The Fleur-de-lis Project

The second Enders Island Sacred Art project, Fleur-de-lis, Fun with Acanthus Leaves was another challenging project. We began by tracing the fleur-de-lis designed by Dan Mooney. The lily was gilded with flat and raised gilding which was also tooled. The center of the crossbar was supposed to have a Swarovski crystal, but I didn't realize that and gilded a raised dot.

Painting the intricate leaves trying to get lights, darks, twisting, and movement was going to cause me agita. I mixed colors right out of the tube. Winsor Red and Winsor Prussian Blue. I really liked the Prussian Blue color. The project took us two days to complete.

All our Fleur-de-lis.

Whatcha Doin?

I am re-doing the last project we did in class with Dan.  I didn't finish it. We didn't have a lot of time to complete this project on the last day.  I work slowly, and I had a hard time floating the Instacoll in the center of the "O" designed by Dan. The letter was 2 1/2 in. square and larger than anything I've gilded. I found the edges were drying before I had the center filled. 

Instacoll is to be applied in a thick-ish layer, but in my haste I had added too much. The paper buckled and the goop pooled at the bottom of the letter. Instacoll takes 45 minutes to dry before you can apply whatever metal is being used. 

The surface of the Instacoll had dried, but underneath was still wet. When I went to tool the gold with the thin, cross-hatched lines, the gold tore revealing the Instacoll. 

Though I called this an epic fail, it really wasn't. I mixed the delicious blue-black background using red, yellow, and blue watercolor.  I learned how the materials reacted. How much time is needed for things to dry. How much time I need to work. All valuable lessons.

Dan told me I could try to salvage the piece by thinning some Instacoll with water, applying it again to the center, let it thoroughly dry, and lay another layer of gold. 

I think I'll add some lettering and re-do the project.

Whatcha doin?

Enders Journal - Monday 09/18

 

Rather than bringing a journal and a bunch of art supplies, (which would take up extra luggage room) I thought I would keep a digital journal using the app, Concepts.

Since I'm an early riser, I have time to work before breakfast using the iPad and the iPencil.

Monday it poured and poured and poured. Usually, I go out to my little beach just after sunrise, but it was raining too hard.

On the first day of class after Mass has finished, the priest blesses the hands of those participating in the Sacred Art Class(es). Since it was a Noah's ark kind of day, I didn't  feel like waiting outside the church door, peeking through the crack to see when Mass finished so I could have my hands blessed. It's nice, but I've had that done 4 times before. I doubt the blessing expires or wear off. So I just went to the art studio.

One of my classmates didn't want me to miss the experience. She must have wiped her oil blessed hands on a paper towel and brought the paper towel to me so my hands could be blessed, too. Such a kind gesture.

Monday was an intense work day. We gilded a small dove and the gilding on a hummingbird which had acanthus leaves encircling it. Painting the leaves would happen on Tuesday.

The Wedding Gift - The Process, Part 2

 

Last week, I couldn't find the color and gold test strip, and while cleaning I found it in a pile. Ta Da!

Second time was a charm with the lettering. I managed to keep my paw out of the ink. The piece was lettered with Moon Palace Sumi ink using a 2mm. or maybe a 2.5 mm Brause nib. The lettering is Uncial commonly called Celtic.

Outlines for the Versal letters and the vine were done using a .01 Micron Pigma Pen. 

After the ink was thoroughly dry and all pencil guidelines erased, it was time to gild. I had a bottle of Roberson's Gold Size. When I opened the jar, it had a faint whiff of vinegar so I wasn't sure if the bottle had gone off. It was suggested to me to try a test, if the gold stuck then it was probably okay to use. As a fall back, I would use Jerry's Pink Stuff as the base. (Jerry's Pink Stuff is no fail and has a shelf life of 10 years). Jerry's Pink Stuff is thin and flat where other bases like the Roberson's or Instacoll give the illusion of dimension. The square in the test sample worked.

My friend and colleague, Langley (BC, Canada) had gifted me with these small brushes used to paint designs for fingernail art. The bristles are stiff and give a nice, crisp line with the gilding goop.

So I was able to apply the gold size. It's a mustard yellow so you can see where to gild. I worked from right to left so I wouldn't put my hand in the goop. I also used some scrap paper to mask off the area to be gilded so the gold size wouldn't drip on areas where I didn't want it.

