Vine Charcoal

The thick woody part of some healthy grape vines denuded of leaves and side shoots

cut to length for the size of the container and cooked on the coleman stove like the willow but in a smaller container and not as precisely layered, came out as beautiful charcoal.

I didn't whittle or peel the bark off but let it burn with the rest and it made fine vine charcoal.  The bark just seemed to flake off as ash on the final product.  Not even too messy.

Making drawing charcoal from willow branches!

In the spring I collected the dropped willow branches under my weeping willow (Salix) tree.  They spent March - August in my non-climate-controlled garage.

The idea  to make charcoal from willow I read about first in The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting (Thompson 87) and the medieval method explained in Il Libro Dell'Arte (Broecke 54, 55).  I watched this youtube video and read of a few other methods online.  I was complaining to Jack, a blacksmith from Kennebec River Forge at the Great Falls Ballon Fest Ravensbridge demo that I needed a friend who had a big yard who frequently made fires that I could use as my oven and he suggested I should 'do what the boyscouts do and make use of a camp stove'.  Encouraged by almost any suggestion of successful experiments these days, I went for it!
Follow my example AT YOUR OWN RISK.  Charcoal is possibly carcinogenic as is breathing smoke.  Use a well ventilated area and gloves.

On August 27, 2015 I whittled all the bark from the branches I had saved, cut them into pieces that would fit in a tin I got from Goodwill.  Punched two holes in the top of the tin lid with a hammer and small nail for the smoke to escape.  

I cut the whittled willow branches into pieces that would fit in the tin, one layer at a time, setting each layer perpendicular to the last until the tin was full.

Wiring it shut, I set it on my Coleman grill.  Safety, safety, folks!  I made sure my hose and fire extinguisher were ready.

After calling the Fire department to give them a heads up about the mysterious smoke I was going to create, I turned the stove on, with a fairly low flame.  In several minutes it began to smoke and continued to smoke for about an hour!

Around minute forty-five I turned the flame higher.  Not much changed after this modification.  I let it cook until I saw no more smoke come from the holes, shut off the stove and shoved two bamboo skewers in the holes in the lid to deprive the system of most of the oxygen.

And Voila!  Charcoal to draw with!

Summary of medieval pigments for a class handout

Medieval Pigments

Reds:

Minium (red lead), Vermillion (HgS), Brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata), 

cynople (Brazilwood in chalk?), Folium/Turnsole (Chrozophora tinctoria)(acid), Madder (Rubia tinctorum), Kermes, Red Ochre, Cochineal, Naturally occurring Cinnabar, Stick Lac, Ivy Lac, Dragonsblood (sap of Pterocarpus draco or Dracoena draco), grain (Coccus ilicis stings Quercus coccifera and dies on it)

Blues:

Silver Blue (a type of verdigris), Egyptian Blue Frit (recipe lost after the fall of Byzantium),

Indigo (Indigoferra), Woad (Isatis tinctoria), Lapis Lazuli, Ultramarine (purified lapis lazuli),

Ultramarine Ash, Azurite, Cornflower Blue, Bilberry Blue, Folium/Turnsole (Chrozophora tinctoria) (alkaline)

Greens:

Malachite, Verdigris, Terre Vert (gluconite and celadonite), Prasinus (?De Diversis Artibus),

Iris Green, Rue Green, Cabbage Green, Leek Green, Buckthorn (or Sap) Green (Rhamnus spp),

Black Nightshade (leaves), Caprifolium Seed Green, Vergaut (indigo + orpiment)

Yellow:

Saffron, Lead Tin (I) Yellow, Weld (Reseda Luteola), Yellow Ochre, Orpiment (As2S3),

Realgar (orangey As4S4), Buckthorn Yellow (unripe), Massicot Yellow/ Litharge (Yellow Lead), Naples Yellow (Lead-Antimony Oxide) volcanic activity, Violet Yellow (unnamed in De Arte Illuminandi), Turmeric Yellow, Black Poppy Yellow (De Arte Illuminandi), Mosic/Musive Gold (SnS2)

Purples:

Lichen (Rocella tinctoria), Tyrian Purple (Shellfish purple from Muricidae which is ph sensitive),

Elderberry Juice, Wild Poppy Violet (Strasburg Manuscript recipe), Rose Purple (Mappae

Clavicula, species unspecified), Purple Fluorite

Whites:

Ceruse/Lead White, Bone White, Chalk White, Gypsum

Browns:

Brown Ochers (Umber, Raw Siena...)

Blacks:

Carbon Black, Vine Black, Lamp Black

This is a summary from http://wiesenfeuer.ansteorra.org/links/artsandsciences/medievalpigments.pdf and

https://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~cochinea/pdfs/a-baker-04-pigments.pdf

Who are using

Mappae Clacicula, 9-12^th century

On Divers Arts Theophilus, 12^th century

Liber de Coloribus Illuminatorum Siue Pictorum, also known as Sloane MS No. 1754, 14^th century

De Arte Illuminandi, Naples, Biblioteca Nazional, MS XII.E.27, 14^th century

Liber diversarum arcium, 14^th century

Il Libro dell'Arte Cennini, 15^th century

Strasburg Manuscript, 15^th century

YIS Adrienne d'Evreus 207-651-5837 adrienne.devreus@gmail.com