Sara Charles Profile picture
Aug 14, 2022 19 tweets 11 min read Read on X
Making a medieval paintbrush. It's quite easy! #teachingmanuscripts #medievalstuffwithcats Brother Rufillus seated on a bench, holding a paintbrush in
Like everything to do with medieval manuscript production, you have to make or source it yourself - no trips to local art stores for ready-made supplies. So how did they make paintbrushes? Animal hair (as today) was considered the best type of brush Woman seated at an easel painting the Virgin Mary and child.
Theophilus in his twelfth-century treatise, On Diverse Arts, mentions that paintbrushes can be made from the tail of a martin, badger, squirrel, or cat or from the mane of a donkey (bk 2, ch. 17).
Hmmm - I do have plenty of cats ... this is just a small sample Three cats sitting in a shaded garden. One is a ragdoll, two
But Cennini provides more better instructions, recommending that you use vair (squirrel) tails. Vair is another name for the Eurasian red squirrel. Its fur was prized in the Middle Ages and used for lining garments. See here for more fur info: cottesimple.com/articles/fur-p… King seated on a chair interacting with three women. All wea
So we shall follow Cennini's instructions. First of all - I will not be using red squirrel fur. I'm using grey squirrel's tails, that have been culled to allow the red squirrel to re-establish in its natural habitat. I ordered some online (which I accept is not very medieval) Two dried grey squirrel's tails
So - here are our ingredients: squirrel tails, scissors, goose feathers, parchment glue, thread, wooden stick and awl
The tails proved extremely exciting for the cats. I turned my back for a minute and one tail had disappeared - found in the jaws of Elijah, who growled at me and would not relinquish his booty Black cat with squirrel's tail in his mouth Black cat refusing to let go of the squirrel's tail in his m
Once retrieved, he promptly stole it again. Then we had a bit of a tug-of-war, which resulted in him being excluded from the paintbrush making. I considered again using cat tails instead of squirrels. Black cat stealing squirrel tail from desk
Anyway, to business. Select a nice chunk of tail fur and cut it close to the bone Chunk of squirrel tail fur clasped in fingersScissors cutting selected chunk of squirrel's tail Cut chunk of fur held up between thumb and finger
Wet the fur to make it easier to handle and tie the cut end with a piece of waxed thread. A third hand would be useful here Waxed thread being tied around the cut end of the squirrel fFur held together by knotted thread, wetted to form a point
Now you want to take a feather of the same diameter as your chunk of fur. My normal goose feathers that I cut for quills were too large, but I have supply of smaller ones. Cut about an inch/inch and a half and remove the membrane inside (my cats consider this a tasty treat 🤮) A small goose feather held in hand Cutting the end off the goose featherUsing the awl to poke the inner membrane out of the barrel oHolding the inner membrane from the feather in one hand and
Now, with the wetted fur, feed it through the cut barrel of the feather, using the awl to poke it though. It should be a snug fit. (I actually needed to find a better feather fit than the one I'd originally chosen) Cut barrel of the feather held in left hand, ready to feed tHolding the awl in the right hand to push through the fur in
We're onto the last bit - attaching the wooden handle! Choose a staked wooden stick. I had some gardening ones that proved very useful. Some needed to be whittled further with a knife to fit the barrel Wooden stick being sharpened with a knife
I reheated some parchment glue. I made the glue by boiling parchment scraps for a few hours and collecting the liquid, which dries to a jelly. A few minutes over a candle reliquidifies the glue Scraps of parchment boiling in a saucepanGlass bowl with solidified parchment glueParchment glue being heated over a candle
Take your wooden stick and coat the sharpened end in the glue, then press into the other end of the feather barrel Dipping a sharpened stick into the liquid parchment glue Feather barrel with fur at the bottom end, held in left handThe sharpened stick is attached to the barrel of the feather
Hurrah - a paintbrush! This one had a bit of a kink in it, so I made another one (although they both felt lovely to paint with). Then I made some more because I was having such fun
So, I always like to make clear that I'm not an artist or calligrapher or anything skilled. I like doing this stuff to see how its done - not to make the most elegant thing ever. My hands shake too much when I paint, but these brushes allowed me to make really lovely lines Five squiggly lines painted on paper with the corresponding
So that was good fun and I've ended up with a usable product! They are now safely stored away from any thieving felines - which begs the question - did medieval painters have the same problem?! #teachingmanuscripts #medievalstuffwithcats Wooden shelf with various jars, including one with paintbrusCat playing with feathers soaking in water

