GOLD LEAF

As far back as 3000 BC Egyptian artisans were covering stone and wooden artifacts with finely pounded gold foil. The method for producing this ultra thin foil has not advanced all that much in the ensuing centuries. Basically, a small piece of gold is pounded flat with a stone or a mallet.  The flattened pieces are then divided up and placed between pliable sheets of leather or paper and struck again  until paper thin. These sheets are then cut up and pounded for a third time until the foil can be as thin as .00001 inches. One ounce of fine gold can produce over 100 square feet of this material.  

    In the industrial world there are now mechanized methods to produce this decorative and valuable foil, but in some quarters of the world, gold leaf is still produced the old fashion way. 

We recently visited a group of gold leaf workshops in Mandalay. They produce, by hand, all the gold leaf that adorns the countries many temples and Buddha statues.

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The method for producing gold leaf has not changed a great deal in the many centuries that the Burmese have practiced this craft. The process starts with small squares of gold, perhaps as thin as household foil which are stacked up between specially prepared sheets of tough bamboo paper.

This deck of metal and paper are wrapped in deerskin and lashed down to a stone anvil They are then struck with a teak mallet for about ninety minutes. When they are done the 1 cm square piece of gold is about four times larger.

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