Verdigris Experimentation

Name: Sasha Grafit
Date and Time:

2017.January.25, 03:00 pm

Location: Brooklyn, New York
Subject: Verdigris Growing

Followed instructions from Manuscripts of Jehan Le Begue, Merrifield

"...wet plates of copper or basins, cut into pieces or strips, all over with pure wine, without water, or else with vinegar. Afterwards spread salt well and evenly over the metal, so that the copper may be entirely covered, but very thinly and evenly, because, if it be covered too thick, the colour will not be good. You must have a vase prepared for the purpose, either of earth or of wood, in the bottom of which you must pour a little wine or beer, or stale urine, which is better than fresh, and place the copper, salted as before directed, inside the vase. But, in order that it may not slip into the wine or urine, let it be supported by putting a piece of wood over the jar, to which the said slips or curved pieces must be suspended side by side, so as not to touch one another. Then stop up the mouth of the jar, lest any dung should fall into it, and put plenty of horse-dung all around it, and under it and over it, and leave it in that manner to heat in the dung for 8 or 9 days, and you will then find your salt turned green, and of an excellent color."

Attempted to recreate above procedure with materials on hand: Mason jar, Copper rectangle, String. First, I used an awl to puncture a small hole in the copper in order to have a secure way of suspending the metal above the wine. Then I simmered a pot of 5% vinegar at slightly above 100 degrees Celsius until approximately 50% of the original volume remained; thus, I created an approximately 10% vinegar solution). I dipped and smothered the copper in the warm vinegar and attempted to spread the small granule (sea) salt on it. The vinegar kept pouring off and the salt either clumped thickly or slid off. Overall the effect of "thinly and evenly" covering the vinegar-wet copper with the salt was imperfectly achieved. After pouring the wine into the bottom of the jar, I suspended the copper with the string and sealed the mason jar. The jar was placed in a warm room, next to a water heater.

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Name: Sasha Grafit
Date and Time:

2017.January.27, 09:00 am

Location: Brooklyn, New York
Subject: Verdigris Growing Check-in #1

The copper is almost entirely covered with light to dark green clumps, like a venereal patient.

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Name: Sasha Grafit
Date and Time:

2017.January.29, 08:20 pm

Location: Brooklyn, New York
Subject: Verdigris Growing Check-in #2

The surface area of the copper is slightly (~20%) less covered with green. Some areas that previously contained green have been replaced with discolored dark copper smudges. The existing green clumped areas are more brilliant and intense. I observe some condensation near the top of the jar, and suspect that evaporating wine is the culprit of the washed off verdigris. The glass container's weakness is that it permits the condensation to form, where it would be otherwise absorbed by an earthen or wooden vessel. I place the jar in a cooler (standard room temperature) room.

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Name: Sasha Grafit
Date and Time:

2017.February.5, 11:00 pm

Location: Brooklyn, New York
Subject: Verdigris Growing Conclusion

There seems to have been no additional growth or clumps. However, the existing clumps are an even more brilliant and dramatic green. The color is close to that of the inimitable color of the Statue of Liberty. The contrasting light and dark green clumps are intensely vivid against the copper background. I separate the wine and the copper plate and place the copper into a ziploc bag for transportation.

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Name: Sasha Grafit

Name: Sasha Grafit
Date and Time:

2017.February 6.29, 1:00 pm

Location: Brooklyn, New York
Subject: Verdigris Phase II (Painting)

First the verdigris growths (like carbuncles) were scraped off the copper. As mentioned above, the vinegar used was fortified to between 8-10%10% acidity, the copper had corroded in places and had small holes and crumbled. The scraping process produced and amount of copper-colored flakes equal to the amount of pure verdigris, and attempts to separate the two were unsuccessful.

Two copper/verdigris piles were produced. One was given a drop of vinegar before being mulled with 3 or 4 drops of walnut oil. The other was mulled with walnut oil directly.


The sample with the vinegar coagulated into a dry mud-colored cake almost immediately.

Each sample was ground on a glass plate with a glass muller for approximately one minute with a figure-eight motion.

The color of both was a dull, earthy brown much like a 50/50 mixture of hot chocolate and milk might be. However the color of the sample that had had vinegar added to it was slightly lighter and lacked a bit of rich red that tinted the sample that had been immediately mulled with oil.

NOTE FOR FUTURE VERDIGRIS GROWING: It is a mistake to use a vinegar or acid too strong, for it will corrode the copper and make it impossible to separate the brilliant green warts that form on the copper from the underlying substrate. And the verdigris color will turn out brown instead of green.

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ASPECTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN MAKING FIELD NOTES

• note time
• note (changing) conditions in the room
• note temperature of ingredients to be processed (e.g. cold from fridge, room temperature etc.)
• document materials, equipment, and processes in writing and with photographs
• notes on ingredients and equipment (where did you get them? issues of authenticity)
• note precisely the scales and temperatures you used (please indicate how you interpreted imprecise recipe instruction)
• see also our informal template for recipe reconstructions

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