The pelican is the ancient symbol of sacrificial service, the mother bird ripping open her breast to feed blood to the little pelican chicks. Yeah, I do that all the time for MY kids. Our friends in Louisiana surely recognize this motif. It's on their flag, although it wasn't until 2006 that officials decided it wasnt gory enough and added the three drops of blood.This is probably the easiest old sampler motif to identify, as it is very popular. Without knowing what you were looking at, you may or may not have been able to deduce what the birds were doing due to the cross stitch pixelation resolution. Now you know. Only one of the 8 species of pelicans is found in the Netherlands, but judging from the variation in pelican appearance on samplers you would think you could fill a zoo.
- Renaissance by Long Dog
- Permin Sampler 1749.
- I could go on, but so could you. Consider it a scavenger hunt challenge for you sampler enthusiasts.
So what do pelicans actually eat?
Fish! Not exciting, actually, we all knew that.
Pigeons! See the video.
Puppies and Babies? NO we don't buy that one, but it was a good try.
Did they ever think to ask the pelican offspring? Did the Blood Commission run a series of pelican adverts.... "Blood, it's whats for dinner."
What would your little pelicans prefer? (I'm glad mine outgrew the happy meal phase very quickly.)
On the Dutch Beast, we shall be serving up a simple brown bag lunch. If the kids don't like it, they can trade with their table-mates.
5 comments:
"they can trade with their table-mates" LOL Oh Tracy, this just gets funnier and funnier! This sampler is going to be a dandy trying to explain to non-stitching people.............nah, never mind they won't look close enough to ask about it anyway. My stitching friends will see the humor without any explanations.
Ha ha. Thanks. Yes, that is one goal: To be able to have this sampler hanging amongst a wall of reproductions and not draw attention by a casual observer. Only someone who looks closely then gets the “hey, that’s not right” or “what the heck is this?” experience.
I haven't looked here for quite a while because I was afraid something, like life, had gotten in the way of the Beast! SO GLAD you are back at it...caught up, and it is getting more hillarious as it goes along. I am working diligently to finish my many WIP's so I can get to this as soon as it is available!
Oh, thank goodness I found your blog again! I stumbled upon you last fall but foolishly didn't bookmark the blog, and then completely forgot that it's part of Ink Circles. But I didn't forget the sampler, and have been searching various blogs on & off since then. :^) Anyway, my main question is whether this will be available commercially when it's done?
Congrats on a great blog, and GREAT designs, you give the industry a real shot in the arm!
"Beast" Regards,
Lucy (aka your client, Cross Stitch Unlimited)
PS: I'm making my first trip to Holland this spring!
Thank you Lucy, Edy, and everyone else who has been following. I'm making great strides and seem to be on track for having the stitching done by early March and the chart available a few weeks after that. I do hope to include some version of the commentary in the pack so that stitchers can decipher the motifs. :o)
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