When the goop was thoroughly dry, which took forever because it was so humid, I was able to lay the gold. I had cut small squares of 23K gold leaf to minimize wastage

After the gold was applied, I used a soft, fluffy brush (a Crayola kid brush!) to remove the excess gold.

A second layer of gold was applied. No goop involved with this step as the gold will adhere to itself. Then the gold was burnished through a sheet of glassine using an agate burnisher.

After the gold leaf was applied, little dots in the vine design were painted with shell gold. The acrylic bridge allows me to rest my hand/wrist while I paint without,  you in the cheap seats know the answer: putting my paw on the paper and wet paint.

The Wedding Gift - The Process, Part 1

 The daughter of a friend was getting married. The family is Christian so I wanted to do a Bible quote. H and her Fiancé had also bought their first home. 

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15 (KJV) Perfect

I imagine the piece having a large, versal "A" with a vine and birds. Similar to the commission piece I did last year. The "A" would be shaped or hold a bird house with the two birds on the vine underneath the quote. The birds' wings as they sat side by each would form a heart. Part of the vine at the end of the quote would have a small dedication from me to the couple. Under the bird house would be the chapter and verse for the bible quote like a street address.

Chatting with my friend, I casually found out the color theme for the wedding, navy blue and yellow. The start of a color palette. Perfect for the little birds because the bride has very light, blonde hair.

The traditional color palette used during Medieval times was red, green, and blue. While working at Ender's Island on "House Blessing" with Valerie Weilmuenster last year, she introduced a variation using Prussian Blue, Sap Green, (gouache) and Magenta.(watercolor)

I also wanted to use 23K gold in the piece. I decided the word "Lord" would be a fitting place to use the gold.

So imagine a scrap of paper with the colors and gold as test. You have to imagine this little strip of paper because I must have tossed the paper out. 

I used the colors on the left as they are deeper and more dramatic. I think the brand used was Winsor Newton.

I thought I would like to try my hand at tooling the gold gilding. So imagine a little square of gleaming gold gilding with the diamond pattern from my mechanical pencil rolled into it. Just like you use a roller to emboss designs in cookie dough.

I hope you can see the design.

The entire quote and design was laid out on graph paper and then colored with colored pencil so I could better see how the piece (8" x 10") would look.

Using a light box, the design was lightly penciled onto a piece of Arches 90 lb. watercolor paper. This paper takes both ink, paint, and gold quite well.

Before the design is gilded or painted, it is lettered.

And like a bonehead, as I was lettering, I put my paw in the wet ink. It was very hot and humid this Summer, and I thought I had given the first line plenty of time to dry. Since I'm lefthanded, the process of lettering is a lot slower than my righthanded colleagues. I need to letter a few words and then have to stop and let the ink completely dry or risk smearing the lettering as I did in the word "For" above. 

As it turned out, a blessing in disguise as I wasn't happy with the "F". I hadn't intended the "J" looking serif at the bottom of the letter as I was using that stroke for the letter, "R". I didn't want the letter to look to similar.

Back to the drawing board.

Making Manuscripts

This video came across my Facebook feed. It touches on the process on how a manuscript was/is made: making parchment, quills, ink, calligraphy, gilding, and illumination.

Making Manuscripts - Getty Museum

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. When I went to use the Roberson's Gold size to do some gilding, the goop smelled like vinegar. I wasn't sure if it had gone bad. I did a test patch and the gold stuck to the glue so I guess it's still ok to use

2. Pulled weeds as big as trees around the  min-split condenser.

3. Enjoyed Carol DuBosch's online class in Bone Script

4. My birthday ended the month long birthday celebrations with an early, morning greeting on Facebook from the Young One, take out lobster rolls from The 99, a rain gauge for the weather station, a private blend of tea from the Eldest, and Key Lime Pie

 5. The recipients of the T Day Give Away are: Elizabeth, Cyndi, and Jo. Congratulations! And thank you all for playing. 

Jo, will you please email me your snail address?

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Skyped with the Eldest on her birthday.

2. Finally got a picture of the bluebird that has been visiting the yard

3. Practiced gilding for a project and embossed a pattern in the gold without tearing the gold

4. After shopping, did take out lobster rolls from the 99 Restaurant

5. The cashier at Lowe's admired my Marvin the Martian mask. He even did an impersonation

How was your week?

