Leather applique is cut

I'd hoped to do the cutwork out of red and put it on a buttery orange leather I had, but the scrap wasn't nearly as large as I thought. So, I'm doing it the other way. Unfortunately the red leather is very, very lightweight. I'm thinking I need to interline it for structural stability so that the applique is visible rather than just sagging together. Doing that really steps away from the original pieces and I'd much rather buy a thicker leather, but I don't have room in my budget, either the $100 ACC one or my actual budget. So, I'm going to have a pretty shoulder bag with wool felt interlining and silk lining. Sumptuous, but not particularly accurate. I'm sort of bummed by that, but the result should be gorgeous.

I think I've changed my mind

Maybe I shouldn't plan. I just seem to change my mind anyway. Between a tight budget, the kids' need for Halloween costumes and warm clothes, Christmas plans, etc, etc, I'm going to have to put the book on the back burner. I considered simplifying it again, but I'm really excited about how it would be if done right, so I'm going to leave it until I can give it the attention it deserves and focus on the ACC and my family instead. I think I'm going to do a set of bracelets like those the fabulous Aine blogged about here. My husband does chainmaille, so I've already got the equipment and I am pretty sure I have a couple of clasps that will work. I want a set anyway and its a low pressure sort of project.

So, while I keep plugging away at embroidery on the ubrus, I thought I'd do a "quick" project and do a purse for my Russian outfit. Instead of the pockets Italian women went for, Russian women wore either bags attached to the belt around the underlayer (they belted their smocks) or shoulder bags. They were worn under the upper layers and reached by slits in much the same way as a pocket. This 15th century example is located in the Novgorod Historical Museum. Seems sort of fun and rather modern, even if we're used to them being on the outside of an outfit. So, I thought I'd give the shoulder bag style a whirl. I wanted something a little fancy but it couldn't involve embroidery, so I went with this interesting leather cutwork applique and adapted it a bit. The original piece is 12th-14th century, also in the Novgorod museum, and on either a bag or comb case. I'm leaning toward the comb case idea myself since they tended to be really ornate. I wanted the krin heart to be a little more noticeable than in the original, so it is slightly larger proportionally, I also changed the shape a bit, making the design more vertical and less horizontal. I also added an extra flower/vine to make that work. The mock up in paper is the picture up top. I'm going to cut it out of the same red leather I used on my Italian slippers (its the background in the picture) so it will really pop. I haven't decided yet if this will be the flap of the purse or the back of the purse with the flap on the other side.

Even more planning

I know, I know. Nothing much to see here. I have made bits and pieces of progress, but there's nothing to see yet. I've taken a few reference photographs of the kids for their miniature portraits and started writing the poetry. Well, I've put a few random words down on paper in forms that sort of vaguely resemble Petrarchan structure. It certainly isn't poetry at this point.

I'm trying to decide how crazy I want to be and if I want to weave the inkles (narrow strips of fabric) to attach the endbands of the book to. Its a late period method, but it was done and the bookbinding business was a big employer of the inkleweaver. It won't be seen, so it might be a good place for my unskilled weaving to be. It would add more authenticity, more handwork, and more things for me to babble about. Its also more work for no particular reason.

Other things to think about include the leather. Apparently goatskin was more common in Italian books than calfskin. I don't know how it would work with the cuir-cisele (water carving) I'm planning to use for the tooling of the cover though. There is this extant book box dated to 1475 from either Venice or Lombardia that is Italian, goatskin, and cuir-cisele so I'm probably safe but I have no experience with using goatskin leather so I'm nervous. I really love the central medallion on the book box though and it is causing me to consider changing my design to once again use the krin motif.

More planning

I feel like Pooh Bear. "Think, think, think." That's how the first day of the mini-challenge has gone. I've just been thinking. I have decided to meld several of the ideas. I think I'm going to do a series of Petrarchan love sonnets about the kids and Gandhi and the "wondrous occurrences" of our lives. I'll use the frame from the German manuscript since it is used in each of those miniatures 9although the flowers vary)and do miniatures to accompany the sonnets.

