Owyn Greenwood (Order of the Golden Rapier)

Order of the Golden Rapier
K&Q Archery Championships and Southern Region War Camp
Awarded June 1, AS 48 (XLVIII)

Black Sumi Ink

Black Sumi Ink purchased at my local at store.

This viscous black ink is one of my favourite recommendations for beginner scribes. It's very dark, and seems to write beautifully on any surface that I have tried it on. Word of warning though, it will do nasty things to your precious nibs if you're not diligent about cleaning them after use.

Holbein "Pearl Gold" (G641)

In my post Recommendations for Beginner Scribal Materials, I mentioned Holbein "Pearl Gold" gouache (G641) as being my favourite option for painted gold. I purchased mine through John Neal Booksellers, but I'm sure that it is available elsewhere.

A tube of Holbein "Pearl Gold" (G641) gouache.

In the past I have written the following about this product:

"Through extended use I have found that this modern, water-based paint gives a very similar colour to the 23k gold leaf I commonly use. Originally I found the dried result to appear streaky, however with improved application technique I have achieved a consistent, slightly raised finish.

Experience has taught me that the paint needs to be very wet in the palette-well but only soaking a small amount onto your brush. Make sure to mix the paint often, so as to keep the pigment consistent. When applying to the page it is best to work wet-to-dry by dabbing your freshly loaded brush onto the edge of the most recently painted area, essentially applying wet-to-wet. Once the fresh paint has run off the brush, begin to gently pull the paint towards the dry unpainted areas. You are dragging the paint outwards with the tip rather than painting with the full length of the brush. You want to drag the paint out just enough that you no longer have large watery areas, which will cause the page to crinkle, but not so much that it becomes to thin."

Gilding: Mediums, Mordants & Techniques (Dec 28, 2011)

Recommendations for Beginner Scribal Materials

Does this sound like you...

"Mostly I don't know where to start. I like to look at all of the pretty scrolls but I don't know what basic supplies to get to start trying."

It certainly sounded like me when I first started, and even though I have an art background I had no clue how to get started or what supplies I needed. I spoke with a few people, found a few online scribal communities, joined some email lists, and asked a few questions. There was however a lot of trial and error and although I've gained confidence and skill I still remember those first tentative steps, so here are my recommendations for beginners on the types of tools and materials to equip themselves with.

Firstly, buy the tools and materials that YOUR budget will allow. Also, remember that materials (and by extension your art) end up being very personal, so what one artist loves another one dislikes. These recommendations are just MY opinion, try different tools and materials as your time and budget permit - if you love them, great. If not, then try something else until you find something you do like.

Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Board - In reality it's just thick, multi-medium paper and comes in a smooth  or textured finish. The smoother finishes are much nicer for calligraphy. It can usually be found in local arts and crafts stores, various online stores also carry it. I have both a 9 x 12 and an 11 x 14 pad, one in the "smooth" finish and the other in the "vellum" finish. Both have successfully been used to complete scribal assignments.

Artist Paint Brushes - You'll want to build a selection of small, "round" brushes that have a point. Look for brushes that have at least one "0", preferably multiple "0000" or "3/0" - that's their size. Synthetic hair is fine, and cheaper. "Gold Scepter" is a brand that springs to mind that is readily available in the smallest sizes and perform very well.

Artists Goauche - I am a fan of the Windsor & Newton goauche ("artist" or "designer", rather than "student" grade). However there are other brands, for example I hate the W&N gold but I LOVE the Holbein brand counterpart (Pearl Gold - G641). I will say that if you're going to splurge on anything, gouache should be that thing and as a very general rule, the more expensive the tube the higher the pigment concentration. You can usually buy basic colour sets, or you can buy individual tubes of the colours you need. When I first started, I just bought individual tubes as I needed them and initially found the following W&N colours to be the most useful - "Ultramarine", "Brilliant Yellow", "Cadmium Red", "Permanent White" and "Jet Black"

Personally I find the "student grade" paints chalky so they end up looking pale or weird on the page. This is a personal gripe I have from my college days though, others may disagree with me.

