Homegrown Verdigris

Name: Reut Ullman
Date and Time:

2017.09.16, 10:30pm

Location: 3260 Henry Hudson Parkway #5B, Riverdale, New York
Subject: Growing verdigris

Home temperature: 73 F

Ingredients:
White Vinegar (5%)

Steps:
Followed instructions outlined in Merrifield p. 118
- Attached the copper pieces to a string using see-through tape,
- Suspended the stringed copper from the top cover of the jar, held by tape
- Filled the jar with 50 mm of Vinegar
- Made sure pieces neither touched each other nor the vinegar
- Closed the jar tightly, stored it at the bottom shelf, covered with towels for warmth

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Name: Reut Ullman
Date and Time:

2017.09.23, 11:00pm

Location:
Subject: Week 1 of Verdigris growing

Home Temperature 73 F

Observed:
The copper pieces have begun to turn blue, patches of copper colour still remain, particularly concentrated at the top. Taped areas are not turning blue, the tape must have locked out the vapours produced by the vinegar. I did not consider use of any other tape but see through tape, and did not anticipate the effects it would have on my verdigris, see subsequent entries below.

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Name: Reut Ullman
Date and Time:

2017.10.01, 10:00pm

Location:
Subject: Week 2 of Verdigris growing

Home Temperature 73 F

Observed:
The copper pieces have nearly all turned blue, except for the parts taped.
One suspended copper piece seems to have dislodged slightly from its initial position, and its tip is now slightly touching the vinegar which has caused the initially blue pigment to disappear and the copper colour to return

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Name: Reut Ullman
Date and Time:

2017.10.08, 9:30pm

Location:
Subject: Week 3 of Verdigris growing

Home Temperature 74 F

Observed:
One piece has loosened further, and a larger portion of the tip is touching the vinegar, the blue coating has disappeared from the tip, and the initial copper colour returned. Some areas taped were susceptible to the vapours of vinegar and have turned blue, but a weak blue, and only patchy
One piece of copper has visibly blue tinged drops forming on its bottom edges.
When a direct light is shown on the closed jar, tiny liquid drops unevenly covering the suspended copper pieces are found. This is also apparent when an image is taken using the flash feature. The tiny drops found on the body of copper pieces, not those forming at the bottom edges, are otherwise difficult to detect with natural light.

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Name: Reut Ullman
Date and Time:

2017.10.16, 4:00pm

Location: 260 Chandler
Subject: Painting out Verdigris

Ingredients:
Verdigris
Water
Linseed oil
Egg (yolk and white separated)

Equipment
Glass board
Muller
Brushes
Knife
Beakers
Whisk
4 plastic droppers

I began by scrapping off the verdigris powder from my homegrown verdigris copper plates, which yielded a nice amount of cerulean coloured powder. I emptied the contents onto a glass board, making two separate heaps, one for using egg yolk and white as binding agents, another linseed oil. Starting first with egg, I separated the contents of the egg into two beakers, one for yolk, another for white. The yolk sac was discarded and only its contents were deposited into the first beaker. The second beaker containing the white of the egg, was mixed with a whisk, and left to settle.
I returned to the glass board on which lay the verdigris powder, to which I added (with a plastic dropper) two drops of water to moisten its contents. I then used a muller, to mull the mixture until it achieved a smooth and soft consistently. When I first began mulling, the muller resisted, producing a scratchy sound, and allowing for only jerky movements. Like the madder lake pigment, the verdigris mixture under the muller had grain-like qualities, solid and rugged, to which the muller succumbed to, resisting my mulling. After about 5 minutes, the mixture gave way, and the mulling turned into a soft, smooth process. I then laid out two different surfaces, strong paper and Masonite board primed with 9 coats of gesso, on which to test the verdigris pigment. I once more divided the verdigris mixture into two separate heaps, and using the egg yolk as a binding agent, I added 2 drops of egg yolk, mixed it together with a brush, and applied it to the two surfaces. The pigment was bluish green, more green than blue, in colour, and when painted out, the hue was light, water colour quality, and resembled a sapphire blue. I then turned to the egg white for a binding agent, from which I removed the frothy foam, using only the liquid portions. I added 2 drops of egg white, mixed it together with a brush, and applied it to two different surfaces. The hue was light, very light, like a heavily watered down Aegean.
The last binding agent was linseed oil. I turned to the dry verdigris mixture I had set aside earlier in the experiment, added two drops of oil, and began mulling. The colour was that of ocean green, and very deep. I did not encounter a similar problem of resistant mulling as earlier, rather the oil had made the process so easy that the verdigris mixture attached itself to the bottom of the muller, and I had to mull until all the verdigris contents had gradually transferred from the muller to the glass board. This took about 5 minutes, after which, I added another drop of oil, mixed it with a brush and applied the brushstrokes to two different surfaces. The hue was deeper and bolder than in earlier instances, and much smoother in application. The colour on the surface was ocean, and it was beautiful. Sadly, Jo Kirby informed me that the colour will change within days. ☹

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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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