Travis McGee wrote:
>
> Carroll and her boyfriend ate 25 wings from a KFC in Kentucky, then
> cleaned the bones with soap and water. She let them dry, then painted
> the bones with a varnish, graphite conductive paint and coated them in
> copper. The bones were then plated in 14-karat gold.

That's not a stable plating. The gold diffuses
into the copper, so the copper will show through
after a few years. To be stable, you need a
barrier layer between the copper and the gold.
Nickel is usually used for the barrier layer.