MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MATERIALS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gilders cushion:a flat, slightly padded, suede covered surface on which to lay and cut gold leaf. The gold leaf will not stick to this surface.

Gilders knife:a dull, but well milled knife for cutting the gold leaf while it lays on the cushion

Tip:A brush like tool of squirrel or badger hairs set into a flat card, lined up single file and cut straight across for handling the delicate leaf.

Burnisher:A smooth hard tool, usually made of a shaped stone set into a wood handle for polishing the dry, finished gilding to a bright finish. The tool was originally a simple canine tooth. It is important the burnisher be free of any blemish or roughness as this would damage the gold during the burnishing process. 

 

RECIPES FOR PREPARING BINDERS AND SOLUTIONS

Gum Arabic Solution

       Materials: Gum Arabic pieces, Water, Cheesecloth

  1. Crush lumps of gum into crystals
  2. Add 1 part crushed Gum Arabic to 2 parts water
  3. Let sit over night
  4. Strain through cheese-cloth

 

Glair

       Materials: Egg whites

  1. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks (as if making Meringue)
  2. Let sit over night
  3. Yellow liquid will separated out, this is the glair.
  4. Discard the spent whites.

 

 

Hide Glue

  1. Historic method for parchment or hide glue

        Materials: Parchment Clippings, water

  1. Place the clippings in pot with enough water to cover them.
  2. Soak the clippings over night.
  3. Boil until it reduces to about a third.
  4. Test by touching a finger with the solution on to palm of other hand it should be tacky after touching quickly a few times, but should not be really sticky on first touch.
  5. If left to room temperature it should set to a loose jell.

        Note: Fish glue is made in the same way from the heads and scales of fish. Fish glue is commercially available ready for use.

 

  1. Modern method

        Materials: Commercially available dehydrated glue grains, water

  1. Basic Glue: Soak 1 ounce of dry glue in 14 liquid ounces water over night
  2. Strong glue: Soak 1 ounce dry glue in 4 ounces water over night.
  3. Weak glue: (size) Soak 1 ounce of glue in 28 ounces water over night.
  4. For any of the above heat the softened glue in double boiler to melt.
  5. DO NOT BOIL!
  6. Use the strong the glue solution for simple flat gilding.

 

Garlic Mordant

        Materials: Fresh head of garlic, cheese cloth.

  1. Place garlic cloves onto cheese cloth, crush and squeeze out juice
  2. Collect juice in closed container and allow to sit for at least a few days, the longer the better. Add a small amount of colorant if desired.

 

Gum Ammoniac

       Materials: Gum lumps, water, Cheesecloth

  1. Crush gum
  2. Place in container and cover over with water
  3. Let sit over night or longer, add water if needed to form milky liquid.
  4. Strain

 

Sottile

        Materials: Plaster of Paris

  1. Put dry plaster of paris into a bucket. Do not follow instructions for making the plaster.
  2. Fill the bucket with water, stir for twenty minutes without stopping.
  3. Let sit for one month, stir daily.
  4. Allow material to settle to bottom, decant the water
  5. collect the material and form small patties. Allow these to dry for later use. they may be stored indefinately.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Preparation of parchment for use

  1. Parchment can be cut to size with scissors or a straight blade.
  2.  If it is greasy it can be rubbed down with pounce, ground cuttlefish and pumice, though it is rarely needed today.
  3. Sand the surface with very lightly with fine sandpaper such as wet-dry #600, used dry. As an alternative it can be carefully scraped with the long flat edge of a razor blade or knife. A dusting with powered sandarac is sometimes recommended prior to writing.
  4. Burnish the surface smooth prior to use to ensure fine, clean smooth mark making.
  5. If the parchment is too slick and paint beads up apply a thin layer of gum or glue solution prior to the underpainting layers.

 

Sugar or Honey Solution

         Materials: Sugar or honey, water

  1. Mix honey or sugar with two parts water.
  2. Heat to dissolve the honey or sugar.
  3. Simmer to reduce liquid by half.
  4. Sugar solutions can be dried and stored for later use.

         Honey or sugar are put into solution to ease their incorporation into various solutions or paint; this step may be omitted if desired.    

         

Gilders Liquor

         Materials: Alcohol, water and  hide glue or Raki, Vodka or glair.

         Historically gilders used glair or the alcoholic beverages Raki or vodka to rewet gilding preparations.

        Modern gilders prepare a solution of water with approximately 5% alcohol and a little hide glue; exact proportions are not critical.

 

GILDING ON PARCHMENT

Gilding is a complex process with many possible variations. Each variation of materials or technique provides a different visual effect in the finished image. Manuscript illuminators took advantage of this fact, manipulating their materials for optimum results.

GILDING VARIATIONS FOR USE ON PARCHMENT

FLAT– Gold leaf applied with a simple adhesive such as garlic, gum or glue. The resulting gild will be matt. 

RAISED– A filler such as chalk or slaked plaster is present in the preparation layer under the gold leaf raising it up above the surface of the support.

BURNISHED– Bole is present in the preparation layer allowing the gilding to be polished resulting in an extremely bright, shiny finish.

EMBELISHED– Gilding which is further enhanced with paint or punched patterns.

MORDANT– Leaf gilding applied to a sticky preparation over a painted surface.

