Over the last few months (during lock down) I have been studying medieval illumination and coming to some understanding about the clever methods that were used to render life-like, imaginative and elaborate motifs and scenes for illuminating texts in medieval manuscripts. This presentation will draw attention to sample exemplars which provided me with the inspiration to explore the patterns of production. I will also showcase some of the work I’ve done based on this research. Ostensibly, the jumping off place was the decision to create an “illuminated manuscript” of the 12 Days of Christmas carol, a medieval carol whose provenance is unknown. What is clear to me is that producing an illuminated manuscript in medieval times was a coordinated, systematized procedure, with a structure and a sequence of steps that can be, to greater or lesser extent emulated in a current setting. If a decorative process is understood it is easier to reproduce over several iterations. Using slides and discussion I hope to demonstrate just this sort of aesthetic production.