Name: David McClure
Date and Time:

2015.12.15, 10:00am

Location: Chandler Laboratory
Subject: Verdigris dye boiling

9:50am- Removed jars from hot water bath. I immediately knew something had gone wrong; instead of a vivid green color the liquid in the jars was a dark brown.


10:10am- The lids of both jars were sealed shut by a rust-like brown material (which also formed a sediment at the bottom of the jar and completely coated the sides). Had to carefully pry the lids with a knife. When I brush the lids off, however, there is absolutely no rust on the ring or the lid itself. Emptied contents of jars into separate 250 ml beakers for boiling, just as with the previous madder dye process.

Notice the drastic difference in color between the reserved dye stored in the fume hood and the dye incubating in the hot water bath after 15 days. The only difference was the inclusion of the veneers and application of heat. I'm not entirely sure which is the main catalyst. It looks like the copper acetate oxidized?



10:30am- Beakers placed on hot plate set to about 2.5. I don't see any reason to add the reserved dye to the beakers so instead I cut a small piece of basswood and boiled it with this still-green dye. Let's see if I get green wood this way. (Reserved dye is in the small 100ml beaker on the right)


11:30am- The reserve dye is also starting to turn brown. I wonder if heat is the culprit behind the rapid oxidation? That wouldn't really make sense though, considering every other recipe for making green wood/horn/bone that I've found requires you to heat the dye. Plus the very process for making the verdigris dye required heat, and that produced a beautiful shade of green. I'm not really sure what's going on here and I would need someone with a chemistry background to help me figure this out.

12:00pm- Even covered with my wonderful makeshift lids I'm still losing liquid fast. The dye from the heat bath looks almost black and the reserved dye has changed to a dull brown color.

1:00pm- Decided to end the experiment at 2.5 hours of boiling. The veneers are all a rich golden to dark brown color. All remaining dye and rinsewater from the glassware placed into appropriate waste stream. Placed the veneers on labeled paper towels in the fume hood.

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Name: David McClure
Date and Time:

2015.12.18, 1:00pm

Location: Chandler Laboratory
Subject: Madder dye preparation

1:00pm- Began process of sanding and cutting. It's interesting to see green pigment on the paper towels.

Dry veneers, no sanding (pre-soaked samples)




Dry veneers, no sanding (non pre-soaked samples)



Notice how even though the dye soaked into the paper towel from the reserve jar is much more uniformly green than the others the wood still looks mostly brown.


Cut and sanded veneers (pre-soaked samples)




Cut and sanded veneers (non pre-soaked samples)


The small sample boiled in the reserve dye is interesting. When lightly sanded with 1000 grit sandpaper the side of the wood that was facing down while drying became green. It looks like the green pigments didn't penetrate the wood at all and just stayed right on the surface of the wood. The other side of the wood is just a light shade of brown.

Interestingly, it does seem like the inner layers of the wood are darker, so even though the pigment oxidized and turned brown it still looks like it penetrated further than the red madder dye.

Final thoughts and possible ideas for future reconstructions

Pre-soaked veneers and original colors




Non pre-soaked veneers and original colors