Rare Sights

A beautiful little bee orchid surprised us all by popping up in amongst the long grass next to boat on stands.  

Another sight which is probably not so rare is a cygnet hitching a lift on its Mum's back.

May Bookmark

 The May bookmark was based on a maypole but that does seem to have disappeared during the design process!  

The top of the design on the bookmark is based on an aerial view of a maypole with the yellow circle representing the maypole and and the 12 blue lines which form a flower shape are the ribbons.  To simplify the pattern I removed some of the ribbons at this point and then crossed over the ribbons to represent the pattern twisted round the maypole. 

I then decided it needed some more interest as the pattern progressed and as it now resembled Celtic Knotwork I added some Celtic Knot style flowers and reduced the number of ribbons on the way.  

I was pleased with the way the couching worked round the curves and I also used it for the lettering.  

I've also had a try out of using invisible thread to couch metallic thread and am looking forward to incorporating that in a future piece.  

Drawing Lines (and keeping them straight)

Before any writing can be done, the page has to be prepared. The design is called the 'mise-en-page', and it turns out that there are many difficult and complicated ways of doing it. After messing about with harmonious rectangles for some time, I decided that, given the small size of my bifolia (150mm x 200mm), I would need to maximise the text area or it would be too small to contain any writing. I have attempted to apply the 'Recipe of Saint Remi', which lays out a set of proportions for the parts of the page. The upper margin is ⅔  the width of the lower and outer margins, and the inner margin is ⅔ that of the upper. I decided that most pages would have lines ruled straight across, but I've added four pages with columns, where the gap between columns (intercolumn) is the same width as the inner margin. 

Once I had decided on my layout, the next job is to prick guide dots down the edges of the pages. 

I used an awl for pricking, and tried pricking at the outer edges, using a ruler to keep the pricks in a

straight line. After pricking, the holes were ruled with a blind tool (a blunt darning needle, in this case).

The resulting lines are clear enough to see on the front and the back of the page.

I also used in-text pricking and intercolumn pricking on some of the pages. These were ruled with

a pencil, which I found much easier.

Here are the four ruled bifolia of my finished quire, ready for text and decoration!

April Easter Eggs

 The April bookmark shows an array of Easter Eggs all stitched in various colours using blackwork stitching.  The material is black aida fabric.  

This was a fun design to stitch but now I have to get my thinking cap on for the Maypole idea for this month. 

On a different note, here is my new bike complete with its basket which should be very useful.  Bess couldn't resist getting in the picture!

Pages and Pages

After preparing my 'parchment sheets', the next job was to make them into pages for the book. The batches of pages folded together are called quires, and these will be stacked together to form the book - eventually.

I began by folding my parchments, first into 2 (in folio).I folded again to give 4 leaves (so 8 pages, called in-quarto), and then folded again to give 8 leaves (so 16 pages - in-octavo).

I had a go at different ways of making the quires. 

On the left, four pieces of parchment have been cut, folded and stacked inside each other to form the quire. This will be a quarternio made up of  four bifolia. The second picture shows six pieces of parchment to form a quire - a senio.

Both these examples obey Gregory’s Rule, which states that a page on the hair side should always be opposite another page showing the hair side, and the same with the flesh side.

Here I have ’hooked in’ an extra leaf into the quire. The short edge of parchment is called a ‘stop’ to keep the extra leaf in place.

I tried some different methods of folding quarterniones. None of the edges have been cut yet.

Top left- two sheets placed with like sides facing and then folded into 4.

Top right - one sheet folded three times, to give a single sheet with 16 pages.

Bottom left - two sheets each folded into 4, and then one place inside the other. 

Bottom right - four sheets each folded into 2 and then placed inside each other. 

I added cords to keep my quires together.

This sheet has been folded in-octavio and remains in one piece. Here the text can be 'imposed' - written on the uncut sheet, very carefully so that none of the finished pages are upside down or in the wrong place. It will then be refolded and cut to produce the quire..

Finally, I have added signatures on the back of each quire to show the order they will be bound in. I’ve used Roman numerals and placed them in the centre of the lower margin.

Paper into Parchment

Making Paper into Parchment!

This is the link to the Coursera course which I'm having a go at. https://www.coursera.org/learn/medieval-europe?

This week's project is to simulate parchment, which will be used in later weeks to make a book. 

I am using A3 watercolour paper, which is quite thick. Here I am using the solution of coffee (with a splash of added vinegar to prevent mould) to darken the hair side of the parchment. This would have

been darker than the interior flesh side

Here are both sides of my parchment, when the coffee has dried.  

I cut the paper to resemble the animal's neck and shoulder holes, sometimes seen on the edges of the parchment. Holes could also appear in the skin during the stretching process

                               

There may also have been scars present in the animal's skin. I roughly cut a line in the paper to represent a scar in the skin and then creased and coloured it around the edges with watercolour paint. 

There could also be the mark of hair follicles on the hair side of the parchment. I attempted to replicate these with dots and lines done with coloured pencils. 

I also had a go at sewing up a tear in the parchment. The holes were added for before sewing as this was easier on paper. This may not have been the procedure followed on actual parchment, which would have been more pliable. I used embroidery silk to sew up the tear. 

I also added veins to the parchment by lifting lines of the coffee staining out with water on a fine paintbrush. I also experimented with a white coloured pencil to do these. 

Overall, here is one of my finished sheets of parchment, showing all the features above.

All the features were based on examples of real parchment, which can be viewed digitally.

This example is a mortuary roll (rotuli mortuorum) from the British Library. Where the parchment has been folded over at the join, the difference in colour is clearly visible. It also has fascinating examples of different handwriting.

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Egerton_MS_2849/1&index=33

A really useful webpage is found here with lots of pictures to illustrate the points. https://library.osu.edu/site/rarebooks/2008/12/01/107/.

March Daffodils

 I've completed the March bookmark which features daffodils.  

I'll be starting the April design this weekend, very appropriate as it is blackwork Easter Eggs!