Silver Rapier - Liadan (backlog)

This scroll ended up being a year in the making...to the day no less.

Originally awarded at the Coronation if Ioannes and Honig, it was finally given out at the Coronation of Brennan III and Caoilfhionn III. Here's some background as to the goings on of this bad boy.

I had heard this scroll went immediately to backlog and was like....seriously? Had I known, I would have done it!  I like Liadan and she's cool people!  Also early period scrolls seem to be my jam.  I should do the thing!  I coordinated with Anastasia da Monte, Liadan's OGR, to see if we could come up with something appropriate.  I asked her if she's like to do some words and between both of our busy summers, real work didn't start until September.  In that time, I solicited source ideas from a variety of people.  Started sketching.  Threw out sketches.  Re-sketched.  Nothing felt right.

Enter Marieta and the gift that keeps on giving - The Lindisfarne Gospel.  Also known as "What to give an early Irish persona when you don't want to do something from the Book of Kells".  The entire manuscript is available as a featured piece on the British Library's online catalog.

I made two solid attempts at the calligraphy (a Carolingian hand which is not correct for this document, but it's what I knew at the time) which both ended is horrible failures where for some reason, my hand gave out on doing anything useful.  It was so bad even my usual optimistic critic said something to the effect of "Oh it's not so....oh...oh yeah. No take a break from this one."  When your support network says walk away, you walk away.

Enter Master Robert - who we asked very nicely to run through the letter forms from the Lindisfarne Gospel at one of the recent Quintavia Scribal Moots.  Robert with his blend of teaching, storytelling, humor, and instigating had the entire room wrapped up in how to hack the forms apart and little tricks to make it look good.  Armed with newfound confidence, I did the thing I've been trying to do (and have had success with other assignments) which was being a "proper" scribe which was using the exemplar for the calligraphy letter forms.

Something to note - I had a minor panic that I had too many words for my 5x7 scroll area and decided to cut some out....only to find out I had too few.  Anastasia's words went right back in, but some creative license was taken to make them work with my panic error.

Long story short (it's complicated and temporary) - I had the calligraphy done and it looked lovely.  I then needed to do the painting and finishing work....with my newly developed carpal tunnel...in both hands.

The top line of capitol letters were painted using Pelikan ink (my ink of choice) after being freehand sketched.  I used a size 30/0 liner and a size 0 brush.

I cheated on the knot work in the center of the "L" and only did the top and bottom knot as well as making them less complicated.  All the lines connected, but I painted over my pencil drawing and had to fake it from scratch with a micron pen.

DOTS FOR DAYS.  They were nerve wracking and I hated them.  In talking to a few other scribes, the toothpick method while good is inferior to the cat whisker method of dot creation.  Given the state of my hands, I wasn't going to even attempt this even if I had found out about it prior to finishing the piece.

All in all this was a success.  I love the "g"'s in this hand (which is a insular hand with tweaks from the source) and it was incredibly worth it for someone who I like and turns out LOVES early period scrolls.

Lesson learned:  Sometimes you need to take a step back to take a few steps forward.

A+.  Would scribe again.

Recipient: Liadan ingean Chineada
Award: Silver Rapier
Words: Anastasia da Monte
Materials: gouache and ink on pergamenata
Source: Lindisfarn Gospel f131r

Scroll next to the exemplar

So...many...dots..

Words:

Let all know that We, Ioannes and Honig, Emporer and Empress of Our Great Eastern Empire, have had brought to Our attention the Handsome presence Liadan Ingean Chineada among Our rapier fighters.

Liadan’s many feats upon the tournament list as well as the melee field inspire Our allies and cause Our foes to tremble in fear. She commands troops and wields her blades with skill and dexterity. In light of these achievements and to the acclaim of those who walk beside her with blades in hand, We cause her to be inducted into Our Order of the Silver Rapier at the occasion of Our Coronation on this First of April Anno Societatas 51 in Our Barony of Dragonship Haven.

Award of Arms - Dorian

This assignment was one of my self-assigned projects while everyone else was at Pennsic this year.

The story behind this assignment was that I was put into contact with a gentleman in New Jersey who was looking for a replacement scroll for his AoA that was lost during the Hurricane Sandy which affected much of the Jersey coast in October 2012.   He's been in the SCA a while and wanted to get a new scroll made at the urging of his children who are now getting interested in the SCA and wondered why he didn't have a scroll.  In comes Christiana and her ever vigilant facilitating of people who need old scrolls done to talk to the Backlog Deputy (me).

