057r - - - - - [continued]
Lake takes long to dry in oil and for that reason one must grind glass in it. But one needs to choose crystallin because it is neater. And because it would be too difficult to grind by itself, one must redden it on the fire, then when entirely red throw it into cold water, & it will be crumbled & pulverized easily for grinding after. Being well ground it with a lot of water, it resembles ground lead white, but for this it has no body. I think it would be good for casting.
Lead white is made with sheet lead beaten subtle & put under the dung.
White varnish of turpentine or of spike lavender oil and turpentine is colored with pulverized terra emerita, making it boil together. It gives agold color on silver and more beautiful if it is burnished. It is dry in a quarter of an hour. Aloe would make brighter color, but it takes long to dry & the other is dry in a quarter of an hour, in winter as well as summer.
Good lake moistened with saliva is rendered promptly dark. That from Florence is too gummed.
If you make a layer of printers’ ink on velvet and there apply gold leaf and then stretch the velvet, it appears grainy as if it was gold powder sprinkled on top.
Vermillion ground by itself is wan and pale, but ground after lake, it is more beautiful.
For taking the fattiness from marbles, one grinds ordinary ashes on it, which is good afterward to make the first primer coat of a panel that is prepared in oil in order to seal the cracks & chinks of the wood. It has more body than chalk & it has chalk a certain fattiness. One mixes it with the aforesaid chalk or ra with the colors collected from the vessel where one cleans the pinceaulx. It is desiccative and spares colors. On Once this primer coat is made on the wood, one scrapes with a knife to even it. Next one makes a second coat of ceruse or of the poorest colors mixed together. In a painting in oil on canvas, one applies only one coat, and the same ashes can be used there. Also, after one has ground a color, one grinds the inside of a large loaf of bread on it to remove the fattiness from the marble.