Gilding on Vellum (Reggie Ezell: 2.5 day)

Skill Level: All

“This little light of mine …. ” From earliest manuscripts on animal skins gold has been used, not just as a decorative element, but to reflect an outer light of aesthetic splendor and an inner light of spiritual intensity. Calfskin vellum, used in The Book of Kells, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Saint John Bible endures millennia. We will join the two. Everyone will prepare their own piece of vellum, using a new, easy process. Then they will illuminate it. One of the several contemporary acrylic gilding bases and innovative techniques for laying them (raised, sculpted, filagree) will be applied to the vellum. Students will practice using seven different metal leafs: different color golds, palladium, variegated and more. They will finish their work on vellum with the leaf of their choosing. Finally, color for contrast, making the gold pop, will be added. ” … .I’m gonna let it shine.”

Supply fee: $30

Supply List: Masking tape; ruler, T-square, triangle; mechanical pencil 2-H lead; sharpener; white vinyl eraser; clean cotton rag (old T shirt); 2 mixing pans and brush; dropper/water/gum arabic; grid pad; Moon Palace sumi ink; Xacto #10 & #11 blades; Nibs: variety your are comfortable with, 2mm and smaller; EF 66 nibs; Pen handle; Letraset burnisher; 20 – 5” squares of glassine; clean scissors; black permanent markers, variety of sizes, especially smaller; good small pointed brush for painting; ruling pen; Sarah transfer paper; red ballpoint pen

About the instructor: Reggie Ezell is a teacher. Over the past three decades his year-long course “26 Seeds: a Year to Grow” has been among the most highly regarded and sought after in the US and Canada. For a decade before that he taught calligraphy at Loyola University and the Newberry Library of Chicago. For the last five years his new extended studies course, Primitive to Modern, has been an intense fusion of millennia-old materials and methods – calfskin vellum, gilding, quills, dry pigments, and designs (e.g. Codex Aureus) with computer and ink-jet generated backgrounds, modernized alphabets, and contemporary, innovative designs and techniques. The structure, geared to flexibility, generates finished works based on the student’s preference for structured examples or individual initiative and interest. These exciting works have been emailed out weekly since 2009 as “Pic of the Week”, all archived on reggieezell.com.