Gold Leafing for Wax Seals
“How do you add the gold on your wax seals?” and “What gold marker do you use?” are some of the most common questions we’ve come across on social media lately, and here is the answer.
Wax Seal Stamps are in again, and possibly here to stay. Commonly used in medieval times as envelope or document closures, sealing wax stamps were used to keep the contents of snail mail confidential, and also verify the authenticity of the letter. Used extensively by the ultra wealthy, these counted as signatures of the families that sent them.
Wax Seals Make a Comeback
Letter writing in ancient times, using dip pens and followed by wax sealing
Image Credits: LetterPile via letterpile.com
As they say, history repeats itself. Fast forward to several hundred years later, they’re in everyone’s Instagram reels and TikTok feeds, and oddly satisfying to watch on repeat. With this trend however, there comes the added touch of embellishments, especially a certain mysterious gold fluid being used to add pretty accents to handwritten letters. What is that? How do you do that? These questions have been everywhere.
How Does Gold Leafing Work?
Traditional technique of gold leaf gilding with gold leaf flakes on adhesive
Image Credits: Gilles Perrault via gillesperrault.com
Gold leafing, done in the traditional way can be a painful process. Adhesive is applied to the desired surface, and unnecessarily light weighted gold flakes are then painstakingly applied to just the sticky areas. That’s the long way to do it, but we’re here for the shorter, prettier and more precise technique - gold leaf pens.
How to Add Gold on Your Wax Seals
New York City wax seal stamp by The Letter Alley
With advancements in technology and the impatience of Gen Z comes a quick and handy way to gold leaf your wax seals and get the result you want. There’s several of them in the market now, so how do you choose? These nifty tools require to be shaken and pressed before use, and can leak often times, so they do require careful handling.
The Gold Leaf Pen You Need
The best gold pen for wax seals
Image Credits: Hadrian6 via tumblr.com
Want < Need! The top contenders in the stationery world at present are the Uchida Decocolor Gold Marker and the Krylon Gold Leaf Marker, the latter being a personal favorite. While the Krylon might be a more expensive option, it gets the shiny gold effect we all desire perfectly, and when stored at a slant with the capped portion higher up, will also pretty much never leak or cause a mess.
To all those who asked “which gold marker do you use in your wax seals?”— there’s your answer. While gold wax creams and powders can be an alternative too, the gold leaf pen is certainly the no-fuss solution and go-to option for people with less time or patience at hand! No this is not an ad for Krylon, and yes, after trying all possible techniques of gold leafing on wax seals, I can attest for this miraculous creation being THE ONE.
