Metal leaf
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009) |
Metal leaf, also called composition leaf or schlagmetal, is a thin foil used for decoration. Metal leaf can come in many different shades. Some metal leaf may look like gold leaf but not contain any real gold. This metal leaf is often referred to as imitation leaf.
Contents |
[edit] Uses
[edit] Decoration
Metal leaf is most often used for decoration. Before the discovery of electroplating, it was the only cost effective way to gild statues, cornices, the exterior of domes or other objects. An example of gold leaf exterior use is the dome and statue atop the main building of the University of Notre Dame.
[edit] Culinary uses
Gold and silver leafs are considered non-toxic when labeled as food-grade and so can be used to decorate food (such as cake) or drink. They can often be found in a desserts including chocolates and Mithai; Vark is a Hindi term for culinary silver leaf. In India gold or silver leaf is often used to cover the top of a main dish before serving, especially at weddings. Gold in particular is sometimes used in fruit jelly snacks. It was also used in coffee, especially during Japan's "bubble economy". In Kanazawa, where Japan's gold leaf production was centred, gold leaf shops and workshops sold green tea and hard candy containing gold leaf.
Danziger Goldwasser ("Danzig Goldwater"), a liqueur incorporating gold leaf fragments that give a snow-like effect when shaken, has been made in what is now Gdańsk in Poland since 1598, and recently other brands such as Goldschläger have used this effect.
[edit] Gold leaf
Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of carats and shades. 23-carat gold is the most commonly used variety.[citation needed]. The traditional method of manufacturing gold leaf is a process called goldbeating. In industrialized nations, the process has been replaced with more mechanized methods.
There are a variety of imitation gold leaf products available. These are used in order to avoid the high price of gold. These imitation gold, or gold-colored leafs are more accurately grouped into the broader category of metal leaf. Real yellow gold leaf is about 92% pure gold. Silver colored white gold is approximately 50% pure gold.
Layering gold leaf over a surface is sometimes called gold leafing, and is a very common form of gilding.
[edit] Gold leafing in art
Gold leaf has traditionally been most popular and most common in its use as gilding material for the decoration of art including statues like the Chryselephantine sculpture of Ancient Greece or the 10th century Golden Madonna of Essen. Illuminated manuscripts often contained much gold and silver (the latter badly subject to oxidization). In medieval panel paintings the "sky" background area, especially in religious paintings, was conventionally made of gold leaf until more realistic conventions were adopted, first in Trecento Italy, and later in Early Netherlandish painting. This style is known as "gold ground"; the gold was usually decorated with patterns made by stamps. Gold was also often used for haloes, and for highlights and patterns on clothing in paintings. Gilt bronze is a term for statues made of bronze which are then gilded; this is a very ancient process found in many cultures, sometimes using "mechanical" processes of hammering the leaf into place, but also other processes such as mercury gilding, known since ancient times.
Picture frames used to hold paintings and other works have also been gilded since medieval times and are the most frequent use of gold leaf in art in modern times. Modern "Gold" frames made without leafing are also available for a considerably smaller price, but traditionally some form of gold or metal leaf was preferred when possible and gold leafed (or silver leafed) moulding is still commonly available from many of the companies that produce commercially-available moulding for use as picture frames.
[edit] Gallery
 Close up of restored, leaf-gilt plaster lion, 1863, Halifax Town Hall |
 Leaf-gilt ebony harpies, 19th century, Cliffe Castle Museum |
