Gold powder application

Hello jewellers!

I’ve been very lucky to inherit a huge amount and variation of gold powder and some size. I’ve never used gold leaf or powder before. I would like to play around with it to see what I results I can get with it but I’ve little info on how to use it other than mixing it with glue or dusting it onto tacky size.

I wonder if anyone here has any experience, opinions or ideas for me.

Can I melt/fuse with it? Can I use it as I would gold dust?

Could it be used to create my own alloys?

If I use it as a paint or dust how durable is it? How might I finish or protect surface once dry?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thank you! !


image|375x500](upload://ckzqpoyuj3PL6q2r1S2LHw7RddS.jpg)

Rachel, I can help you with techniques
that use the gold power.
Do you know what karat it is?
Easier if we PM through messenger if
you use that. You can contact me through
Facebook, Richard Hart.
You can fuse it to gold or sterling.
Image is of Michael Zobel’s work.

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Before you get too excited if its really “Gold” as opposed to gold coloured
base metal powders, the 1st thing to do is to let us know if the tins of this powder are heavy? or light?
Then test it with some acid. If it fizzes then its just brass powder.
If it does not, then you might just have gotten lucky.
Ive had this sort of query on and off over the yrs, and its always been base metal on testing. Now gold leaf is something else and will always be in books.
look forward to hearing more about your powder and the results of the tests.
you mention size, thats used by painters onto an article before dusting on the powder. sounds like base metal to me.
Ted.

Ha Ted you are likely to be correct!

I can’t imagine anyone having this much gold dust lying around - and I’m not THAT lucky.

I’ll have to buy a testing kit just to be sure. It is heavy feeling so I suspect that means it’s brass. I do know that there is such a thing as gold dust/powders used from suppliers who I’ve bought different proper karats of gold left from.

Thanks for your input. :wink:

Update:

I’ve discovered this is indeed a Gold Bronze powder collection. It’ll be fun to play with but not for use in my studio. Thank you everyone for helping me figure it out.

If it was real gold it should be massively heavy