by Toni Watts | Aug 13, 2016 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
Several people have contacted me over the past week asking me where I buy my manuscript gesso from. The answer is that it is not, as far as I am aware, commercially available here in the UK, so I make my own. Here’s the recipe: 8 parts of slaked plaster...
by Toni Watts | Dec 8, 2015 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
This brown ink is easy to make and can be used with a dip pen or brush. There are lots of recipes on the internet, all with different additions to stop the ink going mouldy and flow more easily, but before I get to that, here’s the basic process. ...
by Toni Watts | Nov 26, 2015 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
We were down in the beautiful Forest of Dean earlier this year and came, quite unexpectedly, across Clearwell Caves. The sign outside stated that the caves were mined for pigments and iron ore, so we just had to go and have a look! It is said...
by Toni Watts | Sep 17, 2015 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
Shell gold – gold mixed with gum Arabic to make a paint (like watercolour) – has been used by illuminators both in the Western world and the East over many centuries. It works best when applied to a very smooth surface in relatively small areas and can be...
by Toni Watts | Aug 7, 2015 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
Many people love looking at the gilded images in medieval manuscripts. There is nothing quite like the shimmer of gold leaf as the page is turned. However, it was ink made from oak galls that made the composition of those beautiful manuscripts possible. ...
by Toni Watts | Jul 2, 2015 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
It’s been a long time coming but I finally got round to turning my home-grown verdigris pigment into paint. Cennino Cennini, writing in fifteenth century Florence, says about verdigris: ‘It is very green by itself. And is manufactured by alchemy, from...
