish our commitment, we did, and closed up shop to get a quick snack before turning in.  Coated from head to toe with gold flakes, we got some interesting looks from the clerks and patrons of a convenience store we stopped at on the way home!

We got a little carried away with the volume of pictures we posted for this entry, but they are fun and beautiful and we hope you enjoy all of them.  More pictures and posts about this gilding project are on their way!

No freaking out!  Promise?  Ok, you can look.  We know, it kind of looks like the  yellow styrofoam version of the copper cross at this point, but it’s the real thing, we promise!  Our beautiful copper cross is on its way to its heavenly golden coat.  To get there, we had to first prime the entire structure.  We tinted the primer a light buttercream color to compliment the gold leaf overlay.  The next step is to apply the size and start gilding.

Though everything looks a little crazy right now, it will all come together in gleaming perfection when we’re done.  Guaranteed.  You’ll see!

We had some fun today!  As you can see, we added the copper spire to the archway.

We temporarily lifted the tower so the specialists could attach the lights.  Yes!  The tower will be lit!  And Jesse Rhodes from Hightower Construction (pictured on the left) added a makeshift cross (about the height of the real cross) made out of 2 x 4s just so we could better visualize the end result.  Ok…and because it was fun!

Wondering about the stainless steel poles extending from the top of the arch bows?  That’s where the finials go.  Though they are all finished, we won’t add them until the last minute.

While the workers were up there installing the lights, they set up a lightning prevention system as well.

The spire comes back down, maybe not tomorrow as it is scheduled to rain all day again, but soon.  We still have some details to finish on the top of the archway and can’t do that with the spire up there.  But there’s not much more to do as far as that is concerned.  In the meantime, we’ll be working on the cross.  See you next entry!

(Disclaimer…Remember Copper Exclusive did NOT make the spire.  We want to give credit where credit is due.)

We should shortly have the top of the archway completely clad in copper.  The gallery of pictures below shows the start of our work on the base, but we’ll be adding copper to the back side of the arch bows as well so the entire structure is covered.

You’ll be able to see in some of the photos that we have soldered the copper at the base.  In 99.9% of cases, we will never use this technique.  This is one of those 0.1% times.  Since the spire sits flush with the base, this is the only appropriate option here.  You can see the bolts protruding from the base where the spire will be secured.