And I was doing so well.

I must have been channeling the spirit of Charlie Brown.

Yikes.

My first scroll with my new pen and I made a blot. Right at the end of the text, no less. And I was so happy that I was unable to get the ink to fall off of the pen and then a drop of ink fell off in mid word.

Poo.

I had decided not to fix the mistake. I blotted up the excess ink with a napkin and just kept writing. I figured that anything that I would do to remove the blot would make the scroll look worse. Sometimes you just have to leave the mistake alone.

I did it, again

So Many Words. So Little Space

The downside to using period sources for scroll wording is that sometimes I don't know when to stop. I really love the fluid language that they, at least the English, used in royal proclamations. I love the sound of the cadence of the repeated phrases and the redundancy.

Know ye that of our especiall grace, certaine science and meere motion, we have given and granted, and by these presents for us, our heires and successours, doe give and graunt to our trustie and welbeloved servaunt Sir Humphrey Gilbert of Compton, in our castle of Devonshire Knight, and to his heires and assignee for ever, free libertie and licence from time to time, and at all times for ever hereafter, to discover, finde, search out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countreys and territories not actually possessed of any Christian prince or people, as to him, his heirs & assignee, and to every or any of them, shall seeme good: and the fame to have, hold, occupie and enjoy to him, his heires and assignee for ever, with all commodities, jurisdictions, and royalties both by sea and land; and the said sir Humfrev and all such as from time to time by licence of us, our heiress and successours, shall goe and travell thither, to inhabits or romaine there, to build and fortifie at the discretion of the sayde Sir Humfrey, and of his heires and assignee, the statutes or actes of Parliament made against Fugitives, or against such as shall depart, romaine or continue out of our Realme of England without licence, or any other acte, statute, lawe or matter whatsoever to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And wee doe likewise by these presents, for US, our heires and successours, give full authoritie and power to the saide Sir Humfrey, his heires and assignee, and every of them, that tree and they, and every of any of them, shall and may at all and every time and times hereafter, have, take and lead in the same voyages, to travell thitherward, and to inhabits there with him, and every or any of them, such and so many of our subjects as shall willingly accompany him and them....

Wonderful. The downside it that I normally don't have 120 square inches of free space for wording. The other night, I wrote some awesome wording for {THAT PERSON THAT YOU LIKE}. 341 words for about 51 square inches of space. I had to gut about 100 words in order that everything fit in the space available. And, man, I hate doing that 'cause they were nice words. I know that it does take up extra time in {THAT EVENT THAT YOU LIKE}'s court but I feel that everyone who gets called up for an award, regardless of the award, should hear the herald read out some fancy-schamcy words describing that person and what they did to get the award. "Bla-bla has done great things in Our eyes and so do We, King and Queen, award him/her this award and a harty hand shake."

We are AEthelmearc: we can do better than that.

Bloody runny ink

I had just started the calligraphy on a backlog scroll for the West Kingdom when this happened. The ink just pooled on the surface and ran. It might have been due to the weather or because I was writing in front of other people. It's time to scrape and sand.