Aidan Hart’s students on the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts Diploma Course being taught how to make Icon boards and how to Gesso by Dylan. The course study was completed over 3 days and was a great time of shared pilgrimage.

Dylan makes Icon boards to any size requirement with some stock sizes being held. The boards can be mailed to the UK or overseas. The boards are available gessoed or ungessoed. The gessoed board is edge sanded and the painting surface left unsanded for the Iconographer to prepare to their specification. Boards can be surface sanded by Dylan at an extra cost, this is careful work and takes a considerable time.

Lime or Tulip wood are used for the board, with braces made in European Oak, all woods are kiln dried and sourced from James Latham’s FSC certified stock. A board up to 15cm wide requires no Oak truss at the rear. Boards from 15 – 27.5cm require 1 truss and boards over 27.5cm require 2 trusses. Very large boards will require 3 trusses (over 100cm) Board trusses increase in width and thickness as specified in Aidan Harts book on Iconography.

The hand making of the boards produces a dovetail jointed rear truss and a boarder to the front face, called a Kovtchec in Russian or Kivitos in Greek. The measurement of the Kivitos needs to be specified at the time of order , measured from the board edge to the top (front) of the 45 degree slope into the Icon board. The completed wood board can be purchased at this stage sanded all around to 180 grit finish.

The second purchase option is the gessoed board, to quote from Aidan’s book

“The brilliant white surface of gesso provides luminosity to the finished painting. This whiteness underlying the icon can be seen as an image of the Holy Spirit. He is the life-giving power proceeding from the Father, the hidden ground and foundation of all that is created. He is also the means to creation’s fulfilment, its transfigurer. Most importantly, the Holy Spirit is the means of mans theosis or deification.”

The eventual veneration of the Icon starts with the daily prayers in our workshop, the prayers of the iconographer during painting and the blessing of the priest on reaching its first church or home.

The wood panels are primed with two coats of rabbit skin glue and then the linen is glued in place. The linen is coated twice with glue and whiting primer and allowed to dry, then a further fifteen coats of gesso applied. This takes place over six or so days.

Special boards like the recently made Royal Doors for the Church of St Nicholas in Amsterdam can be made in our workshop, please enquire for a quotation.