Coolest thing about this assignment?  Check out the royals.  Tsurunaga and Genevieve...1993

Recipient: Dorian de San Kalogero
Assignment: Award of Arms - backlog/replacement
Illumination: British Library - Harley 3957 f. 4v
Hand: Humanist bookhand

I ended up entering this piece into the A&S Defender's of Quintavia competition (theme was Quintavia colors which are white and green).  Think baronial champs, but for the Shire.  Also #3 scroll with gilding on my own.

Scriptorium Backlog Project

The idea for a full on Scriptorium is entirely Thyra's idea.  The goal was to get a bunch of scribes together and work on certain techniques all at once for the same or similar projects.  Getting a small test group together was pretty easy and my Laurel came to the rescue with ideas and guidance.  And with that Thyra, Marieta, and myself dove into the madness!

Eva contacted our incredibly patient and benevolent Scibal Backlog Deputy for three AoAs (people from different regions too) so we could have a real assignment with a real deadline.  When it's supposed to go to someone, rather than be an entirely practice piece, I think we as a whole all try to finish it and get it done too.

Eva chose a page from The Hours of Catherine of Cleves.  This isn't the page we worked on, but it's a neat overview of who Catherine was and links to some great miniatures in the book. http://www.themorgan.org/collection/Hours-of-Catherine-of-Cleves

For this project we learned a new hand (gothic) which, let me tell you, was HARD.  Meeting once a month, it took a tremendous amount of time before any of us were ready to put ink to parchment.  At some point Eva said "enough practice, do calligraphy for real!" and well...we did calligraphy for real.

This was also my first goldwork project.  We used leaf gold which as a wise woman told me "Sticks to everything!  To you, to the paper, to the cat, everything!"  This was the part of the project I enjoyed the most.  Not because I stuck gold leaf to a cat, but because holy crap it's awesome and makes scrolls pop!

Long story short, we started this project on Aug 25, 2015 (date of email from Backlog Deputy).  It took us just under a year to finish it.  We learned and did:

- proportioning of scroll layout area (which I suck at)
- new calligraphy hand (gothic)
- wordsmithing (I cheated since my assignment had words) and script area planning
- free hand drawing of acanthus leaves
- gilding
- capital letters (calligraphy and illuminated)
- white work and shading

Check this bad boy out!  AoA for Tristan Fischer of Olachlacha.  Words by Theodora Brynnissa, called Treannah (with some editing from me for style and to fit the space).  This is from AS 47 for the reign of Gregor and Kiena.

It's done!

Different angle so you can see the shiny!

And the obligatory group photo to prove that we are winners and can finish a backlog while still being active scribes and plan 3-4 vigils during that time period.


Huge thank you to Antonio Patrasso the incredibly patient Backlog Deputy and to my Laurel Eva Woderose the patient teacher.  Special thanks to Oberyn the Cat for sitting in scribal boxes and almost getting gold leaf on himself.

We then had ice cream with sprinkles because sprinkles are for winners!

New scribe

So fun story on how I got to be a scribe for the SCA.  Depending on how you look at it it I was either gleefully encouraged or expertly hoodwinked into signing up with the Signet at Market Day at Birka in 2013 during the glorious reign of Edward II and Thyra I.

The first advise given to me:
- You can paint, you're halfway there!
- Let's go shopping for supplies, it's easy.
- Buy this book.
- This is Ygraine, She is awesome.
- Do a backlog first.

It turns out Ygraine is indeed awesome and I bought the Marc Drogon calligraphy book from her.  Constance later took me shopping for paint and helped me contact the Backlog deputy.  

The first scroll I did was an AoA for Avista Mustafa ibn ‘Abdul-‘Aziz. He is a gentleman with a Turkish/Mamluk persona. It was advised that I use Gothic Littera Bastarda for a hand because "it's easy, looks medieval, and is good with any style". Knowing what I know now, I have to politely disagree with all points other than the "looks medieval one." I love the illumination of the horse, but the capital pained me.

Scroll assignment: Award of Arms (backlog)
Recipient: Avista Mustafa ibn ‘Abdul-‘Aziz
Hand: Gothic Littera Bastarda
Specs: Guache on Bristol
Source: (forthcoming)

Note on this scroll - My cat Daenerys jumped on it with wet paws just as I was taking a picture of the finished project. I freaked out out and the calm and wonderful Thyra helped me fix it. You can follow along with the progress pictures below.