Breadbox

The breadbox was a birthday present, designed and built by my son, who wants to be able to fill it with four loaves of home-baked bread at a time. It sat around unpainted for quite a while, until I finally remembered to pick up some "silver" leaf at an art shop. 

First step was undercoat - acrylic paint out of a tube, thinned down slightly. Sanding, then a layer of acrylic gold size, which "dries" in 15 mins but stays tacky for ages.

The exciting part was putting on the aluminium leaf. A blunt (stencil) brush is useful for getting the leaf into any crevices, and in the absence of the proper big soft brush, I used a blusher brush for brushing away the loose bits.

 The box in situ - it still needs a handle -

I love the subtle reflections -- and now want to gild everything in sight!