The art of illumination means to gild, to decorate with gold in the dictionary and is one of the traditional Turkish-Islamic decorative arts. In many periods of Turkish history, especially in the Ottoman period; the zahriye, title page, beginning of the sura, and the epigraph sections of handwritten books; the stops, seats, line breaks, inner and outer molding decoration areas of calligraphy plates and murakkas, and the ground spaces inside or outside the text were decorated with different techniques and styles of illumination art. In the illumination of all these works, 18 – 22 carat crushed gold and various colors were generally used. In the art of illumination, which means to decorate with gold, gold is used in the form of gold leaf or leaf gold. It is possible to find leaf gold in various shapes, and at this point, the price of leaf gold also gains importance. In this article, we will give you information about gold leaf, illumination art and the gold leaves used in this art, while also touching on brands such as Eytzinger leaf gold.
What Does Gold Leaf Mean?
Leaf is obtained by thinning the mines through various processes and turning them into sheets. The metal, which is turned into thin sheets, can be easily used in decorative arts such as illumination, in the form of leaves or sheets. Gold leaf, on the other hand, is obtained by beating the gold strip between thin parchments and the membrane obtained from the cow’s blind intestine into thin sheets.
The word leaf means leaf in Arabic. Although these leaf golds are found in many different degrees, they are usually 22 carat and sold in the form of a notebook. Naturally, since gold is rare and a very valuable metal, imitation (imitation) gold leaves are also produced. It is possible to use these imitation leaves instead of pure gold leaf.
These gold leaves are used for decorative purposes in sectors such as furniture and flooring, as well as in many branches of art such as illumination. Gold leaf, which is frequently used in traditional Turkish arts such as illumination, calligraphy and miniature, is also used for different purposes such as restoration, decoration, binding and upholstery and on different surfaces.
How is Gold Leaf Produced?
As its name suggests, gold leaf is produced from real gold. The leaf planned to be produced is passed through a rolling mill and turned into a sheet of 1 – 0.1 mm according to the purpose of use. The sheets that reach this thinness are cut into appropriate sizes and placed under the vellum (skin and membranes). Then, the sheets that are subjected to various processes are hammered. The very thin, gold leaf is placed between thin paper and turned into a notebook.
Each of the gold leaf notebooks consists of 25 leaves. Since they are very light, the gold leaves are placed inside the notebook so that they do not fly away and scatter in any wind or impact. Recently, notebooks have also been produced with the gold-glued-to-paper technique for convenience.
Making Crushed Gold
As we have mentioned several times above, when gold leaf is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is the traditional Turkish-Islamic decorative art of tezhip. In the art of tezhip, which literally means to decorate with gold, gold leaves are usually used after various processes. First, the gold leaf is crushed with the finger in a container with Arabic gum. Then, it is passed through water and filtered to obtain pure gold pigments. Then, this gold paint is transferred to the paper with a brush, together with a thin glue called gelatin obtained from animal bone. As a result of the gold crushing process, the gold leaf that has turned into pure gold paint is called crushed gold. This pure gold paint applied to the surface with the help of illumination brushes gives a very vivid and bright shine on the surface. Then, the gold paint sealed with a seal is made brighter and adheres more tightly to the surface.
