Matte Gold

Name: Njeri Ndungu
Date and Time:

2016.April.26, 3:00 pm

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Applying Lamp black + RSG

• Took panel 1 and placed on table
• Took horsetail from the Kremer tube, broke off one section of it (it is quite dry)
• 
• I felt the gessoed panel beforehand and took photos of it so that I could compare the texture before and after the polishing with horsetail
• Flattened the cylindrical reed and rubbed onto the surface, pressing down with first finger to add most pressure per square inch
• 
• Quite loud scraping sound, doesn’t seem like it will be fine enough grain to smooth the gesso from the feeling of it, felt more like scratching than uniform smoothing like with sandpaper used during gold leaf skill building
• Tested with fingertip and quite a lot of gesso residue still remains is picked up. Actually quite a bit smoother than I expected (took a photo at an angle to get image of the polished surface.)
• 
• Polished 6 squares - 4A,4B,4C,5A, 5B, 5C
• 

• 
• Set up double boiler with pot filled with hot water heated in water kettle, mason jar lid to elevate the beaker
• Place 1000ml beaker containing 1:10 RSG with thermometer inserted into the pot
• Used the ‘RSG 1:10’ in the fridge (because Cleo’s experiment requires consistent type) - much more translucent than that which we’ve been using in lab previously (previous RSG prob higher concentration than 1:10 from constant reheating and evaporation of water)
• Heated it to 52 C
• 
• Even at 52 C, a strange gelatinous sphere of rsg was still present in the solution. It was transparent in solution but quite rubber when pressed with thermometer (took a video)
• 
• Drew out 10 ml of rsg with syringe and added to 100ml beaker
• 
• Because it is unclear how much lamp black will be need to create an opaque black color, added incrementally small spatulas full of pigment
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• Immediately becomes suspended on top of rsg. Takes quite a bit of stirring to incorporate well. Even with much stirring it was not very well dissolved. Quite grainy solution. Best method was to stir and periodically crush between back of spatula and inside of beaker to better dissolve in rsg and get rid of inconsistencies
• 
• Three ‘hefty’ (approx. 1.5 cm long, 0.5 cm high) spatula tips full of lamp black to the 10ml of rsg
• 
• Final consistency:
• 
• RSG seemed to thicken after approximately 6 minutes outside of the hot water bath
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• Beaker with lamp black solution into hot water from double boiler to reheat
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• Became much more fluid immediately.
• 
• Went to apply to polished squares of gessoed panel

• Very much a paint like consistency to begin with
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• Applies very unevenly. It is quite translucent. Will have to apply multiple layers
• 
• Applied 5 layers of lamp black +rsg to squares, alternating vertical and horizontal application of strokes (like bole layer when gilding) and waiting 2 minutes between each application
• 
• Periodically went back to hot water in pot to keep rsg at a malleable consistency, make sure not too fluid and not too viscous
• Though each layer was allowed to dry for approx 2 minutes between application, this time lapse allowed the glue to congeal again and the subsequent layers would shift the previous layers, creating an irregular surface
• 
• Will return with horsetail once dried (48hrs) to smooth surface

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Name: Njeri Ndungu worked with Naomi, (Jenny and Cleo also in lab working on lead white experiment )
Date and Time:

2016.April.27, 11:00 am

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Mixing Pigments

• First measured out ochre pigments outside of the hood on the lab bench
• Taped a shallow plastic dish onto the scale to ensure that any spilled pigments throughout the course of the experiment would be contained. Zeroed the scale with the plastic dish
• 
  • I wonder now if the fact that we had to zero so many items (first the shallow dish, then the plastic containers) on the scale and subsequently were measuring such small amounts contributed to the rather imprecise readings that were on the scale

• Method:
  • turn scale on
  • Tare the scale
  • Place empty plastic container (labeled yellow ochre + linseed stand oil) on the scale
  • Tare to zero
  • Measure out 1 gram of yellow ochre
  • Place to side
  • Tare scale to zero again
  • Place empty plastic container (ochre de ru + linseed stand oil) on scale
  • Tare to zero
  • Measure out 1 gram of brown ochre into plastic container
  • Place to side
• The scale was fairly steady, with readings +/- 0.02
• Final weights: yellow ochre: 1.02g; brown ochre: 1.03g
• 
• These amounts seemed relatively comparable, though the yellow ochre seemed to be more (meaning that the yellow ochre weighs less than the brown ochre and therefore required more of it to reach 1 gram)

