085r - - - - - [continued]
to rest on a very clean & smooth table, & since it is desiccative, I knew it would dry out lor, what I let it do in order to reduce it to powder, & molding it with sand, once broken up with my fingers & the sharp edge of a knife. I oiled my medal because oil cleans it without spoiling it. And And having dried it & cleaned it with a linen, & small bristle brushes of pork, I once again lightly oiled it with clear walnut oil, & gently passed a linen over it, so that it does not remain too oiled, and I noted that, in this way, it would come out better in release, because the ceruse, once moistened with water of egg glair, would not attach to the oil. This worked very well and I molded a medal of high relief very neatly, without making any stickiness, which a lot of good sands, such as felt, burnt bone & iron dross, had failed to do on the first try. I reheated it & my mold became hard like marble, and I realized with this, that sands for molding high relief should be well moistened with some water, which gives them body & compactness, like egg glair, gummed water, ea wine boiled with elm root, & and lightly oil the medal, it withstands as many castings as you wish, for it is as hard as glass. But even soft lead & brittle tin v want to be cast very hot.
Since then I have realized that this sand, even though it is excellent & endures many castings & molds very neatly, it is however fat and makes things porous. This, soft lead and the does not come out so well. But try to mix it with a lean sand, such as pumice, flakes, & similar things, to give them body, & so that they release better. For lean sands barely release well and yet they receive metal well.
at left top margin
Try to mix ceruse or minium with other sands.
Figure at left top margin
at left top margin
Oil & smear with aspic oil, which will go away when reheating, for the oil makes it porous.
at left middle margin
One ought to moisten with glair, then mix it well. And once in the frame, beat it on top with a pestle, or other proper thing, for this makes it mold better and release better.
at left middle margin
It would be good to fill the frame all at once, for the mixture, made of several sands with the one of the mine, with which you fill the frame, corrupts it.
Green varnish for medals of copper
Having casted them very neatly, cover them with sel de verre that we use for sand, & moisten it, & in three or 4 days it will be green. Oil them after & keep them under the dung.
Glue
The Flemish reglue their earthen pots with gold color, that is to say minium, massicot, & varnish.