Here's a selection of stuff - I hope there's something among it for you!

Tussen Kunst & Quarantaine is an Instagram account with pictures from old masters, re-enacted by people. There's an amazing amount of reenactments on the account already, in varying degrees of accuracy, and of course you can add your own if you feel like it. In any case it's worth a look, some of the reenactments are hilarious!

TechSmith is offering video tools for free, to support those of us suddenly faced with new challenges in our home office or self-isolation. This includes a screencast tool (in case you need to show someone else how to use a programme, for example).

On Jools Wilson's site, you can find a lot of things to colour in or cut out and make, among them a Neolithic house, or a Hug in a Box - which is beyond cute, and might cheer someone up if you send it to them (assembled, of course).

If you can read German and like to go outside into the mountains, or climb, or boulder, here's some hints from German DAV (alpine sports association) on how to keep fit and active without going out.

And finally, XKCD has a comic about the virus - from a different perspective:

Today was a bit hectic, but in a good way - there was an urgent request for a little tablet-weaving something, which had to be finished as soon as possible so it could go into the post.

[caption id="attachment_5153" align="alignnone" width="576"] If you can't see the threads running through the tablets, that's because they are thin. Very thin. Not the thinnest I've worked with, but still. Trust me if I say that they are there, though, and they are quite colourful as well...


Even though I'd have liked to spend a little more time on this, and take a few breaks to let all the impressions from working with this very lovely stuff settle, and explore some more how best to handle the different details - I'm happy that I was able to get things done quickly, and hopefully the post will deliver in time, and all will be well, and I will be able to send you a link to a little video you can watch soon-ish.

Speaking of the post: The pandemic has its effect on postal services, too. German post is still running close to normal, with a few little things in effect to protect the posties (such as not needing a signature anymore, and putting the parcel down on the ground instead of handing it over). Outside of Germany, though, the picture is different - in some countries, there's issues with customs, or postal delivery is currently not done for quarantined areas. Sending things to the US is still possible for now, but larger parcels now cost a surcharge of 16 € due to the crisis... so I've put a note on my shop page (which will hopefully appear in all the right places), and I hope that things will not go worse. (Though I do suspect they will.)

Stay home, stay safe, and do some fun things!

It's Friday, the sun is shining outside, there is a Kaiserschmarren baking in the pan on the oven, and the weekend is almost, almost there.

We'll brave a trip outside later on, as we have to drop off a postal vote letter, which, due to some mix-up, has arrived rather late here, and we'd rather know it safely at the town hall instead of trusting the rather overworked postal service with it. The plan is to then also buy some coffee beans at our favourite coffee place, and maybe even an ice cream cone, and (most importantly) a gift card so they have some of our money now to survive, and we'll have some of their coffee later, when things are going back to normal. We already bought stuff at our favourite bouldering places online yesterday.

It's an odd feeling to be at home and not able to go to the usual places, shop in the usual way, do the usual things. It also feels odd to not know if these places will still be there when we'll be able to go back.

Now, though, I'll go have some Kaiserschmarren, and some happy thoughts, and some time outside in the garden in the sunshine. And try to do things that will keep the places I love going through the crisis.

Have a good weekend! (At home!)

 
 

I'm just back from a trip to the post office (thank you to everyone ordering things - this is making things feel much, much better and normal-life-like), followed by a little bit of shopping. The latter was necessary because our milk consumption has gone up noticeably with the Most Patient of All Husbands working from home as well.

Going shopping feels very, very weird. There's marks on the floor everywhere where queues are expected - in front of the butcher's counter, at the bakery, at the cashier lanes. The cashiers are now protected by plexiglass shields, and there's a security guy standing close to the market entrance. There was no scarcity of things in the market, though (except for peanut butter, but that has been the case for a good while, and even that was available today).

Quite a few of the things that are now expected, or asked, carry their own subtle humour for me. For instance, Germany has always been a cash country, with very little card payments, and never for small sums. Usually and in most shops, it wasn't possible to pay per card for sums under 10 €. Now, signs are everywhere asking people to pay with card, even contactless card, if possible, to protect the cashiers. We're being dragged kicking and screaming into the century of the fruitbat; today was the first time in my life I paid with contactless card. Twice (for the groceries, and for the bread in the bakery), and the latter was 2.60 €. That would have been unthinkable both for me and the bakery a few weeks ago. (I'm very much a cash person too, and at the moment, I plan to go back once this is all calming down. But who knows how I'll think about this in a few weeks' time? We shall see.)

