“No store of well-drilled needles, nor ouches of amber pale;
No new-cut tongues of the bison, nor meat of the stranded whale.”
Rudyard Kipling; The Story of Ung; 1896.
Is anyone familiar with this poem by Rudyard Kipling and the quotation above? I read the quote in today’s edition of Wordsmith.
I was intrigued by the word “ouch” used as a noun. According to Wordsmith and his sources, ouch or ouche means “a brooch or buckle set with precious stones”. This month’s workshop with the Online Guild is about embroidery and Indian elephants with some references to Kipling’s animals so there has been a lot of discussion about what fibres and materials and decorations to use for the embroidery images. Hence I thought this word would be a good one to add to the discussion. Now I have read the whole poem and I think the embroiderers’ heads would be reeling with more wonderful images.
Oh Janet, embroidering an “ouche” gives way to lots of design possibilities. Lovely word.
Best Wishes,Tricia
if I get any more ideas for embroidery – I think my head is going to explode:)) I had planned to do totally different things now – I wanted to felt little fish onto my turquoise bag (that didn’t make it in time for the olg challenge…) and knit kids’ sweaters. now I am sitting at my wheel and spinning grey for the elephant and silk to dye in bold colours for the elephant’s regalia… and then the dragons… the downside of reading too much is that you end up with too many images in your head – or at least I do:)) – probably I am going to embroider those fish – it’s easier to do anyway!