Zosia is an Enabler

Zofia Kowalewska inspired me to create my own scroll celebrating my own arms. 

A fun project; took me about a week in between other projects. Now, to get a frame.

One last scroll for 2024.

 Last Illumination of 2024.

Finished and scanned with just six hours left in the year. 
This is scroll # 584, for me. It is also part of my attempt to redo my alphabet challenge that I did in 2014. I thought I was going to breeze through the same 26 designs with ten years of experience under my belt, but I really did not want to do half of the designs, that I did in 2014, ever again. This one made the list. Here is scroll # 169:

Pretty much the same scroll, only better paint. Here is a link to a high resolution image of the latest one.

Finally Finished

 Design from the AEthelmearc Scribal Playtime.

Started in 2013. Finished in 2024.

No clue what paint I used on this, originally. Probally what was on the table for the Scribal Playtime. It was okay.... Kinda of blotchy and I went over the lines in places. Might have been why I hid it away.

So, a quick coat of red and blue W&N gouache to remove the blotchiness. Some W&S gold to cover the little gold paint I used way back when. A Micron green brush to even up the green vine. A .25 black Micron pen to outline everything, and some W&N opaque white ink for the white work. Applied with a fine brush: I didn't feel like digging out a pen. A simple wavy line for the blue and red and some dots on the leaves. And now it looks like someone who knows what they are doing did the scroll from scratch.

This ended up as Scroll # 561

Scroll Blank - Fool with cusped loaf

Details of the original image:

Illuminated Manuscript, Carrow Psalter, Fool with bladder on stick eating cusped loaf, Walters Manuscript W.34, fol. 113r

Shelf mark: W.34

Manuscript: Carrow Psalter

Text title: Psalter-Hours

Abstract: This English manuscript was made in East Anglia in the mid-thirteenth century for a patron with special veneration for St. Olaf, whose life and martyrdom are prominently portrayed in the Beatus initial of Psalm 1. Known as the “Carrow Psalter” due to its later use by the nunnery of Carrow near Norwich, it is more accurately described as a psalter-hours, as it contains, among other texts, the Office of the Dead and the Hours of the Virgin. The manuscript is striking for its rich variety of illuminations, including full-page cycles of saints, martyrs, and biblical scenes, as well as historiated initials within the Psalter, and heraldry added in the fifteenth century to undecorated initials in the Hours of the Virgin. Especially notable is the miniature portraying the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, for after Henry VIII found him guilty of treason in 1538, his image was concealed by gluing a page over it rather than destroying it, and it has since been rediscovered.

Date: Mid-13th century CE

Origin: East Anglia, England

Form: Book

Genre: Devotional

Language:The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.

Support material: Parchment. Medium-weight cream-colored parchment; slightly heavier-weight parchment used for full-page miniatures

Dimensions: 17.6 cm wide by 24.7 cm high

Written surface: 12.0 cm wide by 17.4 cm high

Layout:
Columns: 1
Ruled lines: 14
Layout does not apply to calendar (written surface 12 x 19 cm, 32-33 ruled lines)


Contents:fols. 1r - 321v:
Title: Psalter-Hours

Hand note: Littera prescissa, with smaller size used as cues for psalms cited in liturgical texts, antiphons, versicles

Decoration note: Manuscript opens with cycle of ten full-page saints’ portraits/martyrdom images interspersed with their suffrages, followed by prefatory cycle of eleven mixed full-page and two-register illuminations depicting Adam and Eve and Christ’s life, death, and resurrection; second group of five full-page Christological illuminations follow that repeat scenes already depicted, and may have been added; images typically glued back-to-back with blank side of previous folio, and have highly burnished gold grounds, rectangular frames; Psalter contains eleven historiated initials at openings of select psalms and one within hours (six to seven lines high); eleven heraldic arms added in fifteenth century within unadorned initials, beginning with Psalm 119 and found throughout the hours; smaller initials in gold or blue with intricate blue and red pen flourishes begin each line of text (one to four lines high); rubrics in red; text in black ink. [1]

Technique:

This project was an attempt to reproduce this beautiful manuscript image which was chosen to be entered into the arts and sciences competition at Summer’s End 2023, which had the theme of “pie”. Anything pie related. More on that, later.

I used gouache and ink on paper rather than vellum and period pigments as I still have not mastered those advanced materials. Working from a high resolution image of the manuscript, [2] I removed the background colors and printed out the image. The design was transferred to the paper by tracing over a light box.

 
I kept the colors similar, to the source, as I liked the reds and blues, although I used a lighter shade of red for the dragon making up the tail of the ‘Q’. I do like the combination of red and blue, particularly with the white lines. Several layers of gold paint were used to make the background and border stand out. The goal was to produce an image that would stand out and be visible when it was displayed in court. This was my first use of ox gall. I had had issues with getting even coats of the dark red and blue and it was suggested that I try adding a drop or two of ox gall to the water and gouache. I purchased a bottle of Holbein ox gall and a couple of drops did help immensely.

