After my attempt at fusing gold leaf failed miserably, I decided to try again: this time without any adhesive. I had a fair amount of scrap tekta lying about the place (as one does) and decided to try a number of different types of metal inclusions: gold leaf, silver leaf, aluminum foil, and copper leaf. I pretty much knew what the copper leaf would do, since I’ve used it before, but here are the results.
The gold is very hard to see, but it is still there; it became almost transparent and not so much metalic as simply yellow. I think the gold could work, but I will need to go with a thicker (and more expensive) foil. The silver and aluminum simply oxidized (although you can still see a little bit of silver, if you look closely. The copper behaved as before: turning a transparent cyan.
I like the baubles, but the photograph does not do them justice. They need to be held in the hand and moved in the light to see them sparkle.
Pretty!
Hi Peter,
I came across your entry about using foil while searching for help in using gold leaf. I am doing a window in a Frank Lloyd Wright pattern – tree of life – in which he used gold leaf sandwiched between 2 pieces of glass. In my naivity I purchased some gold leaf and thin clear glass thinking it would not be a problem. However, I encountered my first problem when I tried to get the gold off the paper without ripping it to shreds! I knew it was fragile but this was ridiculous. I have tried double sided tape which worked somewhat but not satisfactorily.
Can you give me any pearls of wisdom in how to handle gold leaf successfully?
Thanks
Darien.
PS I too have started fusing and am really enjoying the experience. Mostly it has gone well but a couple of times the big problem was a huge bubble in the glass. Most annoying and really hard to fix.
I can’t say that I developed any techniques to apply gold leaf. So much of the gold vaporized in my experiment that I haven’t tried since. Still, if you’re trying to gild the glass for a stained glass panel (as opposed to fusing), you might try to find a good calligraphy book, of all things. I have one that talks about gilding for illuminated letters, and I imagine the process is the same. I did see a program on TV a while ago where they were showing gilding being done on a restoration project, and I noticed that they seem to leave the leaf on the paper and apply the whole thing to the surface… after the size on the surface has become good and tacky. Next time, I’ll try it that way and see how it works.
I have had some troubles with bubbling too. I find that if I try to make something that is more than 5 inches on a side and is not two full layers thick, it tends to bubble. I think the secret is to make sure the glass is heavy enough to resist bubbling (hence the thickness) and to allow an escape route for the gas. Sometimes I break the piece up into smaller chunks so there is an escape route for the gas somewhere in the middle (although this leaves a seam). I’ve also used small pieces of stringer under the piece to raise it up a little off the shelf until it starts to slump. I’ve also tried soaking the piece at 1100°F for 30 minutes to give the gas time to be generated and escape before the glass gets to pliable.
I don’t know if any of this helps. (I’m no expert!)