A friend of mine who recently passed was an ol skool sign painter. Had been doing it for almost 60 years and one of the few people in America's 4th largest city who still did real gold leaf with real gold foil. For years he tried to get an apprentice and it would have been a great gig because he was always in great demand. But only a few tried to learn and never took the time to get good at it - it's a real old world craftsman-like skill. So now that he's gone I'm not sure there are many people left in the area who still do it. The point is that it is hard, takes a long time to learn, and the materials are really expensive.

greg