the scriptorium

Sunday, September 29, 2002

Well, I made it back from Cincinnati safe and sound. I had a very good time at the Celtic Festival. This year I approached things a little differently, since I was by myself. Usually, I spend a lot of time taking pictures and listening to the music and end up not doing as much shopping as I'd like. This year I focused on going around to all the different booths, looking at all the merchandise and talking to the vendors. I really only listened to whatever music happened to drift by. It was a decent strategy for me, as I made a few contacts, learned a good deal about art in general and calligraphy in particular, and collected quite a few business cards with websites on them to visit in the future. Some of the highlights:

--I had a good long talk with a young man from Midnight Muse, a store that sells a lot of the type of art that I like to adorn my apartment with; artists such as Waterhouse, Leighton, and Morris, who painted around the turn of the (last) century portraying Arthurian and medieval subjects. Be warned, if you visit the site, that they also sell pagan and occultic items. Going to the site put me onto a link for a poster I've been looking for for a couple of years, though, so it was worth it to me. I just didn't visit that part of the site that deals with the occult stuff.

--I talked for about 15 minutes or so with Michael Carroll, who does wonderful Celtic designs on calfskin vellum with real goose quills and ground pigments, something I've wanted to try for a while. He gave me some links for suppliers of the vellum and other calligraphic supplies, and some good tips on how to get started. He was a very personable guy and I appreciate his patience with my questions. BTW, if any of you have geese or know where they congregate so I can pick up some good feathers, let me know. :^)

--I attended an interesting lecture on the concept of anam cara (check out The Vine for the full account of that lecture).

--I stopped at a table for an organization called The Ulster Project. Anyone interested, as I am, in helping promote peace in Northern Ireland through youth projects should check this site out. Basically what they do is arrange for both Protestant and Catholic teens from Northern Ireland to come to the States (what they call a "neutral ground"), live with host families for four weeks, and interact with one another without the pressures of their "home turf". If you are the parent of a teen and live in the Cincinnati/Northern KY area, think about hosting an Irish teen. Apparently there are host sites in Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin, also. Needless to say, I am very excited about this organization. It almost makes me want to move to Cincinnati to volunteer with them, even though I don't have kids.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable day for me. Even though I spent only about 4 hours there (not counting the 1 1/2 hour drive each way), I was very tired when I got home.

posted by #Debi at 6:00 PM | permalink | 0 comments