>>8800
>Just saying it would be nice to have something that could potentially last several hundred years.
Vellum only has an advantage over paper if you're using oldschool acidic paper.
Modern acid-free papers don't decay like acidic paper, and unlike vellum, they aren't as susceptible to humidity, which can absolutely wreck vellum (causing it to rot if too high, and crumble if too low).
The only advantages of vellum are that it's authentic and supposedly a really comfy to write on material.
Traditional iron gall ink is a whole nother can of worms too – it rots, turns yellow/red over time, and can even eat through the paper in bad conditions. Modern ink is superior again, as far as preservation goes.
The basic thing here, is that vellum manuscripts written in iron gall are preserved despite their materials, not because of them.
Additionally, as someone who comes from a family with a long tradition of collecting old photos, books and papers – storage conditions and care for the documents go a lot further than materials unless you're dealing with an obviously flawed media like acidic paper (old newspapers are notorious for using this sort of shit).
>Any tips on painting the illuminations?
Not really, I suck at it too.
The way I do them, is that I make a pencil sketch of my illumination (assuming it's not my marginal scrollwork, which I simply do by rote in pen), ink it with a cartridge pen, and then I paint it with a tiny ass brush with very little paint on the very tip.
For the actual illumination, I cheat and use liquid gold leaf, which is basically gold and copper dust suspended in a solvent. It goes on like paint, but does require thick paper, as the solvent tends to bleed if it's too thin.
You could do real gold leaf, but that's more complicated, messy and not something I know how to do.
>Time consumption doesn't bother me at all
Eh, I wasn't being too-too harsh on time, but moreso money.
It takes me about a week to get through a quarrel of text (16 pages on 4 sheets). That's a good $80 worth of vellum…do you really want to shell out $80 per week, for the next ten years (assuming no market fluctuation in vellum)?
Also, bear in mind that if you actually do want to take a whack at a single-volume bible, you're going to need to use really big sheets in order for it to bind right. Elsewise, you'll get a bible that looks like pic related, and if you're binding it using traditional methods (as opposed to modern glue-quarrels-to-a-board methods), this isn't acceptable (or even possible, really). That'll cut down how many sheets you need, but will up the cost because you're basically using more animal per page.
Just tossing out considerations; again, not trying to discourage.
>Yeah, I'm thinking heavier duty parchment paper and alot of higher quality paints
This is much more feasible. Parchment paper is far cheaper and easier to prepare a writing surface on, and isn't as susceptible to humidity. I'd go with that.