Blog - Monk at Keyboard

Large Rosary for Religious Habit

25 January 202325 January 2023Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

Been making rosaries to be used with a religious habit again. For them, I use beads that are typically 16-20mm in size, tied on code. Personally, I prefer to wear rosaries made from cord rather than chain for a few reasons. The most important is that they are less likely to break, though if they do, they can’t be repaired.

All materials and tools for the Rosaries

This is everything I need to make two pairs. Two packets of beads, two crosses, and the cord along with the super glue to seal the knots at the end. The staw (actually a balloon stick) can be used to help do the knots once a slot has been cut into one end. I did not show myself using it in the photos as it was too hard to take the photos while holding it. It is, however, easier and faster than using just figures.

A single rosary needs 5-7m of cord, depending on the size of the beads and how many times the cord is wrapped around when doing the knots.

Tying the knot, start by wrapping around finger.

To create the knots that I am using for these rosaries, you need to wrap the cord around a finger and over the top of itself, working up the finger. Then you pop the knot off and push the cord down through the loops you have just created. If you did it right, it means the ends of the cord will be coming out opposite sides of the loops.

Finished decade. — Finished knots around a bead

Once you have one done, it is just a matter of repeating until all the beads are secured into place.

Hymn to Blessed Eusebius

19 January 202319 January 2023Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

Been working on again the English Translation of the Liturgical texts for the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit after receiving a list of corrections needed before they can be approved for use. One of the changes requested was a need to change the hymn for the Office of Readings for the Feast of Bl. Eusebius because it was not a correct translation of the Latin. So went back and retranslated it, trying to make it so that it could also fit into a singable tune. I am not sure how well I went, but here it is.

Ad patrem nostrum canticum ascendat,
viam ostendat quando eum cantemus,
quomodo debet strepitum spernere,
animum quaerere.

Vox eius ardet, et facit ardere,
trahit in unum incolas eremi,
ut flammae multae cumulantur unum,
et magis ardeant.

O quam iucundum, quam bonum apparet,
si cor multorum ducit vitam unam,
preces unitas ad caelos dirigit,
Dominum sic laudans.

Ordinis sic iam Regula sanctitur,
ostendens nobis viam secuturam,
non erimus nos oves aberrantes,
pastori carentes.

Animam nostram, o Eusebi, duce,
ad unitatem quomodo tendamus,
et doce nobis simul contendere
ad vias caelorum.

Pater Eusebi, ave paulinorum,
precibus heros in solitudine,
exemplum tuum faciat ardere
et nos et patriam.

Flammae Beati Eusebii flagrant
in nocte caeca monachis orphanis.
Ad consolandum preces flammescantur
fratrum monachorum.

Flos plebis nostrae, Sancti Paulini,
orate nobis apud Deum Patrem,
cum acri prece Sancti Eusebii
defendite plebem. Amen.

To our father, we raise a song
let him show the way we sing
how we should despise the world’s noise
and seek silence in the spirit.

His voice burns and sets us afire,
drawing the hermits together
as many flames converge into one
begin to burn so much brighter.

O how pleasant and good it is
if many hearts lead one holy life
prayers offered in unity to heaven
that the Lord might be praised.

Showing us the way to follow
He establishes a Rule
so we will not be straying sheep
without a shepherd to lead.

O Eusebius lead our souls
to seek after unity
and lead your sons to always strain
towards the way to heaven.

Hail Eusebius our Father
by prayer in solitude,
your true paternal example
is given to us to heed.

The bright flame of Eusebius
in the night seeks orphaned monks
to console with his burning prayers
the brotherhood of holy monks.

Flower of our People, Saint Paul,
offer to God the Father,
ardent prayers with Eusebius
defend your people. Amen.

And here is the PDF of the music: To our Father, we raise a Song.

Christmas Manger with the Child Jesus

22 December 202215 December 2022Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

This Christmas manger is something I did before but just unpacked. It is made with recycled timber from old fence pailings that I sanded all the old paint off.

The goal when making it was to create a manger that needed no screws or nails to hold it together but could be assembled something like a jigsaw puzzle, and when taken apart, could be compactly stored away. Unfortunately, I did not take any photos as I was making it, so all I can show is the parts being put together.

