St. Tikhon's Monastery is delighted to offer custom crafted boards for iconographers. Our icon boards are made by monastics who are also skilled icon-painters. Making of each icon board begins with intense and focused prayer, is continued with prayer, and finished with prayer. These boards are truly infused with prayer, and thus they are a tangible embodiment of authentic Orthodox theology and spiritual life.
Materials:
• Wood: HPVA plywood, warp-resistant, ¾ inch-thick
• Interlaggio (“pavoloka”): muslin
• True gesso: natural calcium carbonate (chalk) and rabbit skin glue
The gesso layer is about 1 millimeter thick, enough to do incisions or punchwork.
The gesso can be made “hard” or “soft” upon request. ‘Soft’ means a higher ratio of chalk to rabbit skin glue and vice versa. Softer gesso is preferable if the iconographer intends to do water-gilding. Conversely, for oil-gilding, harder gesso is preferable.
ORDERING CUSTOM SIZE BOARDS
Often, iconographers need custom-sized boards that do not conform to standard dimensions. For instance, there is a need for a board 11 by 18, or 12 by 12 inches. These can be made at our workshop. The price is calculated by the area size of the board. Email us to give you a quote and also to know the shipping charges and sales tax.
In the order notes, make sure you include the following specifications:
- The height and the width of the board in inches
- Whether you want raised border (“kovcheg”) and, if yes, its desired width
- Whether you want soft or hard gesso
