To produce gold leaf, first a 24 karat gold nugget of about one ounce is rolled repeatedly through a rolling mill in order to produce a gold ribbon.

The ribbon is then cut into small pieces that are placed in between special bamboo paper and beaten for 30 minutes to increase the size.

The gold is then cut into 6 fingernail-sized pieces and beaten for another 30 minutes, increasing its size to a near-square plaque with rounded corners of about 2.5x2.5 centimeters.

After this, the gold is beaten for a third round, which lasts for 5 hours to increase the size of the gold six times and make it wafer-thin.

The final gold leaf is rather oval to round in shape and has a thickness of only 0.008 mm, so thin that it can be blown away just by waving one's hand past it.