Christmas manger with just the ends together — Christmas manger in parts

I am at least very pleased with the result. It only fits together in one way, so I have numbered everything to find what pieces match together quickly. The cloth is just a bit of white calico on which I machine embroidered the Star of Bethlehem. For the straw, I am using wood wool from here. The Baby Jesus is from here.

Christmas Nativity Scene

15 December 202215 December 2022Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

This is pulling out a project from a few years ago, a wooden Christmas Nativity Scene I made. With this project, I was aiming to make something easy to store during the year, so it has to be able to be quickly taken apart and put back together again, with most of the parts being somewhat flat.

This is not the first or last Christmas Nativity Scene I have made. The first was way back in high school and was much simpler, and the most recent was something like this but scaled up for use in a Parish Church. This, however, is by far my favourite.

Nativity Scene Walls in Place — The parts of the Nativity Scene

The Nativity Scene is made from pine from the local hardware store. I did not have a pattern I was following, but I just guessed what I would need for what I wanted. I got very close using everything I brought, but I needed a few more pieces to finish the roof. After assembling the nativity scene, I stained it (I remember mixing a few different ones) and then oiled it with some outdoor furniture oil. For scale, it is 65cm wide, 40cm deep, and 40cm high.

All the parts lock together, so there is nothing to screw or unscrew to turn it from the parts to the full standing stable. There are also strips of LED lights attached to the roof.

The figures are the ones I got from here, with a few additions.

New Pauline Prayer Book App Updates

4 November 20224 November 2022Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

So this week, I got out updates for the Pauline Prayer Book App, which I first released in 2017. It contains the texts used by the Pauline Fathers in their Prayer Book (only this originally) but also the Mass and Divine Office texts, Constitutions and other things. Moreover, it has the texts to some degree of completeness in 8 languages (this update added French used by our fathers in Cameroon, Africa).

I don’t write the texts used in the app; I do have to program the app. I chose to do this twice, making independent versions for Android and iPhone. I also have to reformat all the texts as they are sent to me so they can be included.

I forget precisely what are all the changes went into this version, as I have been doing little bits here and there on and off. I added support for printing the texts to the iPhone version. The Liturgical Calendar also got integrated into the app in more ways. The Android version sends notifications for the liturgical feasts, I have not worked out how to do that on iPhone yet, so hopefully, that will be one for the next update.

It can be downloaded for Android and iPhone.

Embroidering a Bishop’s Coat of Arms

27 October 202227 October 2022Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

Another embroidery that I did this last week. This time at a friend’s request, it is a bishop’s coat of arms. This time I could start with a high-resolution image from Wikipedia.

Bishop's Coat of Arms Design — Bishop’s Coat of Arms Design

Bishop's Coat of Arms Design Render — Bishop’s Coat of Arms Design

Above you can see the original artwork, what the embroidery design program thinks it is going to turn out to be, and then the final stitched product.

A little work had to go in after the automatic digitization of the original design. It leaves a lot of holes in, for example, the green and yellow background, which can cause problems of too many tiny stitches or lack of alignment, so I filled those in. Some of the smaller details were probably not going to work, so I deleted some of them. I also spent a while reordering the objects, so they were stitched in a more sensible order, or otherwise, it spends all its time casting off and moving to another area.

Still not perfect; there is a gap between the green area and the black lines above and below it. One of those things I would forever notice, but others might ignore or not notice. I could allow more pull compensation to fix this – lots of stitches in one direction tend to pull the fabric in, even with a stabilizer behind it, so the object can be extended in that direction to counter. Or maybe try changing their direction a little to spread the pull more.

Will I do any of that? I don’t know yet. There might have been a brief discussion about a mitre.

Photos around Marian Valley

13 October 202221 October 2022Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

I was taking photos at Marian Valley for their website, which I am updating. Not going to share those photos here, but while doing so, I took some of the other things that took my fancy. Here are a few of them.

Wildlife

I would have liked to get a few more good photos of some birds, particularly the Rufus Whistler (I had help working out what it was). But they don’t stay still very long. But getting a good bird shot would not be half so rewarding if they did.

The Waterfall and Creek

I sat around for a while, taking photos of the little waterfall at different shutter speeds. You can see the difference in the effect if you compare the two images.

