This is really two articles about gilding. The first part is how to prepare gum ammoniac, the second is how to use it in gilding.
The calligrapher in today's middle ages has access to many wonderful things that were not available four hundred years ago: painless dentistry, penicillin, inexpensive books, et cetera. A wide assortment of synthetic brushes at very reasonable prices, acrylic paints, and synthetic ultramarine blue are just a few of the changes in the workshop that may be welcomed. But these offerings of the petro-chemical industry reflect advances in organic chemistry built on a strong foundation of inorganic chemistry. Four hundred years ago it was all organic. Inorganic chemistry had yet to be born. The medieval calligrapher had a wide range of plant stuffs for dyes and pigments, and plant saps for glues and binders. Some are well known, like gum arabic, the binder in watercolor. Other gums, such as gum tragacanth, gum sandarac, gum mastic, and gum ammoniac are not so well known.
The making of gesso is a time consumming art, rich in sweat and effort, and in results it is without peer or equal. Sublime, superb. But! What if you don't have two days to make gesso. Two more to apply it? What if you need a scroll right away? For calligraphers and Clerks of Signet, gum ammoniac is is a joyful discovery!
Gum ammoniac is the sap of the Persian herb Dorema Ammoniacum. Like gesso, it is period (1100-1600). Many binders can be used to hold gold to paper or parchment. Gum ammoniac is very different from them because it remains active for its life (900 years and counting). Its advantages (the short list) is that it's fast: fast to make, to apply, to dry, and to burnish. The entire list of disadvantages is: it's smelly to prepare, and it does not burnish to as high a shine as gesso does.
Gum ammoniac can be purchased prepared. This is wonderful, buy it! A thirty milliliter jar shold last about 200 to 300 projects. A little goes a long way. It may need some sand filtered out first, though.
Making it yourself from the raw gum is less expensive. The raw gum looks like caramel popcorn with a few spoonfuls of compost heap thrown in. It is full of sticks, stems, seeds, stones, and sand, and anything else that can get trapped in Persia. Start by removing the the obviously foreign things like seeds and aluminium foil. Break the remaining pieces quite small, about split pea size.
This should leave you with a thick, creamy, sticky massin your jar about the consistancy of honey. While it is warm, strain it through two layers of nylon stocking into the clean jar. If the seive fills up with too much garbage, stop pouring and fit a new piece of stocking over the jar. Be careful, this stuff is hot!
When cool, VOILA!! You can add one or two drops of red gouache or watercolor to the gum to help its contrast against paper. This is period, and if the gold breaks or rubs off, the red color will help hide it. Please do not use red inks for this. Colored inks have shellac in them.
Start by measuring fifteen grams of crushed resin, free from stones and seeds, into a jar. Cover with warm water, wait three hours, and stir again. The next morning, stir again, and filter. VIOLA! Add one or two drops of color and it's ready.
This is a medium that lends itself to small areas. It os especially good for dots, small berries, stems of vines, and other highights. For straight lines, vine stems, and other long, thin, or complicated shapes, it is best applied full strength with a brush. Also versals and other large areas are best done with a brush, but thin the gum a little. The thinned gum may be used in a pen, but unless you have access to a steam cleaner, you'll probably NEVER get the pen clean afterwards. For very details, you may want to make two applications, especially if the paper is potous or absorbant. The gum must have a chance to dry by evaporation, not absorbtion, or else it wont be sticky enough to hold the gold.
With small dots, a second application, after the first is dry, allows a raised effect, with its added highlights.
Because this gum does not ever get hard and the heat of burnishing causes it to soften, don't burnish the gold directly. Place a piece of paper over the gold and burnish on top of the paper. This paper should be clean and dry, and the smoother it is, the better the results. The paper that is used in photography to hold the negative strips, called glassine, is perhaps the best, although a sheet of notebook paper will work fine.
If you are gilding after painting, dust the painted areas with pounce or french chalk, then apply the gum. Otherwise the gold will stick to paint.
Please don't get hung up in reading the directions. Just try it yourself and you will learn a lot. Keeping a journal of what you did to make the ammoniac and how it turned out will help prevent future mistakes. Have fun with it, and enjoy the freedom it lends to your work!
Thompson, D.V. The Practice of Tempera Painting.
Child, Heather, ed. The Calligrapher's Handbook.
Wilson, Diana Hardy. The Encyclopedia of Calligraphy Techniques.
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