The theme of The Chutney Preserves this year is the number 7, as it had been running for 7 years now. So all the artists involved will be making artwork / sideshows / puppets around the theme of 7.
7 for a tale never to be told
One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told
I used to love seeing magpies before I found out about this nursery rhyme. Now I have to salute every time a see a magpie on its own to ward off the sorrow.
I will be working with Charlotte Squire in the Uncanny Kitchen. Last year I presented the feral parrot and this year I will be working with another bird by embodying the spirit of the much maligned Magpie. As the BBC webpage on birds puts it Magpies are so despised in the UK that they "would probably have an Asbo slapped on them if they were teenagers."
However they are the most intelligent of birds and only seem to have this bad reputation in the UK, as in the rest of the world the magpie is often a symbol of good fortune.
I will be baking empty medieval style pie crusts (or coffins as they were known). As in the nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' when the pie was filled with live blackbirds. My "Mag Pies" won't be filled with birds but with secrets of magpies.
