The condensed world of the miniature becomes a personal dialogue between artist and subject—the flowers, fruits, and landscapes of the psalms. My aim is to bring the viewer into this exchange between the phenomena of nature and the poetry of Hebrew literature. The choice of materials has evolved into a conversation between my era and the past. I use fine calf and goat parchment, prepare my own glues and binders for paint and gesso for laying gold leaf. To capture the unique quality of Medieval blues and greens I grind azurite, malachite, and lapis lazuli stone to create those colors. Glossary Parchment or Vellum: These terms are interchangeable and refer to animal skins which have been prepared for writing and painting. The most commonly used are calf, goat and sheep skins. Temper: Temper is any substance used to bind together particles of pigment to create a paint. Glair: Egg whites are beaten until stiff and left to separate. The resulting liquid, called glair, becomes a very strong, flexible, almost waterproof binder. Gold Leaf: Gold leaf comes in various thicknesses, purities, and colors. Karat [K] is the measure of purity with 24K equaling 100 percent pure. Gold is often alloyed with silver and copper to produce other shades from reddish to almost white. Shell Gold: Pure gold ground to a fine powder and mixed with a binder to be used as paint is called shell gold. It was traditionally stored as a droplet in half of a mussel shell.