Calligraphy, Ink, Dyes, Ochre, Pigments

Tudor calligrapher
https://youtu.be/anuZV9BhcUc?t=16m56s
https://youtu.be/anuZV9BhcUc?t=33m14s

Tudor illustrator preparing paint
https://youtu.be/anuZV9BhcUc?t=33m30s

Earth Pigments ..
13th century - Ochre
https://youtu.be/DKk6md55wXQ?t=19m31s
https://youtu.be/DKk6md55wXQ?t=24m29s

Natural Pigments, Plant Dyes - ElQu >> .


Tudor - cloth painting, mixing pigment
https://youtu.be/madCyZtBHTk?t=40m9s

13th century - Textile industry & Woad
https://youtu.be/V4Igov-RM38?t=7m3s
https://youtu.be/V4Igov-RM38?t=13m8s

13th century - Gold thread
https://youtu.be/V4Igov-RM38?t=23m10s


The Alchemy of Color and Chemical Change in Medieval Manuscripts > .
Making Manuscripts > .
A Vault of Color: Protecting the World's Rarest Pigments > .

Inside the Mind of an Alchemist - Featuring Larry Principe - Bytesize Science > .
From Alchemy to Chemistry Object Theatre > .
Lavoisier: The Creation of Chemistry - The Fundamental Laws: Crash Course Chemistry #3 > .

Forest Plants, Forest Plants for Dyeing and Dyeing Wool >> .

Medieval manuscripts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKBJkf2xbqI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuNfdHNTv9o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WUpmG3ctxk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aDHJu9J10o

 The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry - The Met > .


Vellum, iron gall ink .

https://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/blog/the-history-of-printing-and-ink/

Iron gall ink (also known as iron gall nut ink, oak gall ink, and common ink) is a purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts and tannic acids from vegetable sources. It was the standard writing and drawing ink in Europe, from about the 5th century to the 19th century, and remained in use well into the 20th century.

The ink was traditionally prepared by adding some iron(II) sulphate (FeSO4) to a solution of tannic acid (C76H52O46), but any iron ion donor can be used. The gallotannic acid (= tannic acid) was usually extracted from oak galls or galls of other trees; hence the name. Fermentation or hydrolysis of the extract releases glucose and gallic acid (C6H2(OH)3COOH),[clarification needed] which yields a darker purple-black ink, due to the formation of iron gallate.

The fermented extract was combined with the ferrous iron(II) sulphate. After filtering, the resulting pale-grey solution had a binder added to it, (most commonly gum arabic) and was used to write on paper or parchment. A well-prepared ink would gradually darken to an intense purplish black. The resulting marks would adhere firmly to the parchment or vellum, and (unlike india ink or other formulas) could not be erased by rubbing or washing. The marks could only be erased by actually scraping a thin layer off the writing surface.

By mixing tannin with iron sulphate, a water-soluble ferrous tannate complex is formed. Because of its solubility, the ink is able to penetrate the paper surface, making it difficult to erase. When exposed to oxygen a ferric tannate pigment is formed. This complex is not water-soluble, contributing to its permanence as a writing ink.

The gradual darkening of the ink is due to the oxidation of the iron ions from ferrous (Fe2+) to ferric (Fe3+) state by atmospheric oxygen. (For that reason, the liquid ink had to be stored in a well-stoppered bottle, and often became unusable after a time.) The ferric ions react with the tannic acid or some derived compound (possibly gallic acid or pyrogallol) to form a polymeric organometallic compound.

While a very effective ink, the formula was less than ideal. Iron gall ink is acidic ranging from roughly equivalent to a lemon (pH ≈ 2) to that of a cup of black coffee (pH ≈ 5). In chemistry, pH is a measure of the activity of the (solvated) hydrogen ion, where a lower pH level indicates a more acidic solution. For this reason some makers of iron gall ink used crushed egg shells (which contain calcium carbonate (CaCO3)) to temper the ink solution acidity, bringing it closer to a neutral pH (pH = 7) value. Depending on the writing surface being used iron gall ink can have unsightly "ghost writing" on the obverse face of the writing surface (most commonly parchment or paper). Also any excess of ferrous ions remaining in the ink over years, decades, and centuries, could create a rusty halo around the marks and ultimately it might eat holes through the surface it was on.