 
Once the all of the paint had dried, I outlined all of the sections with black ink to make the image stand out. For the white, I used Winsor and Newton white ink (#974) for the lines and Winsor and Newton Permanent White gouache for the solids. I had intended to have a fainter white for the scalloped shapes, but the white paint was picking up too much of the blue underneath and I was not able to control the consistency. In the end, I used a heavier layer of white to make a solid shape, and then painted blue circles in the white and surrounded the blue with red dots. Both in honor of the source image and because I like how the small amount of red does stand out next to the blue.

What does this have to do with pie?

My original intent was make some sort of verbal jigery-pokery to explain that what the figure was holding was a pie and not manna, as I had thought it was. I started working on the image before I paid attention to the title: I had thought that it was an image of Moses or another person eating manna while wandering in the desert looking for the promised land. I knew that the Pslter had inhabited initials of scenes from the Book of Exodus and had assumed that this image might have been from that book. I was planning on arguing that we don’t know what manna was. In fact the word manna is derived from the Hebrew question “Ma’n Hu?” or “What is it?” [3] Perhaps manna was actually Hostess fruit pies.

Then, when I was gathering my notes for this documentation I noticed the title of the page: Fool with bladder on stick eating cusped loaf started the page of Psalm 51. Definitely not from Exodus. So, what does “cusped loaf” mean? I spent the better part of a day trying to track this down. Cusped has a few meanings in 13th century England. One is the precursor to “cupped”. As in cupped hands. So, it could refer to something that could be held in one hand. Cusped could also mean something that was enclosed, like a hot pocket or a Cornish pastry. Cusped could also mean something that was scalloped or had pointy bits, like an arch or like the loaf in the fool’s hand, in the image. The last result that I found was in relation to fools and jesters. A cusped loaf could refer to a enclosed pie filled with custard that was used as a weapon against another jester or against someone whom the jester’s boss found tiresome. A medieval version of the pie fights of the early cinema. Or, the jester or fool could have eaten it in a very messy fashion, either for comic relief or to lampoon someone sitting at feast. I was unable to discover anything more about such custard pies, such as what color the custard was, as their intent was to make a mess. The Scheide Psalter-Hours [4] has a similar fool holding a “bauble and loaf”, only wearing just a cloak. I don’t know why these two psalters chose to depict fools for Psalm 51 and 52: The first begins with “Have mercy on me, O God” and the second, “Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?” But, the purpose of this paper is to explain my illumination and it’s connection to pies. Further research into professional fools and the Psalms will have to wait until another research project.

References:

Anglo-Norman Dictionary :: Word of the Month: Nice! An Anglo-Norman Insult. https://anglo-norman.net/word-of-the-month-nice-an-anglo-norman-insult/. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

Bennett, Adelaide. “The Scheide Psalter-Hours.” The Princeton University Library Chronicle, vol. 55, no. 2, 1994, pp. 177–223. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26509121. Accessed 10 Sept. 2023.

“Bible Gateway Passage: New International Version.” Bible Gateway, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2051&version=NIV. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

“Biblical Hebrew Words and Meaning.” Hebrewversity, 14 Mar. 2018, https://www.hebrewversity.com/word-mannamean-hebrew/.

Buhrer, Eliza. “But What Is to Be Said of a Fool?: Intellectual Disability in Medieval Thought and Culture” in Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age (Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture), Ed. Albrecht Classen (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2014). www.academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/18029983/_But_what_is_to_be_said_of_a_fool_Intellectual_Disability_in_Medieval_Thought_and_Culture_in_Mental_Health_Spirituality_and_Religion_in_the_Middle_Ages_and_Early_Modern_Age_Fundamentals_of_Medieval_and_Early_Modern_Culture_ed_Albrecht_Classen_Berlin_and_Boston_Walter_de_Gruyter_2014_. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

“Cusped.” The Free Dictionary. The Free Dictionary, https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cusped. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

Cusped - Advanced Search Results in Entries | Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/search/advanced/Entries?textTermText0=cusped&textTermOpt0=WordPhrase&dateOfUseFirstUse=false&page=1&sortOption=AZ&tl=true. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

Cusped - WordReference.Com Dictionary of English. https://www.wordreference.com/definition/cusped. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.
Definition of CUSPED. 5 Sept. 2023, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cusped.