This and That Thursday

I was up at 5 AM mainly so I could have the dorm style bathroom to myself and out at 7 AM to spend a half an hour at my little beach watching the sunrise, and meditating while doing Qi Gong exercises movements. I knew no one else would be at my beach so early in the morning. Wading in the water, looking for shells and beach stones was a great way to start the day

After Mass, the priest called all those who would like to have their hands blessed to come forward. In my past experience, this was reserved for the artists taking the workshop. But if you think about it, everyone uses their hands for their work. So a blessing to do the best work you are able.

We spent the morning practicing Uncial, the hand we would letter the House Blessing. After lunch I wandered around the gardens. The dahlias were just starting to bloom so I was happy to at least get a glimpse of them. They won't be fully in bloom until later in August, and they are the show stoppers of the gardens.

When we returned to class, we made shell gold from sheets of loose leaf gold, gum Arabic, and water. It's called shell gold because the medieval artists made and kept the gold paint in a sea shell. We would use this paint as part of the gilding process.

I think the church doors had been painted since I was last on the island in 2015. I was happy to see the doors are a bright, TARDIS blue.

After dinner, a walk to unwind. I found an adorable stone kitty with a bird faucet handle. I also found a secluded spot on the opposite side of the causeway and my little beach to watch the sunset.

T Stands for Kintsugi

I have some luncheon plates that belonged to my grandmother. I think Dad's mother. I don't really know their provenance. I asked Ma one time who the dishes had belonged to. She said Grandma. Since Ma had them in her china cabinet for as long as I can remember, and her mother was still alive at the time of the asking, I took her answer to mean Dad's mother.

They are hand painted. The cups have "Italy" hand-painted on the bottom, and the plates are stamped "Italy." Most likely mass-produced at the turn of the 20th. century. Perhaps sent from the Old Country as a wedding gift for my grandmother. The sort of item every young bride had to entertain company.

 I have used them once. There are 4 tea cups, 6 plates, and 1 sugar bowl. One of the tea cups has 2 cracks in it. There are 8 other tea cups which I thought belonged to this set, but are slightly different. The shape of the cup is not the same, and the color of the trim is green and not blue as the luncheon set. Blue trimmed plate and green trimmed teacup are pictured above.

I don't believe they hold any value beyond sentimental. I really don't have a use for them, and I'm sure my girlies won't want them. I'd like to keep something that belonged to my grandmother as she passed a month after I was born. But what to do?

I remembered reading about a Japanese art of fixing stuff with gold. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. A special lacquer with gold, silver, or platinum powder is applied to the broken piece. "Since its conception, Kintsugi has been heavily influenced by prevalent philosophical ideas. Namely, the practice is related to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which calls for seeing beauty in the flawed or imperfect. The repair method was also born from the Japanese feeling of mottainai, which expresses regret when something is wasted, as well as mushin, the acceptance of change." from https://mymodernmet.com/kintsugi-kintsukuroi/

I don't have the special lacquer, but I do have gilding size and gold leaf. I could gild the cracks in the cup. Donate the other cups and plates to charity without feeling guilty, and keep the gilded cup as a link to my grandmother.

Gilding tools at the ready

Since the cracks were shallow and narrow, Roberson's Water Gold Size was applied to the cracks with a Brause EF66 nib, a very fine, pointed nib.

The gold size took about 20 minutes to dry. After huffing on the size, 23 karat gold leaf was applied.  

The gold was burnished through a piece of glassine paper with an agate burnisher and a shoe burnisher. Huffing, laying the gold leaf, and burnishing was repeated two  more times on both cracks. (3 layers of gold leaf)

The little cup on display,

and now more of a treasure.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Inktober Monday

Drawings for the second week of Inktober

 10/08 Inktober prompt: Star and another Celtic knot

10/09 Inktober prompt: Precious. My precious. Drawing hands is hard and the ring looks more like a cereal ring. It's gilded with variegated gold.

10/10 Inktober prompt: Flowing Chibi mermaid has flowing hair.

10/11 Inktober prompt: Cruel, but I chose to interpret it as Crewel as a type of embroidery. The thistle is colored with Pigma pens and Tombow markers

10/12 Inktober prompt: Whale. This is a little fellow I used to doodle when I was a kid.