Another kicking and screaming thing, for many among us, is the video conferencing that has now suddenly become the way to meet. There is no more talk of quickly flying here or there for a day of meetings; there's much more working from home, and home office is suddenly possible in companies that have never wanted it to happen.

Also, it used to be considered quite impolite and unsocial to change to the other side of the street if you saw somebody coming towards you. Now it is suddenly a sign of respect and politeness, and I've had people smile and nod at me in appreciation.

It's a weird world right now, but some things are worth noting, and remembering for our future. Like how quickly things can change, and how quickly most humans can and will adapt their behaviour. And also how much is possible if those running the country decide that it is important, and has to be done...

Sometimes, sometimes you're lucky, and you manage to get your hands on something that almost does not exist anymore. Case in point: Tiny seed pearls.

There are a few surviving medieval embroideries that include seed pearls (which is the common term for small pearls). If you're trying to buy pearls today, the rule seems to be "the bigger the better", so most offers are for large pearls.

Seed pearls are still relatively large; the smallest you can usually find (especially if they're supposed to be drilled through) is c 2 mm in diameter... which looks, approximately, like this:

[caption id="attachment_5142" align="alignnone" width="501"] Seed pearls. The backdrop is paper with 1 mm squares.


This is a string of seed pearls I bought years ago; the smallest pearls I could find. They are still way, way too big to properly simulate medieval embroideries, though. Here's a picture from a pyxis in the Schnütgen Museum Köln, with corals, pearls, and glass beads of about 1-1.5 mm in diameter:

[caption id="attachment_5145" align="alignnone" width="640"] Embroidered container for the Host. Hildesheim, second half 13th century. Wooden core, covered in embroidery with glass, sweetwater seed pearls, corals and metal appliqué on parchment. Schnütgen-Museum Köln, N 42


That is the pearl size that we're looking for. That, sadly, is the pearl size not available today, usually. So imagine my delight when, after the last conversation about this, I did another internet trawl, just to see if, maybe, maybe... and was successful.



Unfortunately, this string of pearls is not a new one, but an antique one (age unknown) which I got from an auction house. It does mean, however, that I now have a string of pearls in the proper size for demonstrations, or explanations...

Here's the two sizes side by side, so you can appreciate the difference even more:



...and I will take this as a sign that if you do not give up, things eventually might come. Even if they seemed impossible at some point.

I really do wonder, by the way, how the medieval pearl-drillers managed to drill such tiny, tiny holes into such miniscule pearls. You can hardly see these things, let alone hold them. Drilling a hole? I can't imagine how that's done. But there were lots of feats of similar size (or minisculity, rather): Gold threads. Miniscule miniatures. Tiny things in goldsmithing...

It's nice and bright and sunny outside, though it is still quite cold, and it was freezing (-4°C) during the night. Life still feels weird, we're still nice and secluded, but I will have to do a post office run now.

While I will do that, enjoying the sun, and later enjoy a cup of coffee (at home, of course!), you might enjoy a laugh with this German telling the difference between Germany and the US:


Laughing, after all, they say, is good for your health :)

Also... is there something I can do on this blog to help getting us all through this crazy time? Suggestions are very welcome!

I'm a little random-brained today, so you're getting random links.

First of all, amid all the cancelled conferences, EXARC will be holding theirs as a digital conference, live-streamed and later on available as well.

[caption id="attachment_5136" align="alignnone" width="864"] Note the genius symbol thingie in the bottom right corner. I take off my hat to whoever made this.


Tune in on their official website to learn about Documentation Strategies in Open-Air museums, free of charge, on March 26 and 27. (There will even be a Discord pub get-together, because there's no archaeology conference without a drink and a chat with the colleagues!)

The open-air laboratory Lauresham (where the European Textile Forum took place last year) has started a youtube channel where they plan to show clips of various places and activities taking place. Text is in German, but you can enjoy a view of that beautiful place no matter your language:


If you're looking for something else to do, you could try yourself in folding proteins - basically playing games for science. Relevant games, too, because there are puzzles related to the proteins in the Corona virus. You can download the programme on the official website (no phone apps available yet) and get going right away.

And that's it for today... different stuff tomorrow!