Gold Leaf Peeling Off ?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 18 Nov 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

rosyelf	18 Nov 2004
About a month ago, I bought the Nefertari tarot in a local metaphysical store. It's a new deck, not secondhand, and I'm concerned that the gorgeous gold leaf used abundantly throughout the deck is beginning to peel off. It doesn't come off in big chunks or strips but I am noticing little gaps on the images where there were none before. (There were SOME right at the beginning. I presume this was deliberate, in order to make the Egyptian images look more authentically old. I don't mind that at all.) Does anyone have a Nefertari (or other gold-finished deck) to which this has happened ? Is there a way of slowing the process ? I have transferred the deck from its original cardboard box to a nice cotton bag-thanks again, Tarot Galadriel ! Maybe this bag will be less abrasive ? love and blessings, rosyelf

Gardener	18 Nov 2004
Hi Rosyelf of the delightful name, I have the Nefertari and Kat Black's Golden, and there is some peeling with both. I think it's just the nature of gold leafing. Karen of baba-prague talked at some length about how the printer has to put on the gold leafing, and I remember when the Golden was still in production that one of the delays was the incompatibility of the gold leafing with the intended lamination procedure. Oh, the Salvador Dali has gilt edges too, like the Golden. So to answer your questions, yes, I have a little tiny bit of peeling with all three. But then, I do shuffle/riffle them! I think it's basically a matter of not bending the cards, if you want to keep them as perfect as possible. Some people put the cards on the table and swirl them around, so they can mix without bending. Personally, I just think the wear and tear adds to the antique look of all three decks. I don't think I'm going to lose a lot of the gold, just little bits here and there. Good luck keeping them shiny!

baba-prague	18 Nov 2004
Gardener wrote: Karen of baba-prague talked at some length about how the printer has to put on the gold leafing, and I remember when the Golden was still in production that one of the delays was the incompatibility of the gold leafing with the intended lamination procedure. I'll be honest and say that I don't know a lot about the gold leaf process (Alex is really the print specialist). For the limited edition large Baroque Bohemian Cats deck we intend to use gold inks, not foil (probably more than one colour of gold). This has the advantage of being a more straightforward process - and not subject to flaking - but of course it isn't so shiny. The very old Wirth deck we found some time back has moderately shiny gold inks, and to my taste, it looks really lovely. For our deck, a sort of antique gold finish may be best, but of course the really shiny gold foil can be lovely too. As a small publisher I don't think we'll work with gold foil for a long time to come - it does sound as though it can be problematic - plus we find it's enough work for us redoing all the images so that the gold ink works well! I wish I could give more advice about how to look after the gold foils, but on the other hand, I kind of agree with Gardener that a bit of wear can look quite interesting and nice.

VGimlet	19 Nov 2004
Gold foil is really very fragile and easy to rub off. I worked with it some in my mail-art days, and even though the effect is awesome, it's not very sturdy. Still - it's a beautiful effect. I think I recall a few people saying they had two copies of foiled decks - one to use, and one for pretty. :)

rosyelf	19 Nov 2004
Thank you everybody for these responses. I rather think now that a bit of peeling just comes with the territory, and that it really does just add to the nice used feel of the deck ! Will probably get a spare deck, VGimlet, just to be pretty. have a nice day love rosyelf

The Gold Leaf Peeling Off ? thread was originally posted on 18 Nov 2004 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.