TUITION

Illusionist magic

Starts 6 May | £349 | Online

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Turn water into wine, make things appear to burn, or to turn, or to jump, or to change colour, do rope tricks with your hands, make cooked meat appear raw, make things appear to fly out of the oven, or to walk off your plate, make towers appear in a urine flask, make a coin appear (or disappear), make invisible ink. They could be used for playful or deceitful purposes (think of invisible ink for fraudulent activities). These were not always illustrated and I have scholar friends researching these manuscripts. Let’s work out how these sulphurous tricks were done by painting them and expose our own faulty walnuts.

Craftspeople, we imagine, could already anyway produce amusing, wonderful and entertaining effects with the everyday materials of their trade. My husband made a magic pen box based on a medieval Arabic…

Create your own characters

Starts 6 May | £199 | Online

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The Angry Housewife. The penultimate character. Hands on hips. Possibly a rolling pin. Don’t mess with her, don’t make a mess, and don’t mess in your pants. As she is the one clearing it all up.

Upcoming Sessions

Weaving Magic: Weave bookmarks

Starts 6 May | £199 | Online

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We continue on from the endbands and roots and combine the two to make our own bookmarks. These can be attached to the book in different ways, which is very handy, or entirely separate to give as gifts. You will need a basic sewing kit as well as silk threads in colours of your choice. You will also need a bound book sewn with a lie-flat binding, preferably in the Islamic style, and an optional book cover to finish (it can be fabric; I will use leather).

This is a mini series on tapestry hand weaving. I have used hand weaving extensively in previous work and studied Medieval and kilim tapestry hand weaving techniques. and we can also combine it with bookbinding skills. Hand weaving is a ‘dry’ and ancient artform, suited to small, clean and domestic…

MARGINAL EXTRAS mini series

Starts 6 May | £199 | Online

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Innumerable Sharafeh

Their forms are innumerable. They are small but essential and really finish off an illumination like nothing else can. They can take the form of the merlons around a carpet page or around a roundel or shamseh/little sun like rays of sunlight. Simple and classic, or complex and colourful, they have graced the edges of illuminations for centuries. We will paint as many sharafeh or tığ in this class as we can. Once you understand and are more familiar with these tiny but vital forms you will find it easier to incorporate them into your own work. They are the icing on the cake.