Three Blind Mice (b.5 January 2011)

19th June 2011

Another stroll back down Memory Lane as we revisit a fun piece I made just after New Year as part of my Fairy Tails series.

The nursery rhyme, Three Blind Mice, bears repeating in full, and it has a very interesting story behind it.

Three blind mice, three blind mice,
See how they run, see how they run,
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a thing in your life,
As three blind mice?

It has been suggested that the farmer's wife refers to Mary I, King Henry VIII's daughter, and the three blind mice to three Protestant bishops whom she had executed during her 5 year reign. However, the three bishops were burnt at the stake, rather than blinded and dismembered, and a version of the rhyme only appeared some 50 years after her death. The current version was first published in 1842.

I created three pairs of glasses using jewellery wire and then filled then with black polymer clay. The sticks are painted and cut down cocktail sticks, all with red tips and black handles. Two of the mice have lost part of their tails - the third is determined to hold on to his tail, and is waving his stick about to ward off the farmer's wife.

The farmer's wife had to be a cat (of course), and I get her a wonderful miniature meat cleaver I had bought on eBay from Beautifully Handmade. It has a metal blade and a wood handle - marvellous!

This set has now gone off to live with a lovely couple I met at Harlow Carr Gardens at the end of April, but there will be many more pieces in the Fairy Tail series soon!

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