Saturday's Artist—The Book of the Dead

We are finishing our exploration of Africa with a stop in Egypt, and though we started in modern Egypt curiosity has taken us back in time to the ancients. I think it will be a short stay for us right now—my concerns over timing on the death issue (as I mentioned here and a little here) will probably return us to the modern in a day or two—but we've done much just the same. I love exploring myth cultures so while building the pyramids we also read about the beliefs of their creators and inhabitants. Calvin finds the myth stories fascinating, and why wouldn't he? They are the building blocks of culture and society, and they read like fairy tales. The only down side is the prevalence of violence, but it's not like the brothers Grimm did any better.

Back to the art. To go with our pyramids this week Calvin decided it was important to create a copy of the Book of the Dead. I suggested a paper bag for the paper, to give it an older feel and look, and Calvin decided on colored pencils for his medium.

A few weeks ago, at the Border's closing sale, we luckily picked up a set of hieroglyphics stamps that came in handy here.

He used a book to copy pictures of Osiris, Isis, Horus, and the scales that weigh one's heart against a feather for admittance to the Field of Reeds.

He originally intended to create three copies of the scroll, one for each pyramid as it was the custom to bury (rich) people each with their own, but so far he has finished just this one over a two day period. I left everything out for him so we'll see if he goes back and creates more, or if we will leave the dead behind and return to the living, and camels, and sand. This morning I found him reading a book on archeology, so maybe he's actually finding that important link between the two worlds.

Come join, or at least visit, the parade of art linked to Saturday's Artist at Ordinary Life Magic.

Lego pyramids

What can't we do with Legos? We already have a Kenyan city, near the trees of Wangari and the snows of Mt. Kenya, and a train that carries visitors south to Victoria Falls, and now we have the Pyramids of Giza. All three. Creating Pyramids doesn't really require a lot of "how-to" but here's how we did anyway.

We started with a flat sheet and built a base that was 28x2 on all sides. For each subsequent layer we stepped in one row. In order to make it usable for play he needed to be able to reach the inside so we left a doorway by not finishing one wall, and we also made the tip removable. No sooner had we finished the first pyramid than he mentioned the need for three pyramids if indeed this was to be Giza. That took a bit more doing, since we were running of materials, but we managed it. The only thing we couldn't do was make the tip easily removable, since we were out of the smooth thin pieces, but the other two pyramids are smaller (as they are in Giza, mind you), and that step wasn't as necessary.

Appropriately we happen to have one mummy, one pharaoh, one safari explorer, and two explorer pilots in our minifigure collection. The camels, however, were our own creation. Don't laugh.

To make the tip removeable we stabilized it with two platform pieces, then limited the point at which it snaps in place to just one side by using thin smooth strips on three of the sides and just one dimpled strip on the fourth side.