Etching gold if I recall requires a real witches brew of at least two different acids at fairly high concentrations.
Now what would really set the "bling" factor going would be to use clear acrylic or perhaps glass as a replacement for the epoxy board, of course drilling 1mm holes in glass is near to impossible , but surface mounting of normal size ic's and other devices can be achieved with the tools to hand.
Acrylic seems the better option as it is easily drilled, the big drawback is its low melting point making it easily damaged.
Add a few leds or EL wire for lighting and hey presto.
Any suggestions how to bond copper sheet/film to glass or plastic
is the only bit I'm stuck on :lol: