The making of medieval bling
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

Gold has long been valued for its luxurious glitter and hue, and threads of the gleaming metal have graced clothing and tapestries for centuries. Determining how artisans accomplished these adornments in the distant past can help scientists restore, preserve and date artifacts, but solutions to these puzzles have been elusive. Now scientists, reporting in ACS` journal Analytical Chemistry, have revealed that medieval artisans used a gilding technology that has endured for centuries.