# data[].attributes.body
Here is the mockup for the stick and I made it looks like when people get the sticker and they will stick those to anywhere they want like this mockup dose.

# data[].attributes.body
When I finished adding all the colours, I planned to add white borders to all the pieces "which is sticker like" and then I found that there would be very small holes in the gaps where there were holes and I thought it looked weird so I checked all the pictures for similar places and filled in the holes.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the final illustration of the developing the film. I think it is pretty much in line with what I originally wanted to make. Next I'll apply it to a canvas bag to see how it goes.

# data[].attributes.body
I applied this film idea onto the bag as the mockup work as well and see if it works well. I think those works all looks not bed to be developed to an canvas bag here.

# data[].attributes.body
I was trying to get known which colour of the bag they would like to use which can help myself to decide the background colours I use when I am doing illustration. So that the illustrations will not be showed in the best way just because the background colour of the drawing is different from the background colour of the final print.

# data[].attributes.body
Here is the mockup for the canvas bag. As the answer I got from the parallax the bag they will use the natural colours of the cavas bag. and I think this will be the closest mockup I can do to the final product

# data[].attributes.body
This is how the works added with white border. I think this is far better than the previous one.

# data[].attributes.body
The first image here is 60% opacity and the second one is 30% opacity. I think 30% is the most appropriate, both to show the color of the liquids themselves and to show that they are contained in glass.

# data[].attributes.body
I found this wobbly movement not very easy to understand when I was colouring the illustration based on the previous line art, so I divided it into 4 layers and reduced the opacity of the layer behind it to show that it is a short action. I think it will be easier for the audience to understand after the adjustment.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the final piece after I coloured every item. But I don't think it will look like the sticker and it doesn't stand out enough so I want to add a white border to it like how traditional sticker works.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
未命名作品 2的副本 3

# data[].attributes.body
Most of these tools for measuring liquids are glass so I think blue is a great colour here to choose to be the colour of the container. But it looks a little weird with 100% blue, so I adjusted it's opacity. see how it works.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the final illustration of the processing of the film. I think it is pretty much in line with what I originally wanted to make. Next I'll apply it to a canvas bag to see how it goes.

# data[].attributes.body
I filled colours with the other page of works and added the white border for it as well.

# data[].attributes.body
For this film work, I tried plenty of colour combinations here. In order to get the film tube looks great while it still good-looking when it all put together.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
未命名作品 3的副本 3

# data[].attributes.body
Follow the reseacrh and what I learnt from Parallax's website, I did this illustration for the process of exposure the films. It is now only the line work, I will develop the colours based on the illustration of equipments and redo the coloured version here.

# data[].attributes.body
In order to compare the two methods, I still blended my original colour block to see how it works. But I think the shadows with strong edge lines would be more in line with the style of those works here.

# data[].attributes.body
I was colouring this with my original way which is having the strong outline of shadows on the obkect and I think this works quite well.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the feedback I got from parallax and i will do the mockup for those illustrations after I finished all the works.

# data[].attributes.body
Follow the reseacrh and what I learnt from Parallax's website, I did this illustration for the process of developing film. I think this can be applied on the bag. It can be divided into 2 version of bag, or it can be printed in each side of the bag.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
未命名作品 2的副本 2

# data[].attributes.body
When I was doing the illustration for the process of developing the film. I used the measuring cylinder to show the 3 chemicals that will be used in this process. Because those chemicals all need to be diluted as the rate they needs,so it need to use something can measuring. But it can not be distinct after that. So that I changed the equipments here. I used the measuring cylinder for developer, test tube for stoper, drip tube and beaker for the chemical for fix. I will use different colours to dinstinct those chemicals more visually.

# data[].attributes.body
These are the equipments will be used in exposure process.

I think I will filling the colours and make it as stickers, and use those elements to complete the final work which presenting all the process of developing a film.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
未命名作品 3的副本 2

# data[].attributes.body
I did some research about the process of developing films and I drew this picture following the equipments that will be needed in the process. These are line drawings. I'll fill in the colors in the future.

This is the part of tools for work with the film, and I'll also draw the things that will be needed to work with the exposure and film paper.

# data[].attributes.body
- Prepare 3 water tray and get ready with the diluted chemical solution. (Develop/ fix/ stop)
- Adjust the enlarger for the light to focus.

- Put the film onto the film carrier and adjust the easel on baseboard.
- Press the light bottom to exposure for suitable time.

- Put the photographic paper after exposure on to the diluted chemical solution. (eg: Develop 1min/ fix 15-30s/ stop 5mins)

- Dry the photos by the dry machine.

# data[].attributes.body
- Put all the materials into the zipper bag.(film, scissor, developing tank, film opener, loading spiral.)
- Use the film opener to open the film container inside the bag.
- Pull out the film and cut both beginning side and the end. (In order to help the film get into the loading sprial)

- Load the film onto the spiral and wrench the spiral to load.
- Slot the spiral onto the central column and put it in the developing tank then cover the lid.
- Get the diluted solution ready. follow the corresponding rate. (eg: 1:9 develop/ 1:19 stop/ 1:3 fix)
- Develop for 15mins and it needs be shaken horizontally.
- One minute for stop
- 10 minutes for fix
(The timing of these steps depends on the chemical and the brand of film you are using)
- Take the film out and wash it by water and hanging for dry.

Exposure process

- Prepare 3 water tray and get ready with the diluted chemical solution. (Develop/ fix/ stop)
- Adjust the enlarger for the light to focus.

- Put the film onto the film carrier and adjust the easel on baseboard.
- Press the light bottom to exposure for suitable time.

