Eggs, mushrooms, turbans and terra
Spring could not have been much better
Terrarium making
Double Brothers news breaking
Much more in the rest of this letter...
...I want the red ball, I want it all
I try and I try to jump high
But I'm only small and I'm risking a fall
Pigs might fly with six cuddly thighs
If I don't get the ball I'll cry and I'll squall
I've six legs, four wings but no eyes
I didn't make this critter up. It is centuries old, from the Classic of Mountains and Seas or 山海经 Shan Hai Jing, a geographical treatise about the mythic geography and beasts of China possibly from as early as the 4th century BCE. It was made famous by the film Shang Chi and you can get this creature as a cuddly toy (only in the US I think). I find it cute but it has a bit of an edge. What do you think?...
...Little, little green glass jar
How I wonder what you are
Who were all the djinn you canned
Quaint container in the sand
Little, little green glass jar
How I wonder what you are
Actually jinn can be contained in various containers or boxes (or lamps!) or jars with stoppers. Watch Three Thousand Years of Longing with Tilda Swinton (she only does good films). This little green glass jar is mine. It came to me in a very strange way. I'd ordered something else from eBay, which arrived fine, and in the same package was this little green glass jar. I liked it; it was compelling and mysterious. So I kept it. (I checked but sadly, no jinn I could command. Would have been useful. I need a secretary and a PA. Maybe AI is the new jinn.) Just a green glass jar...
…A painting of my Memory Palace next to a graphite rubbing of my Chinese typewriter. It's the entrance, so you just glimpse what's around the corner - large domes, pyramids that are just seen. The Chinese typewriter is a fascinating piece of obsolete technology (will write more on this later, somewhere else, or I go into geek mode and someone at the private view literally walked away from me! Hah!). The copper sulphate blue glass balls around the margins are a bit of playfulness (also thinking about Hesse's Glass Bead Game)...
...A painting by Raksha Patel (also in our Flux of Memory show, now ended). An absolutely beautiful curtain and an industrial landscape seen through it.
April is usually a busy month for us and this April, my children have been plotting and planning and have come up with their own idea to share with the world...
Introducing... DOUBLE BROTHER MOVIES!! The boys want to make movies about what they are learning. In live sessions or later on YouTube. They each have one long hand scroll that they add to during each live session, recording what they've learnt and sharing it with you, and you can follow along and interact. It won't only be painting, it'll be other stuff... they are kids, they decide and I monitor and say things like 'we can't actually have a real-life explosion like the Big Bang' (because it wasn't an explosion, it was an expansion... did you know that?) 'but we can do this instead'... Come and join us! With or without your kids.
https://www.doublebrothermovies.com/...
About Double Brother Movies
Join Double Brother Movies
...The boys are really excited about this and it's driven by them, facilitated by me. They see me making scrolls and teaching online so naturally they wanted to do the same. Perhaps they think I'm making movies ;-) I don't know where this came from but I'm running with it.
They came up with the name and movie poster all by themselves. I ordered their business cards and made their website at their request so they have some to share with you in person when we see some of you. They would be very excited to see you online if you can make it! They say... 'We are 2 brothers excited to share with you what we are learning about the world. We will record our learnings on a handmade scroll and record movies. Each month has a theme. Each week we research a new topic based on the theme to tell you about, recording it in our scroll and recording it as a movie'. Join us in live classes while we teach you about a topic we've learned through making a handmade scroll. Or watch the movie later.
It works like this:
LEARN: RESEARCH AND SHARE
Example: MONTH 3 = OCEAN
WEEK 1 = Jellyfish. Why do jellyfish live forever? Thinking about the immortal jellyfish. We look at books (we visit the library beforehand to prepare), we find information online and do our research
SCROLL: RECORD OUR FINDINGS ON A CONTINUOUS SCROLL
Using our example: Make or paint a jellyfish on the scroll. What does a jellyfish look like? What makes a jellyfish a jellyfish? We are making a continuous handmade scroll as a timeline of the universe. We each make 1 long continuous scroll so you see 2 different approaches and ages
MOVIE: THE MAKING OF THE SCROLL AS A MOVIE
Using our example: A jellyfish movie. The talking and making part of our live class is recorded as a movie. It is available to watch later for subscribers. You can join live and interact with us (more fun, moderated by our Mama) or watch on-demand later (where all faces will be edited out, but our voices will be heard and you can see our making process)...
