Animal Materials

A two hour session for all the group members to meet and set intentions for the year going forward.

With a 10 minute break.

Hosted by Annie Hogg

Bone preparation for sculptural, decorative, and tool applications.

We will discuss safe sourcing of bones and cover the steps necessary to dissect and clean, in a respectful and caring manner.

Participants will be able to use bones for further sculptural and decorative applications.

Pigment, preservation and brushes - a look at utilising found animal parts.

Following on from Bones, we will look at basic preservation of animal parts, specifically bird wings and claws.

We will look at the various materials which can be used for preservation and their pros and cons.

Garden Snail shells will be discussed as a pigment source (charred).

We will consider some sources of animal hair and the make of rudimentary brushes.

This session introduces the principal insect-derived dyes and pigments that supplied the ancient and medieval worlds with vivid reds, purples, and dark writing colours. We will focus on three key sources, Mediterranean kermes, South Asian stick lac, and Mexican cochineal, tracing their historical use, trade, and importance to artists and dyers. The presentation will also briefly introduce the insects themselves and the basic chemistry behind their colour, showing how soluble organic dyes differ from mineral pigments and why artists developed methods to transform them into more durable materials.

A focused live demonstration will show how an insect dye can be extracted and converted into a traditional lake pigment using alkaline extraction and alum precipitation. Rather than covering multiple full recipes, we will use this single process to explain the principles behind historic lake making, filtration, drying, and use in paints and inks. The session will conclude with a short introduction to insect-induced galls and iron gall ink, linking biological materials, tannins, and iron salts to one of history’s most important writing media. A small colour chart of the prepared materials will bring the session together and illustrate how historical makers manipulated natural colour through simple chemical processes.

This session introduces the principal pigments and dyes derived from marine organisms and their importance in ancient, classical, and medieval colour traditions. We will focus on a small group of distinctive materials, including Tyrian purple and European dog whelk dyes, sepia from Mediterranean cuttlefish, and warm carotenoid colours found in crustacean shells. The presentation will trace their historical status, artistic use, and trade while briefly introducing the organisms that produced them and the chemical properties that make marine colourants so unusual.

A focused live demonstration will explore two contrasting approaches to marine colour: the preparation of sepia ink and the recovery of colour from shellfish and marine waste materials. Selected seashell and cuttlefish-derived materials will also be shown to illustrate how marine substances can be processed into inks, pigments, and textured colourants. The session will conclude with a small colour chart of the materials discussed and prepared, highlighting the range of tones that can be produced and demonstrating how historical makers transformed fragile organic colour into practical artistic materials.

This session introduces the principal adhesives, binders, and sizing agents derived from fish and other aquatic materials that supported painters, scribes, gilders, and instrument makers across the ancient and medieval worlds. We will focus on two main material groups: workshop fish glues made from skins, bones, and other processing waste, and high-clarity isinglass traditionally produced from fish swim bladders. The presentation will trace their historical uses and briefly explain how collagen structure influences properties such as tack, flexibility, clarity, and strength.

A live demonstration will show the basic principles of extracting and preparing fish glue, from gentle heating and straining through to cooling and storage. We will also introduce isinglass as a finer binder for delicate applications such as manuscript work, gilding, and paint preparation, including the role of natural plasticisers in modifying brittleness. The session will conclude with a small comparative test of the prepared binders on different materials, demonstrating their use in pigment binding, sizing, grounds, and simple gilding applications.

Mammal skin is an endlessly variable material which can be processed in many different ways, each of which change both its appearance and behavioural characteristics.
Overview of the most common types of processed skin and their variations, such as Rawhide which encompases everything from parchment to parfleche, and braided latigo to babiche, Fat or Oil Tans which are the most widely spread tannage technology both temporally and geographically yet very few people recognise or use today, Vegetable Tans which gradually become the standard tannage as tanning becomes less home based and more industrial, and Mineral Tans which become the standard tannage post industrial revolution.
Demonstration: Visual walk through of the steps of tanning from preprocesses to finished leather with examples of the finished products.

Following on from mammal skin, fish skin is a more specialist and regionally specific resource. Due to the sheer number of fish species, this material has almost endless variation in surface texture and pattern, thickness and size. 

Overview of the regions of the world which traditionally used fish skins and the tannage technologies which are most often applied to them. Discussion of the morphology of fish skin and how it differs from mammal skin. dyeing mediums which work well for fish skin and fish skin specific needs during tanning, dyeing and sewing.

Demonstration of fish skin processing: Defleshing, Scaling, Tanning, and Dressing

Thank the Hen - colour, tools and mediums from birds

An illustrated introduction to some of the many historical and current uses of art materials from chickens, geese, swans and other edible fowl, including foraged items and things salvaged from food waste.

We will cover raw materials - eggs, skin, bones, feathers and products including, paint mediums, glue, pigment and drawing and painting tools.

The demo will cover how to make bone black, hide glue, tempera & glair mediums, plus quill and bone pens and brushes.

This is an illustrated look at milk and milk-derived paints, mediums and washes from history and the present day.

We will look at ways to make beautiful waste-free sustainable paints from this most easily available of materials and even from milk that has gone past its edible state.

A single animal represents an astonishing amount of resources which our ancestors used to cook and craft their way through life. From leather, glue and thread and a huge variety of containers, to brushes, binders, rattles, ornamentation and of course tools, tools and more tools.

This talk will delve into the common non-culinary uses of the different parts of an animal such as a deer, sheep, goat or cow, with examples of many finished items made from bone, skin, sinew, and internal organs.

A two hour session for all the group members to share their reflections on the past year together and set intentions for the future.

Including a ten minute break

Hosted by Annie Hogg