Pens for Calligraphy - You can usually buy basic calligraphy nibs and holders in sets at the art store. Speedball brand is probably what you will find and they do the job just fine. Each set will have a variety of nib sizes to create different size letters, but make sure at least one of the nibs comes to a fine-point so that you can use it for drawing the lines for your art work.

Ink for Calligraphy - Art stores will usually carry a large selection of inks in various colours. Sometimes, you'll get lucky and find "Iron Gall Ink" or "Oak Gall Ink". If your store carries either of these then buy it and take pride in the fact that you have your first (depending on the recipe and production) period artist material. Iron Gall Ink is my default and I very rarely use anything else because I love the way it flows from my nibs.

Now, I haven't personally seen Iron / Oak Gall Ink sold in any of the stores I've been in (I buy it online), therefore my other beginner recommendation for dip-pens is Sumi black ink. It comes in a bright green, heavy plastic bottle with a black cap and the ink itself has a nice viscosity to it. A word of warning though, it is very corrosive on your nibs if you don't clean them properly. It's very black, and works really well for line-work. You can also find this ink in red (red bottle, black cap).

Pencil - Used for sketching out your artwork and drawing your calligraphy guidelines. When you're at the art store you'll notice that they are graded, "B's" with a higher number being the softest through "HB" which is the middle and then into "H's" which are considered hard. You're looking for a grade that won't damage the surface you'll be working on and that can be erased easily.

Personally I opt for a 2H as it works FOR ME, but choose a grade that will work for the type of pressure you're likely to apply while using it. To hard and it will damage your surface, to soft and you'll have a tougher time while erasing.

Rubber / Eraser - Many scribes swear by those blocky, hard rubbers you probably used in school, just make sure that it's white to avoid potentially marking the page. These can be purchased in a variety of places.

I personally find those hard white rubbers a little weird to use and dislike them. I tend to use what is known as a "putty rubber" or "kneadable eraser" as it works better for me. These are usually found near the pencil selection in the art store.

Straight Edge - You'll need some sort of ruler to mark out your page and draw the lines you'll need for calligraphy. Rulers can be purchased in a variety of materials, lengths and styles. Personally I recommend that you buy one made out of metal as plastic and wooden rulers have the potential of being sliced by your craft knife, thus ruining the straight edge. If you can find one that has a cork backing even better, as this raises the edge off the page a little and helps avoid bleeding or smudging.

Paint Palette - Cheap, multi-well plastic palettes can be found at arts and crafts stores. However, you could also use a dinner plate, ceramic tiles, muscle (or other crustacean) shells, a glass ashtray or any other number of household items you probably already own.

Other Random Supplies - Although you don't NEED any of the following supplies they're useful to have around.

• Distilled Water - I tend to use this rather than regular tap water to avoid the various additives combined at the treatment plants. One argument is that because it's "purer" it's closer to period water, but who knows if this is true or even really matters.
• Eye-dropper / Pipette - Found at pharmacies, they end up being very useful for adding very small amounts of water to your paints to thin them.
• Scalpel / Craft Knife - If you're buying the pads of Bristol paper you probably won't need a craft knife as they're already sized appropriately. However they useful to have around.
• Cotton Ear-Buds - Yes, the things you clean your ears with. They're actually very useful dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean your calligraphy nibs.
• Rubbing Alcohol - As mentioned above, rubbing alcohol is great for cleaning your calligraphy nibs.
• Magnifier - Helps you not strain your eyes! 
• 100% Talc - Wash your hands, dry them and then coat them in talc. It's stop your hands from sweating while you work.
• Scrap Paper - Rest your hand on some scrap paper while you work as it will protect the page you're working on from getting greasy and picking up smudges. Hands are dirty!