• Put on nitrile gloves, secured with rubber bands, put on lab coat rolled up cuff to overlay edge of gloves and use rubber band to secure
  • be sure to fold sleeve back, not forward so that the excess material of the sleeve does not inadvertently touch the materials you are working with (this happened to Cleo with lead white getting caught in her cuff)
• Set out newspaper in SE fume hood, taped down along three edges to prevent air pockets from forming underneath and causing potential shifts in working surface
• Placed down all necessary materials on top of newspaper, including solid and liquid lead waste containers to ensure did not have to leave the fume hood until all lead waste was contained within the waste containers
• Materials shot:
• Brought over lead pigment containers last, of all and placed to the right of scale, after use placed towards back of the fume hood to ensure that they were not touched unnecessarily or knocked over as I worked
• Brought down the glass door of the fume hood to leave about 6 inches of room so that my arms would have space to move but wouldn’t allow lead pigments to be released
  • (now I am told that the optimal height for the fume hood is a bit higher to make steadier airflow)
• Air flow inside the hood is a bit erratic, the paper towels blow quite strongly and the reading on the scale fluctuates quite a bit.
• 

• First measured out red lead
  • There was a plastic spoon in the container to help with transfer (probably because such a deep container)
  • 
  • used same method as with the ochres described above to measure out 1 gram of red lead (taring container then measuring out)
  • To limit the amount of loose lead based powder in the lab, immediately dissolved in linseed stand oil, the powder is extremely hazardous when inhaled.
  • Once a gram of red lead had been measured out, added linseed stand oil incrementally to the red lead in 0.5ml increments
    • 
    • 
    • each increment was measured by volume in the syringe and by weight on the scale. Each increment measured between 0.38 and 0.50 grams +/- 0.04 because in the fume hood the air flow caused the reading on the scale to fluctuate more
  • Measured these increments with intention to add same amount to each pigment or to have a better sense of how much oil might be needed. We soon found out that each pigment dissolved differently in the linseed stand oil and that different amounts would be required for each.
  • Linseed stand oil is so very thick that it doesn’t really feel like what regular oil paints feel like when mixing with pigment
  • Red lead is actually a very bright red-orange color, seems to get even more orange when mixed in oil
  • Goes into solution fairly easily, quite a smooth (dissolves well) even though it is very thick (because of stand oil)
  • Its very important to mix all of the powder into the oil before adding the next increment, even though it may not seem like enough oil at first, it stretches quite a long way, and this will prevent you from adding too much oil
    • This becomes particularly important with the yellow lead which is quite grainy in solution and one can easily add too much oil, making it become too translucent
  • Ultimately added 1.5 ml of linseed stand oil to 1 gram of red lead to develop a workable consistency
  • Since this consistency is difficult to standardize, the qualitative measurement of ‘workability’ was determined to be a paint that slowly slid down side of plastic container when rotated (so this means it is able to move without being stirred but is not so fluid that it does this easily)
  • Consult Table 1: for the relative proportions of linseed stand oil to 1 gram of pigment used in this experiment
• Repeated step with yellow lead
  • 
  • Only change in workflow was that after second addition of powder to the container, the reading on the scale remained the same. This means that the scale did not register the additional powder
  • We transferred the yellow lead pigment back into the original container, tared the plastic container again, and began measurement again to ensure that 1 gram of yellow lead was measured precisely
  • Closed container and moved to the back of the fume hood next to red lead and began adding oil in 0.5 ml increments
  • 1 gram of yellow lead required quite a bit less powder than red lead (meaning it weighs more and reaches 1 gram with less powder)
  • Subsequently required less oil to dissolve it, ~1ml oil (see table 1)
  • 
• Repeated step with yellow ochre that had been measured out previously, adding oil incrementally (see table 1)
  • Dissolves fairly well in linseed stand oil - seems less difficult to use (more malleable) than red lead and yellow lead
  • 
• Repeated step with brown ochre that had been measured out previously, adding oil incrementally (see table 1)
  • Slightly grainy but went into solution fairly well
  • 
• Placed lids on all paints, labeled:
  • Red lead + linseed stand oil
  • Yellow lead + linseed stand oil
  • Yellow ochre + linseed stand oil
  • Ochre de ru (brown ochre) + linseed stand oil
• Transferred to container and placed in NE fume hood for storage with other lead based pigments (Sophie Pitman)

