015r - - - - - Damasked Cloth
You can damask a cloth of two different colours and imitate embroidery without adding anything else to it, as follows. Once it is is dyed yellow, pounce onto it such a pattern as will please you. Then you will sew some string or a bigger cord loosely onto the pattern and throw it into a dye of woad or pastel and it will become green, except that which is beneath the string, which will remain yellow because the green dye will not have penetrated there. And you can do the same with other colours and, instead of string or cord, add some pieces of poor quality cloth cut in Moorish shapes on top of the first colour. In that manner, you will have cheap embroidery.
Casting molten metals
One casts candlesticks and small works in a frame with sand. And after having imprinted the work, one sprinkles the frame with flour in order to make the e metal copper or latten run better. When the sand has been used for a month, it is necessary to take some new sand, because the one that was used, having been reheated in fire +, dries out & loses its ability to bond. However, it is used to mix with the new sand, for it makes the work not so porous. One casts large works such as artillery, bells & similar things in earth, & copper cast in earth makes less of a chappe, and is whiter than the one cast in sand. The earth is sandy clay mixed with horse dung & cloth waste. The earth that is has been used for casting, which is black, baked & as if burnt, is used to cast, gecte mixed with artificial sand, & is very good. To soften & make the copper run, throw in, once it is melted, a little lead, which does not form an alloy but is found on the surface of the cast.
at left middle margin
+ by the heat of molten metal
Casting gold and silver
The sand must be from something very dry & arid & reheated well in the frame, because, if it were humid, like founder’s sand, the gold and silver would spatter, & cause damage. It is also necessary for the earth to absorb the metal, for cast gold or silver is become very spongy. That is why it must be beaten again, otherwise it is brittle, as one sees in spoon handles.