by Toni Watts | Mar 16, 2014 | Blog, Galleries and Art Exhibitions
I was recently in London and decided to pop in to the Courtauld gallery exhibition ‘Court and Craft’. What is the focus of the exhibition? The star of the show is a metal bag which was made in northern Iraq around 1300. It’s made of...
by Toni Watts | Mar 11, 2014 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
The old masters, working in the fifteenth century, used a painting technique – the so called ‘Flemish Technique’ – which combined the advantages of both tempera and oil paint. Egg tempera dries fast but has a matt finish, making it suitable for...
by Toni Watts | Jan 12, 2014 | Blog
Odd hands in medieval manuscripts How do you draw attention to a line in a book you want to remember? Underline it? Stick a ‘post it’ note by it? Nothing so mundane for the medieval reader. Have a look at this – Now...
by Toni Watts | Jan 5, 2014 | Blog
So, we welcome a new month and a new year. January used to be when we bought a calendar, which, with four of us at home, never seemed to have quite enough space for our separate comings and goings! Now the girls have fledged, I confess we have gone all high tech, and...
by Toni Watts | Dec 28, 2013 | Blog, Materials and Techniques
Carmine red pigment… At Christmas, rather than buying commercial Christmas crackers, we make our own. Each member of the family is charged with buying a gift for one of the others – an enjoyable challenge to find something ‘just right’...