• Wiped all tools (paint brushes and palette knives) with paper towels, disposed of if solid lead waste container
• Washed with mineral spirits, disposed of in liquid lead waste container
• Wiped off mineral spirits with paper towels, disposed of in solid lead waste container
• Put excess linseed stand oil into original container and washed out syringes in mineral spirits
• Collected newspaper and disposed of in solid lead waste container along with gloves
• (wipe down fume hood with damp paper towel to ensure any lead powder that may have collected in hood is contained and disposed of ) - Naomi did this step because antimony residue was left in hood from previous experiment

Table 1

	1st Increment	2nd Increment	3rd Increment	Total
Red Lead	+/- 0.5ml : 0.37g	+/- 0.5ml : 0.43g	+/- 0.5ml : 0.45g	1.5ml : 1.25g
Yellow Lead	0.5ml : 0.45g	0.5ml : 0.42g		1 ml: 0.87g
Brown Ochre	1ml : 1.2g	0.5ml : 0.44g		1.5ml :1.64g
Yellow Ochre	0.5: 0.37g	0.5 : 0.91g	0.5 : 0.67g	2ml : 1.95g

Observations, Reflections

• Once I begin to determine the consistency of the paints, I realize that it will be quite difficult to standardize the amount of pigments in the proportions as outlined in my workflow protocol and labeled T1, T2, T3, perhaps the proportions don’t matter as much as the exclusion of one or both of the lead pigments
• Compromise made in lab: will attempt to create three ‘matte gold’ colors, each attempting to achieve as golden a color as possible
  • T1: all four pigments
  • T2: excluding yellow lead (massicot)
  • T3: excluding red lead (minium)

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Name: Njeri Ndungu, Jenny B.
Date and Time:

2016.April.28, 4:30 pm

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Mixing gold color and applying mordant layer

• Was informed by Naomi that since the lead was not in solution in the oil, it was safe to use outside of the fume hood (as we did with the lead white on canvases) but all other safety precautions should remain the same
• Used horsetail to polish the lamp black squares prepared on Tuesday
• As we polished, we discussed what variables we were testing in the experiment and decided that one feature that we would like to see was the effect of the lampblack juxtaposed with the matte gold and also the effect of this with varnish applied over it. Because of this, we decided to change the assignment of the squares, and rather than testing the difference in time in 5a-c, we decided to test the effect of the ‘moresque’ design, here designated by a single diagonal line across the lamp black surface.
• [See modified square assignments at end of Or Mat working protocol]
  • Will test variable of drying time week of 5/2 if possible
• Laid out newspaper on NW lab bench and taped down edges
• Took out oil glass plate and divided into quadrants, labeled three of them T1, T2, T3
• Laid out pigments on newspaper, with extra linseed oil, three separate brushes for each paint mixture, and 4 separate palette knives
• 
• Laid out a pea size amount of each pigment in T1 quadrant on glass plate
• 
• Used most of the red lead and a bit of the yellow lead to mix first
• The yellow lead proved to be a bit too translucent and grainy to have much of an effect on the color of the red lead
• 
• Added brown ochre in attempt to temper the brightness of the red color
• 
• Attempted to release more of the yellow lead into the linseed stand oil it was suspended in by mulling it for ~3 minutes
• 
• Became a better paint consistency but not very much of it (need far more yellow lead paint than can be produced by 1 gram)
• 
• Used a small amount of the previous red lead + yellow lead mixture and mixed with the mulled yellow lead. Produced a much more desirable color, a deep golden color.
• 
• Compared color to the color of gold leaf that was applied to square 1B on panel in a previous experiment
• Applied one layer of the color to square 4A, completely covering the surface
• 
• The linseed oil makes the paint extremely difficult to apply, can only really use short strokes which allows a great deal of the lamp black to show through the layer
• 
  • The fact that is it so difficult to apply reminds me that it is not paint but rather a mordant for the gold leaf. The ease of manipulation and the uniformity of the color may not be so important as in a painting. However, it is unclear how one gets this surface to be smooth enough to lay gold leaf then
• After about 5 minutes the mordant disperses on the surface, getting rid of most of the visible brushstrokes and making the surface a bit more uniformly colored
• The color is still quite grainy even despite having mulled the yellow lead
• Applied the color to 5A, in single diagonal stroke
• Similar difficulty of handling
• Placed standing on windowsill with other lead pigment containing paintings to dry