Paper has its own special problems with iron gall ink. The iron-tannic pigment does not make chemical bonds with the cellulose fibres. The ink sticks firmly to the paper, but largely by mechanical bonding; essentially, the dried ink penetrates the spaces between the fibres and, after drying, becomes entangled in them. The process of decaying the writing surface is accelerated on paper when compared to parchment, doing the damage in decades or years that could take more than a millennium on parchment.

The acidity of iron gall ink is well known, but may also be somewhat overstated; while there certainly are instances of damage to historical documents, there are thousands of manuscripts, some of them well over 1,000 years old, written with iron gall ink which remain intact and legible.

Iron gall ink
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink

How to make Gall Ink and quill - Dig for Victory > .

Leather, Parchment, Book Binding - arch >> .
Papermaking, Parchment, Papyrus, Manuscripts - ElQu >> .

Norse plant dyes > .

How to dye with natural dye  > .
Forest Plants, Forest Plants for Dyeing and Dyeing Wool > .

Natural dyes and dyeing from woodland plants > .r

Norman England
By the 11th century, there was a greater need for texts due to Norman administrative and religious reforms. The development of universities also contributed to an increasing demand for texts; however, the method of creating books remained the same and scribes in monasteries continued to create these works by hand. This had the effect of making books incredibly expensive, and only the rich were able to afford them.

14th Century and beyond
There is evidence that block cutters and textile stampers were being used in early medieval Europe which could print letters and patterns onto fabrics. Woodblock printing had arrived in Europe in the 14th century from China, as had paper, and led to the development of printing patterns onto textiles. Woodblock printing involves carving patterns and lines into a block of wood and printing this onto paper. Most images were printed on cloth to be displayed on walls or on altars. With the increasing availability of paper after the 14th century, woodcuts became more widely available and more popular. This was a technique particularly used in Germany to produce religious scenes. This still remained a labour intensive task and the original wood blocks would need to be continuously replaced. The use of woodblock printing led to a new artistic style in medieval Europe where pictures had simple, thin lines which made printing easier. Other methods were developed by the 15th century which involved cutting lines into metal and printing from this.

In Early Medieval Europe therefore, printing was a laborious and expensive process that required skilled craftsmen. Producing printed material took time and complete books were very valuable although this didn’t matter to the majority of the population who remained illiterate. With the development of paper came a technological revolution in the 15th century: the printing press, which could now mass produce printed text.

In around 1440AD after a lot of time experimenting with different designs, Gutenberg created a printing press that was operated by hand. Gutenberg experimented with materials and made an alloy of lead, tin and antimony; this produced high quality books and proved to print very successfully. It was based on existing screw pressures and incorporated previous technologies; however this development included a matrix (a mould for casting letters) which is estimated to contain 290 separate letter boxes. His new technology enabled a quick way to produce very precise moulds.

The press worked by rolling ink over the raised surfaces of moveable hand-set block letters which were held within a wooden frame. This was then pressed against a sheet of paper and it made the creation of metal moveable type possible in large quantities. The metal type pieces were an advantage over earlier wooden block printing as they were much more durable and made the text more uniform.

As well as the technology, Gutenberg developed an oil-based ink which was more resilient than water based inks, inks previously used for handwriting tended to blur when used in the printing press. This ink was made from soot, turpentine and walnut oil and may even have included ingredient such as litharge (lead monoxide) and unknown plant extracts. Gutenberg also used both paper and velum as printing materials to improve the quality of printing.

https://www.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/blog/the-history-of-printing-and-ink/

Since taking over the business in 1988, Yoshioka has pivoted from synthetic dyes to traditional Japanese methods that draw extraordinary, rich colours from bark, berries, flowers, leaves and roots.
https://aeon.co/videos/sublime-colours-brought-back-from-oblivion-the-exquisite-effects-of-natural-dyes .
posted by mediea
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