Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Restoring the Vase: Part Deux

The plaster strikes back... not really.  Everything is disappointingly uneventful and expected.



The additions of plaster were built up until it looked like one final coat was needed to smooth out everything and bring the plaster just up to the glaze level on the ceramic.



Mix up another batch of plaster from the Plaster of Paris, PVA, and distilled water.  Increase the amount of PVA in this one because it will help with the smoothing and stability of the outer surface.  Also, make the consistency of this plaster a bit runnier than the one for the interior layers--- shoot for soft, not stiff, frosting.  Still, it needs to not drip off of the surface.

Looks about like this:



Smear on a coat, trying to keep things smooth and avoid getting any visible clumps in there.



Continue this coat onto the ceramic, like a skin, so you can be sure of a smooth seam.



Take this plaster and coat the mat-board you set aside earlier.  This layer is what the paint will be absorbed into on the vase, so this is where you can test out your colors as you mix them up and match them.  Get the plaster to the sides of the mat-board because this is what you will be holding up to the vase.  It just makes it easier.



Once this layer on the vase is dry, very carefully clean/scrape/form the plaster back to the filled in break.  This takes a while and there is no sense in rushing.  The surface becomes soft and workable when you wipe it with a damp sponge.  I will shave back unwanted plaster with my finger nail and a micro-spatula, then take some of the shavings, moistened with water, to fill in any dips.



Once it hits 'good enough,' walk away and let it dry.  Hold off on mixing colors and painting until you have a long day of good light ahead of you.  This being the winter in the Pacific Northwest, I might be waiting a few weekends.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

When life gives you yard waste

Add fire.  Always.



BUT... if you are careful, you can extract something useful, too.

Fire, as we view it, is a chemical reaction.  We are watching the products of a combustion reaction beautifully expand to illuminate and warm whatever we chuck next to them, be it marshmallows or a piston engine.  Oxygen is essential to get this reaction to go and so, if you limit the amount of air that gets to your yard waste (carbon rich fuel), you get an incomplete reaction.  There is still plenty left to burn on another fire... so, you have charcoal.

Now, you are playing roulette with your health if you use yard waste to make charcoal for cooking; there are some potentially lethal chemicals in the plants about your yard.  Additionally, these 'charcoal' bits are hardly the ingots we need to feed a fire with any degree of cleanliness or practicality.  Being useless for everyday survival, it seems like we are talking about art now.  Funny how that worked itself out...

Enter, wisteria trimmings:



Most of these vines are small, so they will make charcoal sticks that are far too fragile to draw with.  These small ones will be pulverized and used as pigment (more on that later).  Only big sticks will be kept for drawing charcoal.  It should be noted that wisteria is traditional as a drawing charcoal source.  The other common one is grape vines.  But I tend towards decorative and not useful plants, so there you go.  Did I mention that it is almost February and I am only now getting around to autumn pruning?




1. wisteria (or grape) vines
2. pruners/cutty thing
3. metal can with top lid removed
4. aluminium foil
5. fire source of your choice (more below) 







Cut your vines down to lengths that can fit into your can, then pack them in.



Use the foil to tightly cover the can on the top and sides.  Remember, you are trying to have a smothered fire going, an incomplete combustion reaction because of limited oxygen.  Some oxygen still needs to be there, so do not enclose the can.  Water vapor and other gas needs to escape, too.



Not the most glamorous angle, but, life is tough when you are a can.



I am using charcoal briquettes, lit to keep a flame, in a Weber kettle for my fire source.  Plus, I needed to cook something.  It should be noted that you really are not looking to add meaty-goodness into your drawing materials, so keep anything that will drip juices well away.



So, the can is going to sit in the fire (I am keeping the vents open on the top of the kettle) for about ten hours.  Basically, I let it sit over night, let the fire burn out, and then went to get it the next morning.

I'd say it's past medium-rare:



Peel back the foil and see the finished charcoal.



Yay!  Incomplete combustion!!  If more oxygen had weaseled in there, you would be left with white ash and not that iridescent black.

There still is ash and bits of sloughed-off bark in the bottom of the can.  Dump out the finished charcoal and pick out the useful bits.



Not bad for yard waste, no?