- Put the photographic paper after exposure on to the diluted chemical solution. (eg: Develop 1min/ fix 15-30s/ stop 5mins)

# data[].attributes.body
When I first heard about this project, the first thing comes to my mind was the camera. According to what I heard, the target audience is young people between 18 and 30 years old, and I am also in this group. So I think when the target audience hears about photography, they quickly think about cameras. The camera is an object that allows the audience to intuitively feel what the brand is about. Thus I did this illustration follow some images from Parallax's website.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was doing the research about the process of developing the film, I found this enlarger is the equipment that quite important during the development. It is like as people exposure the film under this enlarger, the photo will show on the film paper which put on the bottom. I think photography is about recording light and shadow about daily life, so I combine light and shadow in this enlarger to make it looks like as you record your life the Parallax will help you.

# data[].attributes.body
I was thinking to use those illustrations better combine with the name of the Parallax everywhere. Because I think these kinds of products like the bag and stickers all can be considered as a way of advertisement.  I am thinking like as people see the bag or any of the stickers they can find the name of the Parallax. This is a draft of the line drawings, It will be coloured after I received the feedback from Parallax.

# data[].attributes.body
I did those drawings following the products images from Parallax's website. I chose some hot-sale products and did these drawings, but I this it works not well. I need to figure out something that can be impressive and creative.

# data[].attributes.body
I was trying to change the layout and imagine using this film image as part of an illustration for the process of developing photographs.

# data[].attributes.body
Form the colours I asked from parallax, I developed this colour palette that I will use those colours in my following works. I think the previous 4 colours are quite bright and young. Thus I am selecting colours follow this feeling, which trying to find the colour make makes me feel young and happy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
未命名作品 4的副本 2

# data[].attributes.body
I asked about the colours that they used during their branding from Alice, and here are the colours. Because I think a uniform font and a similar style of colour would make your brand look better.

I will develop the colour palette based on those colours to make it look more coherent.

Blue: #c6d8ec
Teal: #c5e1e5
Yellow: #f8d987
Pink: #f4c1d3

# data[].attributes.body
I drew a pattern of the film according to one of the pictures on Parallax's website and then used this pattern as an example for the placement of canvas bags. I think this picture can be more intuitive and visual to show the four methods of applying patterns I mentioned before.

# data[].attributes.body
I was thinking of those 4 ways to apply the patterns onto the bag by combining the ideas of the images I saw and what I thought:
-In the middle (which is the most classic way
-Full fill on the bag (I think this one is more attractive but it might look a bit chaotic.
-Patterns on the bottom of both sides of the bag to form a circle(I am thinking to show the process of making photos in the darkroom in a circle show in here.
-Zoom in on the pattern for a close-up and layout in a special way. (I think this might make the audience feel confused, but as they get what it is, it will be cool.

# data[].attributes.body
I viewed some images of the fabric bag and found that the way they apply the patterns on are similar. Thus I summarized the arrangement of the pattern on the canvas bag, and then I decided to see which way works better after I finished drawing the pattern.

# data[].attributes.body
After I looked at parallax's website and the briefing document, I thought it is a fair and ethical retailer. And the site has a lot of products about the traditional film cameras, I think the picture of traditional film cameras and digital camera now is completely different, but now fewer and fewer people are willing to use the film camera. On the one hand, because people are not enough to know that a film camera and develop photos, on the other hand, is to use the film camera cost is very high. Now that Parallax has become a good retailer that can sell film camera products at a fair price, what I need to do is use my illustrations to tell the audience about film cameras.

# data[].attributes.body
After few days, the clay is completely dry. I coloured the clay with acrylic paint.

# data[].attributes.body
The colours that can be filled in padlet only this 5 colours, but I think the part about milling and flours can be combined as one part(more make sense I think)

# data[].attributes.body
This is the first version of my mind map, but it looks all the same and hard to distinct, I think I can add some colours filled in each block. Thus as people looking at, it will be easy to know what this part is talking about.

# data[].attributes.headline
Thousands miles of mountains and rivers full painting view can see here.

# data[].attributes.subject
Thousands miles of mountains and rivers full painting view can see here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Wang Ximeng: One Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains – China Online Museum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This painting is probably the finest example of Chinese blue-green landscape painting. It is the only surviving piece by the young genius Wang Ximeng, who painted it under Emperor Huizong’s guidance when he was 18 years old. Little is known about Wang Ximeng himself. It is said that he passed away probably around the age of 20.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Night Entertainments of Han Xizai(Full painting view here)

# data[].attributes.subject
The Night Entertainments of Han Xizai(Full painting view here)

# data[].attributes.body
The Night Entertainments of Han Xizai is a painted scroll depicting Han Xizai, a minister of the Southern Tang emperor Li Yu. This narrative painting is split into five distinct sections: Han Xizai listens to the pipa, watches dancers, takes a rest, listens to the flute, and then sees guests off. As with other scrolls, Gu Hongzhong's work is meant to be viewed from right to left.

The white part of this painting mainly have been done with the mineral pigments, which made from shells. Thus even here are thousands years pass by, the colours have not changed or faded.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Attributed to , Five Dynasties period (907-960) Gu Hongzhong (顧閎中, ca.910-980)

Handscroll, ink and colors on silk, 28.7 x 335.5 cm, the Palace Museum, Beijing

The Night Entertainments of Han Xizai is a painted scroll depicting Han Xizai, a minister of the Southern Tang emperor Li Yu. This narrative painting is split into five distinct sections: Han Xizai listens to the pipa, watches dancers, takes a rest, listens to the flute, and then sees guests off. As with other scrolls, Gu Hongzhong's work is meant to be viewed from right to left.