10/13 Inktober prompt: Guarded

10/14 Inktober prompt: clock From my childhood, Captain Kangaroo's Grandfather clock

T Stands For Baby G

Baby G's due date was 4. April, but a due date is a best guesstimate. First babies are usually "late" though babies arrive on their own schedule. Baby G was no exception. She arrived on Thursday, 12. April at 3:18 PM. tipping the scales at 7 pounds 1 ounce and 20.5 inches in length.

While the rest of the family were no doubt pestering inquiring of the mom-to-be when the baby was arriving, I was working on this piece for Baby G's room. Rather like Baby G, it occurred to me too late to take process photos. This is at the very end.

Baby G's room has a nautical theme with whales. The room is painted a pinky purple or a purpley pink. I thought a mermaid in a Chibi anime-style would be cute. So at this point, the drawing, lettering, gilded boxed initial in 23K gold, starfish in her hair painted with shell gold is done.

I used a purpley pink color in gouache for the background of the boxed initial. Gouache is an opaque watercolor and stands out nicely against the gold gilding.

I wanted a softer aspect to the mermaid so used watercolor pencils. Her fins have been washed with Schminke silver watercolor because a girl can't have too much bling.

You won't see a beverage as I've been known to dip my brush in tea or spill it all over the desk. There's a reason Ma didn't name me Grace. On my desk you can see two, small, plastic cups. One with dirty paint water and one with clean, distilled water along with distilled water in a dropper bottle.

Since the background of the boxed initial is colored, it needs something so it doesn't appear so flat, Traditionally, white work, (doodles painted with white) would be done. And I did, but the traditional designs looked wrong for such a whimsical picture. I painted over and decided to add simple, white dots.

My brush work for such fine work isn't that great. My brush dots tend to look more like commas so I use the end of a small, ball embosser. That's the white tool resting on the brush rest next to my brush.

For the white, I use Chinese white, a very opaque white, recommended by Valerie Weilmuesnter when I took her Illumination class 3 years ago at the Sacred Art Institute on Enders Island in Mystic, Connecticut.

The final embellishment to the piece is a small, (costume) diamond (April birth stone) earring. I broke the back off and sanded off the nub so the fitting will stand flat. I wondered what glue to use and asked the question on Facebook. Jacqueline Sullivan, a calligrapher who does a lot of work with metals, advised using Crafter's Pick Ultimate Glue. I had the pleasure of taking a workshop from Jacqueline many years ago. I ordered the glue and am waiting for its arrival.

After the gluing all that's left is to mat and frame.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monogram

One of the assignments for the 26 Seeds class was to do a gilding project, a design, initials or a quote as a finished project. One initial had to be a Roman Cap variation.

I decided to do a monogram. I got the idea to "frame" it in the center of a saucer that was missing its tea cup. The monogram was done on a 2 inch round of Diploma parchment. The "K" was gilded with 23 karat gold over a base of Robersons Water Gold Size. It's more forgiving and less fussy than the Instacoll used in class. The "C" and the "R" were painted with shell gold for contrast and then tooled with some designs.

All That Glisters

Another busy Reggie weekend. The third session of the year-long course. We began the class with gilding. During the second session, we had done some gilding using a Instacoll as a base. It yielded good results but was a little fussy to work with as if you weren't careful with brushing it on, the brush strokes would be seen through the gold. Not very pretty.

During this session, we used two different kinds of bases to give a raised effect. In the photo, the small vial on the left was a bit of gesso colored Pepto pink. Gesso is usually used to seal canvas before painting. Traditional gesso (slaked plaster of Paris, fish or rabbit glue, and white pigment) is also a base used in traditional, raised gilding, but it is fussy to work. Enter acrylic gesso.

The first thing we did was to use Golden Extra Heavy Gloss Medium Molding Paste on the heart. This was used so the gilding would have texture. A bit unusual. The steps we did are hazy for me as we had to work quickly so there wasn't enough time to take detailed notes.  So after the molding paste dried, the gesso was applied to the heart and to the compass points. After the gesso layer was dry, a layer of clear Instacoll tinted red or dark pink, was applied over the gesso to raise the base. The coloring was added so it wouldn't blend with the pink gesso. There's a small window of opportunity to gild on the Instacoll. It needs to be dry, but still tacky. If it dries thoroughly, then the metal leaf won't stick.

