Tools of the Trade: The bulk of the materials used for the early stages of design, parchment preparation and gilding. From top left:
a.) Barrier cream— protects the skin from immediate contact with toxic materials, but certainly no match for a pair of gloves. Also moisturizes skin that has been washed many times in one afternoon. Top.
b.) Design paper, or drafting vellum— somewhat stiff and transparent paper on which I designed the manuscripts. Its smooth surfaces and transparency also make it possible to substitute this for glassine paper, which I was unable to find. Top.
c.) Triangle— continually useful for ensuring straight lines and 90 degree angles. Top.
d.) Scissors— I think everyone knows what these do. Top.
e.) Iron gall ink— for use in outlining and calligraphy. A very permanent ink made using a medieval recipe. Top.
f.) Walnut ink— for use with sketches and guiding lines. A good practice ink for calligraphy. Lightfast and permanent. Top.
g.) Gum ammoniac crystals— can be made into a size for flat gilding. Rather pungent, opaque, brownish crystals filled with impurities. Top.
h.) Quill pen in water jar— the basic tool for medieval calligraphy, kept moist in a jar containing a sopping sponge. Top.
i.) Ruler— cork-backed to prevent skidding. The slight height provided by the cork prevents mishaps with the ruling pen (nickels taped on the underside of a flat ruler would achieve the same effect). Top.
j.) Paper towels— good for everything from spill cleanup to puddle blotting to nib cleaning. Top.
k.) Film canister of glair— [almost invisible in the picture, under iron gall ink] dates back to November 1999. Used as a binder when making paints, but can also be used alone as gilding size or as the base for reconstituting gesso buttons. Made from whipped egg whites. Top.
l.) Gum sandarac bag— a powdered gum used for preparing the writing surface. A dusting of it, excess carefully brushed off the page, promotes crisp lines and discourages ink from bleeding. Top.
m.) Dental pumice powder— finely ground, this stone powder acts as a mild abrasive and removes surface grease from the vellum. Rubbed onto the vellum using a cloth, it is thoroughly brushed off before the vellum is used. Top.
From middle left:
n.) Gesso buttons— purchased as backup in case my own gesso recipes should be unsuccessful. Reconstituted with glair and distilled water, gesso is painted onto the vellum as size for raised gilding. Top.
o.) Patent gold on gilder’s cushion— leaf comes in packets of 25 23-karat sheets. The gilder’s pad is suede and provides an ideal surface for cutting gold leaf. Top.
p.) Various pens— crowquill, for outlining on vellum; ruling pen, for making ruling lines of adjustable width; rolling-ball pen for design. Top.
q.) Sandpaper and cloth— tools for preparing vellum surface. Sandpaper is Wet-and-dry 400 grain; used for raising a slight nap on the vellum’s surface so the pen will have a certain amount of resistance. Cloth is a t-shirt rag; used for rubbing pumice into vellum. Top.
r.) Various tools— uncut cured quill; agate dogtooth burnisher; soft brush for clearing vellum surface of dusts, eraser bits, gold fragments, etc.; mechanical pencil, for design; curved x-acto blade, for cutting gold and scraping calligraphy errors; needle tool, for pricking guiding dots in vellum. Top.
From bottom left:
s.) Bone folder— useful for adhering gold leaf to size with flat general pressure. Can also be held in left hand as an implement for holding paper still (many medieval scribes used such a device). Top.
t.) Pencil sharpener— infinitely useful for keeping a point on the soft-leaded drawing pencil that made transfer surfaces. Top.
u.) Eraser— self-explanatory. I now use an oval-shaped white plastic eraser– less crumbs. Top.