How to Apply Gold Leaf

Have you ever wanted to do gilding or gold leafing? Well, I am here to show you that it is so simple! Much easier than you ever think so I am going to go through the steps and what I did to create this corner molding and all these molding with – actually, we are going to work on something that might be a little bit more practical and smaller. This is just to add just a little picture frame. So this will be great and we are going to give it all the sheen and excitement that we get with gold leafing.

So first, what we need to do is have some color on this. Oftentimes, you want high contrast between the leafing and the background because we are going to have little bits of the background peeking through. Well I am kind of going through the real solid gold wraps so I do have a gold finish on the background of this frame. However, it is traditional to do more like a reddish brown for leafing or gilding.

So next, we need the leaf. Here we go. They come on this little sheets separated between tissue paper. Then you are going to need some adhesive sizing and that comes in two different kinds. We have a liquid that you can brush on which is great for smooth surfaces but if you have a finish or surfaces texture or has lot of intricate areas like this, well I used spray on this because it made it much easier. And this molding, of course, there is a lot of detail and texture within that so I used spray on that also.

So first, we are going to take our spray or our liquid, brush it on and it is just clear, transparent glue-like substance. Let it dry maybe about an hour and it is a little bit tacky. Then what we do is come over here, we are going to take our leafing, and now I have this picture frame and I have already glued it and it is dry. So I am going to take this with my dry hands, gently just lay it on top of the frame. Is it not that great? You can use a brush or even just your hand and soften it down. It is going to stick anywhere that the glue was, you can peel it off, and you can put this over the entire frame and press it down gently. Then you can just rip it off where it is not attached to the frame and just place pieces all over until you have the whole entire frame covered. Very simple and look, you can just totally see the high contrast that we get our – you know, how different the leafing is compared to just plain spray paint? There is a brilliance that you cannot get with spray paint that you can get with this leafing. It is so much fun.

For the gilded picture frame, there are a couple of different things you can do. We can either put over a clear sealer and you can either spray or brush that on or you could also rub into it. I would rather put glaze, a clear glaze. They have these types of products in the section where you buy the gold leafing. So there you go. Really easy, very rewarding and a lot of fun.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services