How to Make Old Gold

How to Make Old Gold

Briefly, the process is as follows;

1. Tools:
    1. table   2. blower   3. anvil of various sizes   4. hammer   5. pliers, tweezers or tools for seizing or picking up   6. needle file   7. mushroom-shaped punch   8. rainbow- shaped iron rod   9. moulding pit in various shapes to mould gold into round shape or bead shape. These are in the form of moulds with various sizes.

2. Metods
    2.1 Melting. The goldsmith puts pure gold into the smelting oit and blow it at high temperature until gold turns into liquid. Gold is then poured into a rectangular trough to cool down and become solid mass.
    2.2 Beating or flattening. Gold sheet or gold wire is made. To make a sheet, a gold bar is placed on an anvil and hit hard with a hammer. To make gold wires, gold bar is flattened into a pointed pencil-like tube and passed through a spinner with small hole which will turn it into long wires.
     
3. Old gold making techniques. Sukhothai old gold is made by many methods:
    3.1 Gold plaits. Gold wires are made into plaits of various designs and sizes as required. Designs are named as the three-thread, four-thread, five-thread, etc.
    32 Gold rosary beads. Gold sheet is put in two halves of a round mould and then join together. Holes are punched in the middle for a string  or chain to go through. The size of the mould makes for the size of the beads.
    3.3 Square or rectangular beads. Gold sheet is spread and rolled around in the shape of boxes. Holes are pierced in the middle for stringing.
    3.4 Round or oval beads. For making fruits and seeds shapes such as mayom or rambutan or pine come, similar methods are applied. The difference lies in the wire cutting and the numbers of motifs to be made.

                                   

Designe of the Old Gold

                          
Old gold differs from gold made in other areas. They have different names:
 1. Plaited designs. It is made with three, four, five, six or even ten theads. It is made in a flattened design into bracelets with plaited designs; twenty threads, twenty-four threads, etc.
 2. Rosary. Oval shaped beads with centre hole are strung together as part of necklaces, earrings or bracelets. The designs have different names such as woven rattan ball, mayom, sum, pip, pine cone, amulet, boomerang, polished rosary beads, rambutan, six-sided ball, fish-roe circlets, anklets etc.
 3. Motifs. They are called in various names such as Ban Chiang, thek, heart, Thai Airways, phikun flowers, fish roe, droplets of water, mudmi, heart and fish roe, string of hearts, flowers, queen's vine, etc.

The making of old gold at Si Satchanalai

                              
The making of old gold at Si Satchanalai requires to be made by both hands in all steps of the process. At first, designs are copied from those of old ornaments, sculptures, figurines, plaster work and mural paintings as well as designs of old gold ornaments from other places. They are integrated and made into the so-called Si Satchanalai old gold designs, with its own identity. They are divided into 2 categories.

Ornaments:
 1. Necklaces such as tri-thread, four-thread, five-thread, six-thread, eight-thread, pendants, stiff-stemmed necklace.
 2. arm bands such as bracelets, tube bracelets, twin-tube bracelets, pigtail-style bracelets; twenty-thread design, twenty-four-thread design (flat design).
 3. ring, gold rings with niello motif
 4. waistband; belts with different motifs, buckles carved in different designs.
 5. earrings of various designs.
 6. anklets; some are made to order but there are only few orders.
 7. brooches and other ornaments.
Utensils

  Utensils are made by special orders. Sometimes, the shop have them made roder for special occcasions such as exhibition on festive occasions or in trade fairs. They come in the forms of covered bowls, handbags, golden and silver pho leaf containers, gold filigree vest, betel nut set, giant-size picture frames, etc.