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It’s very faint and worn but here’s a hexafoil apotropaic mark found on the third floor of the Wiscasset Old Jail in Maine

#apotropaic mark #hexafoil #wiscasset old jail #maine

Hexafoil on Mosaic Floor from Herod's Palace Jerusalem, 1st century BCE Source: Wikimedia

#mosaic #medallion #hexafoil #flower of life #geometry #judaism #jewish #hebrew #judea

My second attempt at sashiko. Natural linen thread on denim jeans (the same pants), shippo tsunagi pattern.

Hey so remember how I said creating a grid by circle-by-circle on fabric was a terrible idea? I decided to do it again anyway 🤦

On this leg, I didn't make the edges of my design straight; I wanted it to look like circles were almost randomly selected to be in the pattern or not. I also added colourwork, because, again: #ambitiousbeginner

One of the circles lies with one half on the front of the pant leg, and the other on the back. I wanted to make it seem like the pattern was continuing around the back of the leg. I really like how it looks!

#sashiko #hexafoil #rosette #star of life #flower of life #triangular lattice #denim #jeans #overlapping circles grid #geometry #straightedge and compass construction #classical construction #euclidean construction #human error #rookie mistake #fabric is non-euclidean #hand sewing #hand stitched #noneuclidean

Hexafoil on our 17th-century aumbry

#hexafoil #apotropaic #17th century

#hexafoil

Something else from our visit to Edinburgh: at the National War Museum in Edinburgh Castle, this was on display. As you can see from the label, it's a gau, worn by Tibetan soldiers to give magical protection. Also as you can see from the label, it didn't work, there's a bullet hole in it and Major William Otley probably looted it from a body on the battlefield.

What struck me was, a few buildings away in the castle complex, carved into the door of the prisoners' infirmary, was this - which, if I'm not wrong, is a hexafoil or "daisy wheel" apotropaic mark (a "witchmark"). These were carved on entrances to buildings - window lintels, doorways, chimney breasts - to keep out evil spirits.

So maybe the Tibetan and Scottish soldiers weren't that different.

The gau is from the early 20th century, don't know when the hexafoil was carved into the door. There's what looks like a failed attempt to construct one further down.