Observations and Reflections

• Did not have enough yellow lead paint to complete T2 and T3 mixtures so I decided to return the next day, make more yellow lead paint and attempt again at creating the golden color
• After my first experience working with red lead paint, it seemed quite unlikely that I would be able to produce a golden color with red lead and without yellow lead (T3), so perhaps the best way to proceed in this trial would be to simply attempt to get a close to a golden color as possible
• If I were to perform this experiment again, I would use a great deal more pigment and produce quite a bit more of all of the paints used. Initially we chose 1 gram to have a sort of standardized measurement for the experiment and this amount was chosen arbitrarily, however, this was not nearly enough to execute the experiment as hoped. I think this is one of the moments when attempting to use scientific measurements and procedures is not as useful as one might hope
• If possible I would like to recreate experiment the week of 5/2, mixing paint but by judgement of the eye rather than measurement of weight

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Name: Njeri Ndungu working with Jenny Boulboulle
Date and Time:

2016.April.29, 11:00 am

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Making Additional Yellow Lead Paint


Make more yellow lead

• Decided that this trial I would add by sight rather than mass since no longer needed to know relative amounts for proportions of T1, T2, and T3, just needed to make more to be mixed in next trials
• Set up new work station in fume hood
• 
  • Placed down newspaper, secured with tape.
  • Placed glass plate and muller on top
  • Syringe filled with 5ml of linseed stand oil
  • Extra paper towels
  • Lead solid and liquid waste buckets
  • Container of mineral spirits and extra linseed oil for cleaning plate and muller
• Placed about a spatula full onto surface of glass plate
  • 
  • (from previous expt we know ~ 0.50 g of yellow lead in one spatula tip full)
• Added about 0.5ml of linseed stand oil to plate adjacent to yellow lead powder
• Immediately put yellow lead powder into solution by slowly mulling, careful not to displace lead based powder into air when pressing down on glass plate
• Mulled for 3 minutes
• 
• Added about 2 spatulas full (~1g ) yellow lead to plate
• Added about 1ml linseed stand oil to plate
• 
• Slowly mulled again, first to suspend yellow lead in linseed stand oil and then mulled for 3 additional minutes to make a finer oil paint
• Gathered paint together with spatula and moved to lab bench outside of the fume hood now that lead pigment was in solution
• Cleaned fume hood station putting waste into respective solid and liquid containers

Preparing trials 2 and 3

• For second trial added only yellow lead, yellow ochre and brown ochre to see if the red lead was truly necessary for the mixture (since it seemed the desirable color was essentially a yellow ochre color).
• Placed the three colors in somewhat proportional amounts in one corner of the glass plate
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• Added linseed stand oil adjacent to the three colors and mixed with paint brush slowly incorporating more linseed stand oil
• 
  • Must be careful here to control the amount of linseed oil added since it may make the yellow lead quite translucent (as experienced above)
• Added brown ochre sparingly
• Compared resulting color to burnished gold square on panel and found it to be very satisfactory
• 
• Applied to square 4B
• 
• When applied to square 4B, the gold color lost quite a bit of its vibrancy. The color seemed to be absorbed by the opaque blackness of the prepared square, making it seem diluted or more transparent
• Attempted to apply two layers of color to the square with varying success
• Depending on where added (and perhaps also how long the color had been allowed to dry), the second pass of the brush sometimes removed the color from the square rather than making it thicker. This made me use short quick strokes to add the second layer, but also led to a more streaky final color application.
• 
• For third trial used similar proportions to the second trial, but added a small amount of red lead
• 
• Compared new color to burnished gold and found the color satisfactory
• 
• Color retained its vibrancy and warmth upon application to the panel square prepared with lamp black.
• 
• Similar issue with application of two layers of color where removed with second pass of brush

Gilding first trial, “moresque” ornamentation, and black square

• Jenny helped to set up gilding work station as described in gilding skill building experiment and move the gold leaf from the package to the gilding cushion
• Because the color applied to square 4A had run down the square, most of the color had collected toward the bottom of the square. As a result I decided to gild cross the bottom of the square to lay the gold leaf on the most evenly covered surface.
• First attempt got caught on the side of the square before I was able to transfer to desired area and then folded over on itself and I had to remove it and a small portion of gold leaf was attached to the upper left portion of the square
• 
• The second attempt resulted in the desired application of the gold leaf. Pressed down flat with small piece of cheese clothe secured to the end of a brush.
• 
• Applied gold leaf to top half of the “moresque” decoration on square 5A, which was simply a thin line of the color used in 4A.
• 
  • Again the reasoning behind this choice was that the mat gold decoration described in the recipe would have been adjacent to the opaque black of the prepared frame surface and we wanted to observe the effect of these two colors adjacent to each other and also once the varnish was applied (two effects that would not have been observable from the preparation in square 4A)
  • 
    
