Silver Crescent - Fortune, Part 2

Getting down to business...

I went with Simona to Claytime in Shrewsbury which is a paint your own pottery studio.  This place would be my base of operations for May and June....and is like five minutes from Fortune's house and a frequent hang out for her household.  If you did not think I was paranoid she would just burst in while I was in the middle of painting, you are wrong.

In our first visit, Simona and I wandered around looking for a plate with a nice, large edge and a shallow bowl.  I didn't find what I wanted.  We wandered around some more, chatted, and then we find one.  It's the only one in stock, wasn't too big, and looked like it would work.

Having only done paint your own pottery twice before, I needed to re-familiarize myself with how this process worked.  After picking a base coat of a light sand/ neutral color, I determined the brushes were not going to cut it for the detail work I needed to do.  Even the adult bushes (re: smaller than the gigantic ones the kids use) were not going to give me crisp lines and would make the portrait sheer hell to paint.  In this first visit, we finished the base coat and I added my marker's mark (a blue daisy) to the back over the price (in case that didn't burn off).  This was used for the identifier to the piece so I didn't have to write my name on it.  Turns out an identifier wouldn't even be needed, which I'll get to later.

Graphite pencils were a no-go for tracing.  Claytime cannot guarantee all of it will burn off in the kiln, so they suggest using felt tip markers.  The other valuable piece of information Simona was able to pull out of them was I could use watercolor pencils to draw on the place which would then be hidden.  I had no idea these even existed and of course Marieta came to my rescue with these.  Thyra also introduced me to chalk paper (instead of the graphite transfer paper I was planning on using) which let me sketch normally instead of making a mess on the plate itself.  This was INSTRUMENTAL in getting most of the designs on the plate itself.

I joke that I spent hours at Claytime, but I also spent a fair amount of time sketching at home, transferring the designs, and generally yelling at paper.  The other thing I did?  Layout design and measuring.  I have never done so much math and measuring for a scroll in my entire life! The layout I decided on relayed on the circles being radially symmetrical and their background sections with stripes to be proportional.  First this meant the entire lip edge of the plate had to be measured and marked off evenly.  I used a template for the circles and the border/wheel on Fortune's heraldry.  Everything marked off was done in watercolor pencil.

More measuring...more measuring....

I begin the sketching of the leaf and vine motif and I'm happy with it.  I go to transfer it to the plate and it's waaaaaay too small.  My solution was to repeat the vine pattern to fill up the space.  To me, this made it feel like the color had more to contrast to and struck a nice balance.  This also left me room for the tiny bee on the right panel.

It's at this point that I started to put the paint on the plate....

Embarrassingly, I had a flair up of pain from my lingering tennis elbow issue (hence the arm brace).  Good news - when you paint with friends, they can take progress pictures for you!

Claytime was enormously accommodating to my long painting sessions and spreading out on the table at points.  It turns out that when you're happy to share a table with other people (I'll get to that) and you behave like a normal human, they love you.  After each session, I took the plate home and thought about the next steps.

You can see the lines from the layout design.  These were all done in watercolor pencil (thin lines).  The thick lines are the first instances of the paint going on.  It looks like blue now, but it will darken once fired.

A few sessions in and I have some clear progress.  Most of the staff now knows about "the plate" and I have one regular gal on staff who knows me on sight.

So many lines to paint.....so many....

Most of the "easy" part is done.

And now we get to the part where I dreaded working on this...the protrait.  It's been said elsewhere in my blog that I hate drawing people.  I feel like a massive art-impostor trying to draw people because I cannot make them look right.  The amount of sketches I threw out that no one saw or that were drawn,had comments,hated, and then threw out are numerous.  Part of my problem was fear of the derp face (though it's period) and the other part was trying to blend a real like protrait style with the majolica style.  I ended up going with just a majolica portrait after receiving some wise and balanced input.

Sometimes you need to eat junk food and use your light table as a desk while watching  HGTV to be properly inspired.

