Book of Kells Project: Grinding and applying pigment 1

 Earlier in the year, when I'd first extracted indigo pigment and made the first lakes, I was so excited.  All I had to do was grind them, mix them with gum and water, and I would have homemade paints.  Yay! Bhí an-sceitimíní orm...

About that...

The experiment with indigo was less than satisfying but instructive.  

Firstly, indigo doesn't grind down and mix into the lovely blue that one expects from dying.  At best, it makes a navy blue grey.

Secondly, it was grainy.  I thought I wasn't able to grind it finely enough, even though I bought a chemist mortar and pestal for this purpose. That was part of the problem.  But I was to find out the method that worked for me was to grind it as fine as possible, WITH gum arabic, then mix a little water and alcohol, grind it some more, then let it sit for 15 minutes to a half an hour.  THEN grind mix it once more to ensure consistency, adding a little water if needed.

This is not the method used for traditional oil paints.  The pigments used in the Book of Kells are all in the category of water colors: a finely ground pigment, with a binder and water. It's simple, but requires some practice.

 

 

Taking the lead from unfinished pages in the manuscript, after inking, I applied the false orpiment.  Both the laked tansy and laked mullein produced workable paint with minimum of fuss.   After testing them both, I decided tansy made a better orpiment substitute.  Regretfully, I was never able to grow enough weld in time to experiment with laking it.  Perhaps next year.

Next, I made some washes with the pale blue lakes, woad and columbine, as a back ground to the center piece.  These were much less satisfying, being grainy and uneven.  This was where I started to let them "soak" a bit.  Fortunately they are pale and give a rough textured effect which, while unwanted, is artistic in it's way. 

The zinc white was extremely easily to work with.  It also doubled as a sort of "white out" if used in very small doses, to cover minor smudges.   It neither has the coverage of real whiteout, nor do any of the pigments have 100% coverage, so one really must plan to be as careful  as  a monk in a scriptorium with nothing else to do.

With the center and "gold" highlights done, I was ready to fill in the rest of the colors.