Laurel for a Woman of Many Talents

When I found out my dear friend Morwenna was being offered the Laurel, I did a happy dance and then asked if I could do the scroll. 

And then promptly went and asked Signet because we do not accept assignments without Signet's blessing! 

But I was granted the assignment, and I took it happily. 

Then the hard work began. Morwenna has a very robust early period persona. Her encampments are truly enchanted ground - nothing modern. Nothing glaringly out of place. She creates a beautiful space and I knew her scroll had to reflect that, to honor her properly. 

So, that meant vellum and that meant goat skin. Do you know how long it takes to get goat skin vellum? I do now, and I am thankful for fast shipping. 

The source was an easy choice - Book of Durrow. It's her region, it's her time period, and it's just a simply beautiful book. I had full run of this assignment... words, calligraphy, and illumination. I went to my Laurel, Eloise, and sort of cried for help. It's overwhelming to be handed that whole weight, and I understand now why so many Peerage scrolls are a team of people. It's a lot. 

We talked, and she agreed to do words, and because we are who we are, that meant a total of 67 words for the scroll. That's not a lot when you start talking about a Peerage scroll. There are words that must be included, and often the text is long and elaborate to truly praise the recipient. However I knew two things - one, she'd appreciate a scroll that was 1:1 and her persona and two, Eloise and I love small scrolls so, super short scroll text was our only option. 

Eloise's words were perfect, eloquent and allowed me to use the letters as they existed in the manuscript which made my job a great deal easier as now I only had to design the carpet page and not also the lettering. 

The end result was this - a two page layout, 1:1 for the original book size on goat skin vellum with modern ink and gouaches. I did deviate slightly from the original and mixed the barest amount of shell gold (gold with a clear binder) to both deepen the yellow to better match the source, and to add a hint of shine in the right light. 

I simplified the filler illustration around the letters, to give a little more visual space so it didn't outweigh the carpet page. The knot work and medallion are from separate pages within the text, and the corners were done to look like leaves and stems, to mimic the laurel leaves in the center. Her arms were added inside the G, replacing the knot work that was there. The larger letters are all gouache, and I used a sepia ink instead of black ink to emphasize the illustration. 

I now have a dedicated brush for red dots, and that amuses me greatly. 

This is the second scroll I've done on vellum - the first was an AoA for a very dear friend of mine. This is the largest scroll I've done on vellum though, the first measuring 5"x7" and this measuring 8"x10". There is ample framing space around the illustration and text, and I look forward to seeing it framed. 

The presentation in Court: 

A close up of the G in progress, with a ruler for scale: 

Laurel for a Musician

 Every scribe gets to the point where they know they can do a Peerage scroll, and then suddenly realize they could be doing a Peerage scroll for someone they know really well and have been friends with for a long time. 

Well, that happened to me! I was asked to do the illumination on a very large scroll for Ysabel's elevation to the Laurel. 

Of course I said yes!... and then promptly made sure that Signet had signed off on this, because there are protocols in the East that we do not skirt around!

Thus my first Peerage scroll - period in text and size, space for minimal illustration, and no gold, because again - following the extant examples. Exactly my cup of tea. 

Two glorious pages, multiple scribes and wordsmiths working on it, and I was to bring the images to life. I was able to use a good deal of the manuscript for my references, except for the letter M. So, I created one based on the other letters of that style in the manuscript. (thank you to photoshop and my tablet) 

In truth, I cannot remember what
letter the shell was to signify.

 

The letter M

The letter G

Ysabel dancing and playing
for the crowd -This is based on
garb she actually owns

Their Majesties Brennan and
Caoilfhionn

The letter C, 
badge of the Order of the Laurel

I greatly enjoyed this project - the research was great and the whole project was a LOT of fun. I was, also, a huge bundle of nerves the whole time. I'd never done anything of this scope before, let alone painted on pages with THAT MUCH TEXT before. I could not screw it up. Thankfully, I didn't have to scrape it once. 

Ysabel's outfit is based on clothes she actually owns and has worn while playing before. Their Majesties clothing follows the example in the book. The Laurel Leaves were substituted but based on the same size and spacing as a letter O in the original text. Thyra helped form some of letters as well, and suggested references for others. 

Pergamenata, various lightfast and waterproof inks with modern gouache. 

Words by Gundormr Dengir

Calligraphy by Thyra Eiriksdottir

Illustration by Aaradyn Ghyoot

Humilite

 Humilite

gouache and gold leaf on goat skin vellum

Several years ago I did a piece entitled The Monster at the End of this Manuscript, a 1:1 piece on vellum where I did my first attempt at gold leaf on vellum rather than perg. Building on what I learned from that piece, I embarked on my second piece - Orientalis. This is the third piece in the project, Humilite

The original piece is from the Somme le Roi - c1279, Add MS 28162 f5v, British Library

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Add_MS_28162

Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 255 x 185 mm (text space 165 x 125 mm).