• 
• Applied sizing glue from gilding skill building experiment to square 5C and applied gold leaf on top of it
• 
  • This was done to observe the effect of plain black surface on the color of the gold leaf.
• 

Results and Reflections

• In another trial I would suggest waiting a few minutes between application of second layer of color to allow the first layer to dry a bit so that it is less likely to be picked up by brush
• Insure that the color dries laying on a flat surface
• Would compare the effect of one versus two layers of color (on the opacity of color and the runny-ness of the color)
• NOTE FROM MARIKA SPRING: Yellow ochre from Kramer is high in CaCO3 and so this chalk may result in the differing refractive index experienced in addition to the use of less or no red lead as well.

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Name: Njeri Ndungu working with Jenny Boulboulle
Date and Time:

2016. May. 2, 12:30 pm

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Mixing Additional Red Lead and Yellow Lead, Gilding 4B, 4C mordant layers

Mixing Paints



Red lead

• For red lead, measured out (by eye based on measurement from previous experiment) about 1.5 grams of red lead powder into plastic container
• 
• Added approximately 2.5 ml of linseed to container
• 
• Mixed with paintbrush to be sure that all of the powder mixed with the oil, took a good deal of pressing and almost a grinding motion with the paintbrush - the linseed oil does not absorb the powder, but rather it seems that the powder must be pushed into the oil so that it is suspended within it.
• 
  • Realizing now that because this is linseed stand oil, it is much more likely that the paints that we create will dry much quicker than regular oil paints
• Had to be particularly careful with this part of the experiment since did not want the red lead powder to be spread onto other surfaces. Only very slow careful movements could be use
• 
• Very viscous color created

Yellow lead

• Measure (by eye) about 2 grams of yellow lead
• 
• Added about 2 ml of linseed stand oil to the pigment
• 
  
• Slowly incorporated linseed oil into yellow lead with palette knife so ensure no extreme pressure was placed on the powder to prevent the spread of the pigment
• 
• Mulled the bound yellow lead for 4 minutes
• The resulting paint was quite thick, more of a paste than a paint as seen with the red lead
  • Decided to leave it in this paste-like consistency so as not to dilute it too much, this is a concern when using yellow lead, even when mulling it
• Collected the yellow lead pigment with the side of the palette knife and transferred to plastic container using two palette knives since it was such a thick paste. Came quite cleanly off of the glass plate because of the thickness of the paste
• 
• Stored both paints in plastic containers named ‘yellow lead + linseed stand oil Njeri 5/1’ and ‘red lead + linseed stand oil Njeri 5/1’ (now I realize that I performed this experiment 5/2 and thus labeled them wrong…)

Gilding

• Performed most of this in a bit of a rush, and with a decent amount of stress (which resulted in a number of heavy sighs) and which caused erratic air flow and as a result the gold leaf folded onto itself quite a bit when I transferred it from the book and when I was cutting the gold leaf
• Observed the mordant layers (4B, 4C) - they were quite dry compared to the appearance of the mordant layer that was gilded after 24 hrs (4A). They appears quite matte in texture as well, lacking the glossy effect that they originally had
• 
• Touched the layers with a gloved hand to test the tackiness of the mordant layers - they were not very tacky at all - could sense the thickness through the glove but there was no adherence to the mordant layer
• Did the breath test the AP describes in the matte gold note to see if any moisture condensed on the mordant layers (4B, 4C) indicating that the surface were ready to be gilded upon. They seemed to not collect any moisture. I wonder if perhaps 3 days was a bit too long to wait to apply the gold
• Applied gold leaf to 4B and 4C.
• 
• The gold leaf did not lay quite flat but had to be gently pressed down with a bit of cheese cloth.
• For the moresque design in 5B, used Cennini’s gilding method, placing the gold leaf on a flat piece of paper before transferring to the mordant surface (in lieu of using a gilder’s tip)
• 
  • This method was very effective and I imagine it would have been much easier with the thicker gold leaf they used at the time (Broecke, 174 note 2)
• Gently dabbed the gold leaf flat onto the moresque design and left excess (according to University of Delaware the oil mordant is completely set before the excess gold is removed. Here we will wait 24hrs before removing excess)
• 
• Final Gilded Surfaces
• 
• 
  

