Thursday, February 12, 2009

Root printing and a new project. And: Stealing back "forbidden" signs

This is a rutabaga. I cut it into pieces with smooth edges. These letters are runes.









Why this? Right wing ambitions? Oh, no. I just feel that these traditional letters must be taken back into culture. The only way to free them from evil traditions is to start new ones, hopefully for the better.

I start printing an Estonian magic spell. This one was written down by the ethnologist Fr. Kreutzwald and published 1854. It is about subdueing anger and envy from others. Some of these spells were to make the dough rise well and help making butter; others were to protect the rural serfs from being beaten by their owner. -- These magic spells were not written in runes. They weren't written at all, because Estonians traded them by oral transmission. To use these letters is my own idea.

This is part of a new project. I used black thick textile paint which can be fixed by ironing, and plan to cut it in stripes and sew it onto the "Witches Gown". This is the name of my new project. As a base I want to use a piece of black cotton with kawry shells and a little embroidery which I made for myself as a thing to wear; then I did not really. This piece had other plans with me.

An unbelievably rich source on traditions is this Estonian online journal.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful low tech approach! This is fabulous. I can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!

jude said...

oh fab, you are casting a spell over us.

Barbara Strobel Lardon said...

A very intriguing font but please, only good spells! haha.

ArtSparker said...

Fantastic project, the wearer (you?) will be a sort of living magic book.

Anonymous said...

The printing blocks are sort of works of art in themselves. Rutabaga, that's interesting, probably much better than potato which is what I usually use. Does the textile paint stay paint-like, or does it get right into the fabric, like real fabric dye? I'd like to try this.

Eva said...

Lindsay, the textile paint behaves more like paint than like dye, it doesn't spread in the fabric. The outline is nice and clear.
Susan, as in the case of Joseph's coat, also this one will be a "fake clothing"; I am not a user of this kind of magic, but intend to do it as a research project.

Guzzisue said...

I'm going to watch this one with interest and try the printing, tryed potato but never swede.

Rayna said...

ha - just in time for Friday the 13th.

Diane Cransac said...

What an interesting idea. I cant wait to see this come about!