As before, this section is part of a 4 square page layout depicting Virtues. The first few pages of this manuscript are carpet pages depicting the Virtues. 

In between these pieces I've continued to be an active scribe for the Kingdom, as well as created pieces for personal pleasure and as parts of fundraisers for various things. 

My piece:

For clarity, I created this piece in early 2020, and stopped in Sept 2020. 

Changes I made:

• Continuing the theme, I chose to create this as a stand alone piece, rather than a part of a larger piece.
• This I kept the same as in the manuscript, because humility is important for an artist to remember as their skill grows. 
• I did remove the fur detail from the inside of her cloak. 
• Also as before, this was painted with Holbein, Windsor-Newton, and M. Graham gouache, and was inked with Pelican ink.
• The gold was underpainted with carmine, and is 24k leaf. 
• The rough outline of the piece was traced, the fine detail was done freehand

Issues I am aware of:

• My blackwork here is messy, and I have determined that the black I have does not rehydrate multiple times. It has become grainy and requires mulling each time. I didn't mull it enough this time. 
• The gold in the original is tooled, and I didn't achieve the look I wanted last time so I wondered if painting would give a similar effect. It does not, but I think the underpainting of carmine did a lot to make the piece richer. On the next piece I will underpaint with carmine and then shell gold, and then apply the gold leaf. I think the underpainting is enough to give a "raised" effect to show the tooling more. 
  
• I got the piece wet. I was in a rush and jostled the fresh paint water I was carrying... and splashed all over the piece. Then I cried. Then I got a towel. In the end, it's crinkled but not ruined. There's a smudge, but thankfully I largely missed the paint. 

For a second piece, I made a lot of the same mistakes again, but I made a lot of different ones too so yay? I know I rushed a little more on this one, my focus wasn't nearly what it should be but I chalk that up to the pandemic, but for all that I rushed in spots I think it's not terrible. I look forward to the third panel in this series which I am now calling A Page in 5 Parts. 

A page from Psalms

For my mother, her favorite Psalm in Latin

A Court Barony for Ruth Baraskaya

 This is the first award of this level I've ever had the honor of painting, and I confess the words put me in a bit of a stressful position! I managed a draft, but the wonderful final draft is the work of master wordsmith Alys Mackyntoich. I am very, very grateful to her for her help. 

The imagery is a woman standing in a field, and in the original she holds an open book in her hand. As Ruth is known for her embroidery, I replaced the book with an embroidery hoop with a few black stitches on it, and a length of thread. I added also a coronet with 6 pearls, evidence of her new rank. 

The source for the scroll is Add MS 54782, housed at the British Library, f.66v for the imagery and various pages for the text. I had to modify the text layout significantly to accommodate the expanded text necessary for a Court Barony scroll, but was able to keep the feel of the scroll in tact. I am quite pleased with how it came together. 

gouache and shell gold on pergamenata, Pelikan ink

8 1/4" x 10 1/4" finished size
3 3/4" x 5 1/2" image size
3 3/4" x 5" text size 

Silver Wheel for Patience Faircloth

 I had so very, very much fun painting this for Patience - when I heard the award was going out, I did ask for the assignment and was thrilled I was able to get it. 

The words are by me, and the reference book for the scroll is Add MS 15281 from the British Library. 

gouache and shell gold on pergamenata
8 1/4" x 10 1/4" finished size
4" x 6" image size
2 3/4" x 4 3/4" text size

When you have to repair your own scroll...

A while ago I was in a relationship with someone who fancied themselves a great artist. Without asking me, they took my AoA scroll and painted on what they thought were my arms. Yes. They painted arms that weren't mine on my Mistress Sarah the Limner Award of Arms scroll. And if that wasn't bad enough, they painted on the scroll with testors and citadel enamel model paints. If I ever see this person again I might actually hit them.

The repair of this has been an interesting two days. First, scraping off the paint resulted in the paint dust beginning to stain the bristol ground... which meant that I stopped immediately, and changed tactic - I did keep scraping, but this time I tilted it so the dust fell straight away. A staedtler eraser took care of what was stuck to the bristol. I couldn't get all the paint because it's soaked into the paper, so I did what I could to rough up the surface. 

Then I painted an even layer of titanium white over the whole area, crossing over onto the paper. It is much, much larger than I think the shield area was every supposed to be... but, I wanted my paint layer to have at least some hold on the bristol, so here we are. 

I let that sit for 24 hours. 

Then, I painted on my arms with the lightest touch I've ever used, in an attempt to not pull up the white layer into my colors. I'm happy to say that it's worked as best it could. 

I let that sit for a few hours till dry, and when back to the the line work. 

I'm happy with the results. It's getting framed as soon as I know it's totally dry and then, hopefully, I never need to worry about repair or correction on this piece again. Yes, I should write my arms in eventually but I think I'll wait till my calligraphy is better to do that. 

AoA, with incorrect arms

AoA, with correct arms