Our wonderf
ul friends at Schmincke have done it again! They have kindly agreed to offer one lucky subscriber to this newsletter the chance to win twelve large tubes of Schmincke Calligraphy Gouache in a wooden box, with an instruction leaflet on colour mixing and ideas for using the gouache in calligraphy. For a chance to receive this amazing prize – just in time for Christmas – please send an email to patricia@hernewood.net with the subject 'Schmincke Offer' (this is MOST important) and with your first, family name and address within the email (no need for any other text). The lucky winner will be chosen and informed before Christmas. Good luck!

When you get your new diary for next year, if it isn't already in action, you might want to look at putting some of these dates in it. The first one is for a Quills and Calligraphy day workshop at the British Library on Saturday 26th January 2019. This will focus on the script in the St Cuthbert Gospel – Uncials – and also be a chance to cut a quill and write with it on a piece of vellum. Continuing the vellum theme is a talk on How Manuscripts Were Made, again at the British Library, including a demonstration by William Cowley and a chance to have a go at scraping a skin on Monday 4th February, starting at 7pm (bookings open on 27th November). Both are in association with the fabulous Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition. Then, as if that wasn't enough, I'm running an Illumination workshop at the Parker Library, Corpus Christ College, Cambridge, on Saturday 2nd March with images copied from the Peterborough Bestiary – more details to come. 

An amazing 15,500 hand-made knitted and crocheted red poppies have been displayed at St Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich. Each one represents an individual killed in the First World War who is named on a Norfolk war memorial. They have been made locally by craft groups based in the county's libraries as well as by brownies and scouts groups, but a number have been sent in from abroad. During this month they have been sent to local and mobile libraries for display.  

All of us who make know the huge pleasure it gives and the way in which life's problems can diminish and even be temporarily forgotten when doing so. Even the UK Secretary of State for Health recently said: 'We know what the NHS does is life-saving. But what arts and social activities do is life-enhancing'. This theme will be explored in the Heritage Crafts Association's conference on 9th March at Cecil Sharp House, London. And we have a great line-up. If you're in the UK, then you may have enjoyed BBC2's very well reviewed The Repair Shop. Jay Blades, who was the presenter and is a mean designer himself, is speaking, alongside Mike Venn of Men's Sheds and Celia Pym, Women's Hour Craft Prize finalist. Tickets are now on sale.

 
 

How do you Want to be Remembered?

So many memorials and headstones in graveyards are impersonal, with dull and bland machine-made lettering. Thirty years ago this year Harriet Frazer MBE decided to do something about it and founded Memorials by Artists, now the Lettering Arts Society, of which I am a proud patron. Having difficulty finding something that was suitable for her step-daughter, Harriet decided to help others in their grief find a lettering artist who could interpret the character of their loved one, and she also helped and advised in getting something that may not be standard through the sometimes complex 'rules' on headstones. A special exhibition to celebrate 30 years of the charity, and a fascinating book have been produced. More on the link.



 

A November Mediæval Tragedy 

The Normans had only just got started! They defeated the English in 1066 but by only 1120 things went completely awry. Henry I, fourth son of William, married Matilda of Anjou and at 17 years of age all seemed set fair. However, this didn't account for the high jinks of teenagers! On November 25th, Henry set sail from Barfleur, France, for England and William followed behind in the White Ship with his entourage who, contemporary reports suggest, were a little worse for wear, including the crew. Whether they were trying to overtake Henry's ship, the White Ship being newer and swifter, or whether it was bad piloting, it makes no odds because the result was that the White Ship hit an underwater rock. All were lost but one – a butcher of Rouen. Henry's daughter Mathilda was then named as his heir, and the court were made to swear allegiance to her. One of the first to do so was Stephen of Blois who didn't prove true to his word, and after Henry's death the war between Stephen and Mathilda was resolved only by Stephen's death and the succession of Mathilda's son, Henry II, the first Plantagenet king.

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A Celebration of British Craftsmanship

The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship, the charity arm of the Royal Warrant Holders Association, is a great organisation supporting craft skills and craft training, and is also almost thirty years in being too. A fabulous, beautifully produced new book A Celebration of British Craftsmanship has recently been produced. It is certainly coffee table in size, and luxurious to look at with incredible photography, but contains detailed information of each maker, their background, why they decided to take up the craft, and important works and commissions. It s an excellent read and available from the QEST website here. More on the link.

 

Book Carousels from the Middle Ages

How do you work when you need to consult a few books at a time? Are they in a tangled heap on your desk, or kept quite orderly? Mediæval books were generally large and needed lots of space, and the great Erik Kwakkel has done it again with another really fascinating blogpost on book storage, particularly book carousels. Christine de Pisan certainly looks as if she could have done with one as her desk is pretty chaotic here, which is in sharp contrast to Cicero's clean surface working, with his books neatly in a book cupboard and on a circular carousel at the end of his desk. Click on the link to read more.


 

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Air BnB Experiences

What's your view of traditional crafts? A bit mothy? A bit past it? A bit very much of history? Well, start to change your mind because the Heritage Crafts Association has formed a link with one of the foremost forward-looking digital companies, Air BnB. This link will provide not just Air BnB accommodation, but also allow for the opportunity of 'Experiences' with makers in critically endangered crafts. These craftspeople have been photographed by the great Rankin and beautiful images are the result. At the moment three crafts are on offer, wheelwrighting, clog making and paper marbling, but more are to be added. It's worth clicking on the link to see films of paper being marbled, wheels made, and the sole of a wooden clog being formed.

  

Well-crafted mediæval swords were expensive and time-consuming to make; they required knowledge and great skills in working metal to ensure that the blade was strong and didn't snap. However, more skill and practice was required when holding the sword. Fiore dei Liberi wrote a treatise on swordsmanship and is one of the oldest. Born in the 14th century he toured courts teaching the skills. One of them 'Posta di donna' – the Lady's Guard – is shown here, where the sword is held 'proud and haughty like a lady' and where the position of the sword means that it's difficult for an opponent to know the direction of the blade and parry the attack. There's more on the link.