4 Foot Tall Golden Anchor

Our customer asked us to create a gold leafed anchor to hang as a sign on their house. We decided to carve the piece out of High Density Urethene (HDU), an incredibly dense foam material that is completely weather resistant. The cross piece would be wood textured and painted, and the rest would be gold leafed.

Texturing the wooden crossbeam.

Next, we primed the entire piece and wood painted the crossbeam.

Then we painted a gold enamel undercoat in preparation for gilding.

We brushed size over a manageable section of the anchor, let it dry until tacky, and gently applied the gold leaf. We eventually covered the whole anchor, and then burnished it and patched any gaps in the gold.

Done! I’ve never gilded a piece as big as this before (we usually only use gilding for sign letters), so it was an extremely eye catching piece.

Thanks for looking! Please contact if you have an idea for a completely unique sign or sculpture!