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More from @sarajcharles

Oct 12, 2022
Inspired by Christopher de Hamel and in the interests of furthering manuscript research, I decided to see what parchment does indeed taste like #teachingmanuscripts
I'm not allowed to use a real medieval manuscript, so I used a small strip of goat parchment that I made myself A small piece of parchment A goatskin stretched on a p...
I chewed. The texture was rubbery. The taste was uninspiring. I got a very, very tiny olfactory tingle in the back of the throat, like when you eat goats cheese but on a much lesser scale
Read 5 tweets
Mar 29, 2022
Let's make some medieval lye (la lye, lye la lye la lye la lye 🎵). Lye is also known as potash or lixivium. It's a strong alkali and the basic ingredient of soap. Yes, the medievals washed! #teachingmanuscripts #medievalpigments Morgan Collection, MS M.638...
Lye is completely natural and once again nature is completely AMAZING. A big lovely tree sucks up all the nutrients from the soil through its roots (including potassium). Big lovely tree gets cut down and used for firewood 🙁 Royal ms 10 E IV, fol. 100v...
The wood all burns away and leaves nothing but ashes. BUT - the ashes contain lots of alkali-rich things like potassium and calcium carbonate. You know what's good for getting things clean? Alkali-rich things! (The word alkali comes from the Arabic al-qaly, which means ashes) BL, Harley MS 4751, fol. 45...
Read 16 tweets
May 10, 2021
I want some alum-tawed thongs for a bookbinding project. Does a search on the internet help? It does not (unless I want a whole animal skin for £££). But I DO have a sheep skin that I salted from last year. So I’m going to make my own #teachingmanuscripts Image
I cut off some strips from the bottom of the skin and give it a bit of a haircut Image
I need to rinse all the salt out first in water. I got this skin last October and salted it straight away. It’s been stored all winter in an airtight container, and it looks pretty good 👍 Image
Read 21 tweets
Apr 6, 2021
Time to smash some lapis! #teachingmanuscripts ImageImage
Make sure your pestle is wearing a pretty skirt when grinding the smaller chunks, otherwise you’ll lose some lapis ImageImage
Separating the impurities before grinding any finer 😩 Image
Read 16 tweets
Jun 5, 2020
Tyrian (or imperial) purple was by far the most superior colour in the ancient and medieval world, but is very expensive. Mohammed Ghassen Nouira makes Tyrian purple using traditional Phoenician methods, with fantastic results. I hope to work with him soon facebook.com/Pourpre-de-Car…
Orchil purple, obtained from lichens, was a cheaper alternative, and probably used in the Book of Kells. However, it is hard to source and ecologically unwise to do so. Isabella Whitworth has done a lot of work on dyeing textiles with orchil isabellawhitworth.com/2013/09/17/tal…
Read 17 tweets
Jan 19, 2020
It’s time for more #medievalstuffwithcats! I made this zodiac illumination. If you want to know a bit more about the process, read on… ImageImage
The zodiac roundels come from the calendar in British Library, Royal MS 1 D X bl.uk/manuscripts/Vi… (note that some of the roundels are not exactly round) ImageImage
I decided to do this illumination because I want to start working on larger pieces of parchment. I used 8” x 10” (a bit smaller than A4). This feels like a decent size for a folio, although if we were working in a scriptorium this would be double the size and folded in the centre Image
Read 23 tweets

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