It took me a while to learn to see what a layer of bole was capable telling me if I paid attention. It wasn’t long after I began gilding that I realized the applied gold leaf is so thin that it hides nothing; what the surface of the bole looks like beforehand is what it will look like afterwards, scratches and all. But, to judge the luminosity of the bole and see the gold’s reflection has taken more time. As you can see in the photo above, the shine is good, and the gold should show well after its application and burnishing.
