The gold comes in little books of 25 leaves that measure 3 1/4” square. The loose leaves are separated by salmon coloured tissue paper so they don’t all stick together. Gold leaf is so thin that you cannot touch it with your fingers. It will disintegrate if you do. The gilders tip is used to pick up the gold. The gilder wipes the tip on the side of the face to pick up trace oils and a touch of static electricity. This causes the gold to cling to the gilders tip. Then the gold is carefully placed over the size and lightly tamped into place with the gilders tip. The gilder will then tamp the gold down well with the mop and brush away any loose flakes. That’s it...the job is complete. The gold is usually left uncoated unless it will be subject to being touched. In such cases the gold will be coated with a clear varnish to protect it. Gilding is an ancient art where very thin sheets of gold are applied to objects to make them appear to be solid gold. Many of our signs feature gilded ornaments or lettering. Gold leaf is applied to a coat of special glue called size. Most of the labor involved in gilding is in the preparation of the object or letters to be gilded. They need to be extremely smooth or the gold will appear dull. Any imperfections in the surface will be seen through the gold. Real gold does not tarnish and that is why we only use real 24 karat gold on our signs. Here are some of the tools and materials used in gilding. The little blade on the pinky finger is used to cut the gold sheets into smaller pieces as needed for the project at hand. The wide brush is a gilders tip, used for picking up the gold sheet and placing it on the surface to be gilded. The other brush is a gilders mop for tamping the gold into the size and for brushing away any loose gold fragments. BACK Copyright Showpiece Signs 2013 Home About Contact Portfolio Articles How to order