The making of p52 John fragment

I wanted to create a unique gift for some Friends. Since my Friends love God's word I at first thought about buying a replica of the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah, but $80,000 for each was just a little out of my budget. So I opted to make a copy of Rylands Papyrus P52. The oldest fragment of the book of John. The picture below is the original.

Rylands Greek P 457, The St John Fragment , On display in the Rylands Gallery at John Rylands Library in Manchester, England

I had never attempted anything like this, but I had watched a few shows on manuscript forgery. I figured it could not be that difficult. I was incorrect. Here is what I did, step x step.

Step #1
I bought some real papyrus off of Amazon. There are several sellers, I read the reviews and bought from the one that seemed most trustworthy. It is real papyrus. 

​Step # 2
Coated the papyrus with tea. Tea ages the papyrus and makes it look very old. However afterwards I realized it would have been better to wait until after I printed it. It had a difficult time in the printer. After coating it with tea I left it in the sun for 2 days to dry out and "age". 

Step # 3
I downloaded copies of P52 front and back and then cropped them, erased the background using Corel Photo and then prepared it for printing. It is important to get the printer setting correct so as not to damage the printer. So set it for the proper margins and choose card stock to lift the heads.

I got this. This is printed, trimmed and I frayed the edges. I used an exacto knife for the trim and then a toothbrush to fray. Lastly, I touched up the edges with tea. I used a wide fan brush when applying the tea.

The final step was presentation. I wanted a small enough frame to set on a person desk, but I also wanted to see the English translation. Although I could have done both, it would have been large. So, I opted to frame the fragment and include the translation on papyrus.

I do not think I would do this again. This was not easy and involved a lot of steps that if I made a mistake there was no save, it would have to have been a restart. But I am pleased with the turn out and I hope my Friends enjoy it.