German Parchmenter, 1568

How to Prepare Parchment for Writing and Illumination

The parchment must first be sanded to give the parchment an even knap. I recommend using at least 200 grit sandpaper and usually 400 grit sandpaper. Sand to a very fine knap, evenly distributed, over the entire surface of the parchment on the sides that you desire to work. The parchment should have a very light velvety feel. The "fuzzyness" of the knap can be adjusted to suit your particular calligraphy equipment and style. The sanding should be, as often as possible, in circular patterns; alternate which direction you sand over a particular area. This part would traditionally be done with a pumice stone, but sandpaper is easier to come by and a power sander can make doing a whole skin much easier.

Optional steps:Once the knap is prepared the parchment can be-de-oiled by rubbing it with pumice or chalk powder. Tap off all of the excess before writing.The next step is to pounce the parchment. This is done by taking gum sandarac and putting in a fine cloth bag and tapping it all over the surface of the parchment and using the cloth bag to rub it into the parchment. The parchment is then tapped to remove any excess gum sandarac. This pouncing keeps the ink from bleeding too far into the parchment and aids in producing fine hairlines when writing.The pouncing and de-oiling steps are optional and their necessity depends upon the quality of the parchment.

How to prepare a quill for calligraphyCuring:First, select a good quality primary flight feather from a goose, duck, crow, turkey, or swan. To prepare the quill for curing the inner pith of the feather must be removed by cutting off the end of the quill and scraping out the inside with a thin wire. Next the outside of the quill must be scraped with the back side of a knife to remove the waxy coating.Soak the end of the feather (barrel side down) in water overnight. Heat sand in an oven 250°F-300°F. Plunge the feather into the sand, working it up and down to force sand into the barrel of the feather. Leave the feather in the sand long enough to dehydrate the feather barrel, but not long enough to burn the barrel of the quill. This creates a hard but flexible cured quill ready for cutting. The overnight water soak can be omitted though omitting it creates a more brittle quill.

Cutting: Cutting of quills is best done with a very sharp knife such as an x-Acto knife or scalpel.

Make a cut on the underside of the quill beginning roughly one inch from the end. Begin

the cut with a curve, and continue with a straight cut until the point of the quill is reached. This one cut should cut through both sides of the barrel.

Cut one side with a curve to create half of the typical quill shape.This is what The quill will look like after the first cut.

Make the same, but mirrored, cut on the opposite side of the quill. Your quill will now have the typical quill shape.

Next, take the point of your cutting tool and pierce the underside of the quill splitting the quill from insertion point to the tip. The X denotes where to insert the knife from the

underside.The final step is to place the quill end on a hard, flat surface and trim the end at an angle to create a sharp chisel point.

How to use shell paint cakes:These paint cakes, which are made using medieval and renaissance materials, can be used without alteration as water color cake paints, or can be used for egg tempera painting using the instructions below.

The first step in preparing egg tempera paint is to prepare egg yolk for use in paint. This is done by first separating an egg, and placing the unbroken yolk onto a cloth (paper towels work well) and then moving around to dry the yolk. Pierce or pinch the yolk, thereby puncturing the membrane and allow it to run into an awaiting container.To prepare the paint into egg tempera, take a small amount of water, about half as much water as the amount of paint you want to make. Place this water on the cake of paint in the shell. Mix this until you get a pigmented mixture about the consistency of whole milk or light cream. Take this paint mixture and transfer it to another shell or paint pot and add less than an equal amount of egg yolk to it. This will produce a fairly glossy egg tempera paint of a good consistency. For less gloss, reduce the amount of yolk. For more gloss, increase the portion of yolk.To make a glair based paint, take the white of an egg or two and beat them until stiff peaks form. Allow this to settle overnight and pour the liquid that has settled bellow the foam into a separate container. This liquid part is the glair that you use in place of the egg yolk in the above directions.**For those more familiar with the use of glair, these paint cakes, contain portions of gum Arabic and honey and it is therefore not necessary to add these to your separated egg whites for a good glair.

Simple Gothic CalligraphyAll calligraphy hands can be broken down into a few simple strokes. This is particularly true when working with a gothic alphabet. In the simplest gothic hand all of the lower-case (or miniscule) letters are formed by only four simple strokes. This guide will show you how to write each of these strokes as well as how to combine them into a complete alphabet.The first step in learning calligraphy is to first think of it as drawing simple shapes and not as writing. This is because quills (and steel nibs if you prefer) have limitations and strengths that modern writing implements do not have.

First the chisel edge of the quill should be held at between a 30 and 45 degree angle to the baseline. The rule of using a quill is to always pull strokes never push them.

The basic four strokes that are needed to form the Gothic hand are as follows: A straight, downward stroke, a diagonal stroke that goes against the angle the quill is held at, a diagonal stroke that

creates a hairline along the angle the quill is held, and a straight horizontal stroke.To form the letters of the alphabet, follow the stroke guide bellow to create the key letters using only these four basic strokes. The full alphabet at left can be created by using the same stroke patterns as used in the exemplar letters below and just putting them together in the patterns to create the entire set.

Notes About InkAll of our inks are made using medieval and renaissance methods, materials, and recipes. As such, they are recommended for dip pens and quills only. The pigmenting and the corrosiveness will slowly (perhaps even rapidly) destroy a fountain pen and it's inner workings. All of the inks are not toxic for skin contact; however, they should not be ingested.The iron gall ink contains a high amount of ferrous sulfate that, although it is used as a dietary supplement, will cause iron poisoning if ingested. Ingestion of 1/4 of a bottle of ink has enough iron in it to cause iron poisoning in most adults.

Notes about all of our materials:All of our materials and products are made with a passion for historic techniques and materials. Each of our products is made using the materials and recipes used in medieval and renaissance Europe. Feel free to ask us about any of the techniques and methods we use.

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Artist's Guide:How to prepare parchment,

cut a quill,use of our shell paints

for egg tempera,and

How to write in a simple gothic calligraphy hand

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