>and the backside of a very nice girl I know.

I guess if you're going to take photographs of the backsides of very nice girls, it helps if you know them.

Ren

I would not dismiss Viking. In the case of prototype you could certainly do worse. Viking motif is powerful.

Ear marking, I guess you heard! I was hoping to purchase a reindeer to get around with. However they eat moss. Houtsk

John,

It is the real deal. Nordic people are sea people, they get around. Still do. Ornaments are just a broad topic. I wish I had my hands on historical showings of "Arabia" china products. A distinquished Finnish pottery. Their museum is quite the place. If you get to Finland don't miss it.

It would take you through time zones. Quite the material. Unfortunately they closed down their hand painting department since I moved here. Things are moving the way of Nokia.

Dan,

That certainly is interesting. I wonder if there are any copies to be had. Thank you for the tip. As you know I am writing a book about ornaments, typographical and otherwise. My present focus, at the moment, is on traditional source readily available to me in Scandinavia.

My working title is "Ornament and Function." This is based on some of my original thoughts. http://www.lanstontype.com/FishBasket.html


The reason I asked about knitting: Knitting clearly illustrates my point about the subtle aspects of ornament. Also illustrates ornament as function, and the structure of mans' day to day activities. See second link.

http://www.lanstontype.com/SpiderWeb.html

Ornament is not necessarily just "icing on a cake." Pretty little things tied on like a woman's bonnet, or masking an otherwise ugly face with lipstick. Mind you, that has useful function too.

That ornaments have strong purpose, that they have served man and nature profoundly well. They do not deserved to become orphaned ancestors. They are building blocks of society, building blocks of nature.

That is why I am so delighted Ren

Stewf? what are you? Some sort of chameleon? You already tamed one! And you have even know its real Swedish name!

Gerald,

Arabia. A distinquished Finnish pottery... Unfortunately they closed down their hand painting department since I moved here.

Say it ain't so!!!! We've got Arabia's Valencia, which in my opinion is the best of the hand painted stuff (at least for the last 25 years or so). We mix it with Arabia's 24h (we couldn't afford a whole Valencia set). Gerald I think you probably are alluding to some of the patterns with a fruit/floral motif?

These plates make oatmeal look gourmet:

Over the top: Expresso cups and saucers:


Randy

Wow John, that's a cool idea. I found already some info on the Futhark, but couldn't seem to figure out how it works. Perhaps it's worth the trouble to find it out. Perhaps I can make a cool expert type with it.

I found some ornaments that I like from the Vikings. I'm strongly thinking about using the spirals or snake-kind-of ornaments. I'm only not sure if I can really make them to work like a pattern. I would like that they outgrow the only-ornament state, they should also be able to work as a complete background pattern. Any suggestions Gerald?

These images jumped to my attention:







Ren

I found already some info on the Futhark, but couldn't seem to figure out how it works.

See the Runic code chart at the Unicode site to see what characters you need to add to your font to support Futhark. Unfortunately, the vast majority of books on Runes are occult and New Age bollocks; try to find an academic study. The Omniglot entry for Runic is quite thorough.

I see much to comment on. Unfortunately I am in a work infested invironment. Don't you wish people would just give you their money and go away?

I find it vulgar that they expect you to actually do something.

I have found myself an architect that I love, his work I mean. Otherwise it would be a peculiar unpredictable love, he is dead.

Eliel Saarinen, the most famous of Helsinki's architects. Not to be confused with the work of his more modern son.

Has anyone ever visited his house and studio in Finland? Speaking of ornaments!

I still think you should go for the Dalar horse though.

Randy,

I am still in a great rush.

I am going to mention your China. That is the same set I began collecting just before Arabia folded up their hand painting department tents.

I drink coffee & tea from the same series you have shown. In fact a cup sits at my elbow.

You should invite me over for dinner. I don't steal silverware, but!

Gerald

I scribbled down the latinized runes in my sketchbook at Nationalmuseet, I didn't draw the runes that these evolved from as I was mainly interested in 'the end of runes'. But I'm sure they will help you if you contact them. http://www.nationalmuseet.dk/sw73.asp
If you use the form 'Navn' means 'Name' and 'Emne' is 'Subject.'
Or you could simply email them: fogf@natmus.dk

It might interest you that after Runes the Danes used romans as uppercase only, fraktur was used for both upper- and lowercase.
During a short period they may have had all three alphabets.
Boy are we off topic...

And since we are off topic: go find a Finnish cemetery, they rake nice patterns in the gravel on the graves. (the one I visited was in Tornio, customs may be different further south.)

Back to Ren

I'd only skimmed it - I'll look deeper. Thanks.

hhp

> http://www.nba.fi/MUSEUMS/HVITTR/kuvia.htm

Wow, that Ruokasali is a major party room.

hhp

John's right. I re-read my earlier posts and I wasn't specific enough, the 'latinisation' was of the sounds, not the letterforms.
Futhark was used to write latin texts too.

Part of what kept Futhark alive was also the occult use of runes. It's important that the language didn't die, only the writing system.

Hrant, the wood carving was in the "Early Swedish Sans" thread somewhere.

BTW those ear-marks are interesting, has anyone got info on them in English?

That's a shirt actually, and the backside of a very nice girl I know.