Magellan Project

Dear fellow artists
 
Having now read the book about Magellan’s voyage,I thought it might be helpful for you to have a list of the things I think we could usefully illustrate using calligraphy, appliqué, stencilling etc............... list below. 

So far..........?

• Brenda has offered to do the so-called Patagonian giant, 
• Jane the penguins and flying fish, 
• Frances various imaginary sea monsters, 
• Chris some bodies, 
• Joyce weather and nets
• Jac has started to piece together thCath e actual book - she has bought, and been paid for, the cloth.
• Cath has volunteered for the Nebecula Major and minor galaxies etc, the Venetian hourglasses, and ships compasses?
• Jane is working on  flying fish and coconuts
  

Inevitably some of what we have to do will be last minute because we can’t actually meet, but if we have things prepared the work will go easier once we can meet again.

Please let me know if you want to work on anything particular so that we don’t have hundreds of whales, for example, and please remember to work small-the book will be 5” deep at its deepest and most of the flora and fauna occur at the end of the voyage when the mariners are in, or nearing, the Spice Islands.

If you need to know where your item actually sits, please ask and I’ll try to tell you. Also please remember that this book will be rolled so keep your pieces fairly flat.
I’ve offered to dye some cloth in cinnamon, clove or red ochre, so just let me know if you need some.


I’d love it if you would send us  pics of work in progress, or indeed completed items.    Fran   will post them to the blog and Estella will post to Facebook, whilst I can post to our Instagram account.    This will also keep track of who is doing what. 
At least this will keep us busy over the forthcoming weeks!
Take great care of yourselves and keep well..... Marilyn


Food..............................

• Wine in pipes sealed with cork and pitch and in casks
• and hard tack biscuits (buscocho) , always with weevils later and doused in rat urine
• Flour in wooden barrels
• 7 cows and 3 pigs, other meat too
• Barrels if cheese, almonds in their shells, mustard, figs in casks
• Sardines, anchovies,, cod, tuna, all dried and salted
• Fishing lines and hooks
• Chickpeas,beans,rice,garlic,lentils,raisins (dry and wet),jelly, jams inc membrillo (quince paste), Vinegar (also used as a disinfectant), sugar, salt, honey

Creatures......and other items.....

• Flying fish
• Teredos or ships worms which drill holes in wood, inc ships
• Rats and mice, bed bugs and cockroaches
• Sharks
• Penguins
• Antarctic sea lions
• Lots of fishes in shoals
• Mussels, foxes, sparrows, small rabbits
• Guanacos
• Sea elephants in families
• Sardines
• Dolphins
• A large black bird flying at night over the huts on the island of Mactan
• Fighting cocks
• 2 elephants
• Chickens and peacocks (served as food)
• Phyllium insects
• Angel fish
• Birds of Paradise
• Whales
•  Stars-the Nebecula Major and minor galaxies, and possible the Southern Cross
• Indigenous peoples: Brazilians (probably Gurani pepple) with holes bored in lips and cheeks in which they placed green and white alabaster stones and bones.
• Techuele Indians described
• ‘Paul’, the Patagonian ‘giant’
• Chamorros people with red teeth from chewing betel nuts
• Phillipinos
• Cebuan women singing and dancing
• Cebu dictionary example (short)
• Magellan’s death from a poisoned arrow in the leg on the isle of Mactan
• Lines of the language sailors used, inc shanties
• 16 Venetian Hourglasses to mark the time
• 35 ships compasses
• Medical instruments included mortar and pestle, scissors, a lancet, tooth extractor, enema syringe and a scale.
• Lots of severe storms, thunder, lightening, huge seas. Some known as Williwaws
• Several descriptions of St Elmo’s Fire
• Eclipse of the sun
• Active volcano in the Spice Islands
• Pale blue glaciers and icebergs
• Outrigger canoes and proas in Brunei

Plants.............

• Medieval herbs, inc fennel, thistle,cicory, turpentine,lard, chamomile, honey, incense and quicksilver, stored in canisters. 
• Bananas, coconuts, palm trees
• Nutmeg trees
• Clove trees
• Cinnamon trees
• A gold casket full of Betel nuts offered by an emissary from Tidore
• Black pepper trees/bushes

Trade goods...........
  

• Including mirrors, bells, combs, red caps
   
• Armoury, inc harquebuses, daggers, rapiers, lombard guns, falcone guns, 60 crude rifles (versos). Pasamuros guns, 50 shotguns (escopetas). 3 tons gunpowder and cannonballs ditto
   
• In Borneo, Gold daggers, quivers full of arrows with poisoned tips, spears, bucklers, blowpipes
   
• Banners of parrot feathers, white, yellow and red in a large craft propelled by 120 oarsmen carrying the King of Bacan  

The surviving 18 European sailors did penance in Seville , walking barefoot, carrying candles  -  list of survivors available