Silver Leaf Tip 2In

The square gilders tip for silver leaf features white Chungking bristles glued in paperboard to pick up pieces of silver leaf or composite metal leaf on the tips of the bristles. The visible hair length is 50 mm (2 inches).

To use our silver tip, stroke it against your hair or skin. This is a technique is believed to work for different reasons. Some believe that it imparts a trace of oil that allows the brush to pick up silver leaf for placement onto the sized surface. Others think that it creates a static electrical charge on the brush that allows the silver leaf to adhere lightly to it. Whatever the real reason, you can follows these directions to lay silver on a surface sized with glue (water gilding):

Lay a leaf of silver on a gilder's cushion and cut it into whatever sized pieces you need; pass the silvers' tip through your hair, pick up a piece of silver and put the tip with the silver on it between the fingers of your hand holding the cushion. Then with a clean sable watercolor brush in the other hand wet the area at the top of the surface you are silvering and that is a little larger than the space which the piece of silver will occupy. The surface must be wetted generously, and you will probably have to pass the brush over it twice as the bole will take up the water quickly. The surface should have a thin film of water standing on it when the silver is put in place, because if parts of the surface have already become dull there is a good chance the silver will not adhere properly. The silver will be pulled off the tip by capillary action the instant it touches the water so the tip must be almost parallel with the surface when the silver contacts it.