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Thank you again, Merve! This is most excellent information, and I appreciate it so very, very much!

Oh, Merve, thank you so much! That is very illuminating (so to speak!). I have been concerned about getting the exact right amount of gum arabic so as to prevent those two phenomena you mentioned, gold not adhering well enough or not burnishing up brightly enough. It seems a very, very delicate balance!

I've been thinking maybe I should take my batches of gold and restart the grinding to get it smoother. It takes so long! I wish better ready-made shell gold options existed here, but the stuff you get in tablets in the US is not as good as even my handmade.

What concentration of gelatin do you use? Does it rehydrate well?

Thanks again for your enlightenment on this subject!

@Kathlyn Powell I sometimes prepare my own shell gold but usually I buy ready-to-use ones because it is quite labor intense work:) There are two types of pre-prepared shell gold in our market. One that already includes Gum Arabic in it and you can activate the shell gold with just water. It basically works like watercolour. The other one does not include any gum so you have to use it with gelatin solution. (or you can add Gum Arabic gradually if you want to use the shell gold like watercolour). Both types have pros and cons.

At first I prepared my own shell gold like the first one.( I left some part of the gum in the shell gold) This is easy to use but I sometimes cannot adjust the final Gum Arabic amount. I should check whether the gum is enough or not. I wet the gold paint and keep stirring the whole shell gold with my brush all the time to keep it homogenized. It is very frustrating to see that while you are painting, either some of your gold work come off to your hand or does not become shiny after the burnishing if the gum is not distributed homogeneously. When this happens, naturally I want to add another layer of gold. But it can cause flaking ( gold might separate from the paper after burnishing). This is why I find the gelatin solution version safer when I make my own shell gold. (However, dropping a very small amount of solution to the shell gold one at a time is essential).

So either I buy the pre-prepared shell gold with Gum Arabic or I prepare my own and wash all the gum away to use it with gelatin solution. These are the ways that I prefer.

The gritty texture might be caused by lack of grinding.

I hope my explanations are not very confusing.

I am not an expert but I would like to share my knowledge, experiences and recipes under the "Tools & Materials" section so you can check the whole process there, if you like. If you have further questions we can continue to discuss them under this section.

Just so inspired and flat out WOWED by everybody's work. Keep on contributing to the world's store of beauty--we need you! :)

Wonderful work, everyone!