The Landscape

Forest around the walking trail — The forest around the walking trail

The walking trail around the place has a view at the top that is worth the climb, and the way down the forest that I was walking through is beautiful.

Plants

Just a few plants (I know fungi are not plants) that were good-natured enough, unlike the birds, to stay still while I took photos of them.

Some Simple Woodwork

10 October 202221 October 2022Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

Again another project was done during a short holiday at the parent’s. This time I made some wooden crosses that I will use when I make some large rosaries that could be worn with a habit.

Not much to this, just cutting up some 12x12mm Tasmanian Oak and doing a simple join between them.

Cutting out the join — All the pieces being put together

It could have been a little tidier if I was not using a full-sized Tenon saw and had something smaller, but it is what I had. I did the first few, one at a time, but then started cutting them out in batches of four. I used a Mahogany stain on them at the end with a coat of varnish.

When I use these crosses, they will appear again in a future post.

A simple project, but I needed them for the next part. However, I have done other things before that had a little more to them, such as a box for a chalice and a book stand, which I will share the photos of here. I also got some Christmas-themed things I did, but I am saving them to share in December. Next time I am on holiday, I want to try making a prie-dieu/kneeler.

Progress so far on the chalice viels, burse and manipals

Learning to make some vestments

9 October 202221 October 2022Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

So, here I am, just wanting to experiment with making vestments. It would have been much less work and cheaper to buy the stuff. But I was looking for an excuse right now. So at my parents, I keep a set of vestments, but they are only chasuble and stole, which will not do for a Latin Mass. So looking to make the burse (a rigid case that holds the corporal and goes on top of the chalice), chalice veil and maniple (kind of like a mini stole warn on the priest’s arm).

The Materials for the Vestments

On the bottom left, I have the primary materials in each of the four colours. Then in the middle, the orphreys are also in the four colours, plus a blue (Marian) one. Bottom right is the perplex that I put inside the burse with some white calico to line it. Then the top right is the liner for the back of everything.

The chalice veil was easy to make, much like making a simple square pillow but putting nothing in it. There is nothing overly complex about the maniple either. The burse was a little more complicated. It took a while of looking at the one I brought to work out how it was put together. It seemed that the first thing was to line the perplex, and it was easiest to make something with two pockets into which the perplex could be pushed. The outside was also a little tricky. Trying to get the two wedges on the sides that let it open, but only wide enough to slip a corporal inside, was fiddly. It also had to be hand sewn on.

Work in Progress Photos

I should have taken more photos as I was going. I will try and do that when I finish it. There should be five of everything in the end, but for now, I have four chalice veils, three burses and two maniples done. I will finish it off next time I am at my parent’s.

Sowing on the orphrey — Copying Existing Chalice Veil for size

Some more Embroidery Designs

22 September 202221 October 2022Monk at KeyboardLeave a comment

I wanted to share again some other designs I have been working on. These are all things I did a while ago, the stoles were done in 2020, and the palls I did back in July this year.

Stoles

These stoles were one of the first things I started with as a practical way of testing patterns and making something that could be used. So here we have the Black Madonna and the Coat of Arms on one side and St. Paul the First Hermit and the Motto on the other.

I have tweaked all the embroidery patterns since I first did them. Looking at St. Paul on the stoles and the palls, you will notice some changes. One day, once I think I have got to a point where I will not keep changing them, I will share the machine files.

In the first image, you can see all the parts stitched onto a single piece of cloth before I cut it up to make the stoles.

Palls

Another practical test run of some of the designs. Here I have the Black Madonna, St. Paul the First Hermit again (with minor changes) Bl. Eusebius (best first switching of a pattern so far), a few Coat of Arms, and a Coptic Cross.

In a previous post, I explained how I made the palls in more detail, so I will not repeat all those details here.

If you look up close, for example, at the Coat of Arms that has the red and gold border, you can see little gaps between where colours join, hence why I am still working on it. This one here was just how it came from Hatch Digitizer after automatically importing the artwork. On the other hand, the Black Madonna with the fleur-de-lis in the corner is a design I am almost sure I have got as good as I will make it after a few trials (also one I painfully traced out from a relatively poor quality photo).

The last image has the full linen set for a chalice, the pall, purification, corporal and finger towel. Here is a video of what that looks like on a chalice.