Glue Pen For Applying Gold Leaf ?

July 7, 2012

I'm making my first attempts to use gold leaf (the faux stuff) on letter illumination and was wondering if anyone has used a glue pen -- like the Sakura Quickie Glue Pen -- for that purpose. For now, I'm just making a big mess on my desk... gold leaf is tricky stuff.

July 8, 2012

I have only used my gold & silver leaf a few times and never for letter illumination. That is WAY beyond my skill!

Since you mentioned a glue pen that I own, I had to give it a quick try. For each example, I wrote a word or letter and traced over it.

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc489/disneymelissa59/Fountain%20Pen/goldleaf.jpg

The Sakura Quickie Glue Pen works like a rollerball pen, but produces a line more like a fine fountain pen. (See "Quick" in gold leaf)

The Zig 2-Way pen is thicker, with a chisel tip, like those on a highlighter. I tried to use a corner for the top two "Test" examples. The larger "M" worked out better.

For all of the letters, I put down the glue, within a minute or so, covered it with the leafing material. Let it dry about two minutes (probably should have waited longer), then rubbed it with a cotton swab. It looks like I was too aggressive on the thin, gold lettering, but it worked well for the big silver M, except that lower curve to the right. Adding a bit more glue and topping it with a touch more silver leaf would have fixed it.

To give you an idea of the size, each square is one-fifth of an inch. I think the Sakura pen would work much better if used to outline larger letters or designs.