Gold is not only useful: it is attractive, and its sparkle and color add beauty and elegance to many different things. Gold can take on four principal decorative forms: plating salts, as rolled gold, as liquid gold, and as gold leaf.

Gold salts are used to create decorative plating. These salts are gold sulfide or cyanide. They can be used in solution or crystal form, and they can be used for many different purposes. For instance, machines have been developed to electronically plate stainless steel items. Yachting, architectural, and aircraft materials are large markets for such items.

Rolled gold is used to make products that are covered in gold, such as jewelry, lights, and pens. Rolled gold is a sandwich: aside from a gold allow layer, there will be layers composed of copper or nickel alloys. These layers are fused together with the help of pressure and heat, and these materials are all rolled together.

Liquid gold is often known as bright gold and can be used to decorate glass and ceramics. The perfume industry uses liquid gold as a decoration for bottles. Liquid gold was first carried out in Saxony in the early 19th century, and years later, a patent was taken out on gold in suspension. The German precious metals group Degussa also began work on liquid gold production, sharing its secrets with Britain’s Johnson Matthey; in the early 20th century, liquid gold production spread to America. Liquid cold has about 4-12% gold mixed in with various natural oils, acids, and resins.

Liquid gold is applied through screen printing, brushing, or spraying onto the glass or ceramics. The glass or ceramics are then heated so that a bright film appears. Liquid gold can also be used to glaze bricks or tiles. It can also be treated so that its texture takes on a rich, matte finish. This can be done through gold flakes or powder.

Gold leaf is beautiful and delicate – it can be produced by hand-beating until the gold layer is only about a tenth of a micron thick. Glass makers, builders, artists, and printers have used gold leaf extensively for centuries. It can also be used in architecture to highlight fences or provide protection against corrosion.

Gold Uses