Observing the other matte gold applications

• The color of the gold leaf layer on Friday 4/29 seems to have changed quite a bit. It seemed to take on a slightly yellow - orange color (looked similar to the color that the burnished gold leaf from the gilding skill building experiment had turned after getting a bit of sizing glue tarnished it)
  • Image showing the change in color of the gold leaf applied to 4A in comparison to the more recently gilded surfaces
  • 
• Noticed that the gold leaf that was laid today was much more textured (crinkley) than that which was laid on Friday 4/29. This is particularly important because this gold layer is not burnished so it will greatly affect the appearance of the matte gold in the end.
• Wonder if this was because the gold leaf slowly flattens or smooths out over time. This seemed to happen with the gold leaf that was applied to the water layer - perhaps this process is much faster with the water since it is more fluid and the process is slower with linseed stand oil since it is so much more viscous. Will keep an eye out for this effect when I check the gilding tomorrow (5/3) and will see if there is a more standardized way of recording the phenomenon when I perform the experiment again

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Name: Njeri Ndungu working with Jenny Boulboulle
Date and Time:

2016. May. 12, 3:30 pm

Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Application of Varnish

• When considering which varnish to use
  • Flanders varnish would have been ideal, particularly the version described in the manuscript - Teresa did research and figured that she would not be able to source the blue florey necessary for the a-p’s recipe
  • Considered other varnish recipes in Flemish manuscripts - de Mayerne and Merrifield Brussels Manuscripts - both of these would require heat for production and more safety measures than manageable
  • Instead decided to use one of the prepared varnishes in the lab inventory
  • The larch turpentine varnish described in manuscript on fol. 3r is described as an all-purpose varnish and therefore seemed the most reasonable choice in these circumstances
  • 
• Placed panel in fume hood alongside turpentine varnish prepared by Chang, Clemens and Shi and paintbrush
• Transferred about 2 ml of varnish to a 100ml beaker to avoid contamination of the entire supply of varnish from reuse.
• 
  • the liquid was not quite as viscous as I would have imagined but still thicker than an aqueous solution. Perhaps this is because the varnish was not heated for an extended period of time or at a high temperature during preparation
• Dipped the brush into the varnish and applied two layers to the right side of square 4A, 4B, and 4C, and 5C.
• 
  • There was an immediate change in the appearance of the gold leaf after varnish had been applied. The irregular surface (crinkling) of the leaf was less apparent through the thick varnish layer. The color seemed to also undergo an optical effect due to the application of the varnish, making the color appear darker, a bit closer to the effect color of the mordant color layer
  • The application of the varnish layer caused slight losses in the gold leaf due to the relative roughness of the bristles of the paint brush. Not very large so can’t actually see the color of the mordant through the gold leaf, but along the edges the color seems to blend quite nicely, making the visibility of the loses less apparent.
  • The losses are more significant in the water gilding trial in 5C on the plain lamp black surface. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the water based sizing glue does not grip the gold leaf as strongly as the oil based mordant
  • 
• Applied two layers of varnish across the top of the 5A square, covering the lamp black layer as well as the moresque covered with gold leaf, and across the bottom of the 5B square covering the lamp black layer as well as the moresque covered with gold leaf.
• 
• 
• 
  
  • The fact that I did not carefully remove the excess gold leaf from the moresque decoration, in addition to the very small losses caused by the brush, the excess gold leaf also was removed from the moresque and was suspended in the varnish layer. This deposited small flakes of gold leaf on the lamp black layer.
• 
• More apparent color change upon varnish application
• 

Results and Reflections

• Document the losses of the gold leaf better if possible (higher detail in camera, closer shots)
• Do more trials to test the “grip strength” of the mordant layer comparing its grip to that of water gilding.
• After looking closely at the recipe, the description of baves seems to correspond to these gold flakes that are suspended in the varnish and deposited on the lamp black layer. I find it interesting that I had a similar difficulty describing these gold flakes on the black surface. Perhaps this is why he uses such a strange word as “baves” which means “dribble or drool” to describe them. They seem to almost dribble through the varnish across the lamp black layer.

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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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