Gold plating at the jeweler is probably the best way to go.
Try the website www.goldplater.com. They do professional gold and platinum plating.
This will depend on the material you are interested in plating with. As the price of gold goes up, even plating with gold will become more and more expensive. Plating with silver will be less pricey than plating with gold.
There are various plating services around the world, from what i have seen and found, the top places are: Ashley Jewlers, www.ashleyjewelers.com/services_plating.html and, Artisan Plating, www.artisanplating.com, and lastly Gold Plating Services, www.goldplating.com...
"Basically, plating services will take something you own and cover it with some sort of metal, usually gold or silver. It's a good way to preserve something that you cherish." Plating services are companies that will take something you own and plate it in gold. That's really all it is.
There are many jewelers in Provo, UT that offer gold plating services. A search engine can be used to find the nearest jeweler in your area.
Metal Finishing Group is located in Sacramento, California. They do gold, silver, zinc and tin plating. http://www.metalfinishinggroup.com/
"The most common gold plating solution includes some form of cyanide, and either alkaline gold or neutral gold." "The best gold plating solution will be different for the type of material you want to gold plate. There are several varieties of gold plating, so depending on what type of gold and how soft, hard or bright you want it, that's what will determine the type of gold plating solution you want."
Gold plating depends on the spot price of gold. Gold plating is extremely thin, but gold is expensive too.
Many metals can be used in plating, such as copper, nickel, silver, gold and chrome, which is often used on cars.
Elctroplated gold is gold plating on other metals. The object shines and looks as gold because of the gold plating. Anode and cathode are used for gold plating.
The quality of gold plating does not depend on the shade of gold but rather on the thickness of the gold layer. A thicker gold plating will generally be more durable and last longer regardless of the shade of gold.
Local jewelers offer a wide range of services and can even repair damaged jewelry.