Join Double Brother Movies Live
... Above we have Enrico David at Sprüth Magers London like an oversized lamppost emerging from a film and Lincoln Seligman at Osborne Studio Gallery on Motcomb Street (a really nice street that looks like a film set with probably a huge warehouse/former cinema - the Pantechnicon - converted into a restaurant) - I love these 3 huge turbanned men staring out into the distance. Where have they come from? Where are they going? They could be 3 brothers from the 1001 Nights who've just paused on their journey and are appraising the distant city. Or 3 maharajas surveying their estate. Or 3 strangers whom life has thrown together for an unknown reason who are catching their breath during their perilous voyage, contemplating entering a caravanserai for the night. Or maybe they're having a cigarette break at the end of the day.
Below, more by Lincoln Seligman - a circus! Wheeee! The circus is always cool, I haven't been this year and feel like I'm missing a trick. It's also cooling to watch merry fish swimming in beautiful bright blue water - cyan, I think, one of the best blues and hard to get right in paint. Many more at his wonderful show and I wish he could have met Andy Stahl, they would have got on like a house on fire...
Book classes
...We are currently feeling the heat in London, like a greenhouse. Here's Maurizio Cattelan's tiny terrarium. Below is my terrarium in progress...
...We did a workshop at the friendly London Terrariums with kids and adults. Increasingly this is possible as kids get older and can do more. Also that these workshops and activities in London are geared towards 'anyone enthusiastic'. Kashi was one of the youngest participants but I feel that people recognise different lifestyles and abilities - it's great for adults and kids to do things together in different settings and contexts, I am very nourished by all of this. People just end up helping each other and all of it is learning. (That's why I'm so excited about Double Brother Movies - kids, adults and kidults all welcome!)...
Book May classes
...Below: Kashi working on his terrarium. Glass, tiny plant, soil and kids actually was fine (and even better that I didn't have to clear it up - although we helped!), they are careful and want to do real things. I believe they should. They absolutely love their 'little gardens' and put little dinosaurs in them.
The catalogue arrived from India! It's beautifully produced and an honour to be in the company of some great artists. I always love the fore edge of a book being used and I like how they used a fold-out for my work. Jethro Buck and Yasmin Hayat are there, as well as Mahesh Soni (beautiful, stately work), S M Khayyam (great turbans) and Gargi Chandola (I love her colours and humour). And too many to list here, the whole book is nice.
Other great company I've kept is my classes and cherished students, here is their weaving which we did together. Some crazy rainbow wool as well!! And great to share this skill which is sometimes part of my work (spilling out of the margins). All the rest of my 2025 classes are here: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online
...Classes I teach for adults also continue in May, with medieval magic tricks, angry housewives inspired by Levni and the Marginal Extras series which looks at the very edges of painted frames, the bits that poke out (called sharafeh, tığ, merlons). I am not an angry housewife because I don't have a house, I have a flat and although deeply in love, I'm not married to it. I have surrendered to a little bit of chaos to the ongoing despair of my husband and mother (but not my father nor my kids!). I do put my hands on my hips and glare at the kids sometimes and get them to also do the vacuuming. I do need to get rid of dust if I am to weave.
ALSO!! We are about to start VOLUME TWO of the 1001 Nights (complete translation in English by Malcolm Lyons, Penguin) so it is a good time to join now!! You can dip in and out of it, you don't have to have read the previous Nights and we will catch you up. Just dive into the stream of stories wherever you like - but this is a good time to join as we start a whole new volume. There are 3 volumes, so we're a third of the way through and it's thoroughly enjoyable. Look for the pink camel: https://www.vaishaliprazmariteaching.com/book-online...
Book May classes
If you'd like to own a print of a miniature: A Recreation of the Court of Gayumars here. Discount code is GAYUMARS10 since you're getting this email. Go to: https://www.vaishaliprazmari.com/product-page/a-recreation-of-the-court-of-gayumars and add it at checkout...
Buy the PRINT here
More brushes and beautiful tools here
...Brushes for painting miniatures and more... and all my brushes here: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/shop
And if you want to paint your own Carpet Page, here's the link to my Make a Carpet Page e-course. Once downloaded it's yours to keep forever: https://vaishaliprazmaricarpetpage.thinkific.com/courses/make-a-carpet-page or purchase some easy-watching, relaxing painting films.
