A video from Insider Business on “How Animal Hides Are Made Into Parchment At the Last Workshop in the US” (May 7, 2021 – available on YouTube and other locations)
Category: Arts
Economics: The Tragedy of the Commons
One of my interests is Economics. I recently came across “The Tragedy of the Commons”.
It’s basically an economic argument for government. Individuals watch out for the best interest of themselves and their families. But best interest says items that are shared need to be monitored to prevent destruction of their value – common grazing area, shared water sources, and fresh air. With a “group-think” in place that places value on the survival on the group over the direct benefit of the individual, resources shared in common may be conserved for future use while still being used in the present. Of course, still in place, needs to be rules so that the “group-think” administrators don’t hi-jack the government for their own individual profit.
Embroidery: Quick History of the Sewing Needle
Photo by SUNBEAM PHOTOGRAPHY on Unsplash
While I haven’t had much time to work on my embroidery, I’m still interested in the artform and the tools which go with it. The central tools for embroidery are thread, cloth, scissors, and the all-important needle.
Where did it come from and how long has it been around?
Initially furs were worn, likely as ponchos with holes cut for head and arms. The dangly fabric surely got in the way, so strips of leather would be used to tie it closer to the body.
Let’s be honest about human nature for a moment. The minute the ancestors-of-our-ancestors got beyond cutting holes and added strips, design started. Need to wrap the legs – are you going to use a spiral, crisscross, or horizontal tie-offs all the way up? Belt the waist or the torso? Heck, where to cut the holes, how to wear the ponchos. Most people wear clothes because of need, but there will always be those people who take it to the next level and make that fur LookGood.
Next giant step forward is punching holes in the fur with awls and running those leather strips through. Now design can really take off.
Then we get the magic. Putting a hole in one end of the awl making … a Needle!
These appear at different times in different areas. Did they start in one place or were they invented time and again. The mix of material making needles, the length of the needles, and locations they have been found indicates invention time and again. But humans travel, so maybe one genius moment and the rest copycats, but, for our present-time, it doesn’t matter. The fact is, it happened.
The glorious Eye of a Needle!
Around 80,000 to 100,000 years ago humans started wearing clothing and nearly immediately (at least by 76,000 years ago) bone awls existed. China had needles by 45,000 years ago. (Pagano, 2019) Made short and long, curvy and straight, thick and thin, needles clearly were used for more than just boring assembly of cloth. In and of themselves, there is a beauty too – simple bone to precious ivory, plant leaves (pine), thin wood, stone, and as soon as metal is smelted, copper, bronze, then iron. Each age in turn.
When I sew, I am sharing a history reaching back longer than there has been written history.
Bibliography
Carr, Karen. “Who invented sewing? History of clothing.” Quatr.us. 2017 June 8. https://quatr.us/central-asia/invented-sewing-history-clothing.htm – last viewed 12/12/2022.
Pagano, Jacob. “Sewing Needles Reveal the Roots of Fashion”. sapiens.org. 2019 Jan 25. https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/fashion-history-sewing-needles/?fbclid=IwAR24WO6qK2mtgei90dnpKo1HQPqi4s3KRg-5V-h5YJalcRCiRf7Zi-qESlc – last viewed 12/12/2022.
Wikipedia. “Sewing Needle.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_needle – last viewed 12/12/2022.
Art: Litter Collection
I live behind the “low-rent” shopping center in town – you’ve seen them – the ones with two tax prep places, GoodWill and the Kidney donation stores as “anchors”, Big Lots, the Spanish supermarket, a rental store, a cash checking “bank”, and a laundry mat, plus a Chinese takeout place. Mine is too low-end for even a pizza place; that is in the shopping center across the street in front of the Walmart. The non-standard items in this sprawling decrepit tapped-out capitalistic mecca is the biker bar (member-only) and a weekend auction house.
Between the three dumpsters, plus the Wendy’s at the corner, we have two or three trash trucks go through on any given day and most don’t put that barrier across the top as they travel through the neighborhood because of the low speeds. Which means trash is constantly being blown out of the dump trucks. More trash travels from people dropping something in the large parking lot when going into shop or coming back. The highway frontage doesn’t help. And still more trash is accumulated from the three bus stops and one bus station in the area as people walk to them, from them, and between them while eating or smoking and just dropping one “minor” thing. That is a lot of minor stuff between everyone.
Every day, I take a shopping bag and go out and collect trash for fifteen minutes as a break from writing. I only go one block each direction from my little corner – north, south, east, and west. Just one direction per day.
Every day I come back with a full bag of trash. I’ve been doing this for years.
That is how much litter is in my little part of the world. A small bag every day. If I don’t do it for a month, I’m 30 bags behind and can collect them if I double or triple up the bags for a longer walk.
I’ve had random passers-by ask if I am doing forced community service. I’m like “I live here and want to have a clean place to live.”
I mean how hard it that to understand? You live in the world, maintenance is needed.
I can’t stand exercise just to exercise. And just cleaning trash would annoy me to. But combining the two, making the world prettier and keeping me healthy at the same time – just all the positives.
Litter collection – community, personal health, gardening, making the world pretty. An art in itself.
January is just around the corner and many people make exercise commitments, but don’t stick with them because … exercise just to exercise doesn’t have much incentive. Maybe doing something as a “plus” might help like it does for me. Get a little reacher thing (available in the Walmarts in the pharmacy area near the canes) and take one of the small shopping bags and collect litter for 15 minutes each day on your walk. You too can leave the world better than you found it each and every day.
Female Scribes
From the British Library Manuscript Viewer: Isidore, Bishop of Seville, Etymologiae. Folio 23 right
Did women write?
Did women make manuscripts in the medieval times or earlier?
“What is the earliest European manuscript in the British Library’s collection that was created by a female scribe?” – the last question was asked of the British Library and they answered it in “Female Scribes in Early Manuscripts.” Follow the links in the Bibliography.
Quick answers:
Yes, women write – now and in the past.
Yes, women created medieval manuscripts. Entire nunneries were devoted to creating manuscripts for the Church to provide to their patrons.
For a full manuscript, that is a known creation due to notes made by the eight women who worked on it, The Isidore, Bishop of Seville, Etymologiae from 1130-1174 may be the earliest. Earliest written piece in any format by a female of the British Library may be a birthday invitation from the second century BC.
Bibliography
British Library Digitised Manuscripts. “Harley MS 3099 – Isidore, Bishop of Seville, Etymologiae”. (last viewed 4/10/2022; note as of 4/26/2024 link no longer works)
British Library Blogs. “Female Scribes in Early Manuscripts.” 2017 March 08. https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/03/female-scribes-in-early-manuscripts-.html (last viewed 4/10/2022; note as of 4/26/2024 link no longer works)