Now, all of the small vines will break when you draw with them.  So, put those aside for another project.  You have made pigment, suitable for paint emulsions and other mediums.  It is closest to Lamp Black in coloring and origin, but I feel like it deserves a more festive name which gives due reverence to the grilled chicken.  Any ideas?

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Praise for dappled things


All tasks have a soundtrack.  I am continuing to stitch Hazel's spots and there is verse running on a repeated loop in my head.




Glory be to God for dappled things -
   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
   Landscape plotted and pieced -- fold, fallow, and plough;
      And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
   Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
      With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
                                Praise him.

I am not sure if poems find the situation or if they shape it.  Regardless, 'Pied Beauty', from the lovely mind of Gerard Manley Hopkins, is keeping me company.

I know the 'trout' reference is triggering the recollection.  Still, I should think on this poem more often.  Dappled things are beautiful and those that are strange enough, get collected or admiringly built into a new composition.




--- like a pheasant, soon to be flies and objets d'whatever.



Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Ceramic Repairs for Conservation

Perhaps the most boring title-line ever, but it was hard to work 'explosions' into a description of conservation.  Maybe a 'before' and 'after' scenario?


At any rate, here is the 'before':


It is a good time to explain the difference between conservation and restoration.  To abbreviate and keep things simple, conservation tries to keep things from falling apart more, to halt decay or just slow it down.  Restoration on the other hand, is to regain lost ground, to reverse the decay and bring things back to original condition AND functionality.


So, why conserve and not restore this piece?


Well, the function, as it is, is purely decorative.  This vase was a gift from my grandparents, an old, family piece, originally purchased in China sometime in the 1890's by a great (x3?) grandfather who was there as a metallurgical engineer to open mines.  Sorta makes me feel boring, like I need to go out a wrestle a python or something.  With that background on provenance, I was able to find out a bit more about the piece.  It is a Chinese version of an older Japanese style (China was making this during a brief period when China had opened its ports and Japan had dialed back production) and while it is lovely and somewhat unusual in its large size, it isn't super valuable.  That massive chip was an accident, over 100 years ago.

oops...



Ultimately, it would just be nice to have the chip filled in and it never has to function as anything other than an object for viewing.  I am a big believer that fixes should be minimal and reversible, being optimistic that someday a better fix may be possible and so you never what to do anything that commits you to irrevocable actions.  A restoration of this piece would mean getting filler put in that is as durable and tough as ceramic.  Yeah, so, that isn't reversible and it is overkill for something that just needs to sit there.  And the break is partially hidden by a lid, no less.  So, conservation it is!!!

I am going to do a patch of plaster and PVA, paint it, seal it, and apply metal leafing to finish.



This is for the initial patch, prior to any coloring or sealing:

1. Plaster of Paris
2. PVA
3. Distilled water...
           ...you could do tap, but I am a purist *ba-dum-ching* with restoration
4. Mixing containers
5. Sponge
6. Stirring utensil
7. Paper towels (always plan on mess)
8. Tarp (did I mention the mess?)
9. Mat-board or something to plaster-up for color matching samples later



This is not going to be an afternoon project.  Give yourself hour-long chunks of time to be available, from application to clean up on a plaster layer, and know that this might take you a few days.



Give your break surface a quick sponge down with the water, just to get rid of any surface filth.  While that is drying, mix up the plaster.



Though you could mix up the Plaster of Paris with just water alone, the addition of PVA makes the filler more sticky, less permeable to humidity and surface moisture (you don't want the plaster and color to smear later), and it is still totally reversible and removable.  The amounts of PVA, Plaster of Paris, and water will vary according to how concentrated your PVA is and humidity.



I eyeballed about 2x the amount of plaster I would need to fill in the break, added a healthful blorp of PVA, then added in water until it was a bit too runny (explanation coming).  Then,  I added back in small amounts of Plaster of Paris, ultimately edging towards very sticky... but still able to stand and not run... frosting.  Try to mix all the little clumps out, but you can cover those up later.  Not the end of the world, though, not ideal.

Now, consider your break.  Bid it, 'farewell.'



No regrets.  Always reversible.



You will not be able to patch a big break all in one go.  Besides the fact that a big clump of plaster will settle, slip, and possible fall, it will also contract as it dries.  You will almost certainly get cracks in large amounts of wet plaster from one application after it dries.  No biggie.  Just patch it with the next application.

