This Maunche scroll went out this weekend for Anna Dokeianina Syrakousina.

First the words:
"Attend the words of Brennan and Caoilfhionn,

When the Franks had all come together and had taken an oath to the emperor, there was one lady who had the boldness to seek the counsel of the Emperor and Empress.  The emperor, well knowing the pride of the Latins, kept silent as Anna Dokeianina Syrakousina approached, with the courage of a brave warrior and bade him to excuse her barbarous language.  “I seek only to expand the knowledge of great Byzantium and Roman clothing so that all will see right and beautiful customs of our lands.”  Brennan and Caoilfhionn felt the lady’s experience, teaching and talent was of a most high and ancient nobility and wished to reward her.  Upon our word and seal, do We, induct Anna Dokeianina into the Order of the Maunche this May 17, A.S. XLIX (49) at the Crown Tournament in the Barony of l’ile du Dragon Dormant."

 I did the words, illumination and calligraphy this time around. I also put in the caution to the recipient that I made the document with period pigments of lapis lazuli and cinnabar.


My research on this scroll started with finding a picture of the recipient so that I could get some inspiration from how she looked.  Luckily this recipient made it very easy for me because she has her own blog so I had a wealth of information. Anna is an avid researcher in Byzantium and Roman clothing so I was excited to be able to do this.   Her own blog, which is recommend is here: http://annasrome.com


The wording was based on “The Alexiad” (10:10, 10:11) by Princess Anna Comnena, the account of her father, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, 1083-after 114.  This is the same time period as the recipient and I thought I would work the wording in a nice way to tell Anna's story.   I found the Alexiad here: http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/basis/AnnaComnena-Alexiad.asp

I then looked around for an appropriate 11th century Byzantine Manuscript and found the of Gospel of Luke here.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Byzantinischer_Maler_um_1020_003.jpg  

I thought that this would make a good start, with a portrait of the recipient, her arms, the Maunche, and then the Eastern Tiger.  I hoped that the crucifix form wouldn't offend, but make a nice balance of the different pictures.

Step One -

Layout.  I had thought about adding picture from the Bamberg textile from the bottom, but changed my mind later to add the Eastern tiger instead.  That is why you see a figure where eventually the Tiger ends up.

Step Two - Calligraphy.  I decided I would like to have the words in look Greek because it would match well with the personna of the recipient, the original source for the calligraphy and the illumination so I wanted to figure out how I could accomplish this. I knew I was not going to be fluent in Greek by the end of the week, and I do not have ready sources for someone who is fluent in the language, so I used a classic scribal shortcut.  I tossed the words I came up with into Google translate and viola!  It gave the scroll the right look. The only person that I told that it was put through Google translate was the Tiger Clerk, as I didn't want someone to try and read Greek at the event.  This was an artistic choice.

Step Three - The Inking

I inked in the start of the portrait that I lifted off of Anna's blog and started to ink in the other areas that would get painted.

Step Four - More inking and preparing for the painting.

Figure is now fully realized, Maunche and Arms are both inked in nicely.  At this point I had decided on the Eastern Tiger to represent the fierceness of this woman. 

The painting went so quickly that I did not take pictures of the individual elements that I painted.  I was able to use the mosaic gold, see my previous post, and lapis lazuli for the blue tiger and cinnabar for the arms.  I was also able to mix lapis lazuli and the cinnabar to make a lovely purple for the maunche medallion on the scroll.  The colors were very bright, quite different from the modern paints that I have been using.  I was pleased with the results.

The final scroll after signing by the royalty. 

In March of 2014, I received SnS2, stannic sulfide, also know as Mosaic Gold in the historical context.  This was part of the Great Mosaic Gold Distribution started by Master RanthulfR (Randy Asplund), webpage: http://www.randyasplund.com  to get people out there working with a pigment that would have been used as a gold leaf substitute in historical period.  Instead of using modern materials, RanthulfR wanted to promote this and I agreed it would be a fun experiment and would move my work closer to period practice.  Mosaic gold is a yellow scaly crystalline pigment consisting essentially of stannic sulfide.