SHELL GOLD– Gold was used primarily in leaf form but it can also be powdered and made into paint. This is known as shell gold, (it was originally kept in small shells). Shell gold cannot be brightly burnished. It is often used over painted areas as highlights or details. If used as a background the painted areas will dominate.

 

 

SIZE RECIPE FOR RAISED BURNISHED GILDING 

Gilding requires understanding the materials and developing a personal technique. It is important for each artist to try variations until the best personal variation is developed. Many factors such as humidity and heat, as well as the surface one chooses to work on will affect the gilding process and influence the materials chosen. Numerous modern gilding recipes and techniques have developed for work on paper and parchment. The following example is a popular basic recipe in use today. This recipe allows for variations to be made to suit the personal needs of each artist.

MATERIALS

8 Parts dry slacked plaster; also known as sottile

3 Parts lead white pigment

1 – 5 parts sugar or honey solution

1 – 5 parts commercially available fish glue          

Small amount bole

The amounts of glue and honey or sugar needed vary depending on the environment one works in. These materials should be increased for use in drier hotter climates.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Grind together plaster, sugar and white pigment
  2. Add bole, grind until very smooth.
  3. Add glue grind. It will be a sticky mess! You may add a little water as needed. Grind for 20 minutes or it will not be smooth enough.
  4. Dry in small buttons / reconstituted for use with water.
  5. If bubbles develop add a few drops of oil of cloves.
  6. Lay gold leaf with dry breathing method.

 

 

GILDING TECHNIQUE

 

  1. Burnish parchment, the texture of the surface will influence the appearance of the finished gilding.
  2. Draw image.
  3. Ink Image.
  4. Apply preparatory layer or layers. Scrape smooth or burnish raised layers if desired. Do not smear adhesive onto surrounding surfaces or gold will stick to them.
  5. Lay out gilding tools, gilding liquid if using a wet technique.
  6. Lay out gold on cushion and cut to size.
  7. For dry technique: Breath deeply on preparation layer (it must become tacky), lay gold using tip or small brush for transfer from cushion, press down with cotton ball.
  8. For wet technique: Re-wet preparation surface very carefully, do not get surrounding parchment wet. Lay gold onto wet surface, carefully press down with cotton do not push liquid of preparation layer out onto surrounding surface.
  9. Allow gilding to dry, brush away excess gold and burnish if desired.

 

PAINT

MAKING PAINT FOR MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION

As with gilding different artists preferred different qualities in their paint. Some preferred glair others gum, still others liked mixtures of the two or glair for certain colors and gum for others. Many recipes survive; the recipe given here is the most basic of the paint making recipes.

  1. Dry ground artists pigment should be combined with water and ground to form a paste. This can be done on a slab or with a mortar and pestle. It is important to get a smooth paste; the amount of water will vary with each pigment. The paste should be of the consistence of oil paint in a tube. This is called “Pigment Paste.”
  2. Paint is made by mixing pigment paste with a binder at a ratio of 1 to 1.
  3. A small amount of sugar or honey is usually added as a plasticizer. 

                                                            1 part pigment paste + 1 part binder  + ¼ part sugar or honey = paint

 

PAINTING TECHNIQUE

 

Parchment preparation:

Historically parchment needed some minor preparation by the artist prior to use to clean or remove oils from the surface. Texts often recommend pounce, cuttlebone or other treatments to remove oils. A dusting with powered sandarac is sometimes recommended prior to writing.The handmade parchment and vellum available today is very good and usually does not need much preparation for illuminating. It may be a good idea to very lightly sand the surface with very fine sandpaper such as wet-dry #600, used dry. As an alternative it can be carefully scraped with the long flat edge of a razor blade or knife. It should be burnished smooth prior to use to ensure fine, clean smooth mark making.

 

Underdrawing:

Typically the underdrawing would be done with a metalpoint drawing tool. A lead stylus worked best as it requires no special ground layer and leaves a very pale line. Corrections to the drawing would be made at this point. Although erasing was not possible the delicate nature of metalpoint lines meant errant marks would not interfere visually with the final image.

Inking:

When the metalpoint drawing was deemed satisfactory, and no further corrections were needed, it would be “fixed” with ink. Iron gall ink was used in this process which involves tracing over the metalpoint line with the ink. The ink line is permanent and darker than the metalpoint drawing but should not be black; it should be a light, diluted ink line. The resulting ink line drawing is an important part of the painting technique to come. It will show through the underpaint and guide the artist in the finer detail work.

Gilding:

Gilding in a manuscript illumination is done after the inking in and prior to painting the image. Small gold details, which must lie on top of finished paint, are of course exceptions. Shell gold is part of the painting process and can be done at anytime in the process.

Body color:

As a first step a middle value local color was applied in a thin flat paint layer over each area of the image, without concern for shading or highlights. The image will have a flat and simple appearance at this point.

Shading:

Applied over body color in appropriate shade in fine single brush strokes. The strokes may be parallel or crosshatched. But it is best to keep them thin and delicate. They can be so close together so as to look like a single tone. There can be many gradations giving the effect of blending and defining plastic form.

Highlighting:

Also applied over body color in same manner but with lighter value or white to create volume with in the elements of the image.

Details:

Fine details are added to the image after the basic volume of the forms has been rendered.

Shell Gold:

Paint made with powered gold as the pigment is known as shell gold. It can be used as a final embellishment, for decorative details or as a highlighting pigment in place of white.