Order of work

• gilding
• writing
• gild capitals
• painting colors
• whitework/penwork

Since gilding and writing are the bottlenecks, we won't be able to follow this ideal order of work for many pages, but this is what we aim for.

In preparation for the shire workshop, this means I'll try to do writing on the first pages of each year where there is a large illumination. Also, we'll do as much gilding as possible. And then start on the pages where these things are done, and if/when those are finished, we'll work in a less than ideal order...

Next time: do lots of guilding and writing. Take pictures of foliage pages in different stages (sketch, gesso, gold, paint, paint and whitework).

Also in preparation for the Shire workshop:

• check page numbering > geloven we wel.
• gather shells of paint
• writing page 1 van 1993, 1991, 1992
• gilding
• find pictures that were used for drafting illuminations

Here's a picture of the first page we've been working on the way it looked a few months ago. The illumination was started years ago, and I continued work on it in the past 6 months.

We decided to do some scribing work on the book in stead of sitting at the computer all night like last week. In the end, we spent quite a bit of time sending an email to the list for asking people to help with the book, and telling the kids to get back into bed and on the phone etc..

It's now 21.45 and Bertrik is doing some guilding. It's working unexpectedly well even though he is guilding around a piece that was allready painted years ago. Maybe it's the weather (30 plus C this afternoon and cloudy).

The gesso is the second batch of the cold recipe and has been put on a couple of months ago at least. It seems to give a more even (less bumpy) surface than the warm gesso.

I'm practicing my letters, which is also going better than expected. I might even write some lines on the book itself tonight.

To do next time: write text, do gilding on foliage pages to prepare them for group painting session at the next A&S gathering.

History

We spent the evening working on the text, getting it ready for further editing. Quite a bit got done, lots more left to do...

More of the same: gilding and writing on the book.

Next time - after summer recess - we'll spend an evening putting on gesso together. Or on second thought maybe the time after that. That way we can write some more, so we know where the gold capitals will be and we can fill in some of the capitals.

I've finished the first two pages of year 1 (1987), and used up 27 lines of text. Now there are 13 lines of text left over, so we need to make up at least 10 more...
It seems like all the text we have so far is that much too short, or more, and there are a few years where we have no text at all, or just a few lines. So we've discovered another bottleneck: the text itself.

To make more text, we're planning to use a wiki set up for the Kingdom of Drachenwald: (wiki drachenwald sca org).

The gold sticks well on the newly gilded page, but polishing last week's page is less succesful. The gesso is a bit uneven, in some spots the gold is coming off, and in one corner it even breaks. Maybe the gesso was too thick when Bertrik put it on, making it bumpy.

Weer aan de slag

After a break of several weeks we are back at the scribes' table getting back to the book.

We're thinking about planning, and decided that the goldwork and the writing are most likely to become bottlenecks. We're both tired, but are still going to try and get a little work done on these things. Looking at how far we got in the past months by just making a little progress at a time is hopeful!

The gold is sticking well tonight, is this the weather? We're not sure, it's warm, but is it also humid? Or was humid bad. Anyway, despite feeling jetlaggy, Bertrik is making good progress.

Starting up the writing again is not as hopeful. It feels like I'm back to square one and need to spend a few nights practicing again before I'm up to writing on the actual pages. How useful is that right before the summer recess starts...
How long has it been since I did the last calligraphy? Looks like the middle of April (the 15th is the last reference to actual writing taking place), so no surprise that it's gotten a bit rusty...

Most useful achievement of the evening turns out to be an e-mail to the shire about dance activity in the shire through the year to generate material for the book.

The blank scroll did make it to Sweden, but stayed in the bags unfinished. Event going with two small children leaves little room for things like finishing up a scroll...

rijmbijbel

This is the illuminated page I am working on for the blank scroll competition. In 6 days we are leaving for the event, and just now I looked at the digital image again and discovered a whole layer of shading that didn't come through on the print I've been working from. That combined with a whole line of kids outfits to be completed for the event, makes it less and less likely that the scroll will be done in time for the event...

Below is the link where you can look through the whole book.

http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/exposities/rijmbijbel/indexNew.php#

Making green paint to match the Rijmbijbel page. In the pigment,

Rijmbijbel can be found here: http://www.geheugenvannederland.nl/exposities/rijmbijbel/indexNew.php#

kalkgroen - chalk green - lego green
smaragd groen - emerald green - nearly the same lego green.
Are these colors part of the medieval palette?

Terra verde with marmble polish and gum arabic. Previously made terra verde paint turned out kind of slimy. We're hoping to make it better by adding marble polish. It seems that it is still a bit slimy, but more opaque than the versions we made before.