Hunting for Materials for your Next Project?

If you keep am open mind you can find useful materials just about everywhere. Although I am trying to keep the clutter from getting out of hand I hold on to a lot of different materials. I may not know how or when they might be used, but as long as I don't have too many and have some where to store them I will put the materials aside.

Everyday Household Items You Can Turn Into Miniature Magic

The Order Eight Franklin Square

The Order Eight Franklin Square

"One of history's best known magic squares is the order-eight square published in 1769 by American scientist Benjamin Franklin, and became famous for its inclusion of never-before-seen 'bent diagonal summations.' Franklin's odsession with this mystical art form most likely stemmed from his personal associations with prominent alchemists and mystics of his day, as well as his own belief in astrology, which were the underpinnings for the predictions made in his Poor Richard's Almanack.

As found in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol

The Magic of a Well-Designed Bookshelf: 30 Ideas

There is one thing my wife and I can count on, we will purchase more books during the year and that always raises the question where are we going the store them.

Here are few "Well-Designed Bookshelfs" that might do the trick.

Enjoy the Magic of Christmas in 2023

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you.

Some more Inspiration

There were more than a few sturctures featured in the episoids of Harry Potter I would like to try my hand at someday. This one for the way the second story addition on the right just hangs there must of needed a feat of a magic to make it work. It is all so deliciously whimical!

---

See more inspiration here.

An Annotated Copy of Advanced Potion-Making

Harry was without a textbook for the magic portion class was used an old copy of the text, which just so happened to be annotated by the student who had come before him.

Screenshot is from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

The grand old structure of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly. The school is a place of magic, of learning and a place of mystery. It is a place where the staircases mysteriouly move and change up. You may end up somewhere other then where you had intended.

Christopher Drawlight and the Les Cinque Dragownes

Christopher Drawlight was an odious character who took advantage of whoever he could and there was now some talk of using the statutes in the Cinque Dragownes to indict Christopher Drawlight. There are at least two edicts within the statutes that could be used to bring charges against Drawlight.

1. Evil Tending: magic with an inherently malevolent purpose.
2. Pretending to be a magician or pretending to act on behalf of a magician

Drawlight was one of the two persons that Johnathan Strange encountered when he stepped out from the mirror if you remember from my previous post, he had been traveling on the King's Roads. Drawlight was there seeking spells from people for a fee, these spells were supposing being commissioned by Mr. Norrell. This of course was not a fact at all, Drawlight had found another way to defraud his acquaintances.

It is a shame that Drawlight was found out because the long list of spells that Mrs. Bullworth wanted would have been very lucrative for Drawlight.

Here is a short list of spells that the vindictive Mrs. Bullworth wanted commissioned:

• Sir James Southwal, gout
• Miss Elizabeth Church, to have her engagement called off
• Mr. Bullworth, to be bitten by dogs
• Mrs. Bullworth, senior, a) to be drowned in a laundry tub, b) to choke to death on her own apricot preserves, c) and to be baked accidently in a bread oven…

Take note of the preferred outcomes of the spells. It is especially horrifying how three recommendations were made for her ex-mother in-law. Some-how Mrs. Bullworth would have liked all three of these calamities to befall her ex-mother in-law.

Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Post #53

Les Cinque Dragownes

Les Cinque Dragownes was a tribunal created by John Uskglass, during the middles ages to help in the regulation of English magic.

The crimes the Cinque Dragownes tried were the following:

1. Evil Tending: magic with an inherently malevolent purpose
2. False Magic: pretending to do magic or promising to do magic which one either could not or did not intend to do
3. Selling magic articles, like rings, hats, coats, shoes, etc. to people who could not be expected to control those powerful articles
4. Pretending to be a magician or pretending to act on behalf of a magician
5. Teaching magic to a unsuitable person

Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke

Post #52

The King's Roads

Jonathan Strange surveys the King's Roads, BBC Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, TV series

“I do not know what Strange might be capable of by now”, said Mr. Norrel. “But I was not thinking of that. I was thinking of the King’s Roads”. “I thought the King’s Roads led to Faerie?”, said Lascelles. “Yes they do. But not only Faerie. The King’s Roads lead everywhere. Heaven. Hell. The House of Parliament…They were built by magic. Every mirror, every puddle, every shadow in England is a path to those roads.”

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, Susanna Clarke.

Post #50

John Uskglass and the Restoration of English Magic

“I have never heard of him,” said Childermass. Vinculus looked at him with amusement, “Off course not. You have lived your life in the Mayfair magician’s pocket. You only know what he knows. “So! Said Childermass, stung. “That is not so very trifling is it? Norrel is a clever man and Strange another. They have their faults, as other men do, but their achievements are still remarkable. Make no mistake; I am John Uskglass’s man; or would be, if he were here. But you must admit that the restoration of English magic is their work, not his.”“ Their work, scoffed Vinculus! "Theirs? Do you still not understand? They are the spell of John Uskglass’s doing. That is all they have ever been. And he is doing it now!”

