Craft editor
Isolde Marr
Bristol
Isolde trained as a manuscript conservator and still grinds her own pigments. She writes the Craft guides and tests every step in her kitchen first.
Their writing
Craft
Making oak-gall ink at home
The ink of Magna Carta and most medieval books is made from wasp-stung oak galls, rusty iron and gum. You can make a bottle this weekend.
Isolde Marr
Field notes
Three days in a working scriptorium
A small community in the Welsh borders still copies books by hand. I spent three days at their desks and came home unable to rush a sentence.
Isolde Marr
Craft
Gilding with gesso and bole
Raised gold in a manuscript is not paint. It is a cushion of gesso, a breath, a leaf of gold and a dog’s tooth to burnish it. Here is how.
Isolde Marr
Their first piece is on its way.
¶ The masthead
Written by hand
Six regular writers and one illustrator, most of whom still make the things they write about.
¶ The five categories
Five ways in
Every post belongs to one of five categories, and each has its own coat of arms. Pick a shield and read everything under it.
Essays
Azure, a chevron Or
Long arguments for slow, well-made things.
Chronicles
Gules, a bend Or
History, told through the hands that made it.
Craft
Or, a fess Sable
Step by step: ink, gold, wood, iron and bread.
Field notes
Vert, a pale Or
Walks, workshops and the places still working.
Conversations
Purpure, a saltire Or
Long interviews with people who make things.
¶ The Thursday letter
One letter, every Thursday.
The week’s long read, one thing worth making, and a note from the margins. Free, no tracking pixels, and you can leave in one click.
18,400 readers in 61 countries. Sent at 7 a.m. your time.