Distemper Recipe Soft Distemper Also known as Size Paint or Calcimine Distemper it is made from a mixture of Gilders’ Whiting (Calcium Carbonate), pigment, water and an animal glue size as binder. It gives a smooth, matte finish, which, although having no shine, avoids a dull, lifeless look and is particularly suitable for use on…
Traditional Gesso Recipe Ingredients 80 gm Rabbit Skin Glue 1100 ml Water 450 gm Calcium Carbonate (Gilders Whiting) 50 gm Titanium White pigment Process Take 80gm of Rabbit Skin Glue and add 1.1 Litres of water. Leave to swell for approximately 2 hours until it is a uniform beige colour. Keep the lid on this…
Formulations for Casein paints Manufacture of Borax-Casein Binder (Wehlte) Ingredients 40 gm Casein powder 16 gm Borax 125 ml cold water 125 ml hot water Process 1: Soak 40 gm of casein powder for approximately 12 hours in 125 ml of cold water. 16 gm crystalline Borax is dissolved in 125 ml of hot water.…
Drawing Ink – Frequently used recipes Gum Arabic Ink Recipe. The Gum Arabic powder should be dissolved by leaving it overnight in fifteen times its’ weight of distilled water. The gum will dissolve between 12 and 24 hours. The solution should then be strained through a cloth to remove impurities. Preservative should be added to…
Malachite Green pigment Green Verditer – Green Bice – Mountain Green – Green Carbonate Of Copper – Vert De Montagne – Berg-GrüN – MalachitgrüN History, chemistry and application This green copper mineral was employed as a paint by the ancients. It occurs in many European, Asiatic, African, and American localities. The mines at Ekaterinburg and…
Indigo FOR MANY CENTURIES, INDIGO WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT DYE IN THE WORLD. Indigo has been used either as a pigment or a dye from very early times in India and in Egypt. It is referred to under the name of indicum by Pliny; later on the Byzantine writers called it azorium Romanum. ‘Indigo bagadel’…
Tyrian Purple dye THIS PRESTIGIOUS PIGMENT COMES FROM A PREDATORY SEA SNAIL. Tyrian purple is extracted from Bolinus brandaris, a mollusc native to the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre (Phoenicia means ‘land of purple’) in what is now Lebanon. The production of Tyrian purple goes back at least 3500 years and Greek legends tell us…
Lead White pigment THIS IS THE GREATEST – AND THE CRUELLEST – OF THE WHITES. Lead white has been in continuous production for at least 2000 years. It is basic lead carbonate, formed by the reaction of lead with vapours of vinegar (acetic acid) and carbon dioxide. The manufacturing process in the 19th century was relatively…
Woad dye WOAD WAS WIDELY USED AS A DYE IN EUROPE AS EARLY AS THE STONE AGE. Ancient Britons covered their bodies with woad to face the Roman legions and it is said that they struck fear into Julius Caesar himself. The first part of the woad-making process involved taking fresh leaves of the woad…