Gu Hongzhong was supposedly sent to "spy" on Han Xizai. In one version of the story, Han Xizai repeatedly missed early-morning audiences with the emperor because of his revelry and needed to be shamed into dignified behavior. In another version of the story, Han Xizai had refused Li Yu's offer to make him prime minister. Curious, Li Yu wanted to know what was more desirable to Han Xizai than such a high position.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Attributed to , Five Dynasties period (907-960) Gu Hongzhong (顧閎中, ca.910-980) Handscroll, ink and colors on silk, 28.7 x 335.5 cm, the Palace Museum, Beijing The Night Entertainments of Han Xizai is a painted scroll depicting Han Xizai, a minister of the Southern Tang emperor Li Yu.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Hongzhong Gu. The Night Entertainments of Han Xizai. The Tang Dynasty. h: 28.7 cm, w: 335.5 cm. Ink and colors on silk. The Palace Museum. Beijing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Hongzhong Gu. The Night Entertainments of Han Xizai. The Tang Dynasty. h: 28.7 cm, w: 335.5 cm. Ink and colors on silk. The Palace Museum. Beijing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Ximeng Wang. Thousands miles of mountains and rivers.The Song Dynasty. h:51.5cm, w:1191.5cm. Silk. The Palace Museum. Beijing.

# data[].attributes.body
This is one of the most famous landscape paintings in China. This painting is mainly done with mineral colour on silk. So the blue and green above have not changed colour and faded after so many years, and they are still very bright.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Ximeng Wang. Thousands miles of mountains and rivers.The Song Dynasty. h:51.5cm, w:1191.5cm. Silk. The Palace Museum. Beijing.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cropped image from Thousands miles of mountains and rivers

# data[].attributes.subject
Cropped image from Thousands miles of mountains and rivers

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Ximeng Wang. Thousands miles of mountains and rivers.The Song Dynasty. h:51.5cm, w:1191.5cm. Silk. The Palace Museum. Beijing.

# data[].attributes.headline
Cropped image from Thousands miles of mountains and rivers

# data[].attributes.subject
Cropped image from Thousands miles of mountains and rivers

# data[].attributes.body
Put it into the bag and spray some water onto the clay, keep knead the clay to make it soft.

# data[].attributes.body
Adobe Photoshop

Best for:               Not so good for:

-Photo- editing.          -Typography

-Resizing images.       -Layout(text& images)

-Composing images

-Drawing(With tablet etc)

Image-Adjustment-level to adjust the contrast

Set the layer as the multiply to get rid of white

Photoshop Task

Using the objects, figures, marks etc that you have brought in, we will make a picture.

You can consider what picture you want to make, or just begin experimenting and see what happens.

If you want to collaborate with someone and pool your images / source material you can do this.

Cut and copy or draw your images into Photoshop

You will have a number of layers.

Use multiply to get rid of white.

Use levels to adjust the contrast etc.

Don’t make anything bigger. Once you’ve made something smaller then you can’t make it bigger again.

# data[].attributes.body
Adobe In Design
Best for:

-Typography

-Layout(text& images)

-Composing images

Not so good for:

-Drawing

-Editing photos

Elements from the illustrator can be moved to the In Design straightly. (Draw in Illustrator and move to In design to do the layout composing)

Grid and pathfinder are in the same positions as Illustrator.

File-Place-choose image to move the image to the in designs which can make sure the link of the image can be found in your computer.

Values on the top to adjust the scale, angles and so on.

Black arrow like a frame, which can crop the images.

White arrow chooses the image itself to move it in the frame.

Layout-Create Guides-set the values to create the guide of where the image or elements should be in. And get equal gaps between each element.

Tif files texture can be applied to the shapes.

In design task

Either copy and paste elements from Illustrator into InDesign, or draw new imagery in Indesign, or combine the two.

We will create a book spread that explores some of the themes in your topic.

(Ie magazine spread, illustrated book of poetry spread, kids book spread, experimental artists book spread, comic spread etc)

Whatever speaks to your practice or topic or is useful for you to explore.

Use the imagery you started to make in Illustrator, or adapt. Create new objects/shapes If you like.

Add texture / mark-making using the place function

Recolour and tweak by playing around with the swatches panel

You could work on incorporating typography using text boxes and manipulated type in Illustrator.

# data[].attributes.body
The workshop of the Possibilities in Adobe is really helpful for me. I got some experience about working with the applications of Adobe but I was only do that by myself and keep trying to get know about what this function is? What that was used for? But sometime I still don’t know what should I use those tools to draw my works. In this workshop, Nicola was introducing everything and keep showing his screen to help us to know what it looks like and how we can find that. And explained the process of working then giving the task to do which we can try all the things that we learnt.

# data[].attributes.body
I am trying to draw the bread with the illustrator. Firstly I used the paintbrush tool to draw the outline of the bread.  And I used the direct selection tool which is the white arrow to adjust the detail of the out line. Then I added a layer put under the first layer, drew a rectangle with the colour filled in by the rectangle tool. And use the eraser tool to erase the part of colours out of the lines. I went to object on the top and ungrouped this layer to delete the part that out of the outline.  In order to follow the task I went to effect and Distort&tansform then go for roughen, set it as 5%. It goes like this. I think this is quite cool haha.

