Friday 17 January 2014

Mistletoe and Bones

Sadly I have still have not heard back from the Pierpoint Morgan library with permission to use images of the Cuerden Psalter in this blog so I cannot display the roundel for January that shows a three-faced Janus, looking back to the past year, looking forward into the coming year and full square facing (and feasting!) the present.  However this miserecord in Whalley Church looks a lot like him but the description, in the church pamphlet, describes it as 'the Trinity'.



He also has me thinking about the threefold Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of Hindu mythology.
The high winds brought down a poplar, laden with clods of mistletoe.  An unusual opportunity to spend time with a hemiparasite, observing how seamlessly it is fused with the host plant.  I am busy combining these pieces, along with gifts from family and friends, of bones from the new year family feasts, to commemorate the start of 2014.


Sunday 12 January 2014

Skins - for parchment

I have two calfskins and one lamb skin to make into parchment.  I have soaked them for two days in water. . . Now one to two weeks in an alkaline lime solution.