Covenanters and Kirkyards

I revamped the Favela again! Much happier with it though, but no photos...sorry, ***** camera charger arrived and its American, so doesn't fit in the socket! Assessment yesterday went well though :) some nice positive feedback. 

So onto the next project...Crime and Punishment...and thankfully not the Dostoevsky one! Back to Greyfriars Kirkyard, the Covenanter's Prison and Edinburgh's gruesome history I think. I'm really keen to bring some lampwork into this project and mix glass and silversmithing to prove to myself it can be done. The other two stipulations for this project is that it has to be Narrative (shouldn't be a problem) and a brooch (also a good thing because a brooch is hard to over complicate...I hope).

So here is what I know about the Covenanter's Prison (which is situated in the Kirkyard and so 'haunted' it is locked so the public can't get in) is this:

The Covenanters were in short a group of people who, in the 17th Century, drew up an agreement to promote Presbytarianism in Scotland, a branch of Christianity favoured in general by the public, as opposed to Episcopacy, which was favoured by the Crown. In 1679 as a result of the battle of Bothwell Bridge, around 1200 Covenanters were imprisoned, and about 400 of them in Greyfriars Kirkyard, awaiting trial. They were kept in the prison over five months, which happened to be in the winter. It ended in them either being executed, transported abroad as slaves, or in the case of many of them, dying while imprisoned in the Kirkyard.

Thats a very brief summary, but I'll develop it further through the project, especially exploring the 'punishment' side. It seems silly not to use Edinburgh's history since its just on the doorstep. I'll try and scan in some older sketches I did of the kirkyard during the summer so you can see what I'm going for. Meanwhile, above are a few photos which I'm using for inspiration :)