After a couple of weeks of endlessly moving boxes around and weekends dismantling a wardrobe and bookshelves, it was time to get out the house and to finally get round to meeting up with Margaret Cooter et al sketching in museums. The destination this week was the Islamic Gallery in the British Museum - the streets were solid with buses due to Kingsway being closed after the fire last week and it took 20 minutes queuing to get in the building (lots of foreign student groups) so I was a few minutes late. So much gorgeous subject matter to choose from - I was sorely tempted by the glass but got fascinated by the case of amulets including this fabulous cloth covered skull ( love those ears!) . 4 of us met up in the Galley Café to look at each others drawings and discuss favourite sketching implements ( a visit to Cornelissens was a must). It was such a pleasure to be with like-minded people after a few weeks home alone.
There were several examples of clothing showing a variety of forms both in the gallery itself and in the section on 'life and death' in the main part of the museum
I didn't get round to drawing this lovely drum-like discs containing scared texts finely embroidered around the edges - I had a preference for the more roughly hewn.
The necklace above had alum to heal bleeding and prevent fires and a tortoise shell for longevity ( but not for the tortoise....)
This Turkish amulet for a bellwether sheep was fun - loved the exuberant tassels and the crude stitching on the leather triangles. As it happens I have some rusty sheep/goat bells at home in the garden bought in a very non-touristy market in Turkey in 1990's - each one has a different tone.
Travelling in Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, Iran and Syria , I've long had an interest in amulets and talismen. My copy of Sheila Paine's book is much thumbed even if she did mistake rue for chickpeas, but then I did myself initially. The photo above was of the windscreen of the taxi we had in Syria in 2004 winding up a very narrow steep track to Saladin's castle I'd wished he's had rather fewer and a better view! You can see how close we were to the taxi in front.
I've been thinking for a while of revisiting my idea of amulets against lost earrings. The journal quilt above I made in 2004 taking photo's of earrings and printing them on fabric combined with real examples attached to 3d Flying Geese ( perhaps they could be found trapped in the folds...)
I think a visit to Pitt Rivers is long overdue.
1 comment:
I nearly died of envy reading this post!British Museum, Margaret Cooter (I was so happy to meet her on our last trip to the UK), Pitt Rivers...
How wonderful!
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