This is the first coat:



It took about an hour to dry enough so that I could take a damp sponge to clean up the edges as they overlap with the ceramic vase at the break-line.  Remember, you want to fill the hole, not mushroom over it.  If the plaster TOTALLY dries before you try to clean it up with a sponge, it is much more work.  Hence, give yourself that hour window for application and clean up.

Keep building up those layers, keeping clean and shaping as you go, and try to get the fill just a touch below the glazing on the ceramic.  Since you are going to paint and seal this up, the seam will be less noticeable if you give room for the build up of the top coat.

When I get ready for the final, plaster coat and smoothing, I'll do something a bit different (stay tuned).  And then we will take care of the plaster coating on that mat board.  So... have fun and I hope you have a big tarp or are more graceful than I am.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Introductions...

This is Hazel:



She is 5'4", on the thin side (for now), and does not like long walks on the beach because that would be immanent death.



Otherwise, she is pretty normal for a rainbow trout.  I will finish her up soon and then make up a large hook and fly to suspend her from while in installation.  She has an extra pocket in the upper pallet of her mouth, so it should be a painless install.  That seems like it is missing the obligatory sacrifice to the art-gods, so I am sure there will still be crisis and material damages.

Hazel is here to serve as contrast to Hemingway in pattern construction.  This was her pattern sketch (yes, it has turned into scratch paper for other notes and yes,  she is wearing a hat and carrying a purse... as do all fish):



This is my internal interpretation:



As with the coelacanth, I started the trunk with the head, and the head started with the mouth.  However, I made all the appendages, the fins, first.  This was so that they could be stitched onto the trunk (sausage/body) as it was constructed.  I try to put on the appendages as soon as the attachment space has been stitched into creation on the trunk.  It is easier to applique when you have full access to the reverse-face of the base-fabric.  If you were to postpone appendage attachment, you would end up closing up your access holes into the inside and that elusive reverse-face.  Plus, you might forget about what you are doing or lose the limb.  I have done the later and felt like quite the idiot.



Provided I do not lose them, the soon-to-be-attached fins:



Fins attached to the reverse-face of the base-fabric:



Hazel's head en fillet... quelle dommage:


Thursday, January 8, 2015

A Bookbinding Glossary... condensed for dabbling

I figured that it was a good idea to list-off some paper and bookbinding terms, as this seems to be one of my favorite subjects for projects/procrastination.




The 'glossary' below is the term list that I would give to my bookbinding students to bind up in a pamphlet as their first project and to keep as a resource.  It is by no means exhaustive, but it is a good starting point.  These terms are geared towards the projects that they were doing, which offers some explanation for the eccentric smattering of themes.

It is in alphabetic order (seemed like a reasonable idea at the time) and I have thrown in a picture or two of past binding projects, just to break up the monotony.  There are links for more in-depth reading, instructions, and supplies at the bottom... in case some insatiable passion for book-craftery has been awakened.


Hope it is helpful:

Accordion book: any form of book that incorporates an accordion fold in its interior construction.

Artist book: a book that has been designed and constructed to demonstrate the skill and unique vision of the bookmaker using noncommercial materials and methods.

Awl: also known as a pin tool or a probe and it can come in a variety of sizes.  This is used for making the sewing holes in the paper and other materials.

Barrel stitch: a type of running stitch used without tapes or chords that is used to bind up the text block.

Board sheers: a paper cutter that can come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes that is made up of a flat cutting table and a blade that is pulled down and pivoted on a hinge.  This is generally used for thicker things, like book board, but only one sheet at a time.

Bone folder:  a carved bone stick that can come in a variety of shapes and sizes used to aid in folding, burnishing, and smoothing.

Book cloth: any type of cloth traditionally used in cover construction.  The cloth is either backed with paper or starch which keeps the glue or paste from seeping through to the finished side.




Book board: the modern material used for covers and boxes to house text blocks and books.  It can come in many thicknesses and it is made of many layers of paper.  Book board is currently made of paper but it used to be made of pulped rope and the earliest book ‘board’ was wooden panels.

Brass folder: like the bone folder, but made of brass.  It is only for use with leather or tougher materials.  Not for paper use since it is more likely to leave marks.