Useful Links - There are numerous online resources for the things I have mentioned in this post, below are a few of the websites I find useful. Remember to check your local arts and crafts stores as many of these items can be found there.

• John Neal Booksellers - http://www.johnnealbooks.com/
• Dick Blick Art Materials - http://www.dickblick.com/
• Windsor & Newton Goauche - http://www.winsornewton.com/main.aspx?PageID=107
• Holbein - http://www.holbeinhk.com/

Refining Azurite Pigment

Fig. 1: Varying grades of azurite purchased
from Master John the Artificer

Azurite is an import pigment in the history of manuscript painting, for centuries filling the pages of many a medieval codex.

It is a natural, soft, copper-carbonite mineral and is almost identical in structure to malachite with both "result[ing] in differences of color saturation the finer the particle size of the pigment."[1] This leads to an amazing diversity in saturation for the blues (and greens) that can be obtained from this mineral. However, the one small caveat is that because azurite is considered a "soft" mineral, grinding and mulling must be avoided so as not to ruin the richness of the larger particles.

Medieval artists were craftsmen who had a deep, comprehensive understanding of their tools, materials and techniques. They knew that the largest particles of azurite produce a deep royal blue and that the smallest had a much lighter sky-blue hue. They were unable to grind or mull azurite so they found other methods for separating the differing particle sizes into usable pigment. Reading any of the various period artist treatises will show that the preferred technique for preparing azurite was washing and levigating.

Fig. 2: The unwashed contents of vial three
showing colour difference of particle sizes
and grains of sand.

Washing & Levigating
These techniques assume that the azurite has been broken from its solid rock form and ground lightly so that it's chunks are no smaller than say gritty sand. This ensures that the broken particles remain quite large while also inevitably creating smaller particles as part of the crushing process. The purchased vials of azurite currently available to me are already at a point of being the texture of fine sand which means that to crush them any more would cause further colour loss. Since I am after the darkest blue possible I chose to work with the vial with the largest visible particle size (far right vial, fig.1) which also happened to be the most gray-looking of the three, which I now assume to be due to the impurities.

Using a technique translated from the Bolonese manuscript by Mrs. Mary P Merrifield [2], the contents of the vial were dumped unceremoniously into a small glass jar and then covered with distilled water. Once wet you can really see the difference in colour of the various particle sizes, ranging from a deep royal blue to a very ashy gray-blue (fig. 2). The whole point of these levigation techniques is to separate these various particle sizes for more even tone.

Fig. 3: Azurite particles dispersed
in distilled water.

Agitate the particles so that they are distributed throughout the water and then set the jar down for a few minutes to allow the larger particles to settle. You will notice an almost immediate settling of the largest particles, followed by those that are smaller. For my initial passes of levigating I allowed the particles to settle for about 3 minutes so as to keep all but the smallest grains. Once settled the coloured water containing these smallest particles was then poured off into a second jar. This process was repeated a number of times until I was pouring off almost clear water, which left me with a very bright almost royal blue in my original glass (fig. 4) and a murky blue in the second jar.

Fig. 4: Partially washed azurite
showing differing particle sizes
and grains of sand.

But wait, there's more!

Even though the water being poured off is now mostly clear, there's still more refining to do so that you end up with the purest divisions of particle sizes. The process above is repeated, however this time you allow for minimum particle settlement. This means that as soon as the heaviest particles have dropped to the bottom the water is poured off into your second jar. I found that settlement was happening in less than 60 seconds. There comes a point where you have immediate particle drop and clear water, congratulations - you're done. Well, with the biggest particles anyway!

Now the only thing left to do is successively repeat this process with the particles in your second glass so that you eventually end up with a number of jars of different sized pigment particles. If you line these jars up you will see how the larger particles are darker in colour and the smaller particles are much lighter, while the smallest probably look very gray and murky.

Fig. 5: Three different particle sizes separated from the original vial (fig. 1).