I was going through our wondrous occurrences, and there are actually quite a few that I think will illustrate well. My husband and I both realized we were in love while flying kites and celebrate our "kite anniversary." The illustration above is from Konrad Kyeser's 15th century "Bellifortis." I'm looking at other kite images, but since kites seem to be primarily of military use, its going to be stretch to use them. Not that that I won't. Should be a fun scene to draw. I'm going to start the poem tomorrow.

Incunable-- Isn't that a great word?

The word incunable comes from the Latin for swaddling bands. The word pretty much means "baby books." How awesome is that? The image to the left is from a 1482 printed edition of Euclid's Elementa Geometriaea. Isn't that the prettiest math book you ever saw?

I've been looking at pages and [ages of beautiful facsimile manuscripts and playing in the incunabla. Talk about a great way to start the day!

Getting ready to start the mini-challenge

I spent most of today running payday errands, but driving around gave me time to think about my book. I had planned to concentrate just on the binding, but I got some fun ideas. I've been thinking about maybe writing some poetry in Italian forms and putting those into the the book. The other idea I had was to use the structure behind a MS in the National Library of Dublin. Its German, called "Von Wundersamen Begebenheiten" or "Of Wondrous Occurrences." It's 37 miniatures with basically captions. They're sort of like emblems. They're various mythic, magical sorts of things. The one above is the idea that lions have to roar at their cubs to bring them to life. There are also things like Circe turning men into pigs, phoenixes rising from the ashes, and virgins carrying water in a sieve. The point of the MS is that wonderful things happen so of course Mary could give birth to Christ as a virgin. I think I would want to be less specific and just focus on the magic that is in my and my children's lives. It just seems right for a project that will finish up on Halloween (which is also my anniversary.)

Going to let it brew in the back of my brain for awhile. It might be possible to combine the two ideas.

I did go look at paper stocks. I was considering a cotton rag paper since linen rag isn't exactly easy to get. Budget is an issue though, since this isn't supposed to be a giant project (despite that it gets bigger every time i think about it) and its a practice project since its a first try. Therefore, I went cheap and just picked up some 90 lb cold pressed watercolor paper. Lightweight and easy to fold, it should at least be fun to play with. Guess we'll see how it goes tomorrow. Assuming I make a decision.

I was touched by his noodly appendage.

Or something. Pastafarianism is my only explanation for the current look of my hat. When someone (or two) mention that the wooly ringlets you are making to decorate your head with look rather like ramen noodles, it might be wise to NOT take it into your head to swap the silver/white bows in the portrait for copper ones. Even if they are from free ribbon left over from the Great Christmas Ribbon Salvage Operation. Copper is one of my favorite colors and I thought, "Hey, that will go nicely with the orange in the dress." I did not, however, consider the way in which copper colored bows nestled into wooly ringlets would take on the appearance of spaghetti and meatballs. I am wearing the Italian Renaissance equivalent of a Flying Spaghetti Monster hat.  All my husband has to say is "AWESOME!"

I'm trying to decide if I should redo it completely or be happy with the silliness.  It is a goofy hat to begin with after all.

More bows to add and I still need more curls.  I baked oodles, but it doesn't come close to covering the garland from all the angles it needs to.  I went back and re-read "The Wonderful Bulbous Balzo," for the umpteenth time just before starting construction and changed my mind totally again on how to do this.  I agree that this is probably a ghirlanda or garland and so I shifted at the last minute from a grapevine shaped base to a stuffed roll.  I was trying to get the proportions right since I'm such a large person with a melon for a head, but I may have over estimated.  The roll is pretty significant and doesn't have quite the delicacy of the one in the painting.  Shows me for last minute winging it.  I had made actual measurements and calculations when i was going to do the base out of vine.  What I actually did was sew a base of wool fabric and stuff it with wool.  The curls are stitched into place, but then I also took my felting needles to the hat in a totally out of period technique and tacked them further into place.  I didn't manage the linear look of the curls in the portrait, mine are much more tousled.  It's probably due to size of the ringlets and the base.  I certainly need a lot more of the curls than I'd anticipated.

Right now its in the "I hate this, this is terrible" stage.  Hoping more noodles and properly placed meatballs will make me either love the silly thing or abandon it completely.