DATE AND TIME: March 2nd to 19th
LOCATION: Lab
SUBJECT: casting a beetle
At first I decided to cast a spider since spider is frequently mentioned in the manuscript. However, to handle a desiccate spider specimen proved to be extremely difficult. It stunk when it was rehydrated. And even after it was rehydrated, its body and legs were dry and fell apart when touched. So I decided to change the spider to a beetle.
Related Recipes
The recipes concerning casting a spider is still useful when it comes to casting a beetle, since the procedures are similar. There are several recipes in the manuscript about the spider.
<note id="p129v_c3b"> To cast a spider on a leaf, and to prevent the sand from covering the under belly, fix a bit of melted wax at the end of its tail, and under its body, with the help of a warm wire as you know. Once the leaf has burnt and the wax has melted, two small holes remain on the leaf, that will be the cast of the spider </note>
<note id="p129v_c3c"> When the wax is cool, rub away the needless parts with the point of a knife, that way the end of the legs will be clean and neat. Then arrange the jacket of earth around the spider, and pour your soaked sand, as you did for the other things to mold. Following this process you have to burn the vine leaf in the mold. Following another process you don't have to burn the vine leaf in the mold. To cast you spider more easily, shake it to death before casting but make sure that the legs are not entangled. When you have done your first cast, peel this side of the leaf, then do the second cast. </note>
<image id="p129v_d3"> [image] </image>
<title id="p129v_a4> Casting a spider on a leaf </title>
<ab id="p129v_b4a"> Usually big spiders have hairy legs, which are molded with difficulty if you do not lay hairs down flat, or if you don't burn it with the flame of a candle, you can make these hairs firmer if you rub them with wheat oil. Kill spiders into vinegar and urine or brandy as you had killed snakes. Then arrange your spider on a beautiful vine leaf, or another leaf, then you can make the hairs [...] , hairs which are finely ground and rubbed with fish glue or something similar. </ab>
<ab id="p129v_b4b"> + The right color is vinegar or verdigris, then add some sulphur to certain places, arrange your jacket of clay and place your vine leaf on it, place your dead spider centrally on the leaf, pierce the middle of its body and of the leaf with a wire of a brass wire. Then fix on the cross some small points of brass wire all around the vine leafs in order to secure it. Then block the end of the legs with a bit of melted wax with a warm wire, do the same with the other edges of the spider </ab>
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9059316c/f266.item
<title id="p130r_a3"> Molding a single spider </title>
<ab id="p130r_b3"> Set your spider on the jacket of clay as you did set the spider on the leaf, do your first cast, then peel the mold away to the middle of the legs, and do the second cast. </ab>
<note id="p130r_c3"> Also You cannot mold the hairy legs of big spiders, as any other hairy animal, if not laid flat, and rubbed with wheat oil which makes hairs firmer, and which dry very soon. Hairy things entangle in the sand, and do not burn very well </note>
<title id="p130r_a4"> Molding a single vine leaf </title>
<ab id="p130r_b4"> Fix the leaf on the cross with points of brass wire on the jacket of clay , then cast your first mold. Then peel away the back side, and make your second cast, when it is set remove the leaf. You must heat your mold only once, because there is nothing to be burnt inside. </ab>
According to the recipes, I first visualized the steps to cast a beetle.
1. lay a leaf on the clay base.
2. place the beetle on the leaf. Fix the beetle on the leaf with a pin piercing its belly.
3. Stretch the legs of the beetle careful and place them on the leaf with the help of melted wax.
4. Build the spruce system around the leaf and the beetle.
5. Build a clay wall around the beetle.
6. Pour plaster into the mold and finish the first cast.
7. Wait and strip off the clay wall and pour a second time.
Reconstruction
I first put a leaf on a clay base. To add the thickness of the leaf, I applied wheat oil on the back of the leaf. Then I got two scarabs. I pierced a pin through each scarab in the belly and then let the pin go throughboth the leaf and the clay base.
Then I tried to stretch their legs and placed them on the leaf as if they were moving on the leaf. With the help of Andrew Lacey (a lot of thanks to him!) their legs were fixed on the leaf with the assistance of wax.
Then I built up a spruce system around the leaf and a V channel at the stem of the leaf.
Later I build the clay wall around the clay base. Before pouring plaster, I put some brandy on the surface of the leaf and the beetles.
Then I poured the plaster (the combination of plaster Paris and brick powder). I poured fast and blew away the bubbles on the surface after pouring.
After forty minutes, I made a second pour. Before the second pour I applied wheat oil to the back of the leaf in order to add to its thickness.
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