Aliskye: Through the Looking Glass

So I've been working on a scroll and over the weekend I wanted to do the gilding on it (as generally that needs to be done before it's painted and I *really* want to start painting). I thought I would use Instalcol which is a modern size that is ready to gild in a very short time. Utter fail. The gold only sticks in a few places and even where it sticks oddly another layer of gold won't stick. (I thought gold was supposed to stick to gold?) It doesn't help that humidity is like 10% the day I want to do this.

So I decided to make up a gesso based size based on one of Sylvana Barrett's recipes. She works in Southern California and her recipe has an adjustment of the ratio of fish glue and honey to compensate for the (frequent) low humidity. I decide I better test before committing to the scroll this time. First round, not quite sticky enough. I add more fish glue and more honey. Better, but I come to realize that this stuff needs to dry thoroughly before the gold is applied. Add more fish glue and more honey. Second test (after waiting 12 hours) is pretty good. Next test waiting 24 hours is even better. I have way more fish glue and honey in the recipe then is called for. :)

So, back to the scroll. Going to lay the size down in layers and wait a little for each layer to dry a bit before doing the next one.