06-26-2006, 07:43 PM
I just found this out on a trip to a better stocked art supply store. There is a glue called "Rabbit Skin" which is apparently made from little bunnies. This is the older more traditional way of preparing a flax linen canvas for painting. the rabbit skin glue comes in a crystal form and you dissolve it on the stove in water. Apply two coats on a canvas. Then coat the canvas with "oil paint medium". This is a lead based whitewash with health warning stickers all over.
I asked the store clerk what she knew about both items. She told me it was the "old way to prepare a canvas." This means pre-1960 as far as the art world is concerned. What I get is that the heavy flax based canvas sold today is for people who want to copy the old masters. Rembrandt, da Vinci, etc. So is the lead based whitewash. As both have been in use for some time, they may be workable for a linothorax. As I stated on a previous post, it might be desirable for the outer and inner shell to be made from this heavy flax linen. The rabbit skin glue is supposed to be a stiffener for a "canvas" but leaves it still flexable to roll an old canvas up when removed from the frame, as seen on many art theft movies. No guarantee the Greeks used either in making a linothorax, but rabbits and lead based paints have been around a long time. I am not inclined to want to experiment with this stuff because I am soft when it comes to animals.
LYKAON
or
GDA
(Ralph Izard)
I asked the store clerk what she knew about both items. She told me it was the "old way to prepare a canvas." This means pre-1960 as far as the art world is concerned. What I get is that the heavy flax based canvas sold today is for people who want to copy the old masters. Rembrandt, da Vinci, etc. So is the lead based whitewash. As both have been in use for some time, they may be workable for a linothorax. As I stated on a previous post, it might be desirable for the outer and inner shell to be made from this heavy flax linen. The rabbit skin glue is supposed to be a stiffener for a "canvas" but leaves it still flexable to roll an old canvas up when removed from the frame, as seen on many art theft movies. No guarantee the Greeks used either in making a linothorax, but rabbits and lead based paints have been around a long time. I am not inclined to want to experiment with this stuff because I am soft when it comes to animals.
LYKAON
or
GDA
(Ralph Izard)
