Bayla ~ bellaquill ~ quillful ~ Ianthis
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ianthis.bsky.social
Bayla ~ bellaquill ~ quillful ~ Ianthis
@ianthis.bsky.social
220 followers 210 following 170 posts
strings everywhere... I do ancient lyre, ancient fiber arts, modern fiber arts, Greek and Latin. all pronouns

check out my youtube https://www.youtube.com/Ianthis, and blog https://quillful.neocities.org/ where I host my projects
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ianthis.bsky.social
After a couple weeks of 0-3 blossoms a day steadily, my bed bloomed in earnest and gave me 17 today!
In my hand I hold a large pile of plucked saffron crocuses. They are pale purple flowers striped with darker purple with bright yellow stigmas and bright red stamens poking out. A pile of saffron crocuses spread out across a glass table. You can see the inside of the crocuses, showing off the yellow stamens and bright read saffron threads. Saffron flowers broken down into constituent parts. On the upper left, there are some pressed petals. Next to them are some dried petals and below them fresh petals. On a paper towel on the right there are piles of plucked yellow stamens and red threads/stigmas in various stages of drying.
November 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
my bounty grows
I hold three plucked crocus blossoms crocus blossoms broken down on a piece of paper towel into threads, stamens, and petals
November 2, 2025 at 6:58 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
let's fucking goooooooooooooooooo
An open saffron crocus. The crocus has pale purple petals striped with dark purple, three orange-red stigmas (the so-called saffron 'thread'), and three yellow stamens. The three red saffron threads lie on a paper towel with the picked flower beside them.
October 31, 2025 at 5:06 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
almost a bloom!!!
a furled purple crocus bud
October 29, 2025 at 9:37 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
My fave Greek cheeses: two mice names, and this bit from Lucian sigma vs. tau
καὶ οὐ μόνον γε τοὺς τυχόντας ἀδικεῖ, ἀλλ᾿ ἤδη καὶ τῷ μεγάλῳ βασιλεῖ, ᾧ καὶ γῆν καὶ θάλασσαν εἶξαί φασι καὶ τῆς αὑτῶν φύσεως ἐκστῆναι, τὸ δὲ καὶ τούτῳ ἐπιβουλεύει καὶ Κῦρον αὐτὸν ὄντα Τῦρόν τινα ἀπέφηνεν.
An entry into a glossary: Τυροφλύφος ~ Tyrogluphus; Cheese-scooper. The father of Embasichytros. From τυρός, cheese, and γλύφω, to carve, scoop An entry into a glossay: Τυρφάγος, ὁ ~ Tyrophagus; Cheese-eater. A mouse warrior. From τυρός, cheese, and φάγος, glutton
August 12, 2025 at 3:32 AM
ianthis.bsky.social
eeeeeeeeeee!!
I am holding the 1896 Oxford Classical text of Opera Homeri. The cover is red with gold trim, a gold seal, and ΟΜΗΡΟΣ written in gold.
July 17, 2025 at 11:42 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
yum yum soup
A bathtub filled with soaking alpaca fleece.
May 13, 2025 at 6:19 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
They were also midway through building this installation for a new Murakami exhibit and now I gotta get back some time soon to see it...
A traditional style Japanese building under construction in a large atrium.
May 12, 2025 at 12:06 AM
ianthis.bsky.social
There was also an amazing exhibit of North African jewelry and textiles (around 17th-20th c.), much of which embroidered by Jewish artisans
An 1800s Algerian beniqa headdress worn by a Jewish women at the mikveh before her wedding. It is richly embroidered with metallic gold thread and colored flowers. Two Algerian tansifa, Jewish headwraps, hanging on the wall. Both are richly embroidered in gold, read, and blue in intricate motifs. Closeup of a 17-18th c. curtain embroidered by Jewish artisans. Strips of colorful woven silk are sewn to a strip of linen. The linen is embroidered with gold floral motifs topped by a star of David.
May 11, 2025 at 4:01 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
I visited the statue making the news rounds for its imminent repatriation and was delighted to find these very realistic tassels at the corners of his garment
A bronze tassel at the corner of a draped garment. The portion connecting the tassel to the very corner has been lost. Another tassel against the leg of the statue. Once again, the connection between the garment corner and the tassel has been lost.
May 11, 2025 at 3:56 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
Went to the CMA and visited lots of faves. My new intense appreciation for textiles had me staring for ten minutes at the layers of this cartonnage + the linen that the Fayum portraits (old faves) are painted on.
A close-up on a cartonnage mummy cover showing layers and layers of linen scraps. The different pieces have different levels of fineness, though they are all tabby weaves. A different close-up shot showing primarily one layer on linen and a second layer showing behind some holes. The top layer is a balanced tabby, but the layer behind it is faced. A close-up of a bit of painted linen. It is woven in a balanced tabby, but the horizontal (weft?) threads are about twice as thick as the vertical threads.
