A request to all book heralds

Please, any and all book heralds who might read this post: when helping gentles create arms, please suggest something easy for scribes to draw and paint around. Please try to ween gentles away from complicated charges and lots of tiny things. I'm working on a backlog scroll and trying to paint around 137 butterflies. Why, heralds? Why? Why didn't someone say, "Perhaps, 137 butterflies are a tad too many? Why don't we stick with 5. Think of the scribes."

Some devices need an intervention.

Gentle: "So, I was thinking about what would look cool and I came up with: Per pale embattled ermine and azure, three lions rampant charged each on the shoulder with three roundels gules, on a chief Or on a mullet between flaunches argent, a roundel sable."

Herald: "Uh, that's too many things and half the scribes will want to drag you out into the woods, murder you and leave you for the animals."

Gentle: "Only half?"

Herald: "The other half will make you dig a shallow grave before they murder you."

Ah. I feel better, now, and I'm ready for the second coat around the 137 frickin' butterflies.

A backlog assignment almost done

I just have to finish up the device and then make up some words and someone will finally get their backlog AoA. Then I have another backlog to finish... One from the dawn of our Kingdom. From the days when scrolls were chiseled on stones.  

First impressions

Scrolls 256 (right) and 257 (left) are done: painted and calligraphed. I'm not going to post a picture of the scrolls with the calligraphy on them, not even with a photoshop filter applied. I'm not good enough with photoshop to blur the text so that it is completely unreadable. In any case. This post is not about my work, per-se, but about the paper I used.

Scroll 257, the "H" on the left, was done on the last of my Arches paper. Scroll 256, on the right, was my first done on Fluid brand paper. Both are 100% cotton paper, 140# hot press. So, as I posted in my Pulitzer Prize winning blog article "I'm Trying Some New Paper" [1], I bought some new paper that was a fraction of the cost of the Arches paper I've been buying: $1.62 per sheet versus $2.75. My good friend Zosia recommended it; but it was only available at the downtown Hyatt's. Last month I found it at the Hyatt's that I frequent, so, I picked up a block.

I have posted, before, that I like big blocks and I can not lie. You other scribes can't deny that when a paper curls up with folds all over the place and anger on your face, you get pissed. Wanna give it up, 'cause you notice the crease was tough and deep in the paper that you were working on. [2] I think that the extra expense of the blocks more than pays for itself in terms of convenience. It is very nice to be able to carry around a dozen sheets of paper, all perfectly flat, in one package, such that no sheet will accidentally fall out. It is also nice to walk into Hyatt's and grab a block from the shelf, pay for it and leave. The people who work at the store are very nice people, but sometimes I hate people and don't want to deal with them. Particularly when I hand over a big sheet of paper and try to explain that I want it cut down into as many 9x12" sheets as possible. "No, I don't know how many that is off of the top of my head. Shouldn't you know that since you offer cutting service?" Cutting service sounds like something very rich emo girls would pay for so that they can "let the pain out" without getting their own hands dirty. [3] They would go in for a mani/pedi and some shallow cuts so that mommy and daddy will notice her. [4]

So, side by side how to they compare? Arches is the high bar and anything I switch to must as good.

Arches: made in France.
Fluid: made in USA.
I will always buy 'made in USA' if I have a choice. I have nothing, personally, against the French, and Arches has been making paper for years [5] and they certainly know what they are doing. Fluid has some big shoes to fill.

Arches: 20 sheets per block.
Fluid: 15 sheets per block.
The extra five sheets is more convenient; fewer trips to the store. But the cost difference means that I can buy two blocks of the Fluid (30 sheets) for less than one 20 sheet block of Arches.

Arches: waxed on all four sides.
Fluid: "waxed" on top and bottom.
With only two sides to cut through, it was easier to get the paper out. Plus, Fluid uses some kind of silicone glue that peels away from the paper better. Also, the wax that Arches has been using the last couple of years has been really difficult to cut.

The Fluid paper is slightly thinner than the Arches; enough of a difference so that I can feel it and see it when on the light box. It's not enough of a difference that the Fluid paper is not suitable for SCA scrolls: they still hold paint and stand up under their own weight. They might be easier to tear: I haven't used more than one sheet so I have not encountered this, potential, issue. [6]

The Fluid paper is also a slightly brighter white. As you can tell, the scroll on the right is whiter than the one on the left.

Both papers held onto the gouache without any bleeding, pooling or curling. And both papers held onto the ink from my pen without any smudging or bleeding. It was a tad easier to erase the pencil lines from the Fluid paper, after the ink had dried. I have not tried it with all of the ink I have at my disposal, but the Fluid does appear to like my favorite calligraphy pen and ink. [7]

So. after one sheet of Fluid paper, I will have to say it appears to be as good as Arches for my purposes and a better value. I recommend to any and all scribes who are looking for a cotton paper for scrolls.

[1] Editor's note: The author has never won a Pulitzer Prize, let alone ever been nominated for one.
[2] Editor's note: We wish to apologize to Sir Mix-a-Lot.
[3] Editor's note: The author does not condone the act of emo cutting.
[4] Editor's note: Please don't listen to Caleb.
[5] Since 1492.
[6] Editor's note: It is something that we don't need to test.
[7] Caleb doesn't have an editor; we really don't know who is responsible for these end notes.

Two more scrolls

Well, I finally got off of my butt and got enough motivation to crack open my scribal kit and start working, again. I have not any any desire to do anything since November, but I was asked to do a pair of Keystones (AEthelmearc AoA level awards for service) for later this year and I want to get them done and out of my hands. 

