I was inspired by garden gnomes to do a line of fantasy figures for the giftware industry in the early nineties.
That led to similar projects such as this one:
This Santa is made of a polyform clay. The figure would stand about 5 inches tall standing. This was part of a project done with Figi Graphics sometime in the early 1990s.
In the finished model Santa is sculpting a model train on a mountainous terrain.
What a revelation to learn about my own two garden gnomes' (here on the opposite side of the Atlantic) not so humble beginnings. I'll have to tell them that they trace their ancestry back to the illustrious "Lampy" of the Lamport Hall Gardens (but perhaps they already know!)
He had 20 of them and his daughters hated them and maybe shot them all up after father died but Lampy they missed. I read so much extra stuff on these...but don't want the entries to get too long. I did go off on the history of garden gnomes, tho. But I started with the rare books. Sometimes I lose my book/library narrative--but how could you not with garden gnomes?
Why were you not teaching history classes, Kathleen, over a half century ago when I was a disinterested high school student? Better late than never for me I guess, so thank you for the rich (if often depressing) historical info you share here.
On an unrelated note (gnomes are quite the distraction!) I talk to people, both living and dead, even when they are not in the room with me; to animals both wild and domestic; to my plants and trees; and to inanimate objects - so talking to garden statuary is not a stretch for me.
Marci, I actually teach the history of libraries--not history/history but htese dark days I decided to look at history through libraries & censorship. And believe me, we talk to our books.
It's cool! Is there anything that prompted the creation of the gnomes? Pure whimsy? (...since belief in gnomes is a Scandinavian phenomenon.)
1) That is a giant brick of a house.
2) I like how that copy of 'Paradife Loft' has a whole series of different printer/binder credits in increasingly diminishing font sizes - they certainly seem to spend a lot of time printing while under things.
One of the articles said Isham had seen the gnomes in Germany where miners took them for good luck. I found about the gnomes when I rana cross an article about the first editions of Milton hidden in an attic. I did think the gnomes was a better headline.
Kathleen, I ran across this article, as I get emails from The Smithsonian Magazine. It seemed like something you would be interested in. I have always been into the King Arthur lore, since I was a kid.
Rediscovered Medieval Manuscript Offers New Twist on Arthurian Legend
The 13th-century pages, found by chance at a British library, show a different side of Merlin, the magician who advised Camelot’s king
Livia Gershon | September 17, 2021 2:29 p.m.
Thirteenth-century manuscript fragments discovered by chance at a library in Bristol, England, have revealed an alternative version of the story of Merlin, the famed wizard of Arthurian legend. A team of scholars translated the writings, known as the Bristol Merlin, from Old French to English and traced the pages’ medieval origins, reports Alison Flood for the Guardian.
The manuscript is part of a group of texts called the Vulgate Cycle, or the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. Using handwriting analysis, the researchers determined that someone in northern or northeastern France wrote the text between 1250 and 1275. That means it was committed to parchment shortly after the Vulgate Cycle was first composed, between 1220 and 1225
The medieval Arthurian legends were a bit like the Marvel Universe, in that they constituted a coherent fictional world that had certain rules and a set of well-known characters who appeared and interacted with each other in multiple different stories,” Laura Chuhan Campbell, a medieval language scholar at Durham University, tells Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz. “This fragment comes from the second volume, which documents the rise of Merlin as Arthur’s advisor, and Arthur’s turbulent early years as king.”
King Arthur first appeared in a history of Britain written in 829 or 830, notes the British Library. That text describes him as a warlord or Christian soldier. Later accounts from the 12th century added new elements to the legend, such as Merlin’s mentorship of Arthur. English writer Thomas Malory compiled one of the best-known collections of the stories, Le Morte d’Arthur, in the 15th century.
Thanks for this one. I'll put it on my list. Got lost tonight trying to write about the library of Jacques-Auguste de Thou, but I can't make it interesting. He had over 6000 books to write his Histoire universelle, but it still isn't catchy.
I have it on good authority that Lampy was inspired by a visit by me to the UK in the fourteenth century (I'm older than dirt) and he was supposed to be a flattering rendition of me. Well, pigs and lipstick, you know.
I was inspired by garden gnomes to do a line of fantasy figures for the giftware industry in the early nineties.
That led to similar projects such as this one:
This Santa is made of a polyform clay. The figure would stand about 5 inches tall standing. This was part of a project done with Figi Graphics sometime in the early 1990s.
