workshop · 10 · double boiler · 145° · animal glue
a pot inside a pot. the outer holds water and is set on the small stove; the inner holds the dark amber glue and is kept gentle by the water around it. animal glue cooked too hot forgets how to be glue. it is patient or it is nothing.
the smell is between soup and leatherwork — unfashionable, honest. it set the tenons of the bench, the seat-rails of the parlour chair, the inkstand drawer. it can be undone with steam, which is how an honest joint is repaired: by going back through its own weather.
field-note · pinch a cooling drop. if it strings between thumb and finger, the work can begin.