Nothing to go wrong here.

Murphy’s law is a popular adage commonly stating “whatever can go wrong, will …” Variants and corollaries exist for assorted skills and daily activities. 

Over the years from experience I’ve developed my own Murphy’s laws for scribes.

1. If you quickly add something to an illumination when you are nicely dressed to go out, you will get paint on your good clothes.

2. If you bring a fresh beverage to your painting table and place it anywhere near your rinse water, your brush will go in it before you finish half your drink.

3. If you make one tiny correction to a scroll it will lead to one more, which leads to one more, and one more until your alarm clock goes off.

4. When you sit comfortably beginning the scroll text with your dip-pen poised for your first stroke…your phone will ring in the other room. If you get up to answer it will be spam or a wrong number. If you do not answer because you are alone and placing gold leaf, which is going rather well for a change, it will be a loved one that needs your help immediately.

5. If you have a month more time than you usually need to complete a scroll, your job or family will suddenly develop a major problem that requires only your special assistance for 4 weeks time.

6. If you find a great gouache sale, when you bring your purchases home you will store it next to the two tubes of the same color you already have. The corollary is, the one color you do not buy will be the one you’re missing.

7. When you briefly leave your painting area and place anything on your chair when you return you will sit on it ruining either your clothes or the exemplar you placed there.

8. If you leave out your completed vellum scroll when you return your dog will have eaten it. After all, it’s just another rawhide chew.

9. When you work on two scrolls at the same time your favorite or necessary tool will be next to the other scroll.

10. When you combine two colors to make the exact color you want for a large area, you will run out of paint shortly before completely covering the space.

These are my Murphy’s laws for scribes. I’m sure you have your own. I would love to learn them and how you developed them. Please, comment below. Inquiring minds want to know.

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