When you're at a castle and your princess comes to you and asks for a combat scroll, you say "of course" and whip out your pre-cut vellum squares and your gold. This may not be my nicest gilding, but it is by far my quickest. (Usually I let my gesso cure overnight. After moving house in May, to a much less humid house, I found I could let it cure for 30-90 minutes and then gild. In this case, I let it cure for...probably closer to 15. It was definitely too wet in some places, so it smudged and smeared and I had to do a bit of scraping, but I figured a bit of wonky gold would still be better than no gold at all. And I'm told the recipient was quite happy with it.
The text reads:
To all present and to come seeing or hearing these words know the will of Duncan and Constanza, prince and princess of Insulae Draconis, aving seen the great works of our subject Lara the Tall especially her scholarship are minded to make her a member of the Order of the Winged Pouch. Datum viii augusti a.s. liv.
The thing I most proud of is the fact that I drew the margins and the lines without a ruler. I am super pleased that they are roughly parallel to each other, and the lines are basically equidistant.
© 2019, Sara L. Uckelman.
