As we start making videos in the Earthwaves studio, Mike is beavering away exploring and making costumes. Ceramics have been put aside for now to be picked up again shortly. But the Stonehenge books have been an enormous inspiration about a past that is far more sophisticated than we could have imagined in the lands of Britain and Ireland. We have to remember that the Megalithic period, when stone monuments were actively built and used, took us up to the Roman occupation period. Indeed the reason for invasion was to defeat the Druids, the keepers of the stone circles and henges. If the Druids had never meddled in France when the Romans occupied that country, they may never have considered the effort worth it to invade the British Isles. But more significantly we have to remember that this was a time when classical knowledge and culture was created and when Christ lived. These spiritual and cultural roots have been the bedrock of European cultures, even to today. So we feel sure from our investigations that in Britain the Megalithic peoples may have had an oral tradition but there is no reason at all why these people wouldn’t have had their own sophisticated culture. Evidence suggests that these people, very much of the land, were very skilled and perhaps quite content with what they could do with stone walls. But these were ambitious people also, who put huge amounts of effort involving so many people to build stone monuments. These people are a mystery and exciting in all the culture they embody, most of which has necessarily been lost as the oral tradition was extinguished by Romans conquerors.
So we have created a story about two imaginary pagans named Lan and Deek. Chapters emerge organically as the inspiration comes, and we weave our Megalithic explorations into our artwork. Mike has been exploring what would have been necessary and possible for these characters to wear and just having fun sewing and creating costumes. In addition, we find the Megalithic culture being of magical and spiritual mystery, so we are also creating magical fantasy costumes to visually paint the spiritual in our story. We are getting well known in Hitchin market and in Biggleswade “Buttons” shop for buying glizty and shiny ends of roll fabric. Lan’s costumes embodying the moon energy and Deek’s the Sun. One watery in his energies and focus, the other grounded in rock and the energies we could feel when we explored the Stonehenge quarries in Preseli. So sheer silky sequinned stretched pieces of material have been a pleasurable challenge for Mike as he rediscovers his love of making with fabric and yarn from his youth. And, as the garden has yielded its treasures over the summer, Mike has been exploring how to dye with natural dyes such as Golden Rod, Indigo (Wode), Madder root and onion skins. Stinking vats of urine and boiling cauldrons of colourful matter colouring old recycled wool blankets and cutting up leather will also be employed in this apparel exploration. Somewhere between experimentation, research, craft, performance art and alchemy has been the flavour, or perhaps we should say smell of the Earthwaves Wardrobe Department.
