[Scriptoris] Actually.....attempt at "dark" hours scroll

[Jocelyn Hinkle]

 chiara wrote:
>I am working on a scroll that will be put on a dark royal blue piece of goat
>skin. I am going to use gold ink. Now, this is a non-standard scroll, i.e.
>non-sca. But I still want the help of my fellow scribes for you all are the
>experts. :)
>
>What I need to know is this piece of skin is kinda rolled up and I want to
>flatten it out before I start inking.

Hmmmm.....
Dark Blue is a perfectly acceptible color for an illuminated page, as are red, green, black, purple.

And now the quiz
1. Has the skin been pre-colored?
2. What pigment source (dye)was used for the tint?
(Most if not all commercial leater dyes are completely wrong for scribal work, and will produce unpredictable results.I have seen whole texts flake off a page due to the use of a leather tint.)

3. Was it sanded and sized before coloration?
4. Soft skin or rawhide?
5. Have you tested the effects of water, scraping, and sanding on a test scrap first?

For un-dyed skin I use the following process to ready it for scribal work.
-sand the skin front and back with medium sandpaper. Remove all hairs and lumps.
-Bring a bucket of water to boil
-soak the sanded skin in the water till it reaches a uniform translucent state
-while still wet, stitch the skin on 4 sides between stretcher bars. (use uncolored mercerized cotton string for this.)
-once the skin is suspended between the bars, rub it firmly but gently on both sides to stretch it and tighten the bars.
-allow to dry completely overnight. the cotton string will break away from the bars in some places, and this is fine. You want it to break before the skin tears.
-Repeat the entire process a minimum of 2 more times.
-Give the skin a final sanding with very fine sandpaper on both sides.
-Dust then rub down with talc.

    This process results in a thin and very flat page that does not warp badly when worked with paints and inks. I use it to flatten out the rolled skins that may be purchased commercially.
    Skins treated in this manner may also be stapled flat and taut to a board to be inked and painted. The drawback to doing this is that they may not be adjusted to compensate for additional buckling brought on by the inking and painting process.  Dont use water heavy paints if you intend to go this route.

Ari
---
Is there enough of God left, in the dust
between the stars, to dance up more
life than your fragile ego can stand?
Scribe_Ari at Lycos.com


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