Things I Learned Along the Way
To start with, there where a lot of impurities in the original vial which I didn't notice until I started levitating, you can see this in a number of the photographs as yellow / gold "flecks". I've been told that there's a way of    removing these impurities with Roman-soap and woos-ash lye, but further experimentation is needed.

I could also have sped up the separation process by not letting the initial series of washing settle for so long since we're initially after the largest particles and they settle quickly. Save the lengthy settling times for further into the process when you're after the smaller particles.

I should also have used a larger "discard" bowl for the pouring off so as to be a little more efficient.

Footnotes
[1] Natural Pigments: Making Water Based Paints. - "On the left side is dioptase pigment ground fairly coarse (0–125 microns) and on the right is dioptase ground to less than 60 microns. Dioptase is one of a group of natural mineral pigments with vitreous crystalline structures, which result in differences of color saturation the finer the particle size of the pigment.

Not all pigments improve in color and appearance by being ground to a very fine powder and then mixed with a binding medium. For example, the natural mineral malachite loses its color saturation the finer it is ground. On the other hand, some pigments, like cinnabar and lazurite (lapis lazuli) improve their chromacity when grinding to the finest possible particle sizes."

[2] 168. How azure is prepared and purified. - But I shall not conceal how I purify it when it comes to my hands. I first pour it into a bason, and put a little water along with it, and rub it with my finger until it is thoroughly moistened, and then I pour in more water and stir it well, and let it rest. When it has settled, I pour off the water, turbid from the impurities, into another vase, keeping the precious colour which remains at the bottom of the vase, for its nature is such that the finer and purer the colour is the heavier it is,and therefore the sooner it reaches the bottom; and the impurities, or the whitish or yellowish parts, which are lighter, float or remain above it in the water. And, if necessary, I repeat this process several times, pouring water out and in until it is purified; . . . (Merrifield 134).

Cited Works and Bibliography:
Cited works can be found in my General Bibliography, or in the additional sources listed below.

"Azurite" Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., n.d. Oct. 28, 2012. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azurite >

O'HANLON, George. "How Make Your Own Water-Based Paint." Natural Pigments LLC., n.d. Oct. 28, 2012. < http://www.naturalpigments.com/vb/content.php?158-Make-Your-Own-Water-Based-Paint >

KATOR, Zachary. "Making Azurite." Zachary Kator Living Art,  April 19, 2010. Oct. 28, 2012. < http://zacharykator.blogspot.com/2010/04/making-azurite.html >

ASPLUND, Randy. "Re: Pigment, Binders and Skin Prep." Message to Randy Asplund. Oct. 31. 2012. E-mail.

Alexandre Lerot d'Avignon (Tyger of the East)

Tyger of the East
Mudthaw and Baronial Investiture, Barony of Settmour Swamp
Awarded March 23, AS 47 (XLVII)

Rhiannon de Carreg Cennen (Court Barony)

Court Baroness
Mudthaw and Baronial Investiture, Barony of Settmour Swamp
Awarded March 23, AS 47 (XLVII)

Estrella Gift Scroll

Estrella gift-scroll to be presented to Atenveldt

Well, the annual Estrella War was held out in Arizona this past weekend. A while back, I received the assignment to produce something that could be present by Their Majesties to the Kingdom of Atenveldt, this is that piece. It was on display at Birka, however I felt it was inappropriate to post until after the event.

Mikulaj von Meissen (Order of the Silver Rapier)

Order of the Silver Rapier
Kings & Queens Rapier Championship
Awarded February 9, 2013 AS XLVII (47)

The mostly finished piece, I neglected to photograph it once completely finished.

Lachlann Graheme (Grant of Arms)

Grant of Arms
Coronation - Divestiture / River War
Awarded September 25, 2010 AS XLV (45)

Gilding: Liquitex Acrylic Gesso

I recently had a conversation with with someone regarding the use of modern Liquitex Acrylic Gesso as a gilding base. To be honest it's not something I'd ever contemplated since I jumped straight in with things like fish glue, garlic, glair and other period options. However, the questions regarding it's use do intrigue me though because although we strive to direct people in a period direction, they're not always ready to take the leap regardless of how easy to learn some of these techniques are.