In the finished model Santa is sculpting a model train on a mountainous terrain.
https://hybridrogue1.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/santa-sculpt/
https://hybridrogue1.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/dogs/
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Did you sculpt these? Reminds me of the WETA Workshop. https://www.wetanz.com/
Yes, I have been a sculptor and designer all my life.
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What a revelation to learn about my own two garden gnomes' (here on the opposite side of the Atlantic) not so humble beginnings. I'll have to tell them that they trace their ancestry back to the illustrious "Lampy" of the Lamport Hall Gardens (but perhaps they already know!)
He had 20 of them and his daughters hated them and maybe shot them all up after father died but Lampy they missed. I read so much extra stuff on these...but don't want the entries to get too long. I did go off on the history of garden gnomes, tho. But I started with the rare books. Sometimes I lose my book/library narrative--but how could you not with garden gnomes?
Why were you not teaching history classes, Kathleen, over a half century ago when I was a disinterested high school student? Better late than never for me I guess, so thank you for the rich (if often depressing) historical info you share here.
On an unrelated note (gnomes are quite the distraction!) I talk to people, both living and dead, even when they are not in the room with me; to animals both wild and domestic; to my plants and trees; and to inanimate objects - so talking to garden statuary is not a stretch for me.
Marci, I actually teach the history of libraries--not history/history but htese dark days I decided to look at history through libraries & censorship. And believe me, we talk to our books.
It's cool! Is there anything that prompted the creation of the gnomes? Pure whimsy? (...since belief in gnomes is a Scandinavian phenomenon.)
1) That is a giant brick of a house.
2) I like how that copy of 'Paradife Loft' has a whole series of different printer/binder credits in increasingly diminishing font sizes - they certainly seem to spend a lot of time printing while under things.
elm
it'f ok if you lofe your narrative occafionally
One of the articles said Isham had seen the gnomes in Germany where miners took them for good luck. I found about the gnomes when I rana cross an article about the first editions of Milton hidden in an attic. I did think the gnomes was a better headline.
Kathleen, I ran across this article, as I get emails from The Smithsonian Magazine. It seemed like something you would be interested in. I have always been into the King Arthur lore, since I was a kid.
Rediscovered Medieval Manuscript Offers New Twist on Arthurian Legend
The 13th-century pages, found by chance at a British library, show a different side of Merlin, the magician who advised Camelot’s king
Livia Gershon | September 17, 2021 2:29 p.m.
Thirteenth-century manuscript fragments discovered by chance at a library in Bristol, England, have revealed an alternative version of the story of Merlin, the famed wizard of Arthurian legend. A team of scholars translated the writings, known as the Bristol Merlin, from Old French to English and traced the pages’ medieval origins, reports Alison Flood for the Guardian.
The manuscript is part of a group of texts called the Vulgate Cycle, or the Lancelot-Grail Cycle. Using handwriting analysis, the researchers determined that someone in northern or northeastern France wrote the text between 1250 and 1275. That means it was committed to parchment shortly after the Vulgate Cycle was first composed, between 1220 and 1225
The medieval Arthurian legends were a bit like the Marvel Universe, in that they constituted a coherent fictional world that had certain rules and a set of well-known characters who appeared and interacted with each other in multiple different stories,” Laura Chuhan Campbell, a medieval language scholar at Durham University, tells Gizmodo’s Isaac Schultz. “This fragment comes from the second volume, which documents the rise of Merlin as Arthur’s advisor, and Arthur’s turbulent early years as king.”
King Arthur first appeared in a history of Britain written in 829 or 830, notes the British Library. That text describes him as a warlord or Christian soldier. Later accounts from the 12th century added new elements to the legend, such as Merlin’s mentorship of Arthur. English writer Thomas Malory compiled one of the best-known collections of the stories, Le Morte d’Arthur, in the 15th century.
Read entire article:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/rediscovered-medieval-manuscript-offers-new-twist-on-arthurian-legend-180978705/
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Thanks for this one. I'll put it on my list. Got lost tonight trying to write about the library of Jacques-Auguste de Thou, but I can't make it interesting. He had over 6000 books to write his Histoire universelle, but it still isn't catchy.
I have it on good authority that Lampy was inspired by a visit by me to the UK in the fourteenth century (I'm older than dirt) and he was supposed to be a flattering rendition of me. Well, pigs and lipstick, you know.
Or you were in a German mineshaft.