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, Suzanna Clarke

Post #51

The Superiority of Scottish Magic

“The magician of Athodel ruled his own island. Athodel is one of the western Isles of Scotland. The island of Athodel has either sunken or has, according to some, has become invisible. Some Scottish historians like to see Athodel as evidence of the superiority of Scottish magic. The Raven King lost his kingdoms, but if the island is indeed invisible and the magician still reigns over the island it must defiantly prove that Scottish magic is superior to English magic. If you can follow that form of logic.”

---

PS: I really didn’t believe I was going to reach my goal of fifteen posts this month. Like most months it just happens. I do hope to complete some projects that are currently littering my workbench in this coming month.

More of the Duke of Roxburghe’s Library

Formally I made a post that listed the texts of magic that were part of the Dukes collection. What I didn’t mention was the type of books the Duke typically collected. “His grace was fond of poetry, chivalry, history and theology. He collected rare exquisite illuminated manuscripts, editions of the very first printed books produced in the workshops of men of such genius as William Caxton of London and Valdarfer of Venice. Old books delighted him. At the start of 19th century his library was considered one of wonders of the world”

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke, 2004.

Four Sub-collection Directories

Here are three sub-collections that perhaps I should have created a lables for:

1. Dreams
These posts are either fictional recorded dreams or posts that mention dreams.

2. A Host of Characters
These posts represent descriptions for charcters in role playing games.

3. Magic
These posts are fictional magic spells or rather mention magic.

4. Libraries

The Library of Hurtfew Abby

“The library of Hurtfew Abby was dearer to its possessor than all of his riches. Norrell constructed a beautiful jewel box to house his hearts treasure. The bookcases which lined the walls on the room were built of English woods and resembled Gothic arches laden with carvings. There were carvings of leaves (dried and twisted leaves, as if the season artist had intended to represent autumn,) carvings of intertwined roots and ivy-all wonderfully done. But the wonder was nothing to the wonder of the books.

The student of magic learns that there are books about magic and books of magic. Both are available, the former for two or three guineas from any reputable book seller. The later are extremely rare and can be had for above the price of rubies. At Hurtfew all the walls were lined with bookcases and all the shelves were filled with books; books of magic.”

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

This is my second reading of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Although there are a couple subjects I am interested in, these subjects that I somehow over looked or gave them a very lite coverage, I am sure to find other nuggets along the way.

Changing the Perspective with Mirrors

I was paging through my Model Railroad Handbook # 35: “Detailing Tips and Techniques” and I came across two articles that mentioned making use of mirrors on one’s layout. The first article is “Mirror Magic” by Charles Laman. The author uses two first-surface mirrors from Edmund Scientific ¹ set at 90’ angles of one another at the end of a street to force the perspective of a street continuing off in the distance.

The author found that he had to experiment with the placement of his vehicle’s and signs in order to avoid the typical signs that read backwards or his vehicles seeming to be on the wrong side of the street.

In the second article, Urban Scenery, by Earl Smallshaw, which is a rather extensive article, there is a paragraph describing how the author used the same mirror type on several locations on his layout. He built them to his backgrounds extending the view of the scene.

Smallshaw references two other Model Railroader authors use of mirrors:

• John Allen: “The Art of Using Mirrors”, December 1981, Model Railroader
• Malcolm Furlow: “Sheridan Colorado: 1927”, July 1981, Model Railroader

---

¹ These mirrors are still available from Edmunds.

What Is So Hard About Creating a Panel Door?

Nothing, really. I have used this technique using thin polystyrene and card stock. I suppose you could use the same technique using wood as long as you have the correct scale lumber on hand. Assembly is quite simple. For my shack door I measured the inside dimensions and added six scale feet to the left, right and top so that I had a surface to place glue and a surface to adhere to the inner side of the door way.

I then used the same measurements minus the six scale inches for my panel insert. I then measured three inches, but you could have gone up to six. I did this for all four sides. For the middle I measured down three and half feet (my door stands seven scale feet tall). From this mark I measured up three inches on the top and the same on the bottom.

Having created an upper and lower rectangles I used a sharp #10 X-acto blade and a small metal rule to carefully cut these away. I then used the knife here, is that magic word again, to carefully cleaned-up my cuts. I followed this with a small square file. Once I was satisfied I carefully glued the “panels” to the front of my door, making sure that it was plumb and square with inside of the door.

Tolkien on Magic

“Magic produces, or pretends to produce an alteration in the Primary World; it is not an art but a technique; its desire is power in this world and domination of things and wills.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, On Fairy Stories

The Riverworld Series

As I mentioned in my last post on this topic I have just started to read the first in Farmer’s Riverworld series. The book includes the first and the second novels in this series. The complete series includes these volumes:

To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971)
The Fabulous Riverboat (1971)
The Dark Design (1977)
The Magic Labyrinth (1980)
Gods of Riverworld (1983; later published as The Gods of Riverworld)

For an overview of this series I found a useful article on Wikipedia and although I am not anywhere near ready to read other related stories about Riveworld I have found some Riverworld fan-fiction on the PJFamer site.

Everything had Meaning

"The brown fields were partly flooded; they were strung with chains of chill, grey pools. The pattern of the pools had meaning. The pools had been written on to the fields by the rain. The pools were magic worked by the rain just as the tumbling’s of the black birds against the grey was a spell that the sky was working and the motion of the grey-brown grasses was a spell that the wind made. Everything had meaning.”

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell