Photography by Donovan Roberts Witmer
We’ve got the fever. Gold fever, that is.
Metallics are right on trend for 2014 (read Precious Metal), and we couldn’t be happier. Here’s one easy way to mix them into your home décor without investing in the real deal: gold leafing. Try this project to test out the medium, and then use your new skills to gild just about anything.
These bowls can be created in almost any pattern, but for ours, we went for solid gold and polka dots. Not big into brassy shades? The same application can be used with silver leaf, too.
Scroll down for the list of supplies and directions.
What you’ll need:
balloons (9-inch size work well) paper (printer paper or newspaper) scissors foam brushes Mod Podge plastic cups paintbrush white acrylic paint small circular stickers (for polka dot pattern) metal leaf adhesive size gold metal leaf
Steps:
- Prepare. Inflate the balloons to your desired size. Cut paper into 1-inch strips.
- Create the bowl. Use one of the foam brushes to coat a strip of paper with Mod Podge and stick it onto the larger end of the balloon. Be generous with the Mod Podge to ensure proper adhesion. Continue, overlapping the paper strips and creating a bowl shape. Repeat this process until the bowl has several layers of paper in each location. Place the smaller end of the balloon (without paper) into a plastic cup and allow to dry for several hours or overnight.
- Trim to size. Once the papier-mâché has dried, pop the balloon and peel it from your bowl. The top edge of your bowl is likely to be uneven, so trim it so that all sides are approximately the same height.
- Paint. To give your bowl an even base of color, use the paintbrush to coat your bowl with white acrylic paint. Allow to dry, about an hour.
- Apply pattern. Optional: To create the polka dot pattern, place the small circular stickers in even intervals on the inside of the bowl.
- Layer with adhesive. Using the second foam brush, apply a thin layer of metal leaf adhesive size to the surface of the bowl that you would like to be gold (If you applied stickers, apply the adhesive over the stickers as well). Be careful not to apply too much. Let dry for approximately 30 minutes. The surface should be tacky.
- Apply gold leaf. With clean, dry hands, very carefully remove a sheet of gold leaf from the booklet and place it on the tacky surface, lightly pressing the entire sheet to the bowl. Repeat until the tacky surface has been covered. Use a soft, dry brush to burnish, or rub, the gold leaf so that it has completely adhered to the bowl.
- Remove pattern. Carefully remove a sticker so that it reveals a white polka dot beneath. Repeat with the rest of the stickers. Note: If some gold leaf flakes off in the process, don’t worry. Gold leafing is not about perfection. Touch up the pattern using the gilding process in steps six and seven until you are happy with the gold coverage.
Go ahead… get gleaming!
Text and styling by Hannah Wigton
