need gold surface

Have you looked into PMC? (Precious Metal Clay)

What medium are you working in? That would help find an appropriate solution for you.

Ive done a couple watercolors in which I added a metal leafing. Its really not a hard process. All you need to do is mask what you want as gold and apply a glue sizing (normal sizing is wabbit hide glue) to the pattern. Then take the metal leaf (they make brass, copper, ersatz gold etc) and using a big soft brush, you pick up some leaf by building a static charge on the brush. Beleieve it or not I rub my cat with the brush, hes always walkin all over my drawing board. You pick up the leaf and pounce it on the area youve sized, then burnish it with a stiffer brush. The rest of the area (unsized) will just allow the leaf to peel away. If it were gold leaf, youd keep collecting and reusing till the sheet is all accounted for. If you want it for a great work, only use gold. If youre just playing around, anything goes.
Framing supply companies have gold leaf and metal leaf.
Try Cheap Joes. They carry a lot of hard to find art material

hmm, she says the medium she is working with is a huge slab of drywall. Can't think of anything inexpensive to use on such a large surface that would truly look like gold.

Have you checked with your neighborhood paint or home decor stores to see what suggestions they might have? The only thing that might come close to your specifications would be some gold tinted spray paint perhaps. You could buy a few small cans to experiment with and select the one that pleases you the most.

gold balls
She is a he actually. My name is a common mans name among Polish Jews (or was once). I have seen, for a lack of better words, big balls made of plastic covered by something that looked a lot like gold but must have been a cheap material considering the size of the balls, or should I say orbs. It was an industrial product used for giant Christmas decorations, so I don't know if the material can be obtained by a mere starving artist. Thanks, Dov

you must mean a foil type product? cloth like?
try some searches on ebay.com
for gold foil or gold material

Be creative

That gold umbrella sounds good. It might work. As for the material on the big balls, I once scraped it with my fingernail and it came off easily giving the impression it was some kind of paint. The answer has got to be out there.

You might email some of the artist supply houses such as Dick Blick, give them the specs you're working with and your goal. Maybe they can suggest something for you.

I'd check with the local paint store first, give them a call. I know they have gold colored nail polish, and gold colored inks but those wouldn't work too great on drywall. Usually, (I think) such paints have bits of aluminum in them to be reflective. I know the gold paint you're talking about, and Iv'e seen it painted on doorways...

I'd check with the local house paint store first, give them a call. Or check latex/acryllic paints online. I know they have gold colored nail polish, and gold colored inks but those wouldn't work too great on drywall. Usually, (I think) such paints have bits of aluminum in them to be reflective. I know the gold paint you're talking about, and Iv'e seen it painted on doorways...