Illuminated page by Annie Moring

This unfinished illuminated page by Annie Moring shows the use of shell gold, flat gold leaf and raised gold leaf.   

The crest at the top of the page is painted with shell gold, the gold letters are raised gold leaf and the gold in the border is flat gold leaf.  The border design is painted in Designer's Gouache.

There is a video on our YouTube channel of a demonstration in class of how to use gold leaf  - the link to YouTube is to the right of this post.

(Click on the picture to see a larger version)

How to use Chinese stick ink

This is how to re-constitute Japanese or Chinese stick ink using an ink stone.    There is a video on our YouTube channel of a demonstration in class of how to make up Chinese stick ink - the link to YouTube is to the right of this post.

You will need a stick of solid ink and an inkstone, these are usually made of slate, it is possible to use an unglazed porcelain saucer instead of an inkstone.

Add as much warm water to the stone as you need to make the quantity of ink you want.  Remember the more water you add the longer you will need to grind the ink stick to get the desired blackness.  Warm water works more quickly than cold.

Grind the stick in the water until you achieve the colour of ink you desire.

You can see the depth of colour change as the stick is ground longer. 

It is possible to achieve very fine lines with this ink.

It is important to dry the stick when you have finished making up your ink to prevent it cracking and crumbling.  If you have ground more ink than you need it will keep in a screwtop container.