Student Projects

Student Projects

In all Making and Knowing courses students create a final project. In Craft and Science, students carried out reconstructions of processes in Ms. Fr. 640 and wrote essays, which were published as part of the Ms. Fr. 640 edition, Secrets of Craft and Nature. In other Making and Knowing courses, including Hands-on History, students create a final project that engages with Secrets of Craft and Nature. Browse their projects for ideas about how to engage with Secrets of Craft and Nature and for integrating hands-on activities into your courses.

GU4962: Making and Knowing in Early Modern Europe: Hands-On History (2021-2025)

In Making and Knowing in Early Modern Europe: Hands-On History, undergrad and grad students explore Secrets of Craft and Nature, carry out hands-on lessons, and develop a project that engages with hands-on activities, materials, techniques, and any number of other themes.

Their exploratory and experimental projects serve as companion pieces to Secrets of Craft and Nature or mark out alternative pathways into the edition. Projects range from humorous to scholarly, pedagogical, and public facing. Instructors and students can find in them inspiration and pathways by which to explore Ms. Fr. 640 and its digital edition.

Fall 2025 Student Projects [Syllabus]

In fall 2025, the Making and Knowing Project once again hosted dyer-weaver Bertha Estrada Huipe and her son and assistant Mateo Estrada Rodriguez from Ahuirán, Mexico. Students worked alongside Bertha and Mateo, learning to weave, making natural dyes from brazilwood, indigo, marigold flowers, oak bark, and cochineal, and learning about the many forms of knowledge (environmental, cultural, and tacit) that are embedded in Purépecha dyeing techniques. See these videos from the shared sessions: Video: Meet Bertha and Mateo: Expert Dyers and Weavers, Video: Making Natural Dyes, and Video: Dyeing and Weaving Showcase. Students built on this experience in their projects.

Fall 2024 Student Projects [Syllabus]

In fall 2024, the Making and Knowing Project hosted dyer-weaver Bertha Estrada Huipe and her son and assistant Mateo Estrada Rodriguez from Ahuirán, Mexico. Over 10 days, students worked alongside Bertha and Mateo, making natural dyes from marigold flowers, coconut husks, pomegranate peels, oak bark, and cochineal, and learning about the many forms of knowledge (environmental, cultural, and tacit) that are embedded in Purépecha dyeing techniques. See the video overview and presentation with dyeing session accounts. Students built on this experience in their projects.

Spring 2023 Student Projects [Syllabus]

Spring 2022 Student Projects [Syllabus]

Fall 2021 Student Projects [Syllabus]

Summer 2021 Student Projects [Syllabus]

Making Colors with Students

azurite shells

ENGL84031 / HISTGU4031 / COMS4495: Transforming Texts (Spring 2019)

The Spring 2019 course Transforming Texts: Textual Analysis, Literary Modeling, and Visualization built upon M&K’s previous Digital and Lab Seminars. Geared towards students from the humanities and computer science, the course encouraged the disciplines to work together to analyze, explore, and understand historical texts.

Spring 2019 Student Projects [Syllabus]

2018 Paleography

The Art Technological Source, University of Amsterdam & Making and Knowing (2015–2016)

The Art Technological Source was an 8-week course offered several times in 2015 and 2016 by Dr. Marjolijn Bol in collaboration with the Making and Knowing Project to students enrolled in the University of Amsterdam’s MA programs in either Technical Art History or Conservation and Restoration. Students studied various recipes from BnF Ms. Fr. 640 on the following five topics: 1) tracing and painting on glass, 2) yellow dyes and their applications, 3) dragon’s blood, 4) painters’ varnishes, and 5) sieves.

These student papers have not been edited for style and accuracy, and they rely on an earlier state of the Project’s transcription and translation of Ms. Fr. 640. Nevertheless, they contain useful insights.

Tracing and Painting on Glass

Dragon’s Blood

Yellow Dyes and their Applications

Painters’ Varnishes

Sieves

Metal Conservation, University of Amsterdam & Making and Knowing (2014–2015)

In 2014 and 2015, University of Amsterdam instructors Tonny Beentjes, Ellen van Bork, and Tamar Davidowitz supervised student research projects on recipes from BnF Ms. Fr. 640 on moldmaking and metalworking as part of their coursework for the MA program in Conservation and Restoration.

These student projects have not been edited for style and accuracy, and they rely on an earlier state of the Project’s transcription and translation of Ms. Fr. 640. Nevertheless, they contain valuable research and insights about moldmaking in Ms. Fr. 640.