Diy freshcoat

Gold Leaf

Steve Bull: Gilding or Gold Leafing as its known, has been around for a long, long time but it's a technique that you can easily do it home. Now gold leaf is great, it's a fun thing to use on raised surfaces, you could paint at fire places and any architectural detailing you might have in the house like crown molding. In order to do this technique, you will need SIZE which is a water based glue for attaching the gold leaf to. You will need an applicator to put the gold size on with, you will need a detail brush for pushing the gold leaf into the crevasses and we use at the architecture detail and you will need a burnishing brush to clean up the particles of gold leaf once it's dry. And last but not least you will also need your pure gold leaf which is 24 carat.

The secret to gold leafing is in the application of the size we have to apply the size after the pieces that we're going to gold leaf. And we have to wait for it to dry for consistency where it becomes very tacky, in order for the gold leaf to stick to the surface. This is in the gilders term is commonly known as waiting of testing for the ring. When the size gets dry enough you test it with the tip of your finger periodically and when it feels like you're almost touching a sticky piece of toffee and you get that kind of chek, chek kind of sound. When you touch something sticky that is commonly known in gilding terms as the ring and you know that it's at the right consistency and the right dryness to apply the gold leaf. We simply place it on the surface and dab it into the place with this little brush here and just go all the way around the piece dabbing the gum and what you will have to be remember here is that first time going over pieces like this that you have got a lot of detail to them, you are not going to get the gold leaf to stick 100% in all the places in same time, so you're going to have to go back and you're going to have to do some spark touch up. Use the soft burnishing brush to wipe way any place and wallah there we go, we have real Gold Leafing. I am Steve Bull, happy painting.