The hair under went some revisions at the Quintavia Business meeting, but this was the most successful sketch.  I opted to do Fortune's hair uncovered as that's how she wears it to events usually and the bun is one of her signature styles for no-nonsense mischief.  Most of the plates depicted a veil or hat of some sort.  That idea was discarded after disastrous attempts of putting a coronet on previous sketches.  I used my light pad to traces the curly-queues of the banner because at this point it was 10pm and I had to go paint the next day.  The lettering hand on the banner is a humanist.  The portrait was transferred using chalk paper (my savior) and I was then good to go!

Take that, tennis elbow!  I'm mostly free of your sabotage!

Lookin' good!

The next steps were the tedious parts: the scales, the brush lining, and the signatures.  Remember when I said I would share a table with other people?  Yeah.  One session of painting I was at the end of a table near and aisle where one kid would constantly hit the back of my chair as they ran by.  (Child running in a pottery studio...think on that....)  The fifth or so time it happened, I think I actually swore because my brush skipped.  At that point, the dad of said free running child finally noticed what the kid was doing (because up until now he's been wrangling two other screaming terrors).  And lo, holy hell was reigned down on said child by their parent and many apologies were made.  I was actually more embarrassed and apologized for swearing.  The next session I was at, I sat with Captain Shakey-Table himself.  I kept my expletives to myself this time.

Boooyah!  This baby is DONE!!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaay!  I'm dooooooooone!

My artist mark.

My Claytime staff friend snapped this photo for me. :)

I may have said to the staff if it breaks in the kiln, I'll cry. 

Weeks pass and then I get this photo in a text message from Simona who went to go pick it up.

Dear god, I'm a lunatic for doing this....

But wait...there's more!  I decided this needed a scroll for the royals to sign the week before it was due (in between another scroll project and silk banner painting).

Eva wrote a lovely sonnet for this because she is amazing.

Calligraphy hand - Humanist by me

Words - Eva Woderose

Congrats, Fortune!  May you continue to smile upon Quintavia.

Special thanks to:

The ideas department: Simona bat Leon

Claytime painting company: Simona bat Leon, Marieta Charay
Sketch consultants: Nataliia Evganova, Eva Woderose, Thyra Eiriksdottir, Marieta Charay
Sounding board: Sergei Rozvad syn
Cheering section: House Strangewayes, Darostur, assorted members of Sharc and Lochleven

Silver Crescent - Fortune, Part 1

Sometimes you find inspiration for a scroll.  Sometimes, other people brainstorm a crazy idea and you're the first person they think that might actually do it.  Okay everyone!  It's story time that has been in the making since March.  Grab a snack and hold on to your hats...

*Full disclaimer - I had fun with this scroll and would have asked to do it on my own anyways.*

The background: In which our intrepid scribe does not see the bad idea bus that hit her, backed up, and ran her over again.

I have a weekly sewing group I hang with (and sometimes we even sew).  It was on such a Monday that Simona walked downstairs into the sewing room where we were all gathers and let me know that she "had a great idea" and "got the Signet to agree to give me the assignment".   First of all I'm confused....then I'm intrigued....then I remember the backdrop for Edward and Thyra's second reign and yell "what the hell did I get volun-told to do this time?"

The glee and mischief in Simona's eyes gave me such dread that I almost ran.  Anytime anyone is that pleased with themselves, you just know you're in for it.  To paraphrase - "Fortune's getting her Silver Crescent!!!  We (meaning House Strangewayes) had a great idea to do a majolica plate and thought you'd be the best person to ask!"

It's at this point I think, sure I can do that....and then I see what a majolica plate is.  It is the bane of my artful existence....drawing people.  Not even just people, big honkin' front and center portrait that is the goddamn centerpiece of the entire plate.   I am placated and assured that and I quote "Meh, it's period to make them derpy.  You'll be fiiiiiiiiine."  Famous last words.

Research: In which our intrepid scribe stares into the derp and the derp stares back.

