The Art & The Artist

Built in reverse

Reverse glass gilding begins where every other medium ends, with the finished surface. Gold leaf is applied first. Everything else follows in mirror image, painted backwards toward a result only visible from the front.

The Heritage

Ashley Jo George is a fourth-generation gold leaf gilder working in reverse glass gilding, a technique that demands the work be completed in the exact opposite order of how it will be seen.

The craft entered Ashley's family nearly a century ago and has been passed through four generations. Each generation has added to its vocabulary — new subjects, new scales, new applications — while preserving the core discipline: gold first, paint second, patience always.

Ashley works in Cave Creek, Arizona. Her pieces range from intimate glass ornaments to large framed panels. Each one begins with a clean pane of glass and ends — months later, sometimes — with a work that cannot be replicated, touched up, or transferred. It is either right, or it starts again.

The burnished gold surface is polished with velvet until it achieves a mirrored finish — one of the defining qualities of the work. The gold does not merely reflect light. It reflects the room, and the person standing in front of it.

The Process

How it's made

I

Clean Glass

Everything begins with perfectly clean glass. Any dust, oil, or imperfection beneath the gold leaf will be visible in the finished work.

II

Gold Leaf Application

Pure gold leaf is laid directly onto the back surface of the glass. It is then burnished with velvet until it achieves a mirrored finish, smooth, reflective, permanent.

III

Reverse Painted

Oil paint is applied in reverse, highlights before shadows, foreground before background. Every brushstroke is made knowing it will be seen through glass in mirror image.

VI

Drying

Oil paint dries slowly. A piece may sit untouched for days or weeks between layers while the paint cures. The process cannot be rushed without compromising the result.

V

Sealing

Once complete, the back of the glass is sealed to protect the gold and paint from humidity, dust, and handling. The front, the viewing surface, remains the original glass, untouched.

VI

Framing

The finished glass is set in a frame chosen to recede, so only the gold and the image command attention. The frame is a border, not a feature.

Materials

What is Used

Gold Leaf

23-24 karat

Glass

1/4" thick

Oil Paint

Artist grade

Velvet

For burnishing

Size

Adhesive

Sealant

Archival grade

About the Gold

Why it Reflects

Gold leaf at 23–24 karat is nearly pure gold, soft enough to be beaten into sheets just a few microns thick, stable enough to last centuries. It is the same material used in medieval illuminated manuscripts, Byzantine icons, and cathedral gilding.

When applied to glass and burnished with velvet, it achieves a mirrored surface that no paint, no foil, and no print can replicate. The gold is not shiny in the way paint is shiny. It is reflective in the way a mirror is reflective. You can see yourself in it, literally.

This is the defining quality of Ashley Jo George's work. The pieces do not just sit on a wall. They put the room, and whoever is standing in it, inside the frame.

The Heritage

Four generations of gilding

1932

Alva Cobler

Gold gilding becomes part of the family heritage with Alva Cobler opening the Cobler Sign shop. Alva was a talented artist, he was invited to California by Walt Disney himself.

Brothers

The next generation

Alva's three sons, including my grandfather, took over the business and successfully ran it through the years. After one brother moved away, and my grandfather passed, the third brother's kids took over the business.

Learning

Keeping it alive

My grandfather and great grandfather passed before I was old enough to learn from them. Though, I have been blessed to learn from some of the modern day greats like Mike Meyer, Anne MacDonald, and Noel B. Weber.

Present Day

Ashley Jo George

Working in reverse glass gilding with an eye toward the luxury art world, bringing a near-lost craft to collectors, galleries, and spaces that understand the value of something genuinely irreplaceable.

Own a Piece

Every piece is available to inquire on

Browse the collections or reach out directly to ask about availability, size, or commissioning something new.