Adventures of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
Every traveler has a campfire has the center of daily life. The hearth has been our home for 1.5 - 2 million years now. No wonder it fascinates us and brings so much comfort. Nomads in a stationary culture are often tolerated at best and left only marginal space to congregate. This will probably never … Continue reading Traveller Life
Travellers in Europe and Britain have always been associated with a style tent called a bender. This comes from the construction technique of cutting saplings and bending them into a dome, elongated dome, or half cylinder shape, These frameworks were then covered with tarps and made watertight in the temperate damp. The origins of this … Continue reading Tents and the Vardo Life; What is a Bender?
I really like everything about the image above. We see three very different types of wagon-home-conveyances and a family, wearing clothing of the time. Travellers on the margin of mainstream society have been shunned, persecuted, and culturally dismissed while at the same time romanticized for their freedom and seeming lack of attachment to a more … Continue reading A Romany Family in Scotland
As usual with internet information, captions and data are suspect at best. However, this is a great image of Romani on the road so let's just go with it. At first glance, it looks almost like a scene from the American west in the 19th century. It reminds me of early sheep camp images from … Continue reading Romani in Switzerland ca. 1890?
A Traveller's (sic) Tuesday. Just a glimpse into life in a bender tent. Despite the glamorous view of life on the road depicted by the romantic English Gypsy Caravans, this is how most Roma lived in 19th Century Britain. Gypsies, Camped on the Beach, near South Shields, Ralph Hedley Charlton, painted 1876.
From a book published in 1880 about the Roma and some thoughts on how to "improve" their condition in Britain. He traces their history in Britain from their first recorded arrival in Scotland in 1514 and is an interesting and somewhat sympathetic read. Here are some images and a couple snatches of the writing. Several … Continue reading Images from “Gipsy Life” by George Coalville
Romano Rai (Romany Rye) (Traditional, English) I'm a Romano Rai, just an old didikai, I build all my temples beneath the blue sky, I live in a tent and I don't pay no rent, and that's why they call me the Romano Rai. Didi-a-didi-a-didi-di-kai, chavves, Tika-dika-tika-a-lai Your Daddus tryin' to sell a mush a kushto … Continue reading Romany Rai
Preindustrial Craftsmanship 