Long in the making...

The following peerage scroll was a long time in the making, but it is finally finished and has been given to the person it was for.

Size: 16 x 20
Support: Perg
Paint: Mixed pigments with gum arabic binder
Gold: 23 kt leaf

Owen's Chivalric Quest Book: Part I

Owen's Chivalric Quest Book has been completed and presented, so I'll be getting into it's creation and process.

You can find a documentation write up, here.

Once all the calligraphy was finished, we started drawing the illumination part of the project.  We did a page with miniatures at the start of each section, and every page of calligraphy received at least a boarder.  In total there are 170 pages that were drawn on and painted.

Adding Drawings.

 We mixed our own paints, besides for the gold.  It would have saved some time and fussiness if we had gone with store bought paint for all of our colors.  We went through two to three batches of paint for the major colors.

Nic mixing pigments to paint.

We painted the base colors on each page.  If I had the space I would paint one side of every sheet in a gathering at a time.  By the end of the project, we had figured out how to assembly line the illumination.

base painted areas

Drawing the black lines around the painted areas made it look really dark.  We ended up having to remind ourselves many times that the white work would make it look better.

outlined in black

 Adding the white work brought everything together.  This the the stage we started getting excited about how things were turning out.

Finished sheet.

2013 Yule Invitation

This year's invitation for the our groups Yule event that's at the start of December. Besides the regular event, we'll be seeing the investiture of a new set of leaders.  Lots of the groups symbols were used in the piece.  The lion and Horse are supporters of the Group's achievement.  The Rampant weasel features as the crest on the helm of the achievement.  The Groups arms are at the bottom center. The Chair behind the King and Queen is empty to symbolize the vacancy about to be filled. The Gold Circle surrounded by black flames as well as the lanterns stands for the greater service award, the ribbon with the yellow chain is the lesser service award, the gold beacon with black fire is a leadership/teaching award for the fighting activities and the Maltese cross is taken from the device of Edward d'Orleans, which is the namesake for the Service through Arts or Sciences award.

Everything was painted with a brush, including all the lines.
Paint was mixed from various pigments found in period.

Verdigris 2013 - Pigment to Paint

Managed to find the time this past weekend to mix the various verdigris pigments into paint and test them.  I mixed up the 2012 White Vinegar, 2013 White Vinegar, 2013 Wine Vinegar, and 2013 Apple Cider Vinegar verdigris with both glair and gum water for binders.  I labeled each shell with a sharpie to keep track of what mix was in the shell and after mixing the paint into the shell, I painted a test splotch for compassion. After 6 hours and with the paint in the shells, nearly dry, I added water to reconstitute them and painted a second splotch. I'm planning on painting a third this evening that will most likely be 28 to 30 hours after the paint was first mixed to again test how they reconstitute.

Little scoop of verdigris ready to be turned into paint.

Hydrophobic properties of Verdigris

Using a Mini-Muller to incorporate the pigment and binder

Transferring Mixed paint into a shell for storage

Verdigris 2013 - Scraping Pigment

I finally made the time to scrap the verdigris off the copper tube, while the rest of the house took a nap.

Every verdigris covered tube smelled faintly of vinegar.

The white vinegar produced dark green crystals on the tube, that were the most difficult to scrape off. The scrapped pigment was a teal color. The white vinegar copper tube was left with a dull, dark appearance.  From appearance, the white vinegar produced the least amount of verdigris.

Verdigris made with White Vinegar

The wine vinegar produced teal to medium green verdigris on the tube and when scraped off, the pigment was the same teal color as the white vinegar.  The tube was covered with raised areas giving it a really rough appearance that came off in chunks when scrapped. The wine vinegar copper tube was left dull, with a light rust color.

Verdigris made with Wine Vinegar

The apple cider vinegar produced the same teal to medium green verdigris as the wine vinegar.  The verdigris was smoother than the wine vinegar, but scraped off just as easy. From appearance, the apple cider vinegar produced less than the wine vinegar, but that could also have been from the dunk it took, while getting it out of the container.  Apple cider vinegar also left it’s copper tube, dull with a light rust color.

Verdigris made with Apple Cider Vinegar

Future verdigris experiment ideas include using a homemade vinegar to see if the different acidic strength would change anything.  Also, making some salt green and some soap green.

Gold leafing Finished

I recently managed to finish up the gold leafing, so now it on to painting the base colors.  After the base colors are painted I'll add the shades, highlights, and diapering.

Gold leafing finished.

The gold leaf reflecting light.

Adding base colors.  Colors so far include Red lead and synthetic Ultramarine

The red lead glowing under the camera's flash.

More Progress

Verdigris 2013 - No noticeable changes this week.

