Peril at Sea
A set of delicate embroidered and beaded silk cushions displayed in a Victorian collectors cabinet lined with a copy of a 16th century map of the Mediterranean. Each cushion is stuffed with lambswool and each depicts a folkloric creature, a tale or a superstition. Here and there are fragile silk origami boats. In one corner sits a vintage wooden sail boat, set with butterfly wings.
Alcyone, daughter of Eolus, the wind-god, impelled by love for her husband Ceyx, whom she found dead on the shore after a shipwreck, threw herself into the sea. The gods, rewarding their conjugal love, changed the pair into kingfishers.” My Alcyone wears a nest of birds as a crown, the birds nest has frequently been used historically as a symbol of madness, most often in women…
One of the oldest customs regarding Kingfishers, popular in England and in France, was to turn this bird into a weathercock. The body of a mummified kingfisher with extended wings was suspended by a thread to show the direction of the wind. In that position it would always turn its beak, even inside the house, toward the direction of the wind.
Stories say that once the Kingfisher was dull grey. One flew straight up to heaven to look at the water, and flew so close to the sun that its breast was scorched red and its back absorbed the colour of the skies.
The Kelpie & the Moon
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A Sea Serpent & the Sun
Poseidon