calf parchment

Ingredients

calf hides, lime, calcium hydroxide, water

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The parchment is obtained from raw animal hides through a sequence of steps including thorough washing, soaking in a solution containing lime, dehairing, and scraping with sharp knives to remove muscle tissue and hypodermic layers. Finishing involves mechanical thinning, shaving, bleaching, dying, and polishing. Finally, the hides are tightened on rectangular or circular frames and left to dry under tension at ambient temperature (p. 1). These mock-ups were specifically created using technology inspired from ancient recipes at the ARCH Lab in Bucharest (p. 3).

Evidence

"The experiment was carried out using calf parchment that was handmade at the Advanced Research for Cultural Heritage Laboratory (ARCH Lab) of the National Research & Development Institute for Textiles and Leather in Bucharest (INCDTP-ICPI) using technology inspired from ancient recipes."

Remarks

The study focuses on the damaging effects of mixed light-thermal ageing (162 W/m2 irradiance, 52 °C, 30% RH). Deterioration includes the formation of collagen-destabilised intermediate states which then progressively convert to disorganised structures, e.g. pregelatinised collagen and gelatin (Abstract). The process is characterized by molecular changes of collagen associated with its photo-oxidation, shown by changes in position and intensity of main FTIR absorption bands: Amide I, Amide II, and Amide III (p. 1).