# data[].attributes.headline
Basic process of making mineral pigment:(Some of the materials might be different  with some steps)

# data[].attributes.subject
Basic process of making mineral pigment:(Some of the materials might be different  with some steps)

# data[].attributes.body
-Wash the raw materials

-Break materials

-Grinding by hands or with a grinder

-Add water and stir to remove impurities

-Wait for the pigment to settle

-Pour out the upper water

-Dried the lower layer of precipitated pigment

-Sieving according to different degree of fineness (the smaller the particle, the lighter the colour will be)

-Add blending liquid (can be egg white/oil/oil painting medium)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to make natural pigments from rocks!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
MAKING PAINT: BLUE IRIS 🦋 asmr & speedpaint

# data[].attributes.headline
Some examples of materials of each colours

# data[].attributes.subject
Some examples of materials of each colours

# data[].attributes.body
Green：Malachite

Blue：Azurite，Lazurite

Red：cinnabar，dactylopius coccus，coral

Yellow：Carthamus tinctorius，gamboge

White：shell, pearl

Purple：conch

Black：graphite

# data[].attributes.body
Most of the works of art in the Middle Ages were painted with egg tempera. At that time, none of the pigments we use now are more natural mineral pigments. Mineral pigments have the characteristics of bright colours, cleanliness and strong hiding ability, with relatively stable physical and chemical properties. This means that mineral pigments can be stored for a long time without discoloration. The raw materials used to make paints can be divided into three main categories: minerals, soils and animals& plants. Minerals include azurite, cinnabar, realgar, gold and so on. The soil quality includes haematite, red ochre, yellow ocher and so on. Animals and plants include dactylopius coccus, conch, gamboge and so on.

# data[].attributes.body
Adobe Illustrator

Best for:            Not so good for:

-Drawing              -Working with photos

-Manipulating type    -Typography

-Composing images     -Layout(text& images)

Pen tool

-move to make straight lines

-move and press can draw curve lines

Pencil more free to draw

Black arrow select whole things/ White arrow select the point on the shape

Handles around the point can adjust the curve

Smart guide in the view to help

Pathfinder to combine shapes

Object-group or ungroup to adjusting the object

Object-Path-Offset path

Artboard Tool to add the other canvas

Image Trace adjusting images

Effect-Distort&Tansform-Roughen roughen and round the edges to make things a little more human or hand-drawn-looking.

Task in illustrator

Create a character, object or scene (place, event, significant item) from your research into your topic.
Using a combination of pen tool, shapes tool and pathfinder tool.

Try to roughen and round the edges to make things a little more human or hand-drawn-looking.

# data[].attributes.body
Combine with the ideas that Josh and one of the other classmate mentioned, I went to watch this movie called Countess Dracula byJulie Delpy. This is the movie set in the medieval time period and telling the story that the girl called Elizabeth, grew up in a noble family, used to race and class differences. After her husband died in the war, she became a widow growing old in the castle. At a banquet, Elizabeth met a young handsome nobleman named Estefan and fell in love with him. Their love was strongly opposed by Estefan's father, who sent him away to marry a beautiful young woman. Elizabeth was upset, and he thought Estefan had married someone else because of her old age. She turned to the witch Anna for help in  makes her younger, in order to restore love. According to legend, virgin’s blood has a magical effect on the face, in order to maintain her beauty, Elizabeth called young civilian virgins, bathed in their blood, wipe the body as skin care products. Over time she secretly murdered 650 virgins. Estefan returned and Elizabeth thought she had saved her love but Estefan spent the night in the castle gathering evidence of Elizabeth's murder and reported her for witchcraft. At that time, witches were considered the most evil of beings. Elizabeth thought her eternal beauty would redeem her love but instead she was imprisoned and died in prison.

I think the point of view in this movie is the same as I thought with the ideas I developed from the compendium workshop, which is the idea about the religion and health. Even this part of idea was not really connected to my bread idea. But this is still great new direction for me to do researches. I can feel the sense of feeling about how middle age was from the movie, and also done my research about the ideas from compendium workshop.

# data[].attributes.body
I think the set of the colour palette is what I need to learn from her. I was doing this by getting colours from her works but not choosing my own colours. Even though, there are still plenty of problems for me to working with this response.
I think for the colours I use in my own works, it need to be a rate of each kinds of colours show be in a frame. There should be three kinds of colours in one colour palette: main colours, auxiliary colours and the ornament colours.
For the main colour which is light and will not bring strong visual impact, it always been used in the background, this should be 60% in one image. For the auxiliary colours is the colours that most attractive in the whole image and it usually will be used in the main subject in the one drawing, this should be 30% in one picture. For the ornament colours, is the colour that make the whole image more comfortable and it will not preempt the idea of the main subject, this can be only 10% in one image.

# data[].attributes.body
From this workshop, I found that I need to do more captions as I use the images from internet, it better to be each images with the captions. I added some of them, but for part of images that I cannot found the information like who made it? what is the time public? Where dose this artwork stay in? I was just left the website where I found that image.

I was trying to use the bread as the idea but not telling a story, just as the topic of the recipe. So that I didn't want to use those informations and my illustrations to form a story.

# data[].attributes.body
I think for my topic. The lens that associate to my topic would be: religion, technology, Health.

For the religion: Because I set my project at in the Medieval period, and at that time almost all of Europe was led by church organizations. Therefore, when I do researches related to history, I have many ideas related to religion.

For the technology: In the history of bread making people went from not using yeast, eating flatbread, to mastering the use of yeast, and I think it has to do with technology. People grind flour, use different mills, stone mill, water mill, windmill and so on. Still people also is having ceaseless progress on the making craft of oven, also be the development of technology.

For the Health: In the Middle Ages, the lighter the bread, the higher their status. So all the rich people ate the very rich Manchet, but most of the poor people could only eat rye bread, because rye was dark, and the rich people did not want to eat it. At the time, some rye was infected with Claviceps purpurea, which could not be destroyed in the process of making bread, leading to ergot in many people, resulting in hallucinations, seizures and even death. This one I think is about people's health.

