Gilded Beasts

A very long overdue post! Lynsey and I have been so busy in the last few weeks with summer holiday events that we haven’t even had the time to log on to the blog, let alone put up a post! Result – we have a lots of great photos stacking up, that we can’t wait to show you.

Here are some of our last three Family Fun events, which all linked in to the wonderful “Gilded Beasts” exhibition of the Aberdeen Bestiary that is on display in the Gallery at the moment. Every week a new page of the Bestiary is turned for display, and our Family Fun events have followed suit:

Week 1: The Bonnacon – Mythical Monsters

The Bestiary is full of animals both real and fantastical, and this week’s animal on display was the Bonnacon – a bull-like creature that unfortunately could not defend itself with its horns since they turned inwards. In recompense, the Bonnacon was said to be able to repel pursuers by farting fire at them!

So Family Fun on 4th July was dedicated to mythical monsters, and the participants created field guides for mythical monster spotters. The children were encouraged to think about their monsters’ habitat, diet, appearance and means of defence against attackers. They had lots of fun making collages of some truly weird animals!

Week 2: The Bear – Beware the Bear

One of my favourite pictures was on display this week: the Bear.

We had a variety of activities on offer, from storytelling in the Gallery of Bill Martin’s charming “Brown Bear” series of books for pre-schoolers, to Bear bean-bag making for older children and animal mask-making for all ages.

Week 3: Dogs – Illuminated Letters

The pages of the Bestiary on display discussed ‘the habits of dogs’, but we took the opportunity to focus on the beautiful illumination and calligraphy of the manuscript.

The participants illuminated their own initial letters using a brightly coloured array of card, tissue, gold paper and silver foil, and the older children tried out writing with quills and ink. Some of the children enjoyed this ancient method of writing so much they asked their parents if they could get some feathers to write with at home!

We still have three more sessions of Gilded Beasts Family Fun to go, so why not come along on a Wednesday afternoon from 1pm-4pm and get crafting!

We’ll post how-to’s on making mythical monster field guides and bear bean-bags before long. And our overdue how-to for making a summer travel journal will be up soon!

Posted by: Sarah

Advertisement