Give your collection of thrift store plates a serious dose of dazzle with this gold leaf treatment. Melissa DiRenzo is the creative mind behind these quirky and fun up-cycled decorative plates.
I met Melissa at the One Of A Kind Show & Sale in Toronto, Ontario this past March. She was selling her handmade wares in the Etsy section of the show. A lot of my favorite things were found here, including the paper posecards by Love Lettering that I featured last week.
If you’ve never experienced the transformative power of gold leaf, prepare to be amazed! Following this epiphany, you may start to look at the things around you and decide they could use a Midas touch.
Working with this material is not for the impatient crafter. The delicate sheets of leaf should be handled with a very light touch. It is a fact that you will end up with gold flakes everywhere, although it’s still not as bad as using glitter, but you have been warned! The results are well worth the effort. Trying to fake it by using gold spray paint just does not compare, in my humble opinion. It is hard to capture the wonderful shine and hue of gold leaf in photos, so if you don’t believe me, head over to your local art supply shop to pick some up for yourself.
Melissa has created a how-to on her blog, The Sweet Escape, that I encourage you to check out to get some tips on making your own gilded plates. I never thought I was the decorative-plate-collecting-type-person, but I will confess, I have been converted. My sweet stash of thrift store, flower laden, plates have already started to pile up, in anticipation of one day installing and epic display in my dining room. And you can bet your bottom dollar there will be gold!
Don’t think gold leafing is for you, but would still love to have a one-of-a-kind plate for your wall? Check out Melissa’s Etsy store!
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