Work & Services

Gold Leaf & Gilding

A red fire truck from the San Luis Obispo Fire Department features ornate gold lettering and decorative details, including an image of a mission building in the center panel.

Gold leaf is one of the most premium, old-fashioned sign crafts still practiced today — true hand-gilding with real 23K gold. Sean, our proprietor, learned the technique in 1989 from renowned gold-leaf painter Rick Glawson, and that tradition carries on at Southpaw today: storefront windows, office doors, fire engine restorations, or any project where gold is the right call.