Bunny Bags

If you were wondering what happened to my blog post for yesterday, it's here. I didn't really have anything to write about. Not that I really do, but yesterday the well ran dry. Instead, it occurred to me that Easter is only a few days away.

The days of Easter baskets and egg hunts are long gone. (Though we had a lazy Easter bunny who hid the entire basket) Still some traditions are hard to end. I still hard-boil and dye Easter eggs. A colored egg is nestled into bread dough and baked (an Italian tradition) for Easter breakfast, if the monk who bakes the bread doesn't over-sleep, otherwise, the bread and egg nests are for lunch..There will always be chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, jelly beans (especially black ones). And there are always a few trinkets for the girlies. No matter how big they get, they still enjoy an Easter basket.

The Easter baskets did faithful service for many years, but are no longer with us. The Easter Bunny will need something to hold the bits of candy and trinkets. Gift bags would work, but the Easter Bunny could only find Christmas gift bags and didn't want to run out to buy gift bags. The Easter Bunny can be quite cheap frugal.

While trolling the Interwebs for inspiration, I came across Bunny Juice Box Wraps and decided bunny bags would do the trick.

You'll need a lunch bag. (I had white on hand, but brown bags would work just as well). The lunch bag measured 10 1/2 inches so using the paper cutter, I cut 5 inches from the top of the bag. Out of the bag scraps, I cut 2 ear shapes, and 2 paws for each bag Scrap paper in the girlies favorite colors (pink for The Eldest and red for The Young One) was used for the inner ear, large paw pad, and a hole punch was used to punch 3 small paw pads. I also cut a heart shape from the colored scrap for the nose. The colored scraps were glued to the bags with glue stick. Drew a bunny face on the bag with a Sharpie marker and a dab of chalk for blushing cheeks.

A pretty ribbon bow and a cotton ball tail glued on with white PVA glue (Elmer's) completed the ensemble.

The End.

Shell Gold

Wednesday afternoon, Valerie taught us the recipe to make shell gold. This involves mixing 23 karat  loose gold (a little more expensive than patent gold and requiring special tools to cut and apply the gold) with gum arabic (a binder found in candy), and a tiny bit of water. The mixture is mixed in a ceramic bowl by finger in a time honored process (i.e. time consuming) The gold precipitates to the bottom of the bowl and the water is decanted or siphoned off. When the remaining water evaporates (after several hours or overnight) the gold can be used as paint. It's called shell gold because Medieval artists poured it into a small shell for storage.

The shell gold can be used alone or can complement the gold leaf as seen in my incomplete White Vine monogram. The "C" was gilded with the patent gold while the "J" was painted with the shell gold. Shell gold is not as shiny, but gives a beautiful contrast when paired with gold leaf.

23 karat patent gold, shell gold, Pigma pen on Diploma Parchment.

Gilding

coloring page not complete, shading on leaves,
the letter "S", and white work still needs to
be done

In between painting vines and acanthus leaves, we also learned how to gild with gold leaf. Yes, real 23 karat gold leaf. This is what I wanted to learn from this workshop. I've played with gilding either using faux foils or gilding on a base of PVA  (Elmer's glue). The results were okay, but half-assed.

Traditionally, gilding is done on a base of gesso. Gesso is a mixture of slaked plaster, binder (an animal glue, usually rabbit glue), chalk, and white pigment. It's difficult to mix and because of variables due to humidity, a very fussy process.

Instead of using gesso, we used a special goop called Instacoll. Diluted with water, the goop provides a slightly raised surface to gild on. The plus to using the Instacoll is even beginners can achieve good looking results.

The corners, background of the letter "S" and a bunch of dots were gilded using Instacoll and 23 karat patent gold leaf.

I thought gilding dots would be easy peasy. Turns out to be a little extra work. Note to self: next time, paint the damn dots.

Acanthus Leaves

Acanthus have twisting, turning leaves. They are a common motif in Medieval designs. Valerie had another worksheet prepared for us. This was another exercise I wasn't able to complete last time around. I was so happy to get a second chance to complete the assignment.

Painting the leaves involves a lot of shading. The process is very meditative, and if you're not careful, you'll blend away the dark and light tones.

It's hard to see from the photograph, but the gold background, painted with the Winsor Newton ink, is tooled. A vine and leaf design was embossed into the ink when it dried.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. At the last meditation of class last Friday, we were given a blessing, a charm of a dove (Holy Spirit) and a feather. The feather was an illustration of words from Hildegard von Bingen, a 13th c. nun and remarkable woman. "...Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God."

2. As much as I enjoyed myself at St. Michael's Institute for Sacred Art, I was very glad to get home to my comfy, little bed. The beds are ok, but the pillows leave a lot to be desired, said the Little Princess. (-; Note to Self: Next time, bring your own pillow.

3. The snowbanks at the end of the driveway have melted. I can now back out of the driveway without having to have a spotter or someone directing traffic so I can back out.

4. I went on the hunt for a small, bowl about 3 to 4 inches across and just as tall. I wanted the bowl so I can make my own shell gold. Thought I would have an easy time finding and a hard time choosing one at Pier 1. They didn't have any that fit the bill. Found a dark blue dip bowl in Target. Color me blue with happiness.

5. Since we can get out of the driveway, the Young One and I ran errands up at the mall. Treated ourselves to Chai and a pecan sticky bun at Panera. We deserved it.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday

vines from 1999 or 2000

March 2015

D, Vine

The classroom was bright. Valerie had made each of us a place card for our tables. Aren't they cute? They reminded me of Howard Pyle's illustrations of Robin Hood. We had plenty of room to spread out, and each table had its own Ott light.

What a value Manuscript Illumination and Gilding is at St. Michael's Institute for Sacred Art. Room, linens, 5 days of instruction, 3 meals per day, 24 hr. coffee and tea available, and all the art supplies are provided. Yup, all the supplies. Paints, 23 karat patent gold, 23 karat loose gold, brushes, Instacoll, ink, drawing nibs, Pigma pens, rulers, pencils, erasers, embossing tools, agate burnishers, acetate, light boxes, and visors for those of us that have difficulty seeing fine, detail work. When you go home, you get to take a brush, two 6 well palettes of the paints you used, a sample of Instacoll, and a sample of shell gold. Along with all the handouts and worksheets.

Our first exercise was to illuminate a vine border and the letter "D" with a vine.

Valerie handed out printed worksheets with the letter and vines. The worksheets are coloring pages for grown-ups.  No worry, no stress. Just fun.

I did this exercise with Valerie many years ago when she came to teach part of this workshop to Masscribes, the Massachusetts and Rhode Island calligraphers guild. Though I had done the exercise before, it never hurts to review.

Valerie takes complicated designs and breaks them down into easy to follow, basic steps. Each student comes away with work they can be proud of, and notes and steps to follow to create their own illuminated vines and letters.

Goucahe (opaque watercolor), Gold Winsor Newton ink, Gansi White on Diploma Parchment.