Chain Lines: (see Handmade paper and Laid Lines) paper can be made in a frame by hand.  A mesh that catches the paper fiber is supported by chains.  These chains tend to run against the grain direction in the paper and run along the shortest dimension of the paper sheet.

Chord: a thin twisted rope made from plant fiber which the text block is sewn onto.

Codex: 1st century AD Romans developed the first Western books (not scrolls) with pages and boards.  These books used heavy wooden boards as covers and these books were called ‘codices’ after the Latin for ‘trunks of trees’.

Colophon: the written information concerning authorship and construction in an artist book.  This information includes the maker, the press, the date, the construction materials, the fonts used, edition number, a dedication, and any other relevant information.

Coptic stitch: a method of sewing the text block together developed by the Copts.  The Coptic stitch is generally used for exposed bindings.

Deckle: is the frame that handmade paper is made on. The feathered, thin edge of handmade papers occurs because of the deckle and so it is called a deckle edge (often deckle for short).  This edge can also be artificially made by tearing and distressing the edge of a piece of paper.

End sheets: the spreads at the end and beginning of the book comprising the fly leaves and paste downs.




Exposed bind: is a binding where the spine is not covered by cloth, leather, or some other material.  Instead the stitching that holds the text block together and the back of the text block are visible.

Fly leaf: is both the first and last page in a book.  It is generally a decorative paper and it is used to protect the pages in the text block.

French fold: a binding method where the folded spreads that make up the text block are not held together by stitching or glue in the spine, but rather they are glued together, two spreads at a time at the front edge at the book.

Full cloth: a binding where the cover is fully covered with cloth.

Full leather: a binding where the cover is fully covered with leather.

Grain: the direction that the fibers in a paper line up along.  A paper naturally tears and expands along this axis and so the grain of the paper should always be kept parallel to the spine.

Guillotine: a paper cutter where the blade comes down and cuts material on a flat bed.  Many papers and materials can be cut at once so a guillotine is an essential tool for straitening up edges after sewing the text block or gluing together a perfect bind.

Handmade paper: is any paper that is made in small batches, one sheet at a time on frames instead of in large batches of one continuous sheet in factories.  Even if the paper is machine made, it is still cut down to a size similar to a handmade sheet.  Traditionally, one sheet is called a ‘folio’ (and when it is folded down it is still a folio, but in folded form it is a signature). When the folio is folded once, this pamphlet is called a ‘quarto’ because there are four pages that are created.  When the folio is folded twice it is called an ‘octavo’ and when it is folded three times it is called a ‘sixteen-mo’.  Occasionally, paper will be made much larger than the normal size range and then folded down; in these instances there are a wide variety of names, such as ‘elephant’ or ‘emperor’ folios.




Headband: a protective and decorative chord or band at the top of the text block at the spine of the book.  A headband can be made by wrapping silk thread around a chord and sewing it into the top of the text block, or it can be added as a pre-made tape, cut down to size, and glued down on the text block.

Hollow: the flattened paper tube that is glued in the spine, in-between the text block and the cover.  The hollow allows a book to open flat with both covers resting on a flat surface.  It also reduces stress on the book while it is open, so it adds to the life of a binding.

Laid lines: the ridges and valleys running horizontally across a sheet of handmade paper that has been made in a chain-supported frame (see Chain lines).

Leaf: the back and front of a single page in a book.

Leather: the tanned skin of an animal used as a cover material.  The most common leathers used are calf, pig, and goat.  Before a leather hide can be used in book binding in needs to be pared down, which is essentially scraping of the back fibers of the leather to make it thinner and easier to bind with.

Medieval bind: codices with panel covers, pages of vellum, sown onto chords that are then laced into the covers, with metal clasps and locks to keep the book together, and the spine is flat on books prior to the 15th century and afterwards they took on a rounded shape.




Modern bind: books with paper pages, book board covers, and sown onto tapes.  There are some variations in the form but all of these elements are normally in a contemporary hardcover binding.

Mull: also called ‘Super’ or ‘Tartan’, this is a fine mesh fabric made from cotton or linen used to reinforce and strengthen the spine.  Mull is sometimes used as a replacement for sewing onto tapes.  Still, the strongest binding uses both tapes and mull.

