Libra

The silver stars and silhouette of Libra the scales are illustrated in this handmade block print. If you imagined all celestial bodies we see in the night sky as mapped onto a sphere (the Celestial Sphere) around our Earth, the ecliptic would be the line you would draw to map the apparent path of the Sun through the various constellations. The ecliptic appears as the dashed line across the print. The word Libra and symbol ♎ appear at the top of the image. The lines linking the constellation appear in silver-on-blue or blue-on-silver as appropriate. Parts of the Scorpius, Hydra and Serpens Caput constellations are visible surrounding Libra. I printed an edition of 15 prints, 9 inches by 7 inches (22.9 cm by 17.8 cm) on lovely, deep blue, handmade, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with silk fibres.

I'm down to two Zodiac constellations. I carved all the animals (or composite creatures) first, the this one (inanimate object) and left the people for last. As RJH is always saying, there is no such thing as a generic person. I managed Aquarius, but considering the underlying myth, to figure out how to make a specific water bearer. I hope this approach works for Virgo and Gemini too.