Simona helped me out by finding museum pictures of real maiolica (sometimes spelled majolica) which were heavily decorated plates that gained the most popularity in the 15th c Italy, but were also present in England earlier in the century.  The real plates were tin glazed; featuring very vibrant colors and displayed fanciful art of either a historical or mythical variety.  The deep blue caught my eye on a lot of the plates and I decided that would be my focus color.  Of the pictures I was given, I chose various element that I thought would work for a scroll.

The design: In which our intrepid scribe starts to make with the ideas.

The first plate - I liked the idea of the circles which would hold the order symbol, Fortune's heraldry for her Grant of Arms, and what I initially though would be a circle for each of the signatures of TRM.  Things changed over the course of the project.  Fortune received her GoA with her Court Barony at Panteria which I no longer needed to include, but since Panteria was in May I had already made the decision to include the arms.  Late into the project, it was suggested to put the signatures on one circle and actually write the damn date on the plate since I had a design change which would have left it out.

The second plate - The least derp of the portraits and my inspiration.  I found it easier to do a right facing portrait for some reason so I stuck with it.  The scroll would also serve to display Fortune's name and the award title.

The third plate - This is where all the edge design came from.  The pattern was very regular, not too busy, and most importantly looked like it could be something I could do in a reasonable amount of time without fussing with it to death.

The timeline:  In which our intrepid scribe begins to contemplate her fate.

I didn't start the core work on the scroll until late April and had a firm deadline to have it completed two weeks before GNEW.  This would allow for the 7-10 days for the plate to fire and I needed to have it done before I left for Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium.  I did not want this kind of project hanging over my head.  Oh, and I was still 1) actively working on live scroll assignments for the kingdom, 2) working as the Backlog Deputy to the EK Signet, and 3) also working as the Quintavia MoAS.  Somewhere in there I also have husband, real life work, and a personal life.  Good times.

To be continues in Part 2....

Apollo's Arrow - Nergis

This is my first Apollo's Arrow (helping with Mikjall's for wording doesn't count) and I was happy to know that the recipient was a friend of Mikjall so I could pick his brain for ideas.

The biggest challanges for this scroll were two fold: 1) Finding a Turkish/Persian source for an archer that specifically did not contain a sagittary (which is the symbol for the grant level archer award) and 2) wording.

The source page was one of a few options from a Mongolian source scouted out by Marieta.  I felt the illuminations were close enough to the feel of the Turkish pictures (and single Mamluk one) I'd scouted to give a correct sense of how to draw the figures.  I found one that I felt would work (a group of archers squaring off against a dragon) and tailored it to a single figure and the dragon.

Now for the truly hard part - words.  I messaged my closest poetry expert, Countess Marguerite (current King's Bard) for ideas for Islamic or Middle Eastern styles of poetry, because like an idiot, I thought this was something I could just whip up and have it done.  

First off all, Marguerite is a treasure trove of poetry research.  She found a few examples of Turkish and Persian poems and how they were constructed.  She gave me all the tools for a great jumping off point and a taste of things that could be a rabbit hole of digging through medieval poetry.  Thankfully, deadlines prevented any rabbit holes. :)

I chose to write a masnavi (also called mathnawi).  This typed of poem was written by Persian, Kurdish, Turkish, and Urdu cultures and has a few poetic variants (usually differing in style and content).  The mathnawi features rhyming couplets (aa/bb/cc pattern) with lines of 10-11 syllables.  Typically these poems can be as long as they need to, but I wanted to keep it short to make sure I had time to work on the illumination.  I ended up choosing to do an Arabic mathnawi (also called muzdawidj) which differs in that instead of couplets it uses a triplet rhyming pattern (aaa/bbb/ccc).  The original page I was looking at didn't make it clear if it also followed the 11 and sometimes 10 syllable line pattern, but after checking in the Marguerite, we agreed it likely would (later, supporting pages I found also agreed with this).  With a bit of peer editing for word choice, I had a poem.  The arms don't follow the poetic pattern and I was fine not messing with it.

