Thank you! There is a step-by-step video narrated by me, which I will post here later. In there you will see me temporarily creating an additional layer for the gold on the teapot, then dropping it down to "Foreground" when I felt it was done or very close to done. I think I did that when working on the golden plate in the background also. Right at the end I added a layer called "Curtain".
I'm very concerned about keeping the layers to a minimum when working, it helps me work faster I think. I really dislike layer-masks and adjustment layers, and having 1 layer for every little change I make to something, and 1 layer for every little item even if their silhouettes don't touch... :) it confuses me and slows me down.
I see! Having a lot of layers is really confusing and merging them into one layer surely cleans it up. I was always been afraid of keeping stuff in one layer as I might make a mistake and damage the whole layer :x
I'd definitely would want to watch the step by step video!