May 28, 2012
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Gold-Leafing my Lamp
Before, it’s ugly. Shape is nice, only needs gold.
Tools, gold,silver, copper leaf, knife, brushes, sizing (or glue) and pad. Don’t get composition gold leaf, ‘composition’ means ‘fake.’
I experimented with several different techniques. I thought it would take me a weekend, but it ended up taking two months. Gold-leafing is actually harder than you’d expect.
Put the glue (and clay) down, pick the gold up with a brush, and stick it on. The gold is so delicate, if you pick it up with your hand, it will fall apart and you will lose $2 just like that.
I silver-leafed other parts. Use the knife to cut the gold into pieces that are more manageable.
Final product. I don’t know why the picture is sideways. Surprisingly, washing the glass helped a lot to make it look better, too.
After this, I gold-leafed my cell phone. Great! I have a cheap phone, but it’s gold! You have to be careful, because the leafing will wear off after a while if it gets rubbed. Secondly, it’s really hard to leaf small little things with cracks, because you need to put the sizing (glue) on evenly, and it tends to get pooled up in the cracks.
Comments (43)
Wow, you’re handy! Washing the glass really helped. When I saw the very last picture, I thought your lamp had come crashing down after you finished hanging it, since the photo right before was of it hanging.
Gold-leafed cell phone, lol.
Pretty clever. Even though it turned into a big project, it was worth it to keep a perfectly good fixture from ending up in the landfill. Replacing the mismatched light bulbs wouldn’t hurt either.
Nice DIY post.
@naughty_virgin - lol no it didn’t fall! It did take an hour or so to hang it again, I kept on screwing it into the ceiling in the wrong order
@judyrutrider - lol ok, I’ll switch the bulbs
@phantomFive - lol. So you were in the dark for two months.
@naughty_virgin - oh yeah, I forgot about that. It was miserable!
That does look really nice.
I think it looks better without the gold.
@wyrdkismet - Really? Oh well.
@ReeserTheShadow - Thanks
Oh wow! That’s so much work!! It looks great though, must be nice to have light again!
Also, I bet your phone looks awesome. ?!
P.S. New layout! Except I’ve been away so long…not sure how long you have had this one >.<. Looks good though!
@phosphor_stars - Yeah, it turned out to be more work than I expected….. :/
@phosphor_stars - lol it looks kind of ratty now, I’m going to retry it now that I am not sick of gold anymore, like I was right after I’d finished
It definitely looks like you “fixed” it at home.
@FattiesGonnaFat - Thanks, you’re great
@phantomFive - I know, right?
use mica powders to fill in cracks! that would be …… the shimmery gold eyeshadow haha , made from natural minerals.
thanks for showing me how this is done…. i’m nervous about the shoe…. i tested the liquid gold leaf in the back… didn’t quite come out “gold”….. but then the ground is black steel…. :/ haha
gold-leafed phone… put some crystal rhinestones on it too… in the shape of…. the Hexagram!!! lol
then apply sealant… very funny… gold-leafed phone
@boilingicicle - lol I’m going to tell you, there is no way that I, as a male, will put rhinestones on my phone. Possibly diamonds, but there are limits I will not cross…….
@boilingicicle - Yeah, I was dissappointed as well with paints and other fake golds……….
@phantomFive - lol!!! ok… silver leafed wires then! glue em
Dog you is never gonna get laid wearing that stupid hat.
@Mockdonimus_Tuntsweet - Dog, who made you an expert on style?
@phantomFive - Whatever guy, but you know I’m right. Why don’t we test the theory, and you make a post and ask all the ladies of Xanga if they’d get with a guy wearing a fedora in 2012.
I promise you my man, the answer is “no”.
Don’t get it twisted, playboy, I ain’t on here to be blindly hateful towards ya ass. I’m tryinta say that I hate seeing a brother on here doing it wrong. I mean, I get the whole adventurer cowboy rebel spirit thing, brugh, I used to live in Texas. But wear them hats at work when you on the ranch or whatever, don’t let no woman see you in that shit.
@Mockdonimus_Tuntsweet - The hat doesn’t make me cool, I make the hat cool.
@phantomFive - I mean, I ain’t really asked your situation, do you live on a farm or a ranch, do you ride horses alot?
@Mockdonimus_Tuntsweet - Oh, I live in San Francisco. I grew up in the country. Sometimes I ride horses. Sometimes I shoot guns.
@phantomFive - Yeah I mean, I only keep one gun, and I call it my ack right….cuz it make niggaz ack right lol. But yeah nigga, you is alright. It’s kinda dope how you leafed up that old ass lamp and made it look all nice. I gotta look into leafing. I was thinking damn, I wanna see the plant that gold leaf grows on.
@Mockdonimus_Tuntsweet - lol thanks bro
That is awesome. Would be cool to see pix of your phone. Thanx for stopping by my blog.
@JanikaBanks - oh yeah, unfortunately, the phone didn’t look good enough to take a picture of it lol. I am thinking of trying again though on the phone.
did you do the same for the gay/metrosexual lamp you liked at ikea?
@nepenthium - Oh, you put your real picture on Xanga. You look so cute.
A sufficient man will leave the women creaming.
@Sapiential - That doesn’t interest me
@phantomFive - Understood.
very cool.. I like it… did you make anything golden for Christmas?
@gyromight - Nah, I need to re-do my phone though, it all came off.
i clicked on this post because i wanted to say you did a great job. but i also want to say that the comments on this post are priceless.
@happyobligations - Oh now you are commenting on my blog ^^
Yeah, I’ll bet you get lots of comments like these.
@happyobligations - and thanks
@phantomFive - mockdonimus has commented on my site before and everything he says makes me laugh so much
@happyobligations - Yeah, it’s entertaining