About the Gold

Gold is the reason our work looks the way it does and lasts the way it does. Here is what is actually in it.

What 24K Means

Karat measures purity. 24 karat is pure gold, with no other metal alloyed into it. 18K is 75 percent gold, 14K is roughly 58 percent.

24K is the softest and warmest form. That softness is why it is rarely used for rings that get knocked about, and exactly why it suits a surface that hangs on a wall and is meant to be looked at.

Finished in Gold, Not Cast in It

Our pieces are finished with real 24K gold. They are not solid gold, and we want to be direct about that rather than let the phrasing imply otherwise.

Gold weighs about 19.3 grams per cubic centimetre. A wall piece of any real size cast solid in gold would weigh more than the wall could carry and cost more than most houses. Nobody makes them. Nobody ever has.

Every large gold artwork you have seen, in any museum, is gold applied to a base material. Gilding is not a shortcut around solid gold - it is the technique, and it has been for thousands of years.

How We Apply It

The piece is built in metal first. The design is cut and formed, with the detail worked into the material rather than printed on top of it. That formed metal is the artwork.

Gold is then laid onto that surface in layers, by hand rather than by industrial dip. Hand application is slower and less uniform, and the unevenness is the point - it is what gives the surface variation in depth and makes it read differently as you move around it.

925 Sterling Silver

On select models we use 925 sterling silver for a second tone. 925 means 92.5 percent silver with the balance usually copper - pure silver is too soft to hold a fine edge, so the alloy gives it structure. The standard has been in use for roughly eight hundred years.

Silver tarnishes. It reacts with sulphur in the air and darkens over time, faster in humid or coastal environments. This is normal and reversible with a silver cloth. We would rather tell you now than have you find out in year three and assume something went wrong.

Gold vs Gold-Tone

Gold-tone, gold-finish, and gold-coloured describe appearance, not material. A gold-tone piece is usually brass, zinc alloy, or plastic under a tinted lacquer, with no precious metal in it at any stage.

Two quick tests. Look for a karat number - real gold finishing states one, and a listing that never gives a figure has told you the answer. And watch how it holds light: real gold has a soft warm reflectivity that shifts as you move, while lacquered brass reads flatter and often looks slightly green or brown at an angle.

Caring For It

Dust with a dry, soft cloth. Nothing abrasive, no solvents, no glass cleaner on the metal itself. Brighten silver elements with a proper silver cloth when they darken.

Direct sunlight will not harm the gold - gold does not fade - but it will fade velvet over years, so a wall adjacent to a window beats one facing it.