Eventually, a friend offered him four times the amount
Lischina had paid for it. The artisan then set his sights on the
iPhone 2G, which he also acquired on eBay. He said it was
love at first sight, but he wanted something unique to him.
Going on eBay yet again, he searched for a kit that
included a frame and gold-covered buttons to encase his
iPhone. Still not satisfied, he asked a jeweler to create the
bitten Apple logo in gold.
Lischina loved it, and it wasn’t long before someone
wanted to buy it from him. So he sold the phone and replaced
it with an iPhone 3G. This time, he tricked out his device with a
matte black finish accented with gold on the buttons and the
Apple logo.
Within 24 hours, a well-heeled Ukrainian had seen it
and offered to buy it. It was then that Lischina decided to
turn the hobby into a business and began researching gild-
ing technology and methods. He learned how to apply gold
to other surfaces from reading books, watching YouTube
videos, and talking to engineers.
He left his job in the aircraft industry and, with the
little money he had, started buying the necessary equipment
piece by piece. Through trial and error, he perfected his pro-
cess. Friends brought him their phones to make over — and
their keychains, pens, and home furnishings. Business also
picked up thanks to his presence on eBay and on Instagram
(@aurumedition).
Lischina’s first customer — the one who’d bought the
Nokia smartphone — returned to Lischina to have him plate
it in gold. Business was brisk as he found himself filling all
sorts of requests for the iPhone 3 and then the iPhone 4
and 4s — all from his garage. There were requests for gilded
company logos, and businesspeople paid him to cover their
Blackberries in gold.
“The gilding technology is not easy, and I did not have
any experience,” Lischina said. “But it came with practice.
People kept bringing me their phones. Skill and reputation
were accumulating.”
Then the iPhone 5 was released, leading to a sudden
snag in the business. The gold would not stick to the new
aluminum in the phone’s exterior. None of the online
resources Lischina leaned on could help him, but he soon
figured out the problem had to do with water. To coat the
stubborn aluminum on the iPhone 5 required many layers
of gold coating, which needed large volumes of water, more
water than he could get running through a hose from his
house to the garage.
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