 
Dienstbier, Jan. The Image of the Fool in Late Medieval Bohemia, in: Umění/Art LXIV, 2016, 354–370. www.academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/32931743/The_Image_of_the_Fool_in_Late_Medieval_Bohemia_in_Um%C4%9Bn%C3%AD_Art_LXIV_2016_354_370. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

Ewbank, Anne. “How Pie-Throwing Became a Comedy Standard.” Atlas Obscura, 10 July 2018, http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-do-people-throw-pies.

Flickr Photostream for Walters Art Museum Carrow Psalter, Fool with bladder on stick eating cusped loaf, Walters Manuscript W.34, fol. 113r. https://www.flickr.com/photos/medmss/6165863401/in/photolist-btQupQ-aoREnF

Fool | Etymology, Origin and Meaning of Fool by Etymonline. https://www.etymonline.com/word/fool. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

Model, Ben. “Pie-Eyed – In Search Of The Pie Fight’s Origins.” Ben Model, 18 Jan. 2020, https://silentfilmmusic.com/charlie-chaplin-pie-fight/.

Okyere, Kojo. The Ways of the Fool A Literary Reading of Psalm 14.Pdf. www.academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/29319309/The_Ways_of_the_Fool_A_Literary_Reading_of_Psalm_14_pdf. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

Oliver, Judith. “The Mosan Origins of Johannes von Valke.” Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, vol. 40, 1978, pp. 23–37. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24657566. Accessed 10 Sept. 2023.

“Pain Quotidien: Images of Bakers in Medieval France.” Different Visions, https://differentvisions.org/images-of-bakers/. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023.

Pantry, The Past is a Foreign. “Chastletes: 1390.” The Past Is a Foreign Pantry, 7 Aug. 2020, https://thepastisaforeignpantry.com/2020/08/07/chastletes-1390/.

Sforza Tarabochia, Alvise. “The Staff of Madness: The Visualization of Insanity and the Othering of the Insane.” History of Psychiatry, vol. 32, no. 2, June 2021, pp. 176–94. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1177/0957154X21989224.

Sidsel. “Small Medieval Meat Pies - Hand Pies - Postej & Stew.” Postej & Stews, 14 May 2017, https://postej-stew.dk/2017/05/small-meat-pies/.

Walters Art Museum: Digitized Walters Manuscripts: Walters Ms. W.34, Carrow Psalter. https://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W34/description.html


[1] https://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/html/W34/description.html
[2] Provided by The Walters Art Museum’s Flikr page.
[3] Hebrewversity
[4] Scheide Library ms 16, folio 42V, Psalm 52

Progression part 2

Another progression comparison. 

The image on the left is my scroll #33 from 2012. The one on the right is scroll #511 finished up today. Same source material but better paper, better paint, more practice and a greater idea of what I am doing. In the last 11 years I have sat in on I don't know how many classes on illumination and spoke with as many scribes as I could about technique and process. I have learned to use less paint but to use the paint more efficiently. Using multiple layers of paint to build up the shading rather than slopping on a thick layer and using black ink to make shadows. Now I put more layers of paint where I want the shadows. My white work was non-existent way back then and now I have a clue of how to use white paint and ink to bring out the high lights. I am going through my early work and re-doing the images that I used period sources to show myself that I have indeed learned something and to help me pin point the areas that I need more instruction and practice. This past couple of weeks I learned how much of a difference a couple of drops of ox gall can make on persnickety paint.

I highly recommend keeping notes on what materials you use and what classes you take. And keep good quality pictures of your work so that you can see your progression. 

Both are inspired by the 12th century English Psalter MS G.43 fol. 102r.

Progression 2023

 Another retrospective on improvement.

This month, I was at a loss as to what to work on, scribal-wise. I had no scroll assignments and little to no motivation to do any work. To give myself a metaphoric kick in the ass, I decided on re-doing some of my early work; images I did when I started working on illumination. I went through my Flikr account and picked some images that I had not re-done since way back when. And images from actual period sources instead of the fantasy pieces that I had done. 

On the left is scroll number 38 (I had started numbering my scrolls when I started the A&S 50 project) completed in July 2011. On the right is scroll number 509, completed today. Both are inspired by MS G.43 fol. 99v (England, perhaps Canterbury, ca. 1180).

On both images, I didn't stick with the source material's colors, but had my own idea of what I wanted them to look like. On the older image, I can clearly see that I had slapped paint on the paper without any clue as to what I was doing. The older image was on Bristol cotton/wood pulp blended paper, 140# hot press; the newer image is on Arches 100% cotton 140# hot press paper. The older image I think was done completely with Reaves gouache while the newer one was done with Windsor & Newton gouache, except for the brown, which was also Reaves. 

In addition, the blue of the newer image had the addition of ox gall. The blue was being difficult and I couldn't stop if from looking blotchy. Friends suggested a couple of drops of ox gall, which did help greatly. 

The gold on the newer image was lumped on unevenly; I like how the lumpy surface catches and reflects the light better than a smooth surface. Aside from that, I am using less paint, but I've learned to use it better. Instead of one think layer, I learned to paint several very thin layers of gouache. The thinner layers dry faster, and each layer worth of pigment has a greater chance of scattering light as the light passes through each layer until it reaches the white of the paper, where the photons are reflected back through the layers of paint, further scattering the light.  The end result is deeper and richer colors

The white dots on the blue background enhance the blue, making it brighter and covers up any unevenness of the top layer of pigment. I used Windsor and Newton white ink applied with a pen. The source image just had a solid color as the background, but I think the white dots adds some depth to the image and helps the grotesque stand out. 

This is not the first time I have posted my illumination progression on this blog, but I feel that going through my notes and memories is good for me to see what I learned and the steps and lessons that brought me closer to doing excellent scribal work. I recommend any beginner scribe who might read this to keep notes on what materials you use and what classes you take. Scan all of your work and number them so that you can better track your work. Since we give our work away, only by scanning our work allows us to keep a copy of the gifts we give to others.

Googly eyes make everything better.

 I have nothing new to report. So here is a small piece of illumination:

Playing with ink

Trying something new.

Here are two scrolls. The one on the left was done with Micron pens (and W&N gold gouache). The one on the right was done using ZZKOKO ink in fountain pens. I don't know which one I like best. The red ink looks better than the red Micron, but the blue Micron looks nicer than the blue ink. Also, the Micron worked better with my straight edge than the fountain pen.

I will have to experiment more.

Scroll - Axeman vs Centaur

Scroll - Axeman vs Centaur

Description:

Two scrolls depicting the same image of a inhabited initial ‘A’, depicting a centaur spearing a man holding an axe: opening psalm 77. Inspired by folio 101r of the 12th century Hunterian Psalter.[1] Also known as the York Psalter. Gouache and ink on Fluid 140 pound, hot-pressed, cotton paper and a miniature of the same image on vellum, also with gouache and ink.

The larger image was made as a scroll blank. The smaller was made for the Shelter-In-Place Scribal War.

Details of the original image:

Vellum, 11½ x 7½, ff. 202, originally ff. 204, beautifully written in one hand (except the last 33 folios, in XIV. Cent. hand), in single cols. of 21 lines (in Kalendar 35 lines), each 8½ x 4¼, ruled and margined with plummet, 13 full-page pictures, one full-page illumination, gilt, historiated or illuminated initials begin the first verse of each Psalm, small gilt initials (ornamented in Ps. xcvi.) begin the second and following verses, no signatures or catchwords, partial foliation, modern (in pencil), the Kalendar is written in black, red, blue and green, cropped, marginalia (first three folios only), fol. sec. Martis. Cents. XII. (and XIV.) Binding: Millboards, covered crimson morocco, richly gilt-tooled inside margins, edges and sides (lines), panelled back, title (gilt): PSALTERIUM | UETUS | IN MEMBRANIS. Late Cent. XVII. [For detailed collation see: John Young and P. Henderson Aitken, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of The Hunterian Museum in The University of Glasgow. (Glasgow, 1908), p. 170.]

Although much of the early life of the Psalter remains a mystery, its acquisition by Glasgow University is quite clear. It came as part of William Hunter’s magnificent library in 1807, along with the rest of his wonderful collections. Dr William Hunter (1718-83) was a famous anatomist and physician, and renowned collector of books, manuscripts, coins, medals, paintings, shells, minerals, and anatomical and natural history specimens. Under the terms of his will, his library and other collections remained in London for several years after his death - for the use of his nephew, Dr Matthew Baillie (1761-1823) - and arrived at the University in 1807.

Hunter’s collection of books contains some 10,000 printed books and 650 manuscripts; it forms one of the finest Eighteenth Century libraries to survive intact. Hunter acquired this volume at the sale of the library of Louis-Jean Gaignat in Paris on 10 April 1769, along with several other books. His French agent, Jean B. Dessain, bought it at the auction on Hunter’s behalf for fifty livres and one sou; it was described in the sale catalogue as a ‘codex pervetustus’ (‘an antiquated book’). Now regarded as the greatest treasure in his library, Hunter was paying three times as much for early printed books at the time. [2]

Technique:

The initial image was a scroll blank, made with no assignment in mind. I had already made this image twice before, so I had some experience with it. I used gouache and ink on paper rather than vellum and period pigments as I do not have experience with period pigments, nor do I own any, and I did not have any vellum or pergamenta; only cotton paper. Working from a high resolution image of the manuscript, [3] I removed the background colors and printed out the image. The design was transferred to the paper by tracing over a light box. I feel that there is no shame in using a light box, as I am better at tracing than I am at drawing free-hand.

The scroll was made on Fluid 100% cotton, 140# hot-press watercolor paper. This scroll is 9x12” in size. I used gouache: Reeves and Winsor & Newton for colors and Holbein for the gold. I went heavy on the gold to give it some texture. For the figures and background, I used a very watered down base coat all over, with three or four layers over each area; each layer thicker and thus, darker, than the previous one. Once the paint was dry, I added the white work. I have found that with the gouache, the added white really makes the paint pop, especially the dark paints. I applied the paint so that if the virtual light source came from the upper, left-hand corner of the page, the darkest shades would fall into the right most corners, producing shadows.

I used a very watered down light-blue wash on the metal bits: the axe and spear heads. I have found, over the years, that the silver paint just doesn’t look good and a light wash give the appearance of if not metal than some material that is different than fabric or flesh. Leaving the metal bits unpainted gives the impression that the scroll is unfinished and using darker paint doesn’t give the impression of metal. Beside, this is a technique used in many medieval manuscripts, the Hunterian Psalter for example.

The background of the letter was painted with ultramarine blue gouache and highlighted with white dots: no highlighting or shading was used. Several layers of gold paint were used to make the objects stand out. The goal was to produce an image that would stand out and be visible when it was displayed in court.

Once the all of the paint had dried, I outlined all of the sections with black ink to make the image further stand out, then added white ink and paint to the highlights, to give the figures a sense of depth.

The second piece, made for the Shelter-In-Place Scribal War, was done on a 2x3” piece of actual vellum and was my first experience with working with the material. I scaled down the source image and traced it onto the scrap of vellum. I used the same ink and paint technique as I used on the paper version, but I prepped the vellum with a piece of fine sandpaper, followed up with some pounce, to remove any oil from the surface. A procedure not required on the cotton paper.

I kept the colors the same, except for the legs of the axeman: on the larger image I had used green, but I used light blue on the vellum piece because I wasn’t paying attention: I had started to apply the blue before I realized that I wasn’t using the correct color. Not a major mistake, but a mistake none the less. Also, due to the size of the piece, I was forced to use reading glasses in order to see the fine details. Even so, I had mistakenly applied the background paint where the centaur’s shield was supposed to be. I didn’t want to scrape the paint off of the vellum, since I had no experience with the material and did not want to damage it. I inked around the blue, I had applied, and made the shield more narrow. I think that it isn’t very noticeable when viewed full size; it is when you look at the high-res image.

Unlike paper, the ink and paint didn’t soak into the vellum, but floated on top of it until it dried. [4] This required me to apply a thin layer of gouache to all areas and let each one dry completely before moving on. Subsequent layers then sat atop the dry foundation layer and were less likely to run.

[1] Glasgow, University Library, MS. Hunter 229
[2] From the University of Glasgow’s web site: http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/detail_c.cfm?ID=34725
[3] Provided by the Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department’s web site: Book of the Month, May 2007, http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/may2007.html
[4] This is the same when working with pergamenta.

References:

Caballero, Rosario; Díaz Vera, Javier E. Textual Healing: Studies in Medieval English Medical, Scientific and Technical Texts. Peter Lang, 2010

Gibson, Margaret T.; Heslop, T. A.; Pfaff, Richard William. The Eadwine Psalter: Text, Image, and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-century Canterbury. Penn State Press, Jan 1, 1992

Glasgow University Library Special Collections Department’s web site: Book of the Month, May 2007, http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/may2007.html

University of Glasgow’s web site: http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/detail_c.cfm?ID=34725

Mission Accomplished

It was well received.

There are times where I am so fortunate to be able to make scrolls. This scroll was for an old friend who has spent years working in kitchens with little to no recognition for all of her service. Partly because she is always in the kitchen and partly because she does not travel outside of her home group. I spent the last few years submitting award recommendation after recommendation, on our Kingdom's web site, for her with no response. I was writing her in for a Keystone, AEthelmearc's AoA level award for service.

Last year I was riding with King Timothy to the house of a dear friend in order to induct him into the Pelican.

Let me just take a moment here to let you know of the high bar of royalty: leaving an event with a caravan of people; driving two and half hours to someone's home; and holding a elevation for a dying man because His Majesty wanted to make sure that Rendel knew that he was a peer of the Society. And then driving two and half hours back to the event. It was an emotional elevation that was streamed so that people at the event could bear witness.

Anyways.... 5 hours in the truck with His Majesty. I had a chance to explain the oversight with the online recommendation and that I had been submitting the request for the last 12 reigns. I explained that Fauna doesn't travel, always cooks at local events, and has taken the lead in creating gluten- and dairy-free food that doesn't take like packing peanuts. I had convinced Him and later spoke with Her Majesty. I had volunteered to make the scroll and They accepted and asked the Kingdom Signet to make it happen.

I had promised not to make an all pun scroll, because those are only for A&S related scrolls.

I didn't say anything about alliteration.

Fauna laughs easily and tends to snort when she laughs too hard.

Let me set the stage. I had let Lord Snori, the Jewel Herald, know that Fauna would not be at court because she will be in the kitchen. When she came up in the docket, someone was sent to get her, and she walked into court without a clue of what was waiting for her. Their Majesties spoke to her and told the court about her gluten-free bread that His Majesty said was tasty. While He was speaking, Lord Snori was trying to read my chicken-scratch hand-writing. Then he noticed the wording taped to the back of the scroll, wording in easy to read in 18pt Aerial font. The he started taking in the words and the look on his face was worth the drive out to Thescorre in the snow.

What happened then was a Royal F-bomb (click here for the text) as Lord Snori read out a scroll with around 50 'F' alliterations. One 'F' after another, with everyone laughing. After reading it, Lord Snori said, "Scroll by THAT GUY! THAT GUY IS TO BLAME!" and pointed at me. At which I stood up and yelled back, "I WAS TOLD NO PUNS!"

Lady Fauna was crying and laughing and crying. Crying, because she was finally recognized for her service. Laughing because of the scroll, and crying because she was laughing so hard.

I live for moments such as these. I am so fortunate that I live in a Kingdom where I can create a unique, customized scroll for a good friend and make 100 people laugh so hard and bring joy to a dear friend.

I caught up with Lady Fauna in the kitchen, where she was still crying after being sand-bagged. "How's your day going, now?" I asked. "Now that they dropped a Royal F-bomb on you?" Which made her laugh.

Mission accomplished.

As a Baron of the Court of AEthelmearc, and as a Master of the Order of the Pelican, it is my job and my responsibility to serve. Part of that service is looking out for the forgotten and overlooked. As a Peer, I can have greater access to Royalty than someone brand new to the SCA. I use that connection for occasions such as Fauna. We should not be doing things, in the SCA, just to get a piece of paper. We should be doing things because we enjoy doing them and it makes the SCA better. However, watching others get rewarded for doing the same work, year after year, tends to disenfranchise and depress people who aren't publicly recognized. Ten years of service without a 'thank you' can drive some people away from the SCA.

All of us need to pay attention to the forgotten and overlooked. Poke your head in the kitchen and see who is there cooking and cleaning. See who stays late to mop the floors. If your Kingdom asks members of various Orders to stand when someone is being added, see who is still sitting but should be added. They don't have to be personal friends. You don't even have to know the person. Ask the local Coronets or seneschal for a name. If you have a coronet or a peerage, it is your job and responsibility to speak up for these people. We can't always have a five hour car ride with the King to talk about our friend, or make awesome scrolls, but we can carry little tokens that we can give to people who inspire us, in private. If someone really does something inspiring, we can use our rank to ask for a few minutes in a Kingdom or Baronial court and give a token and a kind word to someone in front of everyone.

Another scroll done

And It Doesn't Look That Bad.

This is a scroll for a friend. I think that it looks nice... Now that it is done. I spent so much time thinking that I was wasting my time on it 'cause it was so bad.

Here is an example of how I made it:

1) I found the image and finagled the 'L' into an 'F'
2) I traced the image using a light box. Joy levels were high. My friend will be so happy.
3) Took a break 'cause painting it will be so easy.
4) Somehow make the spit-turner look more like a troll than the original image.
5) "We'll fix it in post!"
6) Start putting paint down. "My colors aren't working. I must not know what I'm doing. This is going to look awful. Why did I choose these colors?"
7) "Why did I take such a long break from painting? I forgot everything I learned about painting. I'm barely better than a 3rd grader doing finger painting!"
8) Put everything away and build a new work bench for the basement so that I can feel what accomplishing something is like.
9) Pull everything back out and start painting again.
10) Start filling in all of the elements. "Why did I do this image? Nothing I'm doing looks like the original image. The troll looks like a mutant troll."
11) Start the shading. "Now I know I don't know what I'm doing. This looks terrible. I might as well throw it away and never do it again."
12) Finish up another scroll and take heart that perhaps I can do this.
13) 30 SECONDS LATER: start looking for another image to make a replacement scroll.
14) Power through the insecurity.
15) Start the highlighting. "You know... This doesn't look half bad. I don't know what I was worried about."
16) Make a minor mistake while doing the whitework. "AAAAHHHHHHGGGGGG!!!! I ruined it! My friend is going to hate me!"
17) Finish the piece and rationalize the experience. "I knew that I could do it. This will look great when it's handed out in court. Easy as pie. Mmmmmm, pie.....!"
18) Notice that I forgot to paint legs on the cook. Or add the fire.
19) Drop an 'F' bomb.
20) Experiment with fire on a scrap of paper.
21) Find a method that looks good-ish.
22) Make a mess with the Yellow.
23) Make is worse with the Orange.
24) Put too much water in the Red and smear the Red into the Orange and Yellow.
25) DAMN! That looks good. I'm on fire!
26) Put the brush down and walk away, thinking that I knew I could do it.
27) Grudgingly admit that it looks nice and that my friend will like it. 
28) The spit turner still looks like a mutant troll. But I'm okay with that.

This is pretty much what I go through when I make scrolls. For the most part, I'm happy with the end results but I sweat over making the scroll.

Things you probably should not put on a scroll

Unless You Really, Really Want To

The image is of the aftermath of the battle between King Arthur and Mordred's armies on Salisbury Plain. 

You should never use it as an SCA scroll, unless you really want to.

This will be the tourney scroll for a speed tourney at an upcoming event. I'm not happy with my white work, particularly on the blue, but I'm not going to mess with it and make it worse. 

I am happy with how it turned out. All the while I was working, on this scroll, I hated it. It didn't look good. I didn't think it was going to work out. I had to do it twice: the first one was ruined by an errant splash of dumpling sauce. I didn't think I could remove the stains without damaging the paper. Remember, it's only paper and time. If I think I can remake the scroll in less time than I would use to fix it, I'm going to remake the scroll. 

In any case, I thought this was a complete waste, while I was working on it. The blue was giving me issues. The mail looked like a hodgepodge of a mess. It wasn't until I had finished the white work that my inner critic shut the hell up. 

Although, if I must be honest. I really messed up on the upper most horse. Either it has a very bad overbite or someone chopped it's lower jar off. Or, perhaps it was something more sinister. 

First scrolls of the year

First scrolls of the year

I have some assignments... Finally. Three scrolls for two events. As usual, Deckster Picelli, International Cat of Mystery, kept me company while I painted. 

I only have red and gold on the paper.... Blue will be next. I spent a couple of relaxing hours inking. It's nice to see that I haven't forgotten how to do this. 

No One Likes Fish Puns

Bird Puns Are All the Raven

At the Seven Pearl's Tournament, this past weekend, my last assignment was given out. And by last assignment, I mean my most recent one, not my last one ever. Although, judging by the reactions, it might be the last one I get. Master Po kept punching me after each and every pun. I know that I done good when Master Po, a man who is known in AEthelmearc as a herald and wordsmith who tells bad puns.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/48571222657/in/dateposted/

I will have to say that THL Zosia, who was the reading herald, enjoyed reading this scroll as much as she hated reading the fish pun scroll from earlier this year. I did not know that people enjoyed bird puns more than fish puns. I will have to make one full of puns about woodland critters and see how it is received.

I did speak with the recipient of this scroll, at the end of the event, and mentally kicked myself: I could have slipped in a kingfisher pun. Still a bird pun but referencing a fish.

I feel sorry for those people living in Kingdoms who use standardized scroll text. They will never know the pleasure, and pain, of hearing 25 bird related puns in a row, while at the same time honoring the mad A&S skills of Aurelid Argentia Prima, the Lady who won.

This looks better

This Looks Much Better.

Yes, this looks much better. The gold background makes the dragon and the birds pop. Yes; those are birds. Not particularly well drawn birds, but they don't look any worse than the original source. 

As I wrote in my previous post, paper is cheap. I was not happy with the way the blue background was coming out and I was getting frustrated with not making it look that way I did in my brain. 

There are certain stages to my scroll making, and "this look terrible" is one of the major ones, early on in the process. But the blue background never moved out of that stage. I reached a point where I knew I would never like the image. Now that the replacement is complete, I can see that I have chosen wisely. Now, I just have to get the proper wording and I can "calligraph" it. 

My fellow scribes, all two of y'all who read this, keep this in mind: Start your assignments as soon as possible, so that when you are half way through and you hate it, you have plenty of time to start over. 

Nope! I don't like it.

Nope! I Don't Like It.

Welp, I was working on this scroll for {THAT EVENT THAT YOU LOVE} and I just don't like how it looks. I love the image, but the paint wasn't working for me. The background is supposed to be a pale blue wash. The paint just wasn't working for me. Sometimes that happens. I just don't want to deal with it, right now. Sometimes, you just have to set it aside and start over. There's no point in working on something that will only aggravate you. 

So, I grabbed a new sheet of paper and started over.

This time I went with a gold background. It looks better, already. I'll take care of the other one, at a later date, and use this one for {THAT EVENT YOU LOVE}. Paper is cheap; if you hate what you are working on, you will never want to finish it. 

Something weird

I Don't Mean 'I Before E Except After C'

Ever come up with wording for a scroll that you feel kinda guilty about writing down. Not evil. Not mean. Not insulting. But something that will make the herald hate you for making them read it out loud. Like slipping in a really bad pun. Or a tongue twister. Or using language that you know will make the herald laugh while they are reading it.

I bring this up 'cause I made a scroll from an unusual inhabited initial..... No. Oh, god no! Not the cannibal depicted above. I have a humorous streak but I wouldn't use a cannibal on an award scroll. Maybe a tourney scroll.... No, better not.

Where was I?

Oh, yes. I made a scroll with an unusual initial with an idea for certain words to go along with it. Unfortunately, as an award scroll, it would be for a very limited set of people. Like, if you were to make a scroll depicting period ice skating; how many people could you use it for so that it would be relevant? But, I was handed a last minute scroll assignment and my mind added up 2 and 2 and got blueberry pie as the answer. So, I took my idea for funny wording for an unknown award for an unknown person and turned it into a tourney scroll and cranked up the wording to 11.

I won't post it here: I want it to be a surprise. See y'all at that event that you might be at.

By the way: don't put a cannibal on an award scroll.

Some kind words

Remember To Tip Your Waiters.

Today, I received a very nice E-mail from Robert of Ferness: the Honorable Lord Robert. I had done the scroll commemorating his induction into the Noble Order of the Fleur of AEthelmearc (GoA level award for Arts and Sciences). In the E-mail, he thanked me for the nice piece of work, and for the silly joke on the back of the scroll.  

Scrolls are freely made and freely given. It is nice to get comments from the recipients of the scrolls that I make. I do like the "Ooohs" and "Aaahhs" when one of my scrolls is held up, but I don't make them for the audience; I make them for the person who will be taking the scroll home. 

I've had several people, at the last few events, come up to me saying something like, "You're Caleb? You did my AoA scroll. Thank you, thank you, thank you." I don't want to sound like a jerk, but most of the time I have to find a nice way of saying, "Who are you? I do so many assignments and blanks" Which is true. Most of the scrolls I did last year were scroll blanks: someone else did the calligraphy and wording (and made my work look great).  I try to do some cold reading and question leading in order to figure out which piece ended up going to that particular person. Sometimes they have a picture on their phones and then I can give them some details on where the image came from.

I hope that I can inspire people to keep doing that thing that they did to get the award, or win the tourney, that earned them the scroll. And I hope that if you receive a scroll, take the time to hunt down the scribe and thank them. THL Robert's E-mail really, really, really made my day.

More fencers

This Challenge Is Taking Years

12 pages into my I.33 challenge. I want to make a scroll based on all 64 pages of I.33, the world's oldest, known sword-fighting manuscript. At this rate, it'll take me another ten years to complete. The image, below, will be one of the scrolls for this year's Ice Dragon two-person melee tourney. This will be for person A and person B will get a scroll inspired by another page of the manuscript. 

I am doing each page using the same color combination, although I have been using less paint, so the images look different. Less intense. 

I've used this manuscript for mostly tourney scrolls, although I have done a couple of AoA level award scrolls. The images are easy to draw and I like how they look. I have high-res copies of the original pages. To keep from duplicating any pages, I have a folder with all of the pages, and a sub-folder with the completed pages. Once I print out the page I wish to work on (so that I can trace it) I move that file into the sub-folder. This way I know what I have done and haven't done. I don't do them in order: I just pick a random image. Also, several of the pages have damage to them and I think that I will save them for last.

Back In Business

I Need to Learn to Pace Myself.

Ending the year with a trio of scrolls. One back log, one for Ice Dragon, and one for a possible award assignment, also for Ice Dragon. I feel no need to do 30 at a time, but I am of the opinion that as long as you have your paints out, you might as well work on a few at a tine. I put down a coat of gold on the first scroll, and by the time I finish with the 3rd, the 1st is ready for a 2nd coat. 

I'm on the some new meds for my arthritis and it appears to be helping: my hands weren't hurting after an hour of painting, or shaking. I took it slow, today, so that I didn't over do it. 

The scroll, above, is a backlog for a friend who was awarded her AoA 27 years ago, but never received it due to reasons. I asked her if she would like me to make her a replacement and she was delighted. I was pleased that she had recently had arms passed: I told her that if she hadn't had arms submitted in the last 27 years I would have put it on the scroll. "...and raise her to the rank of Lady and command that she visit Our College of Heralds to have Arms unique to her created. No hurry on that: it's not like there is a time limit on this. Anytime in the next 30 years would be fine."

I did have trouble finding the new brush I had purchased a few months ago: I forgot what it looked like.

Also in the picture is Deckster (international cat of mystery) not helping. Not only did he not stick his face or paws into the paint or on the paper, but he snuggled next to me and wasn't bitey... for a change. He's been pretty bitey, this last week, for some reason.  But, while I painting, he was perfect kitty.