I bought this remaindered San Martin at one of the Rizzo Pane shops today. It is so much more serious than the Majer San Martin, and it doesn't have a sword.

It's the Festa di San Martin in Venice today. I drew the San Martin cookie that I bought at Majer before we ate it at lunch. It was a disappointment...last year's, bought somewhere on the Strada Nuova, was better.

I drew last year's cookie too. I actually drew it in England, because I had brought it to owlfish. If you do a tag search on San Martin, you can compare it to this year's version.





This afternoon, Campo San Giacomo had activities for children, including the same puppet theater company that performs in dialect (they were here at Carnevale too). I include photos of the puppets and the enraptured children.

Back to the Palazzo Mocenigo this morning. I made two drawings. I began an engraving by drypointing a drawing of lace on a copper plate that I had brought with me. (This afternoon, I started to engrave it). I also made an ink drawing and added the red background at home.

Yesterday afternoon, I had some time between picking up a raccommandata at the main post office and the Circolo Italo-Britannico meeting. First, I tried shopping for a rain hat, but the music in Coin makes me too agitated, so I had to leave. I then went into San Giovanni Crisostomo and drew for a while. I last made a drawing in this church on October 19, when I had more time and light. Interesting to compare the drawings, made from different viewpoints.

I went to the Palazzo Mocenigo this morning to follow up on last Friday's study trip to learn a bit about Venetian lace. The librarian had already passed on the message that I would come back this week, and the curator and director couldn't have been nicer. We discuseed my coming in to draw (and possibly engrave) objects from the collections in a couple of weeks, as well as look at 16th and 17th century pattern books. In the meantime, I can draw what is on view (the collection from Burano is at Ca' Mocenigo right now).

The drawing in the upper left is not a lace study, but rather of a paisely fabric. My friend L Z and I are planning a collaboration involving my drawing and her sewing. More on that as it evolves.

When I have seen authentic examples of historical Venetian lace on display in glass cases in the lace museum in Burano, or in San Marco, I have been dumbfounded by its beauty and complexity. All those little bridges, rosettes, and picots linking together swirling flowers and leaves. I've been tempted to draw lace, but I never had the opportunity to get really close to a piece of antique Venetian lace. Also, lace has a bad name in printmaking because of all those printmakers who pressed lace into softground in the wake of "new Ways of Gravure", so that history discouraged me from taking lace seriously. Recently, I was out at Burano with a visitor and I noticed that the lace museum is closed until next spring for restoration. But yesterday, I remembered that we live near the Centro Studi del Tessuto at Ca' Mocenigo, so this morning I went to the history of textile library to learn about historical Venetian lace techniques. The librarian gave me some books and I paged through them, learning the vocabulary, taking notes. Now that I have identified some pieces in the museum's collection that I would like to look at, I will go back next week to examine real 16th and 17th century lace. I am also interested in the 16th and 17th century books of lace patterns (engraved, etched, woodcuts), so I will eventually seek them out at the Correr and Marciana.

In August 2008, we spent several days as guests of our friend KdeB in Berbigueres, Dordogne. One day, we made an excursion to the medieval town of Sarlat. On the recommendation of our friend, we looked for a shop that sold a particularly good selection of Provencal printed tablecloths. I bought a round tablecloth with a blue and yellow design of sunflowers and olives, and we have been enjoying using it ever since. Last week, I washed it and hung it on the terrace wash line to dry. The pattern seemed like a cosmological diagram over the Venetian sky.