Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Lumps of Putty

"Sealing (now the customary method) is usually completed with glazing putty produced from linseed-oil varnish (linseed oil boiled with red lead or lead oxide) that is kneaded with finely crushed chalk in a mortar until, after a short while, it reaches a certain measure of hardness. The finished putty should be moulded into lumps and stored in a cool place tightly wrapped in a wet ox bladder."
Technological Encyclopedia of Johann Josef Prechtl 1836
We have spent the last month of Sundays (and Saturdays) puttying in 104 little panels of glass. I now have an understanding of putty, the putty and I have bonded. I'm not sure about the glass. Erecting this greenhouse has been about as much work as I might have envisioned building it from scratch. So finally this past weekend I moved all of my seedlings in and potted up the tomatoes. The beans are ready to go into the garden next weekend along with the 'Black Aztec' corn, now about 8 to 10 inches high.
Pictured below are some of the beans and tomatoes soaking up the rays. Notice my grimy fingerprints still visible on the glass.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The results are beautiful. But where did you get the ox bladder?

Rebsie Fairholm said...

A greenhouse, how exciting!

I gotta get me an ox bladder. That must be where I've been going wrong all these years.

Misshathorn said...

Exciting yes. But I've never grown under glass before. Already I'm concerned that it's too hot so I'm soaping the windows.
I don't guess that it needs be an ox bladder, for small quantities I'm sure you could employ the bladder of a dog or goat or whatever mammal you have to hand.