You can get your own ALADDIN toy theatre here - an 'orphan story' of the 1001 Nights: https://www.theperfectbrush.co.uk/product-page/aladdin-paper-toy-theatre...
Watch painting films
...The monthly meeting details are below. The Forum is changing slightly as I've been forced to do this by the website (every so often they have these 'updates' and it's just me running the whole show and I can't do everything, so I'm going to make it easier for myself to handle going forward - and more streamlined for you).
Join via https://www.miniaturepaintingforum.com
Monthly Meeting on 20 May 2025 5pm - 6pm London time - all welcome
Join Zoom Meeting via this direct link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82273077987?pwd=XkD07qbEfhivCZUgz4bViSKK2LLfhz.1
Meeting ID: 822 7307 7987Passcode: 138627 ...
Join the FREE forum
...And yes, join us in reading and discussing the 1001 Nights. Volume 2's cover is below and it says it all - fantastic flights and voyages into the unknown. A giant rukh egg will feature too since SINDBAD's 7 journeys are coming up!
Join 1001 Nights Reading Group anytime!
We painted an ostrich egg. We eggsperimented with egg tempera. Again, I did it with the kids as it's so nice to involve them in all aspects of my life, wherever I can (using common sense and reason - I don't take them into metal welding workshops). They are used to workshop environments as Patrik's currently building our own from a shell - we have to add electricity and water and I want the kids to see all of that. Caspian loved pottering around our old workshop and nailing bits of wood together and Kashi loves to paint in my part of the studio. I think one day we can also get rid of our toybox at home and just have Lego and art/craft materials and they'd be very happy...
...We're making Chinese ink and adding an egg yolk and vinegar. 'Just add an egg' as Meg would say to Mog. My lovely friend gifted us these glasses (if not for her we would not own any glassware at all!) and we discovered they are the perfect holders of single egg yolks. I love eggs, I love all the possibilities and you can do so much with them, eating, painting, binding. I also loved the chocolate ones we had at Easter. I had so much chocolate in April, I'm having a little break from it...
...and having home-grown mushrooms instead, thanks to another lovely friend! Kashi pointed out that the mushrooms are sticking their tongues out at us ;-). The mycelium is the living thing (our 'pet') and the mushrooms are its fruit. We ate them in a pasta cooked by this crazy man who wears Maharaja coats while driving with no sense of irony at all. I have to stop him wearing Indian slippers outdoors sometimes as otherwise he'd wear them together, and not sure how good they are while driving. I enjoyed the full flowering of cherry blossoms on a blue sky day, I loved the April days like that although now it's a May heatwave...
...You could cool down by going to a cool basement cafe in London. Look at this one, I love it. It's like a spray painted Memory Palace of jumbled up objects. Fortnum and Mason have done 3D spring windows and the classic chandelier in a forest. I am back to walking wherever I can, as that's the only way to get to know a city and little hidden places like this - a bridge that is also a house (kinda) or a bridge between houses that was probably so carriages or something could pass underneath. Do you know where this is?If a journey takes 30 mins by public transport you might as well do the 45 mins walking equivalent, don't you think?...
Get your ALADDIN toy theatre here
...An idea created by Sharon Morris at her Poetry Shed, a monthly event at the Slade I attended: Fold an accordion book and take a poem from a book of poem at random (this reminds me of bibliomancy and divination which I'm currently teaching at the School of Traditional Arts - which was the building in the above photo). Then you take words from that poem at random and write them on your accordion pages. And you have another poem/inspirational prompt to start you off something else.
I enjoyed this and also understanding what is current in your brain at the time - the desert and the 1001 Nights on mine. 'Scentlessness' is not a word I have ever used and I've got to use it somewhere now. Another exercise was to take one of those words from your chosen poem and just come up with your own rhyming words underneath. Summer festivals were clearly on my mind. We've had a busy month, I need to relax a bit. I took the kids to the Minecraft experience and also saw the film.
Terrariumly yours,
Vaishali Prazmari
P.S. There is an Eastern European idea of 'spring tiredness'. I think I have it. It's a vitamin deficiency going into Spring because of the lack of enough fresh vegetables in winter. Look at my baby asleep on my favourite sofa, it just fits him now. Maybe next year it won't!
