Straw decoration sketch

This sketch was surprisingly hard; another one where I just finally stopped erasing, deciding to leave it alone. I fall into the category of “chicken scratch” sketchers. I put down short, quick strokes, lots and lots of them. If I don’t like the first few dozen, I press a little harder and make them darker, as if that’s the problem. Well, that’s one of the problems, but not the problem. While I’m sketching with my right hand, I’m kneading the eraser in my left hand, getting it ready.

Straw, 1230-1250, German, silver

What fascinates me about this straw is the time frame: 1230-1250. There are a gazillion things in the world that I never took any time to consider, and straws being invented around 3,000 BCE is one of them. If anyone had asked me as to when straws originated, I would have guessed in the 20th century, after plastic was invented. Straws have always been plastic, right? I was wrong, wrong, wrong, about 5,000 years wrong.

Sketch 045: Straw, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, 1947