Dian Green

There are few things you can do. One of the bigger issues is if you want the manuscripts to be able to be rolled. If you are willing to keep them flat, you can fairly easily gild.
As you've already noted, a red background shows off the gold. You could also use a dark yellow ground. I haven't use egg tempura, but you may improve your chances by burnishing it a bit before adding some adhesive, to reduce the chance of it not sticking. Do either base colour and then a thin layer of rabbit/animal hide glue and then the metal foil. You do have to get the timing right with the natural glues. You want it juuuust almost fully dry, but not quite.
That is the big benefit of the modern stuff. It has almost no limit to its working time, so long as it is clean.
You could also try inks instead of the tempura, just on where you want the gilt.

Gold prices are super high. I've barely ever worked with actual gold. Most of what you can get is brass. It looks good but can tarnish over time if it's not sealed. It's been 10+ years since I did any buying so things may have changed but the Japanese stuff was hugely better than the German, which were the 2 main types out there. I always worked with loose sheets in books of usually 10 to 12 pieces rather than the stuff mounted to paper that you peel off.

You can cut or break off small pieces that are just a bit bigger that the area you want, use a static charged clean and dry paint brush to move the scrap over and another soft clean brush to smooth it down. It will crumble and brush away where there isn't any glue.

Butter Girl wrote:Thank for all the great information and the pictures. I have a question on other sites that explain how to make them they say to use a covered dish to wait down and block out light for at least 3-4 days. So I bought two 13 x 9” foil cake pans the kind of throw away, and I put the COIR in the one I made little holes in. I put that on top of the one that does not have holes. Then I took another one and put it on top of the peas that are on the COIR and put a gallon of water on top to wait it down and I wonder if that’s sufficient.? don’t want mold growing in there because that would just about kill me to ingest any kind of mold. Please I would appreciate any advice you have.

I'm not 100% clear on your set up. (I just can't quite see it from the description) You have 2 foil pans, one has drainage holes poked in it and it has coir and the peas in it? A second intact pan is below it, to hold the water? Then you have a third pan, filled with water that is put on top of the peas?

If this correct, it really is more than is needed, at least in my experience. Once the peas are fully soaked, they just need to be kept lightly damp until they start sprouting and don't need full dark. They do like it cool but only need it a bit humid, not full wet.
If you like the foil trays, the stacking them with one having drainage holes should work. It would make it easier to keep things moist with less frequent watering. You could just have the third one empty and upside down, as a lid on it, but it would only be needed until they start sprouting. Bulldog clips would hold it on, if it is in a space where it could get knocked off.
Keeping them cool and not too wet will prevent rotting, at least as far as I have found. Once they are fully growing, they don't need as much humidity, so they do better in an open container with light.

Not all "molds" are bad. As I said above, I found a huge difference between using inoculated potting soil and coir. Peas really do SO much better with a mycorrhizal partner in their growing medium. They also really need soil, unlike some sprouts that do fine with just water.
With the inoculated soil, I got almost 100% germination and so no rotting seeds. With the plain coir, it was much lower and they struggled so it was harder to keep them from going bad. I opted for letting those trays go a bit dry, rather than risk the failed ones rotting and it worked enough that we still got some good harvest.
Overall, once they are sprouting, keeping them dryer seems to be best. They put out strong roots and they need damp, not the main pea section. Potting soil, with a bit of pearlite, does work the best for me since it holds and does a slow release on water.

That does look like it Nancy!
He did have tons of sanding stuff but maybe never needed to use this.

Since we don't have a grinding wheel, this may go into the pile for the ReStore.

Mike Barkley wrote:That looks like a leather working tool used to mark stitch locations. Does tightening the screw on the end lock the discs into place?

No, it cannot be tightened enough to lock the disks.
They also are not sharp enough on their tips to mark leather.

We got a bunch of great tools from a very serious woodworker.
We're thrilled with the overall score but had this thing show up and are a bit stumped about what it is.
While it appears to be vintage, it also looks brand new so I guess he never used it much.  
The active end is a group of notched metal disks, sorta like pie crimper wheels or the pie lattice cutting tools.  They all move independently though.
Looks like he loved a deal too and clearly picked up things he might use if he saw them cheap so he may gave never used it.

Tools are another type of thing you can score great deals on.
We have found a bunch of great tools and supplies and finally got a pegboard up and filled with them The pegboard, hangers and cement screws were all auction finds too.
Its so much easier to get things done when you can easily see all your tools.

I took a measuring tape out with me and I had estimated a bit big since it came in at just over 14". Still very large!

I found the scent to be more cucumber skin than watermelon but it seems like it is hitting all the correct points for it to be the Dryads saddle.

Just had this HUGE mushroom show up on a cut maple chunk.
We took those trees down in 2024 and I innoculated some, but not that section as it was very near the base.

It appears to be Dryads saddle. Im going to go out and break a chunk off to check the scent.
From what Ive read, they often refruit in the same locations so I'll have to keep an eye out going forward to catch them young.

I did use the snails again this year but did them in single rolls and put each one in a closed pot.
That seemed to really help prevent them drying out.
I like it since I don't love tending to large areas of seedlings inside.

I'm now a bit scared about the tomatoes since they did amazing and I have 60+ in the ground since they all survived.

Beans on toast style beans. We've been making a dupe of the Heinz style beans on the regular. Seems to work with most smaller beans. Broth as the cooking water, along with tomato paste, ketchup and spices, makes them very tasty. A bit of meat is a nice addition too. Just add some cornstarch slurry at the end to get it thickened up.