My first Gold Leaf Project

Having bought a reproduction heavily carved chest at auction, I thought this would be the perfect piece to gold leaf,  though due to the ornate carvings, might prove just a tad ambitious as this was my first attempt at applying gold leaf. I always forget to take Before photos as I'm too eager to get started, but I took a quick photo of it in the auction room - quick being the operative word, hence it came out blurred!

First, I prepared and painted it in Fired Earth's Dragon Blood. I wanted a strong colour that would be a striking contrast for the gold leaf - and I wanted to get away from safe neutral colours for this particular piece, even though I know people will either love or hate it!

I was lucky to find a huge roll of gold leaf being offered on a Facebook Selling Site free, and simply had to pay postage. I already had gold leaf size in my craft box, so once it arrived, I got down to work.

There are lots of You Tube videos showing how to do this, though none that showed a similar project to mine, so it was largely thanks to trial and error, that I managed to finish it.

The first thing I soon learnt was that the size needs to be the right degree of tackiness. It wont stick if its either too wet or too dry, so after applying the size, leave it for two-three minutes so that it just feels sticky to the touch. I applied the size to small areas at a time and then burnished the gold leaf sheets to the mouldings and left them to dry for about 30 minutes.

After allowing about 30 minutes for the gold leaf to adhere, all the excess gold leaf is removed, leaving only that which has stuck to the size. 

I finished it with clear and dark wax, and then gave the gold leaf a final coat of sealer to protect it. And voila! This sad looking mahogany chest has been rescued, restored and is now resplendent!