Use gold leaf and adhesive spray to decorate an old sewing machine

You can’t miss today’s tutorial if you own an old sewing machine, know how to apply gold leaf, or have any knowledge of the gold leaf technique. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to apply gold leaf to an old sewing machine, but in a very different way than you would normally do. As this old sewing machine passed through the hands of Mari Luz from Bricoydeco.com, we were pleasantly surprised by the results:

• His gold leaf technique was used to decorate an old sewing machine that was rusted and quite deteriorated.

• It has also used a new technique instead of traditional mixing to fix the sheets: Pintyplus removable adhesive spray.

Using old sewing machines to decorate

• It was created by using faux gold leaf sheets imitating oxidized gold leaf. These sheets form water in a blue-green tone, creating a very interesting visual effect.

• Spray primer with zinc

• Spray paint that has a gold chrome effect

• An ultra-glossy spray varnish

• You can use sandpaper or a metal brush.

A step-by-step guide to decorating with gold leaf and adhesive spray

Rust should be removed

To begin with, it is imperative to protect the sewing machine against oxidation with an appropriate primer since it is made of iron.

Using a metal brush or sandpaper will remove the rust if it is already rusted.

Prime the surface

Next,  Zinc Pintyplus Tech primer is applied . This primer is composed of a minimum of 99{8911b186dc8eb68cf7477c00c897a45e728d69107c116b7a555a42ac961b72cc} pure zinc that is electrochemically adhered to the support. For more information about this adhesion, please visit Wikipedia. By doing so, the oxidized part of the metal is not only protected, but also regenerated.

Using paint

Following 24 hours, a layer of pintyplus gold chrome effect paint is applied as a base. Any base color can be used, but reddish tones are typically used for gold leaf sheets. Due to the fact that some parts of the sewing machine would be visible, gold chrome was chosen this time.

Spray adhesive on the surface

The Pintyplus repositionable adhesive spray will be applied after the chrome paint has dried (approximately one hour).

By doing this, the gold leaf sheets can adhere to the sticky surface.

Gold leaf should be adhered

Blue variegatto gold leaf has been chosen from a variety of gold leaf sheets. It has a similar effect to oxidized metal, as can be seen below.

It is very important to place the sheets very carefully after the adhesive spray has been applied, since they are extremely fragile.

It could be manipulated with the help of a tool called the polonaise, although it has not been used here.

In order to adhere the sheets, small touches will be given with the fingers. It doesn’t matter if some overlap each other, since the part that doesn’t adhere will be easily removed using a brush.

Varnish to protect

In this way, the gold leaf is protected at the same time it contributes to its total fixation by applying a spray varnish with a glossy finish after it has completely covered the desired surface.

Step-by-step instructions are provided in the following video tutorial:

A proportional amount

It is proportional

A comparison of traditional and spray gold leaf techniques

There are several very spectacular effects that can be achieved by adhering very thin sheets of gold to a support. It is a technique that has been used in decoration and art for centuries (sculptures, altarpieces, furniture…).

In the following section, you will learn what the advantages are of using repositionable adhesive spray in comparison to traditional methods.

The traditional method of applying gold leaf

1. Base colors are English red for gold foil, Prussian blue for silver foil, and red or green for copper leaf.

2. When the varnish mixture is sticky to the touch, it is appropriate to adhere the sheets. This type of varnish has the unique characteristic of having a long drying period.

3. As the sheets are very delicate, you need to handle them with care.

4. Brush or brush out the remains that have not adhered.

5. Shellac protects gold leaf over time so that it does not come off.

Spray varnish and adhesive spray have many advantages

• In contrast to the repositionable adhesive spray, which takes on this texture instantly, the mixtion takes several hours to set.

• While the mixtion lasts only a few hours, the removable adhesive spray remains constantly biting.

• You can use adhesive spray to touch up any areas that need it.

• A cloth moistened with alcohol can be used to remove spray adhesive from any area quickly and cleanly.

• The spray varnish covers the entire object in just a few minutes, as well.

• Additionally, spray varnish requires less skill and technique to apply than shellac varnish.

Would you like to try decorating an old sewing machine with gold leaf? If you have not tried this method of gilding objects, we encourage you to do so. Any of your projects will be posted on www.shakingcolors.com.