As I explained in the first part , the idea of carving a votive statuette comes mainly from the search for something to insert into the entrance niche. But there is also a more "technical" reason that leads me to this choice: for some time I have been studying the possibility of making some golden objects, possibly following the traditional technique of gold leaf gilding.This may seem excessive, after all we're talking about boundary elements and such treatment would unnecessarily complicate the work. Actually, it's simply an attempt to make the most of the knowledge with a person who has been involved in this activity for a lifetime and who would be willing to participate in my project (although he has never seen it).Basically I am convinced that things never happen "by chance" and that we recall the situations in which we find ourselves, beautiful or ugly. It is up to us to know how to make the most of them.Within a medieval domus there are not many elements that can be suitable to being gilded: no frames, no mirrors, no luxurious ornaments ... it would be different if I were building a church or a baroque structure, but this is not the case .However, sacred images often have parts in gold, which as a precious material adds economic value and emotional impact to the work.My Virgin Mary with Child is now ready to be finished with color, so I will start right from the gilding of the coat.Despite having available some small sheets of gold (which I will try to use in the future) I opt for a less traditional gilding that can be done with a brush.I will therefore find useful some metallic gold pigment supplied to me by Manolo "el dorador" inside his atelier, mixing a small quantity of powder with a few drops of alcohol.The application of the golden coat is a matter of a few seconds. The surface to be painted is so small that now the starting idea of doing it with gold leaf makes me smile.Once dried the golden pigment is the turn of the tempera color: blue for the Virgin's dress, red for the Child's, then a diluted pink for the faces (which on the wood becomes brown) and a few touches of black here and there.Initially I also use a black felt-tip pen on the crown to lower its shape, but then I will eliminate these marks.As for the faces, I don't venture to draw any features, which might be grotesque at that size. The eye does not need many details to be able to reconstruct a face, two dots are enough.A final consideration that has nothing to do with the making of the statuette (or maybe yes?): The dear Costantinus, who for some time now suffers from serious behavioral problems, besides the fact that he claims to see the Virgin and to hear her voice, for a few days has not shown up at work.After having consulted his companions, who were unable to tell me anything that I didn't already know, I went to see the video recordings of the last week and this is what I found:I have no idea what that thing is, but without a shadow of a doubt it is not the Virgin Mary.For the moment I will not mention it to anyone, much less to the lady of the house. If she had to think even for a moment that the construction site is under the influence of the Evil One, she would be able to overturn the project, and at this point I really don't think it's a good idea ...MATERIALS:metallic pigment, temperas, black markerTOOLS:tweezers, small brushSIZES (in cm):