Hmm. Silver leaf in sheets acts differently than leaf in flake form, and the end result is a bit different, although my vocabulary would be hard pressed to explain adequately. Strangely enough, the silver leaf–or at least this particular cheapass imitation leaf, since I’m not laying out forty bucks for real precious metals–adheres to the fingers much more brutally than the cheapass imitation gold. My fingertips are now a tarnished silver-gilt, despite a good deal of scrubbing. Oh, well. It’ll wear off in a bit.

I finished the leafing, set it down, gazed at the chicken, and thought “…Christ, I want gummi worms.”

So, I must now go buy gummi worms. And a new toothbrush, because I needed something to scrub the stray bits of silver leaf at the edges, and my toothbrush was the only thing in the house that would work. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices in the name of art.