See my Gilding: Mediums, Mordants & Techniques post for my personal thoughts of the various mordants I've experimented with.

Since I've never used the Liquitex Acrylic Gesso, I had to first educate myself on what it's used for. The Liquitex website says that it "provides the perfect tooth and adhesion to a wide variety of surfaces such as canvas, paper and wood" and is an "excellent base coat primer for many applications for example murals". For a more thorough description of modern acrylic gesso check out this Acrylic Paint Review page. What I get from this is that modern acrylic gesso's you seen in art supply stores are primer's, they seal the surface (paper, canvas etc...) with a non-porous layer that can then be painted on.

Now, for gilding we need a sticky component for the gold to adhere to and I'm assuming that the modern acrylic gesso's don't have this. A little more Google-Fu turns up two very similar recipes (Mistress Caitlin FitzHenry's and Madame Elizabeth de Nevell's), both of which combine the following components to create a gilding base:

• ~ 4 parts acrylic gesso.
• ~ 5 parts gloss varnish medium.
• ~ 1 part sugar-water
• Colour to tint.

I haven't tried these recipes yet so can't comment on how they work up, or how easy they are to use, although I will have to try it myself at some point. If you're so inclined I strongly suggest that you visit the linked recipe pages for full instructions, however please remember that there are more period alternatives that are readily available and just as easy to use. I always prefer to nudge people in a period direction but understand that, for a variety of reasons, others may prefer modern alternatives.

Keep an eye on this post for further updates once I've played with these recipes myself.

Gift of Words

Her Royal Highness, Thyra, presented a gift of words to Her Royal Majesty of Calontir, Queen Conna. The poem was written by Master Toki Redbeard.

Green Pigments

Medieval artists didn't have the benefit of modern conveniences like pre-mixed tubes of paint, or other ready-to-use materials. What they did have, was a deep understanding and connection with their tools and materials. In this post, I try to learn and understand the use of green pigments.

Last updated - November 7, 2012

Green Earth (Terre Verte)

Fig. 1: "Green Earth" pigment
from Guild Mirandola.

Obtained from Guild Mirandola

"Green earth is rather dull, transparent, and soapy in texture, like clay. The colour of green earths is not constant." (Thompson 162). And Cennini tells us ". . . the more you work it up, the better it will be." (pg?)

This particular green earth pigment remains my favourite as there's just something very pleasing about the hue. It's easy to mix up and goes on incredibly smoothly. I've always used it "as is" so that it remains fairly transparent when laid on the surface and there is great variation in pigment density, you can see this in the top swatch of Fig. 1 to the right.

Cennini recommends adding calcium-carbonate (chalk, eggshells) for the working-up of earth pigments (pg?), so counteract the transparency of this pigment I've used calcium-carbonate in swatches 2, 3, and 4 (fig. 1) from white eggshells to act as the inert filler. I think I am most pleased with swatch 3 as it retains a good colour but appears to also have a good opaqueness.

Fig. 2: "Viridian" and "Terre Verte"
from Sarah the Lymner.

Terre Verte
Obtained from Sarah the Lymner

This earth pigment is more "green" in appearance (see the bottom swatch on fig. 2) than the one from Guild Mirandola, actually reminds me very much of the "Olive Green" gouache from Windsor & Newton. I'm not completely sure how I feel about this particular pigment as a colour since I find it quite garish, and to be honest I also feel that way about the W&N gouache. Maybe it's because the natural opacity that it offers doesn't seem to have much depth?

Viridian
Obtained from Sarah the Lymner

Viridian (see middle swatch in fig. 2) is a modern pigment first mentioned in the 19th century and therefore falls outside the preview of my interests, something I didn't know prior to experimenting with it. I actually find the colour a little "sickly" in tone and am quite glad that I can eliminate it from my palette.