# data[].attributes.body
This is the purpose of this workshop.

# data[].attributes.headline
Josh‘s example of design of the exhibition

# data[].attributes.subject
Josh‘s example of design of the exhibition

# data[].attributes.body
I think this workshop is very helpful to us. Before this, I had not considered how to arrange my own exhibition. If I was asked to arrange an exhibition, I would most likely put my works in the exhibition area directly to show to everyone. However, through this workshop, I can see that there are many ways to present art works through the examples of various exhibitions exhibited by Josh. The audience's different senses, not only vision, but smell, hearing, taste and touch, are all used by people to feel the works of art. Better exhibition arrangement will enable visitors to better understand my projects logically and sequentially. At the same time, if I can invite the audience to join my exhibition (for example, experience making bread, experience grinding flour), these experiences will enable them to know more about the history of bread, bread making process and so on.

So I really achieved my goal, as I said at the beginning, to let the audience know how bread is made, what bread was like before and so on. Otherwise I would just put my final work in the exhibition hall and people would just think it was a recipe haha.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Historic Renaissance Bread made with Beer and Yeast

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I love visiting medieval and historic fairs and always loved researching historic recipes. Today I wanted to share with you a simple bread made with beer, which was popular in Elizabethan times in England. It’s

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
Historic Renaissance Bread made with Beer and Yeast

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Recipes for bread from the distant past are rare. The recipe on this page was inspired by the description in the Nyeuwen cooc boeck (New Cook Book) by Gheeraert Vorselman (edition Cockx-Indestege 1971, see bibliography). Actually this is a description of a kind of flat, unleavened bread, but I added yeast to it.

The picture from the Tacuinum Sanitatis shows a woman harvesting fennel seed. In the Middle Ages the seeds were often sugar-coated and served with other sweets at the end of a meal, together with hippocras (spiced wine). Fennel seeds were also used in pies, and the leafy part as herb in for example a summer stew with fish. The stalks were prepared as a vegetable, and there are even recipes for fennel blossom. The white bulbous finocchio was developed in Italy in the seventeenth century.

Gheeraert Vorselman, Nyeuwen coock boeck (New cookbook)

Vorselman was not a cook but a physician. He was born in Groot-Zundert, an area in the province of Brabant which is now divided by the border between the Netherlands and Belgium. The Nyeuwen cooc boeck was published in 1560, but Vorselman used many sources for his cookbook that date from much earlier. Sothis bread can be served without qualms at medieval meals. Among the texts Vorselman used are the Notabel boecxken van cokeryen from 1514 and the first volume of the convolute Gent KANTL 15 (around 1500). Vorselman also used French and Latin texts, mainly De honeste voluptate et valetudine (1468/1474) from Bartolomeo Sacchi (1421-1481), better known as Platina, an Italian humanist. The bread recipe on this page was one of the recipes Vorselman borrowed from Platina ( DHVeV book I, recipe 15, 'De Placentis'). He has omitted Platina's mention of long buns made with leavened dough, and the variation in which the buns are filled with figpeckers and other small birds, or with fresh cheese.
The lard in the recipe is not melted, but chopped. I have used streaked bacon, chopped in small chunks and fried.
See also Roman bread. A modern recipe: Christmas Bread.

The original recipe

From the Nyeuwen cooc boeck by Gheeraert Vorselman (edition Cockx-Indestege p.105, see bibliography).
Van coeck te backen
Neemt tarwenmeel oft bloemen met warmen watere also vele als ghi behoeft, ende wercket een luttel samen, dan neemt venckelsaet ende spec ghesneden terlincxwijse ende doeget int deech ende wercket wel tsamen tot tay deech ende maect eenen ronden coec ende bacten in den oven metten brode oft op den heert, &c. Inde plaetse vanden spec moech dy nemen boter oft olijfoly. Men bact ooc coec onder de asschencolen, mer sonder spec, met sout, venckel ende olie.
To bake cake
Take wheat meal or flour with warm water, as much as you need, and blend it a little. Then take fennel seed and diced lard. Add it to the dough and knead together into a tough (elastic?) dough. Make a round cake and bake that in the oven [together] with the bread or on the hearth, etc. You can also use butter or olive oil instead of lard. One also bakes cake under the ashes of the coals, but without lard, with salt, fennel and oil.

Modern adaptation of the recipe

The pork fat mentioned by Vorselman (and Platina), is not melted lard, but diced bacon. I have chosen to fry these first, before adding to the dough. The buckwheat grits are my addition to the original recipe. I had them somewhere in a kitchen cupboard and used trhem to give the bread more 'bite'. But feel free to leave them out if you do not agree with my adaptation.
For a large bread of 2 pounds; preparation in advance 2½ hours including rising time ; preparation .

250 gr (2 cups) whole wheat flour
250 gr (2 cups) white flour
4 Tbsp honey
1½ tsp salt
2 Tbsp soft butter
1 Tbsp fennel seeds
60 gr (¼ cup) buckwheat grits
2¾ dl (1⅛ cup) luke warm water
150 gr streaky bacon, diced
4 tsp (about 12 gr) dry yeast or 40 gr (1½ oz) compressed baker's yeast

Preparation in advance

Fry the diced bacon on a small flame, drain them on kitchen towels..
When using fresh yeast, crumble it in a little warm water with a spoonful of flour and let it stand for fifteen minutes. Then add it to the flour with the rest of the water.
When using dry yeast, mix it with the flour together with the salt.

