My interest in poison began at an early age, in a perfectly innocent way. The house I grew up in had secondary glazing creating a space between the windows and the secondary glazing. My parents collected old bits and pieces including bottles and jars. One of their collections was of poison bottles. These bottles were beautiful, brightly coloured blue or green glass, ridges on the side and often the words NOT TO BR TAKEN. At the time, few could read, so the colours were used specifically for containers of poisonous substances. They were an early suncatcher I guess, glistening prettily in the sunlight.
The colours of the bottles inspired the background of this piece, although I went for lighter colours, to give a contrast to the lettering. The original bottle green and cobalt blue of the poison bottles are colours I will return to, I am sure...
What makes something poisonous is largely a matter of the quantity required to produce a negative reaction. The black stuff on burnt toast is toxic in large quantities, even water could be toxic, if we were physically capable of drinking enough. Other substances are far more poisonous and it requires only a tiny amount to make us ill.
Growing up, my parents made sure I knew what poison plants I might encounter looked like. So I knew deadly nightshade, because some would occasionally sprout in our garden. My mum was a herbalist and a nurse so had a great interest in the medicinal use of plants. She valued them as much as she knew which ones to treat with caution.
She taught me how Digitalis, a medicine produced from Foxgloves, was the one medicine a herbalist could never prescribe. The problem with is, if you don't have the precise heart condition it is used to treat, it would instead be likely to kill you. Also, ensuring the exact dose that was required was received was so very difficult with a plant based medicine which had to be used so carefully.... It's much better to see a cardiologist and receive full tests followed by the medicine Digoxin which was developed from Foxgloves.
I definitely find poisons interesting, with their often complicated nature and I know I am not alone. At the Alnwick Castle, they have a special Poison Garden. It contains around 100 different poisonous and toxic plants and can only be accessed on a guided tour. Visitors can not touch or smell any of the plants but even with these precautions, some visitors still faint from the fumes when they visit.
The garden was inspired by a visit to Italy where the Medici family cultivated poisonous plants in the gardens at their properties and used them to kill their enemies. Catherine de Medici had a particularly bad reputation when it came to using poisons and it's not clear if this was deserved or not.
The modern symbol for toxic substances is the skull and crossbones which has long been a symbol that something is deadly, dating back to the late Middle Ages. The skull and crossbones was first used as a symbol for poison in New York in 1829. By the 1870s, it was in use to denote toxicity everywhere. It's connection to pirates meant that in the United States, it was replaced by Mr Yuk because it was felt the skull and crossbones might attract some children who liked pirates. The skull and crossbones is a public domain symbol but Mr Yuk is not.
If you want to see images of some of the things that inspired me, here is my pinterest board.
The pattern for this peyote bracelet is available at Etsy and GJ Beads.
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