How to Make Shell Gold

By Maitresse Yvianne de Castel d’Avignon, OL, AEthelmearc

MATERIALS: gold scraps - only use real gold synthetic materials do not work for making shell gold salt honey mortar & pestle clear glass test tube or narrow jar eye dropper or pipette distilled water sea shell or well palette optional: gum arabic Save all of the real gold scraps you brush off of your gilding work or crumble up a few sheels of loose leaf gold. Place the gold flakes in a mortar - add some table salt, honey and just enough water to make the mixture workable. The salt is a grinding agent - the honey is a temporary binder or glue The amount of salt & honey used are up to you, but too much is more efficient than not enough. Grind well.... and then grind some more. At this stage the gold mixture will look a bit like mustard. The goal is to make a fine gold pigment without any large flakes. When you are done grinding, add a good bit of distilled water and pour into a clear jar or test tube. The gold will settle to the bottom rather quickly, when it has, remove most of the water with a dropper. Add more clean water, shake and repeat. Do this several times then taste the water. If it is not salty or sweet, you are done making the gold pigment. Draw off most of the water and pour the gold sludge into a shell (or well of a palette). You can let it dry out and store it in a closed top container as a dry pigment or mix it with a few drops of gum arabic and a drop of honey and let it dry as a ready to use paint. When you paint with shell gold, use a separate rinse jar. All of the gold pigment that washes off your brush can be reclaimed and used again. For further reading: De Arte Illuminandi: The Technique of Manuscript Illumination. (1933). (Daniel V. Thompson,trans.) Merrifield, Mary P. (1967) Medieval &Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-40440-4 Thompson, Daniel V. (1956). The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting; New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20327-1 Copyright © 2007-2009 Pauline Hassinger (Maitresse Yvianne de Castel d'Avignon, OL - AEthelmearc) This page is not the recognized web page for any SCA group For information on using photographs, articles, or artwork from this website, please contact Maitresse Yvianne