Mix salt, dry yeast if it is used, grits and fennel seeds through the flour and whole wheat flour. Stir the honey into the warm water and add it to the flour. When using fresh yeast, mix the water/flour/yeast through the rest of the water with the honey and add it to the flour. Knead until a nice supple but firm dough is formed. Put the dough in a large bowl and cover it with a moist cloth. Let the dough rise in a warm place for 45 minutes. Then add the fried bacon, knead again shortly, and let the dough rise for another 30 minutes.
Now give the bread the desired shape and let it rise another 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200 °C/390 °F to 220 °C/425 °F.

Preparation

Put the bread in the middle of the oven and let it bake for 45 minutes. To check whether the bread is done, tap it with a wooden spoon. If the bread sounds hollow, it is ready. Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool on a grid. If the bread is baked in a mould, remove it after five minutes. If the bread is allowed to cool in the mould, the breadcrust will become soggy because the excess moisture can't escape.

To serve

This bread is really hefty. You can serve it with medieval or renaissance meals, but it also tastes good at breakfeast or lunch. Or serve it with pea soup.

Ingredients
All descriptions of ingredients
Buckwheat

This is actually not a cereal, but a plant from the same family as rhubarb and sorrel. Buckwheat is native to the Far East, the temperate climate zone. Buckwheat has come to Europe by two ways: it first reached Europe by way of Russia; during the fifteenth century the plant was introduced in Germany. Later the plant reached Southern Europe through the Middle East (hence the French name for this plant: Sarassin). By the way, the English name buckwheat is derived from the Dutch boekweit, litt. 'beech wheat', because of its resemblance to beech nuts.
Since buckwheat contains no gluten, you can't bake bread with just buckwheat. Famous dishes with buckwheat are blinis (Russian pancakes) and soba (Japanese noodles).
Because of the use of buckwheat grits this bread can only be served in an authentic way at meals from the fifteenth century and later. If you use rolled oats or something like that it can also be served at earlier meals.

Bibliography

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.
Recipe for Medieval Bread with fennel and bacon
A recipe for bread from the 15th and 16th century, for medieval and renaissance meals.
© Author Christianne Muusers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Recipe for Medieval Bread with fennel and bacon

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recipes for bread from the distant past are rare. The recipe on this page was inspired by the description in the Nyeuwen cooc boeck (New Cook Book) by Gheeraert Vorselman (edition Cockx-Indestege 1971, see bibliography). Actually this is a description of a kind of flat, unleavened bread, but I added yeast to it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Interesting Facts and Information about Medieval Foods

Middle Ages Food - Bread cooked in embers In the earliest times bread was cooked under the embers. The use of ovens was introduced into Europe by the Romans, who had found them in Egypt but embers were still being used in the eleventh century By feudal law the lord was bound to bake the bread of his vassals, for which they were taxed, but the latter often preferred to cook their flour at home in the embers of their own hearths, rather than to carry it to the public oven.

Middle Ages Food - Unleaven Bread
The custom of leavening the dough by the addition of a ferment was not universally adopted. For this reason, as the dough without leaven could only produce a heavy and indigestible bread, they made the bread very thin. These loaves served as plates for cutting up the other food upon, and when they became saturated with the sauce and gravy they were eaten as cakes. These were called trenchers. The use of trenchers remained long in fashion even at the most splendid banquets. It would be difficult to point out the exact period at which leavening bread was adopted in Europe, but we can assert that in the Middle Ages it was anything but general. Yeast was reserved for pastry, and it was only at the end of the sixteenth century that bakers used it for bread. Middle Ages Food - Facts and Information about bread

At first the trades of miller and baker were carried on by the same person. The man who undertook the grinding of the grain had ovens near his mill, which he let to his lord to bake bread, when he did not confine his business to persons who sent him their corn to grind. Loaves varied in form, quality and consequently in name, there were at least twenty sorts of bread made during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with names such as the court loaf, the pope's loaf, the knight's loaf, the squire's loaf, the peer's loaf and the varlet's loaf. The "table loaves," were served at the tables of the rich, were of such a convenient size that one of them would suffice for a man of ordinary appetite, even after the crust was cut off, which it was considered polite to offer to the ladies, who soaked it in their soup. For the servants an inferior bread was baked, called "common bread.". In many counties they sprinkled the bread, before putting it into the oven, with powdered linseed.

Bread made with barley, oats, or millet was always ranked as coarse food, to which the poor only had recourse in years of want. Barley bread was, besides, used as a kind of punishment, and monks who had committed any serious offence against discipline were condemned to live on it for a certain period. Middle Ages Food - Bread for the Poor

Rye bread was held of very little value, and it was very generally used among the country people. Black wheat, or buck wheat, which was introduced into Europe by the Moors and Saracens when they conquered Spain, quickly spread to northern Europe which helped to ease the problems caused by famine.

Middle Ages Food - Biscuits
The crusaders developed a bread twice baked, or biscuit. This bread was very hard, and easier to keep than any other description. It was brought back to Europe and used for provisioning ships, or towns threatened with a siege, as well as in religious houses. At a later period, delicate biscuits were made of a sort of dry and crumbling pastry which retained the original name.

Middle Ages Food - Bread
Each section of this Middle Ages website addresses all topics and provides interesting facts and information about Medieval times including Middle Ages Food - Bread. The Sitemap provides full details of all of the information and facts provided about the fascinating subject of the Middle Ages!

Middle Ages Food - Bread

Interesting Facts and information about Middle Ages Food - Bread

Foods, Cooking and recipes

Middle Ages Food - Bread

Cooking and Foods during the Medieval era

Life in the Middle Ages

Manchet, Cheat or wheaten bread, Ravelled Bread and Brown or Black bread

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Interesting Facts and Information about Medieval Foods Middle Ages Food - Bread cooked in embers In the earliest times bread was cooked under the embers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Oven Fresh: Art exhibition explores bread as more than food - Egypt Independent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bread is the most basic form of food and the most crucial. In Egypt, where more than 30 million people live below the poverty line, bread is more than a food staple. It is a symbol of endurance. This is why Moataz Nasser, the owner of Darb 1718 Gallery, decided to organize an exhibition of 12 differ…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
Oven Fresh: Art exhibition explores bread as more than food

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Usage Conditions Apply The Smithsonian Institution Archives welcomes personal and educational use of its collections unless otherwise noted. For commercial uses, please contact photos@si.edu.

