Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Happy Spring Equinox!

Here's hoping you all have a beautiful Spring Equinox!
Blessings on you for a fruitful season!

This was strapped to the leg of a carrier pigeon and landed in my blog for Pat!!!

I've been taking some online classes.  In one of them there was a wonderful piece of art done by a woman called Pat.  I really liked it & commented, "Holey Crapoley!  This is great!"  Or something to that effect.  Anyway, she asked me how I would illustrate "holey crapoley"!  So, being the crazy person I am, I immediately got on the job!  I looked up Thomas Crapper and found out all sorts of info, like he did not invent the flush toilet, but developed related inventions such as the ballcock.  He heavily promoted sanitary plumbing and pioneered the concept of the bathroom fittings showroom.  Prince Edward asked him and his company to supply the plumbing for his country seat of Sandringham House in Norfolk, thus giving Crapper his first Royal Warrant.  The firm further received warrants from Edward as king, and George V as Prince of Wales and king.  Crapper held 9 patents for water closet improvements, but none for the flush toilets themselves, even though his advertisements implied the siphonic flush was HIS invention!
But was this enough information for me?  Nope.  Further investigation showed that the word crap is actually of Middle English origin; and predates its application to bodily waste.  Its most likely etymological origin is a combination of two older words, the Dutch Krappen: to pluck off, cut off, or separate; and the Old French crappe: siftings, waste or rejected matter.  In English, it was used to refer to chaff, and also to weeds, or other rubbish.  Its first application to bodily waste, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, appeared in 1846 under a reference to acrapping ken, or a privy, where ken means a house.
OK...now I had enough information to do a couple of small illustrations for Pat that would explain how I would illustrate "holey crapoley".  And here you have them!

I'm sure this is WAY more information than anyone needed to know, but it just goes to show what it takes to create a fun illustration or two for a pal!  Hope you like it, Pat!