Ukrainian eggs - dye

I have started the eggs.
:)
First I'll post about making the dyes.
Because that proved to be a more difficult and time consuming task than I first thought.

I had an extra half hour, so I decided to make up the egg dyes.
Dyes take longer than half an hour to make.
Let me get that point across first. ;P

However, I didn't know this.

So I dived in.

I started to boil some water when I realized I needed distilled water.
No big deal.
I hired my little brother to run to a sari-sari store for some water.

Then I realized that the dye was going to be a tight fit in the containers I had.
I tried it anyway.
Thankfully the dye all fit.
:P
However, some splashed on the counter.
This is strong dye. Not food color dye.
STRONG.
*gulp*
Actually it wiped off alright.
(water soluble)

Nevertheless, I moved to the back sink.

I boiled, measured, poured, and made sure not to dye myself.
Despite precautions I did have greenish blue fingers for a while after...

Finally, all twelve dyes were made, and safely stored with the lids on tight.

Phew.

I stopped several times, for lunch, music, and homework.
And it took much more than half an hour.

Next I'll post about the actual eggs!

Gothic building blocks

Yep. 

Another art assignment.

This time, it's about architecture.

Church architecture, to be exact.

I shall show you five examples of Gothic building blocks, and briefly explain each.

Thrilling, eh? 

:P

 Alright.

~

First are the:

Flying Buttresses

 Not sure if you can see, but I circled the flying buttresses with red...   

These were a main external support, used so that the walls of buildings could be skeletal, with huge stained glass windows, rather than solid.

~

Next:

Vaults

A vault was an arched ceiling, often rising very high above the ground.

 ~

Then, there is the:

Nave 

This is the main part of the interior of the church.

This word came in very handy last night, while playing boggle.

:P

~

Then, we have the

Tracery

This is the stone framework decorating the windows.

Such intricate stonework!

~

Lastly, my favorite part: the beautiful

Rose Window

Isn't it amazing?!

Rose Windows are circular windows filled with stained glass.

~ 

And that is it!

I still find it amazing that people could make these intricate and complicated buildings with such primitive tools, and often times they took literal ages to constuct. 

The Cologne Cathedral took six centuries  to build!

Yes, interesting name, isn't it...

:)

(I started my Ukrainian eggs! I'll post about that soon...)

illumination

You may be thinking at this point that I am blogging about lighting.

No.

I'm studying the Byzantine Era in art right now.

Medieval manuscripts...

Ok.

What I meant by illumination:

or

(No. Sadly I didn't make those. :P)

Anyways.

My assignment was to research illuminations and make one.

I decided to illuminate a letter 'A'.

I wonder why...

:P

Gouche, a type of paint, was often used in illuminations, most often in green, royal blue, and red.

I thought about using watercolors, but they are way thinner than gouche.

Gold leaf is used a lot too.

It was rubbed onto the illumination with a tool tipped with a hound's tooth.

:D

Tinfoil just doesn't compare with gold leaf.

I don't have any hound's teeth either.

I finally remembered a sheet of gold origami paper I had stored away in my closet.

Just right!

Well, maybe not just right, but it does look much more like gold leaf than tinfoil does.

;P

Then I found a few brightly colored markers/pens,

and set to work.

It isn't nearly as intricate or detailed as true illuminations, and the colors aren't right

(though they are much better in real life. Our scanner once again mangled the colors... :/).

The gold paper actually looks fairly realistic

(in real life..),

but the markers just can't do an illumination justice.

I need to find gouche paint...

:)