Recipient: Nergis bint Mustafa
Award: Apollo's Arrow with Award of Arms
Hand: faux-Arabic script

Words: Arabic mathnawi poem by me
Specs: gouache on pergamentata, Schmincke gold watercolor
Source: (in process of redoing the link)

Words:

"To our great and wise rulers, words of praise came
of a fierce archer by the noble name
of Nergis bint Mustafa. They proclaim:

An Apollo's Arrow they would bestow
unto her. For she did nurture and grow
interest in archery; showing skill with her bow. 

Ionnes, Sultan, Honig Sultana fair
to their beloved East far and wide declare
Nergis would also be given arms to bear: 

Per chevron purpure and vert on a chevron above a

raven migrant to chief argent three bunches of grapes leaved proper."

Side by side comparison of the original and my scroll.  This is pre-clean ups on my scroll as there were a few spots that needed scraping (like where my elbow went into the green paint) and I hadn't erased the lines yet.

Sketch of art and finished calligraphy.  I had to re-tool the first line due to leaving out a word and had to cover for it.  It still managed to follow the poetic rules and it worked.

Close up of finished art and calligraphy before I added the page border.  

Something about the faux-Arabic hand makes it super fun.  I will say I sit there and work through permutations of the letters until I get a good picture of what the word itself should look like.  All in all, I'm proud of how this one turned out considering the art style is not in my comfort zone.

Scroll Wording - Mikjall's Apollo's Arrow

This was done for Yule last year (2016).  The assignment was given Baron Robert (currently Baron of Bergental) and he asked for some wording help from our local household Duchess.  Long story short, Yule creeps up on everyone and I find myself giving Viking poetry/wording a try for reals this time.

I went directly to the Viking Answer Lady for help (http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/meters.shtml) to see if there was anything appropriate I could use or adapt for  an Apollo's Arrow.

I learned two things: kenning are amazing complex/deep and the kenning I found for arrows is bad ass! :)  I am no poet, but I tip my hat to all those SCA Skalds out there currently writing poetry.  I think my meter is a bit off, but it's something to work on.

The wording is adapted from the Karlevi stone in Oland, ca. 1000 C.E (see above link for the original).

Tree of Thrud of hostilities,
the man whom the greatest virtues accompanies
-- most men knew that --
Mikjáll bogmaðr called
a more upright chariot-Vidur
of wondrous-wide ground of Skadi
Brion and Anna ring givers
Bestow Sun's War-needles

Cheat sheet of kenning from the above:

• Tree of Thrud of hostilities - tree of the valkyrie = warrior
• a more upright chariot-Vidur of wondrous-wide ground of Endil = captain/king of a ship/king of sea vessel (changed from Endil  to Skadi in an effort to move the theme from the sea to the forest to change "captain" to be similar to "ranger")
• ring givers = king/queen
• war-needles = arrows,  Sun's War-Needles was used to give the "Apollo's Arrow" name more of a viking feel. 

Seamstress to the Crown - Svea

Recipient: Svea the Short-Sighted
Award: Seamstress to the Crown
Hand: humanist bookhand
Specs: guache on pergamentata
Source: http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=26600

My scroll with a print out of the original for comparison.  Final scroll was 5"x7".

Close up of the finished piece.

I felt like this piece has a lot of things going right for it.  The hand was light and airy enough, most of the capital letters looked correct (including most of the S capitals).  The scaling I think went fine except for the illuminated capital F which is a tad too small.  Measuring out the F to the predetermined block size went better than expected and all the guoache and shmincke gold cooperated.

Scroll text was fleshed out for reading in court:

"While the skill of our artisans is hailed through the Known World, it is also their generosity that makes them and by extension, the East truly great. For her creation of largesse for our kingdom do We, Brion the King and Anna the Queen name Svea the Short-Sighted as a Seamstress to the Crown. Done on this 25th day in March A.S. 51 at the Thawing of the Mud."

Vigil Book - Kennimathor

I was asked by the talented crew putting together the vigil book for Kennimathor Geirrson to help with the illuminations.  Ken (like Matthias) is of the knightly lineage of Earl Seannan an Chasur so this post has a few familiar heraldic beasties.