Fig. 3: Malachite at various stages of mulling.

Malachite
Obtained from Master John the Artificer

"A few colours, such as malachite, must be ground as little as possible or they become pale; but these are exceptional." (Thompson pg?).

This statement worried me a little when I first read it, but then it turned into an experiment to incrementally mull the pigment / binder until it looked and felt right. Once I achieved the look and feel of what I think it should be I then mulled for a further 10 minutes to try and get the "pale" colour Thompson mentions.

Painted malachite, to me, looks very much like the green used for calligraphy in many of the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.

There will be a more in-depth post about malachite and it's preparation for use as a pigment. When considering malachite, one should also take azurite (blue) into consideration as they come from the same mineral and much of what will work for one will work for the other.

Copper Green (Verdigris)
Obtained from Master John the Artificer

"The manufacture of verdigris, an acetate of copper, illustrates the treatment of metals with acids to produce coloured salts. Plates of copper hung over vinegar are affected by the acetic acid vapurs rising from the vinegar, and copper acetate is formed upon the surface." (Thompson 79).

"Take care never to get it near any white lead, for they are mortal enemies in every respect." (Cennini 33).

As a pigment I liked using verdigris, and I also feel that much of what I see in manuscripts and assume to be malachite may actually be this copper green. There will be more research on this.

Cited Works & Bibliography:
Cited works can be found in my General Bibliography, or in the additional sources listed below.

Douma, Michael, curator. "Green Earth." Pigments through the Ages. 2008. Institute for Dynamic Educational Development. August 18, 2012. < http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/greenearth.html >

Douma, Michael, curator. "Malachite." Pigments through the Ages. 2008. Institute for Dynamic Educational Development. August 18, 2012. < http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/malachite.html >

Douma, Michael, curator. "Verdigris." Pigments through the Ages. 2008. Institute for Dynamic Educational Development. August 18, 2012. < http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/verdigris.html >

Douma, Michael, curator. "Viridian." Pigments through the Ages. 2008. Institute for Dynamic Educational Development. August 18, 2012. < http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/indiv/overview/viridian.html >

The Nature of Inks

Fig. 1 - Ink that bled due to capillary action.

During a collaborative scribal project we made the unfortunate discovery that not all writing inks are created equal. Why this had never occurred to me before is something of a mystery, especially since I had bought, experimented and discarded a number of modern inks before finding my preferred iron-gall ink. Thankfully our mini-disaster turned into a great learning experience.

Writing ink is essentially a coloured water which incorporates a glue so that it sticks to the page. Traditionally these inks were made from either a carbon-black pigment or from iron salts (ferrous sulfate) mixed with the tannin from gall nuts. The binder (glue) was usually gum arabic which also acted as a thickener. Most modern  inks are created to effortlessly flow through a pen which requires them to be much "thinner" in nature. Therein lies the problem.

Just as inks are different, so to are writing surfaces and they also need to be taken into consideration when paired with a writing ink. Parchment is not paper and vice-versa. Even among papers, some are more absorbent than others.

In our seed example (fig.1) we experienced the perfect meeting of an ink that is too thin being used on a ground, in this case goat parchment. You can see in the image how all of the letters are "fuzzy" when they should be crisp and clean, this is due to capillary action dragging the thin ink along the hairs of the parchment. Had the ink been more viscous it would have sat on top of the fibers and created the crisp sharp lines we expect.

As an on-going experiment I will be testing different inks with the various grounds I use during my scribal work. I intend to try thickening and thinning the various inks to see how this affects their behavior on the different grounds. I will update this post with my findings.

Sources:
"Ink." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, n.d. Web. Oct 5, 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink>

Eleri of Nefyn (Augmentation of Arms)

Augmentation of Arms
Coronation, Last Court of Kenric and Avelina
Awarded October 13, 2012 AS XLVII (47)