May 11, 2025 at 3:52 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
Fiber fest haul! My goal was mostly to try spinning new fibers. I got an alpaca fleece to process, a merino/silk blend (not new but I loved it so much last year), a cashmere/merino/tussah blend, and some cotton. Soooo much softness
A small bag of brown ginned cotton, a pile of white roving, two braids of golden-brown roving, and a large plastic bag full of light brown alpaca fleece. Also a tuxedo cat sniffing at the piles of fiber.
April 27, 2025 at 7:33 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
I didn't get any pics of the students doing this, but a few of them copied me in molding their felt over tinfoil molds into shapes, including mini hats! (mine pictured below). Hats of course being one of the primary uses of felt in ancient Greece.
Two miniature felted hats. one is pink and blue and shaped like a sunhat, and one is a dark greek witch hat.
March 28, 2025 at 12:52 AM
ianthis.bsky.social
spinning with fresh natural dyed fiber.... all part of the experimental process
My hand is stained heavily on the fingers and lighting on the palm with pink dye
March 26, 2025 at 6:39 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
You wish you had an fraction of my swag rn
A warp-weighted loom made of plywood leans again the wall. The loom is warped with a blue, yellow, and pink striped warp weighed down with pyramid-shaped clay loom weights.
February 23, 2025 at 7:22 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
solidarity with the cat-having weavers of a couple millennia ago
February 18, 2025 at 1:42 AM
ianthis.bsky.social
I made some valentines for my department. Crocheted heart pockets from hand-spun yarn, and the cards have little joke pickup lines based on everybody's area of research 💙
A pile of pale blue crocheted wool hearts with pockets. Each pocket has a small card in it with a name of the recipient written on it.
February 14, 2025 at 4:18 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
Is it actual Anacreon or the Anacreontea? Stephanus' editio princeps of the Anacreontea (published as the odes of Anacreon) also had some other lyric poets at the end, including Sappho, and one of the owners of my library's copy wrote an extra sappho into the back at some point
The back page of an old book with Sappho 31 hand-written onto it in ink.
February 9, 2025 at 2:00 AM
ianthis.bsky.social
don't judge me for not owning a swift or niddy-noddy or ball-winder
A skein of blue yarn is looped around my knee. I am holding a small ball of yarn that I am in the process of winding by hand off the skein.
December 20, 2024 at 8:58 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
new spin is some mystery fiber from the buy-the-once wall at my LYS. Lovely turquoise with a nice shine
I am holding a turkish spindle with a small turtle of turquoise handspun single-ply yarn wound on to it. The yarn is attached to some unspun roving.
December 17, 2024 at 4:07 AM
ianthis.bsky.social
Please don't ask me how my finals are going
A plate of sugar cookies in various cookie-cutter shapes. The front few cookies are hand-cut in the shape of ancient greek lyres.
December 12, 2024 at 10:31 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
Whistle while you work 💙
A digital line drawing of two ancient Greek women over a pale blue background. One woman it spinning thread with a distaff and drop spindle. The other sits beside her playing a lyre and leaning her head on the other's shoulder. The two gaze fondly at one another.
December 2, 2024 at 2:16 AM
ianthis.bsky.social
A charming flock of wingless Erotes enjoying the Nile.
Source: collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/5335...
A white marble statuette of a personification of the Nile. He rests on a decorated base. 15 small wingless cupids sit on and around him in various poses. The base is decorated with a Nile scene of river animals, inclusing hippopotami, ibises, a crocodile, and a dog.
November 27, 2024 at 2:17 AM
ianthis.bsky.social
Since everybody is posting gifting ideas, if you are a knitter or have one in your life, consider my ancient Greek colorwork hat patterns Penelope and Pindar, available for a couple bucks on Ravelry!

www.ravelry.com/patterns/lib...
www.ravelry.com/patterns/lib...
A photograph of me wearing a knit hat. The hat is styled after an ancient Greek black-figure vase. A warp-weighted loom is worked in black and white colorwork on a terracotta background. A knit hat modeled after a Greek vase. A temple with a statue within it is worked in white and orange colorwork over a black background. The bottom of the hat is decorated with a black and white meander pattern. A phot of the same knit hat. On this side, there is a horse and a Nike crowning the horse with a wreath worked in orange and white.
November 20, 2024 at 6:22 PM
ianthis.bsky.social
In honor of being close to 200 sales, I want to replug my co-written reader for the Batrachomyomachia! Do you like Greek? frogs? mice? Homer? parodies? Read this text with facing vocab, grammar notes, and ILLUSTRATIONS :3
Available as a FREE pdf or POD paperback! quillful.neocities.org/commentaries
A black and white line drawing of a series of mice in various stages of putting on armor. The mice have helmets made of nuts, reed breastplates and greaves, pot-lid shields, and needle spears. A mouse on the right is collecting reeds for the armor.
October 1, 2024 at 9:31 PM