Download IIIF Manifest Request permissions Download image Print

Filter Your Results

Browse records and papers documenting scientific and collecting expeditions either affiliated with the Smithsonian, or with which Smithsonian researchers participated. Pre-set filters help narrow searches by geographic regions predominantly represented in expedition records.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Bread Exhibit at Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Decorative Arts & Design

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Usage Conditions Apply The Smithsonian Institution Archives welcomes personal and educational use of its collections unless otherwise noted. For commercial uses, please contact photos@si.edu. Download IIIF Manifest Request permissions Download image Print Browse records and papers documenting scientific and collecting expeditions either affiliated with the Smithsonian, or with which Smithsonian researchers participated.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A replica Middle Ages peasant horsebread recipe made with heritage wheat and legumes. Inspired by Ken Follett's book Pillars of the Earth.
I have a very active imagination.

A significant portion of my day is spent daydreaming of things other than what I am supposed to be doing, a bit like the lead character in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (an absolutely fantastic film, by the way).

One moment I'm doing something mundane, the next I'm off in a crazy adventure in my head.
For example, I could be driving down a single track country lane and I spot a flock of sheep with coloured paint splodges on their rumps.

In my head those sheep have been playing paintball at night, how else can you explain the paint shots? Cue: dramatic slow-motion mind-scene of paint-balling sheep. (I do realise in reality these paint splodges have something to do with medication, but nocturnal paint-balling sheep are much more interesting).

Last autumn I finished an Open University Life Sciences degree after eight years of study. This means I now have time to read books for pleasure, not just for education.

It took most of my final year of study to get through George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series since most of my reading energy was spent studying stem cells, but now that I am finished I can devote as much time as I want to the wonderful world of fictional books.

Such book reading fuels my imagination.

Image source

Upon a recommendation, I started reading Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth (1989), 25 years after it was published, and I was instantly gripped.

Not gripped in the way that oh, I'm looking forward to the evening when I can sit down and read my book, but gripped in the way that I would hurriedly pack the children off to school in the morning and spend the whole time they were away curled up on the couch with coffee and a blanket kind of gripped.

The housework was neglected, the washing piled up, the phone wasn't answered. The sort of gripped that means everything, including getting up off the couch to make meals, is an inconvenience (as an aside, you may have noticed the resulting blogging silence of late!).

Pillars of the Earth is the story of a master builder in the Middle Ages with a lifelong dream to build a cathedral church. It describes the hardships he had to endure during those times in the city of Kingsbridge, England, the complex relationships between people, and the violence and consequences of human ambition.

The author clearly did his research before writing this novel. It is very convincing - it makes you believe you are in 1135 England.

Last week I was swept away on a spontaneous trip to the south coast of England. The airplane landed in Exeter and we took a taxi to our destination in Plymouth.

En route I saw several grand (to me) churches and what I think was an abbey of some sort. I also saw a road sign to Kingsbridge. My heart might have fluttered a little bit - there's a real Kingsbridge?! (Note to self: check if the Pillars of the Earth setting of Kingsbridge was based on a real place - it's not, but it's loosely based on an area not too far from where I physically was).

The whole time I was in Plymouth I was admiring the architecture from a completely different perspective.

I could visualise the people behind each and every stone the buildings were constructed of. I could imagine the thought processes and passion that went behind the design of each and every detail.

My imagination ran riot.

Imagine my delight when I came home and found out a new food blogging challenge had been launched: Read, Cook, Eat jointly hosted by Chris over at Cooking Around the World and Galina from Chez Maxima. For this challenge, you're asked to recreate the recipes you've read about in a fiction book. by Simona over at Pulcetta also features recipes inspired by books. Pillars of the Earth frequently mentions horsebread:
"When the daylight began to soften into dusk, a kitchen handcame to the guesthouse with a cauldon of pottage and a loaf as long as a man is tall, all just for them. The pottage was made with vegetables and herbs and meat bones, and its surface glistened with fat. The loaf was horsebread, made with all kinds of grain, rye and barley and oats, plus dried peas and beans; it was the cheapest bread, Alfred said, but to Jack, who had never eaten bread until a few days ago, it was delicious. Jack ate until his belly ached. Alfred ate until there was nothing left." - Pillars of the Earth (1989)
Surprisingly, an internet search for horsebread recipes came up with nothing even remotely authentic.

Paul Newman, author of Daily Life in the Middles Ages (2001) explains why: he says virtually no bread recipes remain from the Middle Ages because bread making was so commonplace the recipe didn't need to be written down. It would have been like writing down the recipe for boiling water.

Bread was made by bakers, not chefs, and it was the chefs who recorded recipes.

Newman says, "Whatever the recipe, the basic ingredients for bread have remained the same: a powdered starch (usually a flour made from wheat, spelt, rye, barley or other grain), a liquid (water or milk), salt and a rising agent. By far, yeast was the most common leavening for bread but easy to use dry yeasts like we have today did not exist.

Instead, old dough (which is still used in traditional "sourdough" bread) or "barm" (a liquid process of fermenting grain mash into beer) were used to start bread dough rising.

Besides the basic ingredients, oats, nuts, dried fruits, and even beans and lentils were sometimes added in for flavour and texture or to act as fillers when grain was in short supply.