The 'H' is on the last of my Arches paper and the border is on the new Fluid paper. So far, I can't tell any difference between the two. And, yes, the image on the 'H' is from a period source and it is not the first scroll I've made with it. The weather was bad, today, and I had nothing else to do other than laundry (actually I had a crap ton of stuff to do, but I only did laundry), so I sat on the couch and watched Netflix: I finally watched the Doctor Who Christmas episode, the one with Nick Frost as Santa, some stand-up specials and tried watching a few TV shows that people have been telling me that I would like. I didn't. But, the background noise did help me layout, pencil, ink, erase and start laying down paint. These two should be done and ready for the calligraphy in the next couple of days, oh, and I spent some time, today, creating the words for my good friends, Barney and Fred... Or was it Thelma and Louise? Well, I won't give away the recipients, it will be a surprise for them later this year. 

I think once I started penciling in the images, I got my motivation back. To anyone who might stumble across this blog whom might be thinking about taking up scribal work, it only seems like a lot of work if you never get started. Once you get moving, you will discover that it really isn't a lot of work.

An Inkling of a Chance.

I was having dinner with friends, last night, and my good friend Govindi said something along the lines of "So and so doesn't have an inkling of a chance of doing something." I don't remember the details; only the phrase "inkling of a chance." Inkling? Inkling? I knew the phrase. I have even uttered it on occasion; but I had no clue what it meant. THL Govindi offered to summon the Googles for me (think of the Ricola ads). I declined and waited until I had a conference call at work, the following morning.

I was certain that the phrase was somehow related to printing. Phil Cousineau and Gregg Chadwick wrote, "When I was late with a story at my first newspaper job I didn't have an inkling about deadlines, until my editor Roger Turner told me, 'Son, when it's ink, it's real.'" [1] However, they did say that it derived from the obscure Middle English word, nyngkiling or a whisper.

The earliest example of nyngkiling is from the 15th century Alliterative Romance of Alexander the Great. "[Alexander] Herd a nyngkiling of his name, & naytis him [exerted himself] to ryse."

The UK Phrase Finder web site gives the following:

So, if you heard an inkling your senses were alerted to listening for something that might interest you and it is that sensation that has led to our current usage of the word. To be more accurate, in the 13th century you would have had a ninkling rather than an inkling. Inkling is one of those nouns that were originally spelled with an 'n' at the start of the word but later lost it in everyday speech. In this case, sometime in the 16th century, 'a ninkling' became 'an inkling'. Other examples of this are 'a napron' and 'a nadder' [snake]. This reformation of words is called metanalysis and these 'n' examples of it are difficult to explain fully. There are examples of words going in the other direction, that is, adding an 'n'; for example, 'an ekename' is now 'a nickname' (eke means also) and 'an ewt' is now 'a newt'. Other examples, like 'nangry' where the originally spelled 'angry' gained an 'n' but then failed to become publicly accepted, show how precarious such changes are. Curiously, the most commonly heard example of an English word losing its initial 'n' happened in France rather than England. The French obtained 'orange' via a route through several languages, ultimately from the Sanskrit 'naranga', and 'une narange' became 'une arange'. By the time oranges appeared in England they were already oranges - there never was an English word noranges.

Walter Skeat, the quintessential source for this word, gives the following:

Inkling, a hint, intimation, (Scand, ?) M. E. Inkling, a whisper, murmur, low speaking. Alexander, when in disguise, feared he was discovered, because he 'herd a nyngkiling of his name,' Allit, romance of Alexander, 2968; where a nyngkiling stands for an yngkiling. "To incle the truth' = to hint at the truth, Alisaunder (in app. to Wm. of Palerne), 616. I suspect it to be corrupted from Dan. ymte, to murmur, mutter, an iterative verb from ymja, to mutter, hum (of imitative origin); so also Ucel. ymta, to mutter. [2]

So. An inkling of a chance would mean that there is the barest whisper that one will succeed. Or the inkling of the truth would be a quiet murmur, barely heard below the lies.


[1] Cousineau, Chadwick. p185

[2] Skeat (1), p219 or from other pages in the referenced Skeat sources.



Archipresbyter, Leo. The Wars of Alexander: an Alliterative romance. Kraus Reprint, 1973.

Cousineau, Phil; Chadwick, Gregg. The Painted Word: A Treasure Chest of Remarkable Words and Their Origins. Cleis Press, 2012.

Kuhn, Sherman M. Middle English Dictionary, Issue 2. University of Michigan Press, Feb 1, 1979.

Skeat, Walter William. A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Harper & brothers, 1882

Skeat, Walter W. The Concise Dictionary of English Etymology. Wordsworth Editions, 1993 edition

Skeat, Walter W. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Courier Corporation, Feb 15, 2013

Skeat, Walter William. Twelve Facsimiles of Old English MSS., with Transcriptions and an Introd. Clarendon Press, 1892.

Skeat, Walter William. The Wars of Alexander: An Alliterative Romance Translated Chiefly from the Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis, Issue 47. Early English text society, 1886

I'm trying some new paper

I received two new scroll assignments for Kingdom and only had one sheet of Arches paper left on my block. So, I had to go out and brave the weather (it was cold and windy and I had to put on pants) and trek all the way out to Hyatt's. I was pleasantly surprised to find Fluid block paper available. My friend Zosia has been using this paper for a while and she likes it, but it was only available at the Hyatt's downtown store. Not the one I go to in Clarence. I like Arches paper blocks but at $55 a block, it's pricey. The Fluid blocks are a fraction of the cost and made in America. I picked up two different varieties on their 15 count, 140# hot pressed paper for less than one of the Arches 20 count blocks. I'll try them both and see if I like them as much as Arches. Perhaps this will motivate me to start cranking out scrolls, again.