Quote project -

I've got the calligraphy done.  It's not the greatest, but I was also having some issues with the parchment wanting to move even when holding it down.  I need more practice in working with real animal parchment.

I've also started to transfer the drawings for the illuminations over to the parchment.

I did also go by the local hobby store with a framing department in it.  I use to work in the framing department and while some things have changed over the years, some things are still the same.  There were two new girls working and they didn't have a clue what to do with me when they saw I had a blank piece of "paper".  All I was interested in was a mat and two pieces of foam core board to sandwich my project to help protect it when I'm not working on it.  The assistant manager on duty was also once a framer with me, so he got a good laugh out of his new girls.

Current over all view.

Close up of the calligraphy.

Verdigris 2013: Week 9

Week 9 of Verdigris 2013
No noticeable changes.  The white vinegar might be a bit more greenish, but even close up where the camera doesn't want to take pictures, there's not any noticeable changes.

Week 9

Verdigris 2013: Week 8

Week 8:  What's not showing up in any of the photos is the textures on the copper tubes.
Apple-cider: Roughest texture and very little smooth in the way of smooth areas.
Wine: Only small patches of rough areas, very smooth
White: Crystalline appearance, darkest in color, a very deep almost black green in places.

Verdigris 2013 - Playing Catch up

Playing catch up with posting images.  My 2 year old son managed to break his collar bone with a fall about two weeks ago and keeping up with him has taken extra time and energy.  He's pretty much back to his normal feel good self.

Week 5: The "Dew" drops on the cylinder in the white vinegar have begun to tint the vinegar a green color.

Week 5

 Week 6: The green color of the white vinegar is a little stronger.

Week 6

 Week 7: More color to the white vinegar, no noticed growth of verdigris.

Week 7

Verdigris 2013: Week 2

Week 2:
Apple Cider Vinegar - Color has darkened slightly
Wine - Total coverage, Still the darkest in color
White Vinegar - Almost total coverage and small "dew drops" have gathered on the surface. (The "dew drops" formed about week 3 last year)

Week 2

2013 Verdigris Experiment

I've started a new verdigris experiment.  This time I'm trying out three different vinegars to see the different vinegars will effect color and amount of verdigris created.  Last year I only used the Distilled White Vinegar, so I'll be comparing with what I get at the end with what I got last year.

This year I have used: Apple Cider Vinegar (Unfiltered, 5% acid), Wine Vinegar (5% acid), Distilled White Vinegar (5% acid)

I'm using copper pipe sleeves to grow the  verdigris on.  Glass jars are so I can watch and photo the process and plastic conectors are being used to hold the copper sleeves out of the vinegars.

April 30th - Right after the Jars are sealed.

 8.5 Hours Later:
There is Verdigris grown on all the copper tubes.
Apple Cider Vinegar looks to have the most verdigris
Wine Vinegar is a close second, but it's darker
White Vinegar, copper is dull looking with green spots

8.5 Hours later, Verdigris growth can already be seen.

 End of Week 1:
Apple Cider Vinegar - Completely covered in Verdigris, has the lightest colored verdigris
Wine Vinegar - A few bits of copper can still be seen, darkest colored verdigris
White Vinegar - small areas of copper can still be seen

End of Week 1.

Verdigris Pigment

I finally found some time to scrape off the verdigris from the copper pipe sleeves.  After the scrapping and grinding, I ended up with 2 grams of pigment.  I'm not looking at starting another round of verdigris in a few weeks, using several different vinegars and even a homemade vinegar to see what colors and how well they produce.

Scrapping the outside

Scrapping the inside

Using a muller and pestle to grind up the lumps

2 grams of Verdigris Pigment

Pigments

My handout for a class on pigments is almost done being written.  I needed some pictures of actually mixing a pigment to paint, so this past weekend I sat down and did just that.  I've added these pictures to my pigment page here.

Tools and Materials

Placing pigment into a pile.

Adding water to the pigment

Mixing the water and pigment to form a paste

Using a muller to make the paste nice and creamy

Placing the paste into a shell for storage

Adding gum water to the paste

Mixing gum water into paste for paint

Getting ready to test the new paint.

Verdigris

Six months have past and it is now time to remove the copper tubes now coated in verdigris.  I used six months as the Liber de Coloribus and Mappae Clavicula say for a length of time.  Right now, the verdigris coated tubes are sitting on an old fan blade to dry out.  Once they have dried out, I'll scrape the verdigris off the copper and weight it on a scale to see how much verdigris was made.  Right now after winter passes, I'm planning on repeating this experiment with a few different vinegars and at least one stopping at a different time since the biggest change from 9 weeks to 6 months was the color of the vinegar in the jar.

Six months later...

The jar is finally opened.

Everything pulled out to start the drying process.