Bean breads were usually served to horses but people would eat them as well if no better bread was available."

My research found that sometimes the grains were ground with the legumes. Wikipedia says dried yellow split peas were often used and so I set to work to recreate the recipe with what I could source.

My first stop was our local wholefoods shop where I remember seeing pea flour for sale. They didn't have pea flour at this time, but they did have some Dove's Farm English Wholegrain Heritage Flour and some chickpea (gram) flour.

The heritage flour is interesting: it is a blend of grains grown in the 16th/17th centuries. The shop proprietor told me the reason she'd sold pea flour when I saw it ages ago was that she'd been on a historic bread making course and she used it then.

Dried yellow split peas were what they ground, she said, and people on coastal communities flavoured their bread with dried seaweed instead of salt.

Salt would have been an unaffordable luxury for the poor.

I made my horsebread loaf with some lively sourdough starter I was given not too long ago. This is my second sourdough loaf, the first one being a resounding success. To accompany the horsebread I made a simple stew with Shetland beef and vegetables, based on the following 15th-century recipe:

"Beef y-Stywyd.-Take fayre beef of þe rybbys of þe fore quarterys, an smyte in fayre pecys, an wasche þe beef in-to a fayre potte; þan take þe water þat þe beef was soþin yn, an strayne it þorw a straynowr, an sethe þe same water and beef in a potte, an let hem boyle to-gederys; þan take canel, clowes, maces, graynys of parise, quibibes, and oynons y-mynced, perceli, an sawge, an caste þer-to, an let hem boyle to-gederys; an þan take a lof of brede, an stepe it with brothe an venegre, an þan draw it þorw a straynoure, and let it be stylle; an whan it is nere y-now, caste þe lycour þer-to, but nowt to moche, an þan let boyle onys, an cast safroun þer-to a quantyte; þan take salt an venegre, and cast þer-to, an loke þat it be poynaunt y-now, & serue forth." - (Recipe source: Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks)

For the meal, I donned my most medieval dress - a floor-length, embroidered, swishy brown affair, and I asked everyone eat out of clay bowls with wooden spoons. To serve, I found some Noble English craft lager in our local supermarket made with hops dating back to the 800s. That was authentic as I could make it, in 2014 in Shetland.

We loved every bite of our dinner. I was pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed the horsebread and simple stew, washed down with lager, considering the basic seasoning and ingredients. The bread was very filling, and at first, when everyone was quite hungry it was really flavoursome. Then, as we began to fill up the split pea flavour became a little overpowering. However, if I was a starving peasant in the English Middle Ages I reckon I would have been grateful to have such a filling meal.

So, this is my recipe for horsebread.

I have no idea how authentic it is, but from what I've read I would think it's a pretty good attempt. Do let me know what you think of the recipe, or what you thought if you read the book! I'm a quarter of the way through the sequel, World Without End, and I'm enjoying it as much as I did the first book. I really hope there is a third on the way!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A replica Middle Ages peasant horsebread recipe made with heritage wheat and legumes. Inspired by Ken Follett's book Pillars of the Earth. I have a very active imagination. A significant portion of my day is spent daydreaming of things other than what I am supposed to be doing, a bit like the lead character in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (an absolutely fantastic film, by the way).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Bread, that basic staple of daily life, harbors a multitude of meanings of which we are often unaware. Yet the making of bread is a kind of ever-recurring miracle. More than anything else, bread symbolizes the dawn of civilization, since its production requires experience with agricultural crops and the creation of special tools.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Harps and Harpists, published by Indiana University Press in 1989 then 2007. From the Middle Ages all European harps share the common characteristic of having a column that closes the "triangle" formed by the soundbox and the neck.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Harp. Virgin and Child (detail) by Pere Sera (14th century). Barcelona, Museo de Arte Cataluña.

# data[].attributes.body
The medieval harp refers to various types of harps played throughout Europe during the Middle Ages.  The defining features are a three-sided frame (column, harmonic curve, and soundboard) and strings made of wire or gut.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The harp is an ancient instrument dating back to the Sumerian civilization. In the Middle Ages, it seems to have been strung with gut, except in Ireland where metal strings - probably brass - were used from an early date. The number of strings varied a lot, with a tendency towards increased numbers as the centuries wore on. By the l4th century there were sometimes as many as twenty-five.

https://artscimedia.case.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/146/2015/04/14233257/04.harp_.mp3

Harp. Oswald von Wolkenstein: Lieder. Ensemble Sequentia. Benjamin Bagby, harp. Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 05472-77302-2 (1993). Trk 7 O snode werlt (excerpt)

Around l400 the harp acquired a more slender shape which we term "gothic," and also a series of little elbow-shaped pegs called "bray pins" which touched the strings as they emerged from the sound-box, causing a nasal buzzing sound as the strings were plucked. This was helpful in projecting the sound, since the sound-box of the gothic harp was small (in comparison to later harps) and made of hardwood, and thus did not have the natural resonance of larger spruce-bellied instruments. It also made for a very different aesthetic from the modern harp.

https://artscimedia.case.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/146/2015/04/14233256/07.bray_pin_harp.mp3

Bray-pin harp. Forse che si, forse che no: musique de danse du quattrocento. Ferrara Ensemble, dir. Crawford Young. Debra Gomez, harp. Fonti Musicali Atelier Danse fmd 182 (1989). Trk 11, Giove (excerpt).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The harp is an ancient instrument dating back to the Sumerian civilization. In the Middle Ages, it seems to have been strung with gut, except in Ireland where metal strings - probably brass - were used from an early date. The number of strings varied a lot, with a tendency towards increased numbers as the centuries wore on.