From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V4 #25 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Tuesday, October 24 2000 Volume 04 : Number 025 ======================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with unsubscribe scribes-digets in the body of the message. Leave the subject line blank. Do not include any additional text. Re: [scribes]: Re: johannes comments [scribes]: Fw: making of gold dust of real gold ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 16:12:53 -0700 From: Carolyn_Richardson@cch.com Subject: Re: [scribes]: Re: johannes comments >> May I suggest that you read the SCA homepage regarding who and what we are? To maintain our non profit status we have to engage in actual, authentic mideaval research, not fantasy. << Oh come on now.... I hate to burst anyone's bubble but throwing in a little bit of nonperiod, fantasy into a scroll every now and then is not going to harm our nonprofit status in any way. Anyone who thinks it will doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Particlarly when they can't spell "medieval". I'm not trying to start a flamewar here but this is ridiculous. Yes, period is probably a better way to go. But there is no harm caused by the occasional appearance of Dr. Seuss, the Death Star, photorealism, etc. in a scroll. I've seen all of them, and while they were amusing no one was going to mistake it as an attempt at medieval recreation. For that matter, the SCA will live thru other non-medieval occurrences like having our events at hotel convention centers, the Tuchux (other than the annoyance factor), and eating nonperiod food. Tetchubah of Greenlake, Caid Society Exchequer and former IRS agent =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2000 20:10:45 -0500 From: "Helen Schultz" Subject: [scribes]: Fw: making of gold dust of real gold Hi everyone. Jack Thompson (a nice man who wrote a wonderful little book on inks) posted the following on the SCA Arts List (sorry to those who are also on that list, this will be "old" to you), has given me permission to post this to the Scribe's List. It may have been brought up once or twice before, but since we get new people all the time, I thought it would be nice to do it again. KHvS - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jack C. Thompson" Katerina, No, I'm not on the Scribe's List, but you're more than welcome to post my response there. It's an old method. Daniel V. Thompson mentions it in his _The Materials of Medieval Painting_ I asked him: Are you also on the Scribe's List?? I know I have talked to you before about your book on inks (which I still mean to purchase more copies of one of these days), but cannot recall if you are on both lists like I am. If you are not on Scribes, may I please post your technique for making "shell gold" there?? It will be of great value to the scribes there. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He had posted on the Arts list in reply to a method suggesting grinding with a mortar & pestle: Don't do this.... However small you may cut the gold leaf (single weight gold leaf is some 250,000 of an inch thick) when you begin to grind it up in a mortar, you will simply recombine the gold and gild the mortar. Pour some honey into a cup and lay a leaf or two on top; stir it up with a wet stick to break the gold leaf and let it settle. The next day pour in some warm water to dissolve the honey and let the gold fragments settle. If you use a dry stick, some of the gold leaf will adhere to the stick. Then pour off the upper, liquid honey and add more warm/hot water and continue dissolving the honey. Do this until you have only water with gold leaf fragments in. Dry it out and dip your brush in when you need some gold leaf. Jack C. Thompson Thompson Conservation Lab. 7549 N. Fenwick Portland, Oregon 97217 USA (503)735-3942 (voice/fax) http://www.teleport.com/~tcl "The lyf so short; the craft so long to lerne" Chaucer, 1386 A.D. =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V4 #25 ****************************