Needle: like a normal sewing needle, but thicker and with a smaller eye proportional to size than a quilting needle.

Pamphlet: a simple sown binding that generally incorporates one folio and a cover paper.

Paper weight: measured in several different ways.  More commercial papers will give you poundage, which is telling you the weight of the parent sheet of paper.  Unfortunately, there is no standardization in parent sheet size across the industry, so this measurement is generally meaningless.  Commercial paper is also called either ‘text’ or ‘cover,’ ‘text’ always being the lighter weight and ‘cover’ always being the heavier.  Paper can also be measured in ‘GSM’ which stands for grams per square meter.  This is the only accurate was to measure and compare paper weights but only more expensive and high quality paper is marketed with this information.

Parent sheet: the larger sheet of paper that smaller sheets are cut down from before they are sold commercially.

Paste down: the recto side of the fly leaf spread which is glued down onto the cover.

Perfect bind: a binding of a single stack of loose sheets that is glued at the spine and has a soft cover.  This is most commonly seen as a trade paperback.

Post binding: a stack of single sheets held together between boards by metal, removable posts.

Post hole puncher: a mechanical puncher used to make clean holes in thick materials (like book board) for post binding or stab binding.

PVA glue: poly vinyl acetate.  The glue used in bookbinding because it is archival (meaning non acidic and not going to become acidic over time), dries clear, flexible, water soluble before drying, and heat activated after drying.




Quarter cloth: a binding where the cover is a quarter covered by cloth.  The cloth will extend a quarter of the front cover, go around the spine, and then extend a quarter of the back cover.  The rest of the cover will generally be covered with paper.

Quarter leather: a binding where the cover is a quarter covered by leather.  The leather will extend a quarter of the front cover, go around the spine, and then extend a quarter of the back cover.  The rest of the cover will be either paper or cloth.

Recto: the right facing leaf in a spread.

Scorer: a tool made of bone similar to a bone folder but slimmer; it comes to a sharper point, it is normally curved, and it is used for scoring papers to make folding easier.

Signature: or ‘gathering’ is a folded down folio which is then ready for sewn binding.

Sizing: a substance added to paper (a starch or glue) while it is being made that makes it stiffer and gives the paper a finer surface for drawing and printmaking.  Unfortunately, sizing discolors with age and in the sunlight but it can be washed out.  Sizing is normally washed out of paper before it is used for watercolor since it will make the paper warp irregularly with uneven water applications.

Spatula: a metal tool that comes in a variety of shapes and sizes used for lifting, separating, and tearing.

Spine: the back of the book which is a hinge for the covers and pages.




Spread: the two pages that you are looking at when you open up a book at any given time.

Stab binding: an exposed binding synonymous with Eastern binding where thread is elaborately and decoratively sewn through the covers and through the papers that makes up the text block as a stack.

Tape: a woven linen strip that signatures are sown onto.

Tear down: instead of cutting the paper with a blade, it is manually torn down using a ridged surface, like a ruler, as a guide.

Text block: essentially everything that goes in-between the covers.

Thread: made from linen, comes in a variety of colors and thicknesses, and it can come either waxed or un-waxed.

Tip in: to glue in a single sheet into the text block after the text block had been previously completed by sewing or gluing.

Vellum: tanned, thin, calf skin used for the covers of books (called a soft calf binding).  Vellum can also be referring to any type of tanned animal skin and when it is used as the pages in books it is often called parchment.  Because the surface of vellum is so fine and smooth, paper is often marketed as having a ‘vellum’ finish.

Verso: the left facing leaf in a spread.

Wax: beeswax is used to coat thread so that it holds knots better and protects the tread fibers in an exposed binding.  A microcrystalline wax is applied and buffed into cloth, leather, and paper to protect and seal it on covers or any surface that experiences heavy wear.

Weaver’s knot: also known as a slip knot, this is the knot used to join on segments of thread.

Wheat paste: an adhesive made by cooking wheat starch in water until it becomes a thin paste.  It is then strained and thinned with water.  Due to its perishable nature, it should be used quickly and an anti-fungal agent, such as Thymol, is incorporated into the paste during cooking.



So, how about that insatiable passion for all things book, paper, and their crafting and upkeep?



More terms and fantastic information:

Good place to buy supplies: