A New Pen

I approve!

At War Practice, this year, I managed to make it to the scribal pavilion. A lady, who also attended, showed off her new glass dip pen. I never heard of such a thing. The lady, whose name I forgot four seconds after I was introduced (no disrespect to her, I'm just bad at names), let me try out her pen. I liked it. And I bought my own.

I found one on Amazon for about $10, and it showed up today. I was a bit worried because it is a glass pen, but it came in a really nice box.

This coffin is where my new pen is going to live. Like the lady's at War Practice, this pen was comfortable to hold. And pens are rarely comfortable for me: I've been dealing with RA for most of my life and gripping pens normally cause pain within a minute. This guy, no pain while I was farting around with it.

Now, the reason why the nice lady showed me her pen was because I had said that I do "kalligrafy" because my handwriting is so bad and that the finer the pen, the neater I can write. I had said that I would use a crow quill pen more if they could hold more ink. (I hate the fact that I have to dip the pen every 3rd or 4th letter). She then handed over her glass pen for me to try and told me that it hold a lot of ink.

So, here is the tip. The grooves spiral around the tip and holds a lot of ink and, get this, it doesn't drip and it's easy to clean.

Speaking of easy to clean, here's Deckster not helping me test my new pen.

I wasn't using all of that paper.

Currently he's chasing a twist-tie around my feet while I type this.

Here is my test of a single dip. This pen hold more ink than any of my calligraphy nibs and all of my crow quill nibs, combined. And, there was still ink left on the pen. I could get it to splatter if I whipped the pen, but normal shaking and moving did not cause any messes.

The pen also came with a glass rest to hold the pen up away from the paper. $10 well spent. I can't wait until my next assignment.

Something Amazing-ish

I'm 50% sure that I liked it.

At War Practice, this past weekend, I was having a conversation with people and my brain took the road less traveled, in mid conversation. My brain wanted to know what would Sikanjabîn syrup mixed with seltzer or club soda taste like.

Tonight, after I finished mowing the lawn, I decided to find out, FOR SCIENCE!

I had no club soda or tonic water in the house, but I did have one bottle of Boylan's Lemon Seltzer in the house. I don't know when I bought it or why, but I had it.

First, I pulled out a small bottle of my syrup of lemon, left over from my class at 3 Ravens. I poured a little bit of the syrup into a glass and topped it off with the seltzer.

Not bad.... Not great, at least to my liking. I'm not a big fan of seltzer... And I just remembered why I had this bottle in my house... But that's a different story. The taste of the seltzer overwhelmed the subtle flavor of the syrup. Even though it was lemon flavored seltzer, it really didn't taste much more than sweetened, lemon-flavored seltzer.

Next, I pulled out a bottle of Sikanjabîn and added about a teaspoon to the glass.

The Sikanjabîn is much, much, much more concentrated than the syrup of lemon. The syrup of lemon was not cooked down all the way, so that it could be poured over pound cake (Mmmmmm! Pound cake). The Sikanjabîn was cooked down to a thick syrup. The way I like it is a teaspoon of syrup to a cup of water. So, a teaspoon of syrup and the rest of the seltzer.

It needed to be stirred to mix together. Now, I know that about half of my readers hate Sikanjabîn. Sugar and vinegar? Yuck! But, I will counter that most people who hate Sikanjabîn have never had good Sikanjabîn and/or had it provided too strong. I think that the sugar and vinegar should be balanced and that the imbiber should be allowed to dilute it to one's taste. I like it watered down enough that the sweet and sour flavors are just noticeable on the tongue.

With the lemon seltzer (about a half a glass) mixed with the syrup, the flavor and "mouth feel" were much lighter, due to the bubbles. The lemon flavor was no longer noticeable and the seltzer flavor blended in nicely with the sugar and vinegar. I approve and will have to try it with tonic water; you know, in case I need protection from malaria. 

Scribal Basics 102

A beginner's guide to painting an SCA scroll

The following is a web-friendly version of a Power Point class that I have taught. What is missing is the discussion with the people in the class. 

Illumination:

• The act of putting paint on to paper is known, in the SCA as illumination.
• A Scroll does not have to have paint on it to be a scroll. If your calligraphy is good enough, no paint is required.
• If your calligraphy is terrible, or if you really like painting over writing, illumination is for you.

What kind of paints not to use:

• Oil based: they seep into the paper
• Acrylic based: they can crack and flake off of the paper
• Magic markers: they fade over time, don’t look right and can have a lingering smell.
• Crayons: they look like they were done with crayons. Might be nice enough for the ‘fridge, but not for court.
• Pastels and chalks: they smear and can rub off on everything.
• Colored pencils: they don’t give a ‘period’ look.
• Latex based: they can layer too thick and can crack and flake.

What paint should we use?

• Watercolors
• Gouache
• And, for advanced scribes, period pigments. Please sign up for Scribal Basics 401 for more information about period pigments. [I don't teach Scribal Basics 401. Nor do I know how to use period pigments. This was a bit of humor.]

What’s the difference?

• Watercolor and gouache are very similar to each other.
• Both are pigment particles suspended in a water soluble binder
• Both are available in tubes, but watercolors can also be found in pans and cakes.

Watercolor:

• Transparent. 
• Paint blends together.
• Difficult to get sharp lines of color.
• Made of fine pigment suspended in a clear binder, such as gum arabic.
• It is suggested that white areas should be left blank.

Gouache:

• Opaque.
• Paint can be layered.
• Easy to get sharp lines of color.
• Made of larger grains of pigment suspended in an opaque binder, such as zinc or titanium oxide. 
• Go ahead and use white gouache.

What should I use?

• In my experience gouache is easier to use and is the closest a store bought paint gets to period pigment.
• Watercolor, if used correctly, can produce lovely landscapes and trees.
• You can use a kid’s watercolor pallet from a dollar store, so if you wish to experiment….
• Try both and see which one you like better...

What colors do I need?

• You do not need every color under the sun.
• You should have all of the heraldic colors (red, yellow, blue, green, purple, white and black) plus brown and gold.
• I recommend a light and a dark shade of each color [of the ones I listed].
• A basic set from Reeves will run from $10 to $15.
• Kit contains: White, Lemon Yellow, Medium Yellow, Orange Yellow, Orange Red, Flesh Tint, Brilliant Red, Crimson, Magenta, Violet, Cobalt Blue, Blue Lake, Ultramarine, Prussian Blue, Mid Green, Leaf Green, Emerald, Dark Green, Yellow Ochre, Red Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Grey, Black.
• Additional colors can be purchased separately, as needed. 
• 90% of my gouache is from this kit.
• You do not need every color on the rack.
• Colors can be mixed to form other colors: Yellow and blue make green.
• It is nice to have a tube with the exact color you need, but you can squeeze a bit of two tubes into a small container to make that special color you need for your project.
• You can take advantage of gouache’s ability to layer to make a variety of shades.
• Using only thinly water-downed gouache, it is easy to make a range of shades just by putting one layer on top of another.
• Also, by varying the amount of water used, we can achieve even more shades

[My discussion of this slide is as follows: Each box is an example of a single color of gauche: Light red; dark red; light blue; ultramarine blue; light green, medium yellow. Each box was started with a single layer of pigment, with an additional layer added on, leaving the far left-hand alone. So, each box has six or seven layers with the right-hand side having more layers than the left-hand side. As each layer is added, the result is a darker hue.]

[My discussion of this slide is as follows: The red and yellow used in the background are the same pigments that I used for the figure and the leaves. The background received only a signal layer of red or yellow, but the figure received four layers. Same pigment, different hues.]

How much paint do I need?

• Not much. A little goes a long way.
• The less paint you use, the better it will look.
• Thicker layers of paint will take longer to dry and to cure. 
• If too thick, the paint could flake off.
• Too much water and the paper could warp.
• Start with thin layers: it is easier to add paint than to remove it.

[My discussion of these two slides is as follows: These two images show the difference between a lot of paint vs a little paint. Please see this blog post for more details.]

How to apply the paint

• The puddle method:
• Start with a brush wet with paint.
• Make a puddle on one side of the object and pull paint from the puddle towards the unpainted surface.
• Good for shading; start at the darkest edge and work towards the lightest.

[My discussion of these two slides is as follows: By using this method, it is easy to create shading. Start by placing the paint in the dark areas of the figure. Assume that the light source comes from the upper, left-hand corner.]

[By starting in the dark areas, and drawing the excess paint towards the light areas, one automatically creates a graduated hue. See here for more details.]

• The house painter’s method:
• Start with a brush wet with paint.
• Start painting on one edge and with each brush stroke, drop the brush on unpainted paper and brush into the painted surface.
• Good for solid, even coats

[My discussion of these two slides is as follows: I have found that this method limits the blotchness that can occur when applying paint to large areas of paper.]

How thin is thin?

[My discussion of these two slides is as follows: Most illuminators will tell you to water the gauche down to the consistency of melted ice cream. Which tends to confuse people. What kind of ice cream? Cheap ice cream or good Breyers or soft-serve custard? It makes a difference. My method is to water it down to the consistency of cool-aide. The looks of shock and dismay on the faces of the more experienced scribes in my first class is beyond description. This is different from the standard approach but I find that it works. I would rather make three or four coats and have it look really nice than to put one super heavy coat that could end up streaky or blotchy. This method works for me and I think that new scribes should try it and see if they like it.]

[Also, the thinner the coat, the quicker it will dry. On a good day, it will take about three to five minutes for a thin coat to dry completely and cure (if it is gauche). In my experience, it can take ten to fifteen minutes for a thick coat to dry. I like thick coats of gold gauche: I find that the thick, lumpy surface catches the light better and looks more like gold leaf, from a distance. For all other colors, thin coats. If it takes multiple layers, then it takes multiple layers. In my opinion, it will take less time to do more painting (with thin coats) than waiting for thick coats to dry.  I can paint all of the blue, with two or three layers and by the time I hydrate the red gauche, the blue is dry and won't blend with the red, as I apply it.]

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The point of this class was to introduce illumination to new scribes and to try to explain what to use and how to use it. I only focused on paint and painting because Ekat teaches a Scribal 101 where she talks about paper, brushes and other equipment. Half of the class was the information listed, above, and the other half was Q&A.

Pent Entry - Needlework 2003

This is documentation that I wrote for the 2003 Ice Dragon A&S Pentathlon. It is not complete as the original document was written in Lotus WordPro and I am having trouble finding a way to open that format in Windows 10.

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SCA belt favor.

At the assembly of knights,

each one wanted to be first,

to do well, if he could,

in order to please the lady.

They all considered her their love,

all carried her token,

a ring, or sleeve, or banner

   The Lay of Lanval

Ray Lischner wrote on the Rialto, in 1992, a wonderful article on the history of favors:

The historical evidence for the use of favors in tournaments is not always clear. Most historical sources do not mention favors at all, leaving the modern researcher in a quandary. In general, it seems that favors were occasionally used since the early days of the tournament, but were never very popular. Gifts and largesse, given as a token of esteem and respect, rather than love, appear to have been more common.

However, in the Society, most gentles wear a favor of one sort or another. We have fully adopted this practice and it is part of the Current Middle Ages; one which we show off when we do demos for the outside world. The idea of the favor as spread in the Society, from ladies in the 14th and 15th centuries untying their sleeves and offering them to the knight of their choice before a jousting tourney to one that has transcended all temporal and geographic boundaries.

Although it is unlikely that a Celt in ancient Briton would have embroidered a spiral in such a fashion, we have embraced all time periods and we would think nothing of one with an ancient Celtic persona wearing 14th century style leg armor, so should we embrace the cross culture intermix of art.

This is my fourth attempt at needlework, and I chose a slightly more complicated method. The key pattern is a common Celtic design, I used that as the body of a zooamorphic dragon head, breathing fire. The dragon head was inspired by two pieces of similar artwork found in The Book of Kells. The two examples are the line drawings of the original pieces.

{Missing artwork and an entire page of text}

Sources:

Bain, Iain, Celtic Key Patterns. Sterling Publishing, New York. 1994.

Brown, Peter,  The Book of Kells. Thames and Hudson, New York. 1980.

Green, Miranda J., Editor, The Celtic World. Routledge, London. 1995.

Ker, W. P. ,  The Dark Ages. Nelson, London. 1955.

Ray Lischner, Message posted to The Rialto; 5 Jan. 1992, Archived in Stefan's Florilegium: p-favors-art - 9/21/94

Sullivan, Sir Edward, The Book of Kells. Studio Editions, London. 1920.

Baroness TSivia, Message posted to The Rialto, Archived in Stefan's Florilegium: favors-msg - 4/13/99

Tuchman, Barbara W., A Distant Mirror, The Calamitous 14th Century. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 1978

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Observations from 2018:

I stopped doing cross stitch years ago due to arthritis. I just wasn't able to hold the needle without pain. I image that the missing text was about why I made this using modern cross stitch (that was my skill level) and how I made the backing: the piece that the needlework is attached to.

I found this favor while organizing my basement and spent the day trying to open the documentation.