Edward and Colin (the knights of Matthias and Ken respectively) had the same team create their vigil books, so both books followed the same format: (1) what I call the "preamble" praising the one called to vigil, (2) the recipient's heraldic charge with a shield, chain, helm, and mantle, (3) the knightly lineage, (4) family/household heraldry.  I tried to keep that the same for Matthias and Kennimathor as well.

I lovingly refer to this as the "project of the secret court name person, by the people with secret court names".  Thyra gets a pass on that since her name can be spelled with a "thorn" instead of a "th".

Vigil Book for Njal "Kennimathor Geirrson" Virtanen

Leather journal by Johannes Mikkinen (called Jenson)

Calligraphy by Thyra Eiriksdottir

Illumination by me - AEsa feilinn Jossursdottir (called Feilinn)

Gouache and ink on hot press paper.

Close up of the front cover of the book by Jenson.

Thyra's calligraphy and text based off Njal's Saga.

Heraldry of Njal Virtanen, called Kennimathor.

I'm very proud of the heraldry for this page for a few reasons.  When I was originally looking at the exemplars from Colin's book and period sources, having the acanthus leaves and helm on a shield for a viking persona...just didn't fit right.  Thyra suggested using the Sutton Hoo helmet for the helm and my husband, Sergei, suggested Odin's ravens as supporters instead of the leaves.   I'll nit-pick about the ravens not quiiiite being even, but considering I was now drawing into the bound book instead of the unbound pages I'm not going to complain too much.  The aesthetics were right on the mark and considering a new helm in the style of the Sutton Hoo helm was part of Ken's vigil regalia made me flail like a fan-girl.

Bonus - heraldry with straight lines!  *scribal swoon of joy*

Knightly lineage.

Gryff's stags continue to haunt me as the most difficult of the lineage shields.  The stag on the left says "Look at me, for I am refined and elegant!!!"  The stag on the right (much like the right stag in Matthias' book) says "Derp" to me. *sigh*

My favorite of the bunch continues to be Gregor's lion.  Despite all the fussy elements (claws and fluff), my brain has an easier time making it look correct for some reason.  Pigs are hard to draw (Colin), but then again so are greyhounds with a border of fleur de lys (Edward from Matthias' book).  Both of these venerable gentleman get the squinty-eye of hard to draw heraldry honorable mention.

Heraldry for the Household of Lochleven.

I had a great time with this book and both Thyra and Jenson were a joy to collaborate with.  Congrats, Ken!

Queen for a Month - Feilinn's viking dress

After the Edward III and Thyra II World Tour #2, the sewing ladies of the Worshipful Company decided that each person was going to get a new fancy outfit in as if they were "Queen for a Month".  Thyra was my project manager and Marieta was my concept designer for this one.

What did I want?  Cute viking...and a wolf...also blue...and something that fit.

What this meant was we finally delved into my stash of fabric and made a full viking under dress and apron.  The main component of the apron was something termed "Fantasy Viking" in the SCA...I wanted a wolf design right on the apron.  I had found a design I liked on Pintrest from a million years ago (in which I also found examples of Thyra and Aikaterine in lovely viking dresses when they were queens).

This is where I confess this is my third/fourth embroidery project and biggest applique of the bunch.  I was taught how to do a split stitch specifically for this project.  I did all the hand embroidery for this with the exception of the sun detail on the wolf's collar (done by Thyra) and the eye detail (done by Marieta).  The wolf is 30% merino wool felt, layered on itself, and the apron is either a very light weight wool or very wool-like linen.  The design is based off a Fenris wolf design from the depths of Pintrest, edited to remove the rope fetters/shackles on the paws.  I kept the collar and leash to add color and movement.  The thin bits of felt were tacked down with fusing and pinned in place while I started the stitching process.  Dot details are (terrible) french knots.

Queen for a Month: Wolf Applique
Wool felt stitched with wool thread.

Yard stick shown for scale.

Close up of the stitching and detail work.  I have been told I have the tiniest stitches.  My favorite is the gold eye bead on the wolf.