Gilding

Alright kiddo, so you know how sometimes you get a gold star for doing a great job at something? Well, imagine you could use real gold to make something look really fancy and special. That's gilding!

When something is gilded, it means a super thin layer of real gold is put on top of it. But since real gold is too expensive to use for everything, sometimes other metals like copper are used instead.

The process of gilding involves taking the metal object that you want to make fancy and cleaning it super duper well so it's shiny and smooth. Then, a special glue called "gilding size" is brushed on to the surface. This glue is a bit sticky and takes a while to dry.

While the glue is still wet, tiny sheets of gold (or other metal) are carefully pressed onto the surface. These sheets are so thin that they're actually called "gold leaf" because they're thinner than a piece of paper!

When the glue dries, the gold leaf is stuck on and the object looks like it's made entirely of gold. Sometimes, a little brush is used to make sure all the gold leaf is in the right place and to smooth out any bumps or bubbles.

And that's it! The object now looks super fancy and expensive, even though it might be made of a cheaper metal underneath. Cool, huh?