My first big order from Shetland wool brokers arrived this week, necessitating finding the right post office for picking up oversize packages ( Read more... )

Knackered ( Read more... )

This weekend I discovered that you can leave your hardening soap too long before cutting it into bars. 1-2 days is ideal. 7 days is too long ( Read more... )

Last weekend I invested some time in kitchen chemistry making soap, towards Christmas gifts. It wasn't quite as smooth as working with a confident soapster like thorngrove last year, but I came away with two batches complete, and still enough materials for another batch.

I'm waffling over buying more supplies - I enjoyed the process, but don't know if I ( Read more... )

It's always charming to have answers to questions, but I'm certain this is the most e-mail I've received in reply to a simple question about sewing ( Read more... )

The Tudor Child, written by Jane Huggett and Ninya Mikhaila, ed Jane Malcolm-Davies, is a delight. My copy arrived this week because I ordered in advance for a small discount. What a treat ( Read more... )

My 30 day slaked plaster will actually be 28 day plaster. Don't tell anyone, or they might kick me out of the plaster-slaking guild.


( Read more... )

SO: freshly armed with beautifully finely-ground gesso, I tackled my next round of samples.

And I get a new problem.

Mistress Oriane had reminded me of working 'wet into wet' on gesso, rather than waiting for the gesso to dry before adding a new layer. This technique is important in other arts where you want to get a smooth even coating, like silk ( Read more... )

So on Christmas day, after my entry, I put the TV on Carols from King's and headed to the kitchen to test out my new toys, after re-reading the gesso instructions in The Gilded Page. I'd in fact read them, and started, on Christmas Eve, as the suggestion is that you start the glue base the night before ( Read more... )

Found a short article about Ceninni's gesso on the Society of Gilders website. (PDF)

YouTube: I've left out the many examples of people using transfer leaf (US patent leaf) because that's not what's causing me grief.

Charles Douglas - best video I've found so far but very brief

Bethlehem icon school - water gilding an icon, very lovely, handling gold ( Read more... )