Much goodness!

I realised that I didn't share with you the finished pictures of the Dragon Family! So here they are in my studio before delivery Of course, there was a dragon costume for the biggest one, but since it wasn't my work I figured I wouldn't photograph it for posterity.

Here is the Mid Dragon on set, being held by one of the two puppeteers. It gives you a good idea how the hands look when there are people in it.

And here is the Lil Dragon on the bed on set. Aparently the Lil Dragon was a huge hit with the younger guys on set, and the directors daughter, who is all of age 4 or 5, was dreadfully upset when she couldn't take it home :)

That's so sweet!

In other good news, the Mummy sold on etsy. How nice is that? I was reading The Gentle Arts by Jennifer Isaacs as part of the general research into the history of craft that I'm currently doing, and she mentioned Pin Money. She didn't really explain it well, so off to Google I trotted...

Pin Money: Catharine Howard, wife of Henry VIII., introduced pins into England from France. As they were expensive at first, a separate sum for this luxury was granted to the ladies by their husbands. Hence the expression "pin-money." from What Names Mean
and
Pin money is now regarded as a term for small amounts of money, usually saved by a woman. from their forums

I think that's a fascinating term. In the book, one of the women she interviewed said her mother used to take in sewing for 'pin money'. And it occured to me that many crafty type people are still carrying on that tradition, even though they might not know it. It'd be great to be able to earn a full wage from art and my etsy store, but really mine is only pin money. But I'm ok with that. It's nice to be continuing an ages past tradition.

I bought two more books today. One is Years of Adventure by the Country Women's Association, chronicalling 50 years of the CWA from 1928-1978. My grandmother was a CWA member, sometimes the president and sometimes the treasurer of her chapter, and I'm looking forward to learning more about it. I actually want to go to the Royal Melbourne Show this year to go and look at the crafts and the competitions.

The other book is Colonial Crafts of Victoria by Arts Victoria. Most of the photos are B&W but still it's a good history book of local crafts so I'm looking forward to diving into that. I've also bought No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Ann Macdonald via Amazon. Amazon books are usually more expensive due to shipping and monetary conversions, but I found one of the second hand sellers who ship internationally, so the whole thing is costing me $32 AU. I'm so stoked!

I'm not sure what I'm researching here. Usually when I'm doing research, I have a clear idea where to start and where to go. At the moment I find I'm interested in:
the history of craft
the individuals who made the items
the place craft had in ordinary lives
and the social history of craft.

I'm not sure where it's all leading, but it's certainly an interesting journey...