Preface to Volume 1, Issue 10

This issue originally had a few advertisments for Celtic art- related material, which I have cut out, as fifteen years later, the information is out of date. This meant rearranging the other pages.

The content of this issue is divided between step-by-step design, and Question and Answers from a couple of correspondents.

The Merne-style knot on page 160 was originally drawn on a Gestetner stencil for inclusion in the Coracle volume issue 1 number 2. This was not a very satisfactory form of printing, and I abandoned it in favour of photocopying. The Gestetner paper was larger, also, and so, in recycling the material, some of it could not be fitted into the smaller-sized page that became the standard for the next four volumes. This knot design was one casualty from the changeover, but it looked so good as a stencil on the soft Gestetner paper, I was happy to be able to include it here. It is an original design, but the treatment is a style which, while occasionally appearing in the old manuscripts, notably the Welsh Book of St Chad, is more familiar as the characteristic treatment used by George Merne. Incidentally, this treatment is the only thing I appreciate about George Merne's presentation of knotwork, which owes more to Art Nouveau than to Celtic art.

The cover design is an interesting fusion of knot and maze patterns. The knot and maze are both kinds of pathways, and share the symbolism of the path with spiral patterns. All share the symbolism of weaving, as well, the path and the thread being related.

Contents this issue