FAQs Regarding Gold Powder

Kintsugi, and paintings and crafts of the East and the West… these are some of the major states for the gold powder. With fine particles and smooth texture, Gold Powder has been one of the most popular items throughout our long history.

This time we did some experiments to answer some of the FAQs regarding gold powder:
- How much can you draw with a bag of gold powder?
- What are the colour variations of the gold powder?
- How much does brass powder go through colour change over time?
- Why should we polish the finished piece?

On a side note, we call gold powder Kindei in Japanese, which translates to golden mud,referring to the powder state of ground gold leaves. In the painting community, the powder is often called Kinkeshi or Keshifun, and Kindei refers to the powder mixed with Nikawa glue. However, here at Shizendo, we have always called the powder Kindei -apologies for the confusion…!

How Much Can You Draw With 0.1g of Gold Powder?

It depends on the primer or how many layers you draw, but this time we tried drawing one thin layer of gold powder mixed with Nikawa glue.

The result showed that 0.1g of gold powder can cover 170㎠, about a piece of postcard.

Variations of Gold Powder

Different ratio of gold and fineness of particles makes a whole variation of gold powder. With 24K containing the biggest ratio of genuine gold, the colour growingly appears blue-ish as the number of Karat goes lower and the ratio of silver increases. The bigger the K is, the more reddish it appears as it contains more gold.

 In the short video, we picked up some of the major versions of gold powder to compare.

We tried painting these five variations from the top to the bottom.

• Gold Powder 24K
• Genuine Gold Powder 23.44K Premium
  
• Gold Powder 18.12K
  
• Gold Powder 14.3K
  
• Brass Powder

Although all of them are “gold’ powder, the ratio of metal makes these huge differences. Which “gold’ is most suitable for your project?

* The powders were sprinkled with cotton and a brush on the silkscreened glue.

Comparing the colour change of Genunie Gold Powder and Brass Powder

Genuine Gold is resistant to colour change. The lustre of gold can still be spotted on art or craft pieces made centuries ago. On the other hand, brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, changes colour over time.
Here we recreated the aging of genuine gold powder (on the left) and brass (on the right) by heating sulphur sheets with iron.

Although the brass powder is affordable, colour change is observed. 

Please select the one most suitable for your purpose and budget for your projects.

Polishing the Gold Powder

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In this article, we dig deep into the world of “gold powder” with increasing variety over the generations. We hope this guide helps you choose the perfect version of gold powder for your projects.