To get a silverpoint is not as easy as thought, especially in the Netherlands. Of course you first look at the store where you buy all your drawing stuff, they did have it before, but there was no custom for it. Also at the webshops it became more and more difficult, cries like "not available" I often came across, but often I had to create an account first.
So it didn't become that.
Then it occurred to me that buying a contemporary silverpoint was really not at all part of the idea of drawing as old most, make your own tools, I thought to myself.
Now what...
By now I knew I had to find not silver 925, but 999.
Again on the internet I looked for a silversmith in the area, but unfortunately no answer. Then wholesale via the Internet, silver wire is for sale up to a thickness of 2 mm, but you have to purchase half a meter, which I thought was getting very expensive.
At Esquell.nl I discovered that you could buy the same silver wire there with a length of 20 cm for a nice price.So, that's already solved, silver is on its way....
Now to make a holder, which of course had to look old and simple
No modern stuff, but appropriate to antiquity. I found some thick brushes that I never use anyway, I can do something with those. The handle got shorter and fortunately I have a sanding disc to sand the handle to size and shape.
Where on the end comes the silver wire I drilled a 2 mm. hole and cut slots to clamp the wire. With rope tightly wrapped around it, it clamps down, I drilled a hole for that too to secure it.
The result is perfect.
The next question was "what am I going to draw on with my silver marker". Actually, the answer was already ready, I have a stack of mdf panels lying around, 20 x 15 and a thickness of 3 mm. It is actually against my principle to work on modern materials, but well, it is of a natural origin, wood fibers.
Formerly, papyrus was used, among other things
Working the substrate
I ordered chalk powder and rabbit glue, a little water and dye with the powder and with a flat polished stone you rub it into a fine paste, then dissolve some rabbit glue and add it to the paste. Then you smear the surface with that and let it dry well. After the drying period you can rub it a little more flat.
