Periodically I see references here on Orchid and other places, about
foiling stones and that sort of thing…
Where does one get precious metal foil…? I’m thinking silver and
maybe gold here…
I’ve prowled the Rio catalogs, Tripp’s, Fire Mountain and varied and
sundry trade magazines…and can find no mention of the stuff…but
it’s got to be out there somewhere…
Rio has gold and silver leaf, which is not what I’m looking
for…and the sheet material at it’s thinnest isn’t foil thin or is
it…? I’m looking for something in between the thinnest sheet and
the leaf…
Gary, Contact Sepp Leaf in NYC. Address 381 Park Ave. S., phone
212.683.2840. I haven’t been there in a few years but I’m pretty sure
they’re still at this address and number. They carry leaf of all
types and are knowledgeable about application.
Periodically I see references here on Orchid and other places,
about foiling stones and that sort of thing...
Do be aware that “foiling stones” is only very rarely done, or
needed, these days. It generally only affects the appearance of a
transparent stone mounted in a closed back setting, like a close
bezel, and then mostly only when the stone is NOT facetted to modern
optically efficient angles. It was historically used with old
facetting methods, like rose cuts, where one saw through the stone to
the metal underneath. Nowadays, it generally offers no benefit in
most cases.
Where does one get precious metal foil....? I'm thinking silver
and maybe gold here...
the most common uses I can think of in metals/jewelery work is in
enamelling, so enamelling supply houses sometimes carry it. Also,
it’s sometimes used in glassblowing too. And though a fair number of
metals artists use Gold foil in doing Korean Kum Bo, it’s not yet a
“rio” item.
But as I said, the enamel supply, and glass supply houses carry it.
here’s one I happened upon last night, when looking for a cheap
source of didymium glasses (cuts sodium flare from fluxes, while
soldering. here, they’re 29.95 a pair!) Anyway, they do have gold
and silver foils and leafs (both). http://www.glasscolor.com/catalog/metalLeaf/index.asp the glasses:
click on miscellaneous supplies, most of the way down the page you’ll
find em. The URL is way too long to paste in here…
And here’s another supplier who also has leafs and foils, including
some gold leaf specified as heavier than usual and much heavier than
usual, which might be interesting to explore. Also a variety of
various patinas/colors on copper foil…
Hi Gary, Foiling stones is not generally done with precious metal.
It’s done with ordinary aluminum foil! As for backing stones in
gold-colored material (which isn’t usually desirable since it tends
to distort color), I occasionally use gold ribbon (the stuff you
decorate gift packages with).
If you really want precious metal foil, you can always roll it out
from sheet. When it gets too thin for the rollers to compress
further, sandwich it between two pieces of copper and keep rolling.