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And I'm going to post about it. What is a Mari Lwyd?  Mari Lwyd (ENG: Grey Mare) is a wassailing tradition from pre-Christian Wales. She is, in essence, a decorated horse's skull on a pole that does rap battles.  https://www.wales.com/about/culture/mari-lwyd posted:Mari is taken around a village traditionally, often between Christmas Day and Twelfth Night, She is dressed with festive lights and decorations, and is usually accompanied by an ostler... When the groups get to a house, they sing Welsh language songs or wassails, or more traditionally indulge in a ritual called pwnco: an exchange of rude rhymes with the person who lives there. If the Mari and her gang get entry, the household is said to have good luck for the year. The Mari is well-known to be mischievous – trying to steal things and chase people she likes – as she goes about her bidding.  I know very little Welsh, so any pwnco I get into will probably be in English. Here's some traditional pwnco so you're not let down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_xFo6Hifzk More resources for mari lwyd lore: https://trac.cymru/en/about-mari-lwyd/ https://welearnwelsh.com/blog/welsh-christmas-horse-skull-mari-lwyd/ ChickenOfTomorrow fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Dec 7, 2021 |
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Dec 7, 2021 01:21
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| # ¿ Dec 7, 2025 01:16 |
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Some inspiration pictures. I'm assembling a Mari Moodboard. Who is she   Traditionally the Mari Lwyd uses a white sheet - otherwise she'd not be Lwyd - but I am loving the coordinated green look here.  These two are a bit much for me LOL 
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Dec 7, 2021 03:36
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Assembling the items.
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Dec 8, 2021 01:05
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I'm a British idiot who lives in Oregon, so, I don't think my experience will answer that question. Maybe someone reading this is living in Wales and can answer?  Little worried about the horse skull. I ordered from the cheapest place, and they ship from the next state over, but I called to confirm my order and they say there's a backlog on making the things. There's a papercraft horse skull pattern available which i've bookmarked as an alternate option, but a paper/cardboard skull won't be rainproof.
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Dec 8, 2021 18:33
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A week since ordering and no ETA. I'm buying a backup skull. I should have started this process a month earlier rather than dithering.
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Dec 11, 2021 22:46
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ChickenOfTomorrow posted:I should have started this process a month earlier rather than dithering. 
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Dec 13, 2021 04:34
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   She's here!
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Dec 22, 2021 01:19
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Session 2: From URL to IRL Assemble all the items you have available, in the bedroom because the table is full of presents.  Plan out how to arrange the mane and bells.  Mock-up  I like seeing something across the brow - I think I'll fashion a rope-halter to which I'll attach the bells, using ribbon (probably not the green ribbon though). The mane is too scanty - I want to use short parts of mane to disguise the ear/sheet/skull connection point and have long trailing parts, and this isn't enough to do both.  Ears (not shown) Sketched up a stencil. I'll cut out the shapes from a sheet of that flexible-but-stiff plastic file folder material, sew up the fabric version then slip the plastic inside. Then attach the ears to the skull and to the sheet. If I use the corner of the sheet for the attachment point, maybe i can stick the ears through the sheet and into the skull, and use the point of the sheet as a forelock attachment point too? Try out the pole  Here I run into a big snag. The black pole fits nicely through the base of the skull, where the spine would connect. I'll reinforce this with some fabric and shove . But the lower jaw is completely free, and I have no clue how to connect it. Biology has this answered, so I gotta figure out how biology does it and then whether I can copy biology. So my first goal is to attach the jaw to the rest of the skull, in a closed position, and carry the whole weight of the skull and jaw on one pole. Then I have a second pole with a weird attachment on the end (it's like a flat base, a bolt and a flange that goes up and down the bolt) that I think I can use to hold up the jaw. The flange would slot across the bars of the mare's mouth and the bolt would clamp it to the base, attaching the jaw to the pole and looking like a bit. Halters don't have bits I could make a rope bridle instead. Pics of this plan to come later if i pursue it. For reference, this is what a bit looks like:  Because of omicron, Mari won't be going out this Xmas - which is good, because it's clearly going to take me months to figure this out properly. Todo: - Figure out how horse jaws are attached - Get more mane and scavenge more attachables (bells, rings, and pins) - Trial the ear stencils and attaching the stencils to the sheet and skull - Rope halter - Eyes
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Dec 24, 2021 23:54
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Further inspiration, though i don't like that her jaw is broken
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Dec 29, 2021 02:53
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| # ¿ Dec 7, 2025 01:16 |
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Mad Hamish posted:His jaw is articulated so he can snap and bite. Wʜᴀᴛ ᴀ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ʜᴏʀsᴇ. Did some work on my Mari Lwyd today to try to get version 1 presentable. I'll need to name her soon... First task: the halter. Started out remembering my youth as a horse-mad young girl so I could make something realistic, then realized rope halters for real horses are meant to have a certain amount of slack, so I threw caution to the wind and relied on my shibari skills to whip something up that would hold the jaw in place. Not my finest ropework, but I like the decorative work on the nose band. It seems quite solid, too.  Next up, the ears. Cut the stiff cartilage-y insides out of a plastic folder...  Trial fit...  Then I got lazy and decided to glue fabric onto the ears rather than sew something by hand. Ripped up a pillowcase to make 8 long strips of white fabric for the mane and tied a bell to one end of each strip. Cut up the silk sari ribbon and tied o-rings to the end of each strip. Attached the whole kit and kaboodle to two large o-rings which I shoved in the earhole.  Got a lot more silk strips today so I'll be making up some more mane. Not many o-rings left so I'll be switching to safety pins. Not shown: Folded each ear in half and glued the base to itself so as to get a more horse-ear like shape (versus the fox ears she currently has). Thought about the eyes a lot.
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Jan 4, 2022 01:14
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