Thistle Earrings

These earrings are created with an ancient Korean gilding technique, called “Kumboo”, which is used to apply thin sheets of gold to silver. Traditionally, this technique is accomplished by first depleting the surface of sterling silver to bring up a thin layer of fine silver. Then 24k gold foil is applied with heat and pressure - mechanical gilding. Pure precious metals such as gold and silver, have a very similar atomic structure, and therefore have a good potential for bonding. Heating these metals to a temperature between 500-700°F increases the movement of the atoms. When pressure is added, this causes an electron exchange at the surface between the two metals, creating a permanent diffusion bond.