Yes, a smooth finish can be very elusive…… water gilding can produce a smoother finish as you can gently blow on the leaf when it has been placed to smooht out most wrinkles. Real gold leaf is extremly difficult to work with and you need to use a gilders tip and pad if you want any type of precision with your work but if you are game enough and only want bits here and there then you can break it and use tweezers to apply it( it is so fine the most gentle of breath will blow it away). You can buy a double thick leaf here in real gold whcih is easier to work with but still tricky. Fake gold leaf or dutch metals are much easier to work with and look quiet similar but the real gold doesnt have the guady look that the dutch can. You can also get variagated metal leaf which comes in red,green and blue and looks abit like oil on water- ( the red is quiet amazing ) I will post some more info tonight but for now my 3 month old has decided he needs some attention!!

Just realized that I actually mislead you yesterday..sorry all… you can oil gild real gold leaf but not silver ( it will tarnish to a brown colour within a couple of months). The difference between oil and water gilding with other metal leafs is basically just the end product, I work mainly on glass and it gives a brighter mirror like finish to the gold( seems to have the same effect on canvas). Water size(glue) is made up with a 00 size gelatin capsule and 250ml water, I usually slowly melt a broken capsule into the water over a very low heat until you can’t see any more bits, then put into a air tight container where it will keep for at least a few weeks ( this is quiet a bit but is hard to make it much smaller)( maybe could use half a cap and half the water). Dutch/Shlag or imitation gold is just brass with a good golden colour and is the most common and cheapest. 23 carat is the most common and widely available of the real gold leaf and should be handled with a gilders tip which is a flat very soft squirrel hair brush( which I don’t know about elsewhere but here in OZ are hideously expensive) otherwise it sticks to your skin if you touch it with your fingers and will wrinkle and break very easily. It is much more expensive but does give a amazing finish in the right applications……..don’t know if I have been any help but it is one thing other than kids I know alot about!!

I would love to see a pic of your work…….not sure but I use a product that is called gold size to do my oil gilding, it is some sort of varnish but is purpose made for gold leafing- might make it easier for to work with.

I use the compostion gold leaf on my mixed media paintings….and I use the acrylic medium to paste it down…..I switch brushes from applying the medium to a dry brush for applying the gold leaf….and then I very lightly tamp it down with a dry finger if there is any bubbles….and I mean dry.

I will on occassion apply a medium over the gold leaf but it will dull the look so it depends on what I am after as to how I will finish.

I like the other composition leaves as well and have also bought the glue with the kit but found that the acrylic medium works as well.

The dust powders give a metallic glow and you can achieve a transition from a light metallic look to a heavy coat….depending on how you blow it off or apply it. I will on occasion drop the metallic powder into an acrylic wash area then let the water move the powders around and when it dries the powder will adhere to the surface in a random manner, again in subtle light to heavy.

I also use interference paints to get another metallic look to the paint.

good luck and working with metallics is a lot of fun.