We got to try out various metals. 24 Kt. Loose Gold, 23 Kt. Patent Gold, 18 Kt. Lemon Gold, Palladium (used in place of Silver as Silver tarnishes over time and  Palladium doesnn't, Aluminum (used in place of Silver. Aluminum doesn't tarnish, but it's very thick and hard to work with, Variegated Gold, and Moon Gold which looks a bit like Pewter) Reggie didn't have any 23 Kt. Loose Gold so the dark pink Instacoll base still shows.

Reggie Homework Warts and All

This is the third Reggie weekend. My teaching schedule and commission work made it difficult to fit time to do the homework. Again, I marched to my own homework drummer as there were things I needed to work on. After all, that's the purpose of homework to reinforce skills. The homework this time around focused on pressurized Romans and again working with gouache.

Since time was growing short, I opted to skip working with gouache. I tried, but too many other variables to worry about mixing gouache went very low on my totem pole. That and I realized I don't like writing with gouache. I also had lots of difficulty with the pressurized caps. I still wasn't confident with a plain Roman so that was my first assignment. A stream of consciousness calligram. Done on Arches Watercolor paper, Winsor Newton Ink and a Brause 2 mm.

We were to make an exemplar of pressurized caps with serifs. 1 inch tall with a Mitchell  #2 . We also were to do a short quote. I combined the two assignments. I had a flash on inspiration instead of writing out the entire alphabet, I'd pick letters that represented all the shapes. Straight, angle, curve, circle. This fit with the quote ANCORA IMPARO. Translated as I am still learning and may or may not be attributed to Michelangelo. Pressurized caps require a very light touch. I'm ham-fisted. Since I was having some problems making delicate serifs, I opted to skip the wasp-waisted letters for a more plus size letter with serifs. I also had problems working so large so decided to work at 1/2 inch. Scribes don't have a patron saint. We have a patron demon named Titivillus. Titivillus happily waits for the scribe to make an error, and then he scoops the mistake into his bag. When Judgement Day arrives for the scribe, the errors in Titivillus' sack are weighed against the good deeds the scribe did. The scale would determine whether the good outweighed the bad, and the scribe could be admitted to Heaven. ANCORA IMPARO - I am still learning.

We had to make another exemplar of pencil drawn caps with serifs, 1 inch tall on grid paper. then we were to cut and paste these letters to make a layout and do a short quote. The layout was to be transferred to black paper, underpainted with white, and then painted or gilded the letters. Another assignment involved mixing 5 values of intermediate colors of gouache. We were to paint the quote with a color from the mixing assignment that appealed to us. Again, mixing colors very low priority for me, and as I'm partial to blue that was the color I opted to work with.

Translation of the quote was gilded along with the dots. The lines in the illuminated "I" were painted with shell gold. The gold was burnished using a Letraset (shoe) burnisher and glassine.

Lots of things I need to work on. Spelling for one. At least, I have pieces to turn in for confession show and tell to prove I wasn't a total slug. ANCORA IMPARO Titivillus will have a field day with this one. I am still learning.

Four To Go

The small size frame had come from my parents' house. It was a gift and had a picture of the girlies when they were little. Fortunately, I had the same frame in a larger size. I had used it to frame a cross-stitch birth announcement for The Eldest. How do you spell relief?

Matted, framed, picture wired, and delivered to the museum two days before the deadline.

Three To Get Ready - Part 2

Quote lettered, illumination inked and Roberson's Gold Size was applied.

23 karat gold leaf was laid down and burnished with an agate burnisher through a film of acetate.

Shell gold was painted into the counterspace of the U and the round seedlings. When the shell gold dried, it was burnished with the agate burnisher without the acetate. The shell gold seedlings were tooled with a sunburst design and a bird and flower were tooled into the counterspace of the U. The etching give an extra sparkle to gold as the light catches the desingn.

Traditional colors for illumination are red, blue, and green. Since the picture frame had a touch of pink, I decided to mix a rosy red to use on the flowers. 

Painted with gouache and shaded. White work was applied. So far so good until I went to put the piece into the frame. While I had planned on an 8 inch by 10 inch frame, the actual size of the frame was 5 inch by 7 inch. How did I miss that, and what was I going to do?