So a bunch of us went in on this purchase and I received 80 grams of the SnS2 to experiment with it.  I divided 80 grams in half to give to a friend in the north (Hi, Camille) to further our artistic mischief. I put the mosaic gold into a nice, dry, class jar with a cover, labeled it and EVERYTHING.  How exciting!

So over the next month, I was stupidly busy. I didn't have a lot of time to be able to experiment.   During April vacation I actually had time so I took the pigment and added some gum arabic (a few drops) as the binder to temper the color, plus a little water to make it flow and painted some test swatches.

Well, of course, my vacation got busy, and I didn't get back to the experimenting.  But I did look over the tests, and it seemed, to me, to not be opaque enough. I had some time today and decided to grab my muller and glass set up and grind the pigment a little more to see if that would make a difference.   Grinding is pretty boring, and in period I would have many assistants doing this work. But there is only one way to learn for me, and that is by doing.  So grind I did.   And grind.  And grind some more.  More on the grinding later.

The results of the test pieces are to the right above.  What I have observed (and you can also, if you can zoom in) is that the ground pigments are more opaque.  The silicon carbide did not seem to make any difference, however, I have been told by the scribes on the SCA_Scribes_and_Illumination yahoogroup that adding a bit of mica dust might bring out a metalic look. Not sure yet, that is an experiment for another day.

I did use the mosaic gold on a current project that I am doing.  Can't show it yet, but the moment that I can, you will see it here.  I will note that the mosaic gold does have a nice shine when it dries and when it is right up next to a combination of cinnabar and lapis lazuli (also ground from pigment), it makes a lovely contrast.  I'm pretty happy so far with the results.

Finally, I decided to go crazy and grind some eggshells to make calcium carbonate. :-)  I need a way to have white pigment, but I really am not wanting to work with white lead.  No, not a good idea.

Another teacher at work has chickens and had extra eggs so I received them on Friday.  Saturday morning, fresh eggs for breakfast and I kept one of the white shells to try out the grinding.  I have discovered that there is a technique to the grinding and I am getting better at it.  I grind the pigment, then I scoop it back together in a mound with a painters blade and then grind again.  Repeat several times.  Some things that I learned:  I think I needed to leave the egg out to really dry out as the grinding seemed to have too much moisture to it.  Also, I read after I did this, that you need to add the binder in and grind it.  That will happen next.   I have put the finished product in a container and may let it dry again and then re-try grinding with the binder to see if I can get a finer grind. I could use the resulting chalk to paint grounds, but would have to add lime (calcium hydroxide) in order to make it Lime White, which would have been used in period.  Lime also has its hazards, so I'll have to look into that.

Bibliography

"Pigments through the Ages - Detailed Pigment Histories, Recipes." Pigments through the Ages - Detailed Pigment Histories, Recipes. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2014.

Cennini, Cennino, and Daniel V. Thompson. The Craftsman's Handbook. New York: Dover Pubications, 1954. Print.

"Randy Asplund Illustration Home." Randy Asplund Illustration Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2014.

"Why Natural Pigments?" Natural Pigments. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2014.

"Hand Grinding and the Purchase of Materials." Basic Three-Bar Template. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2014.

Today's "Journey to the West" by Wu Cheng'en dates 1500-1582 and well within the time period that we study in the Society.  There is a certain man in my life that fancies himself a disciple of The Monkey King and has read the tales and studied the time period.  Some time ago, I painted his fencing mask based on a Chinese opera mask of The Monkey King. I will admit that I have not done a ton of research, however, there is enough information that supports making such as mask, as there were masked operas as early as the 4th century in China and that one was even done to honor a general who went into battle wearing a mask.  Seems very, very appropriate for Ogedei.  So I found some representations on the web.  It is not easy to find actual historical opera masks, there are plenty of modern ones, but there were enough that would give me an idea to run with.  Some acrylic paint later, and the picture to the left and below.

A good friend of mine, Alexandre St. Pierre, is an absolute sweetie and is running a blog.  His blog is

http://alexandresaintpierre.blogspot.com/

Currently he is being all industrious and is interviewing people for his blog.  I was interviewed this month!  You can see it at:

http://alexandresaintpierre.blogspot.com/2014/05/interview-nataliia-anastasiia-evgenova.html

I have known Alexandre since way back when he was fencing.  He was good at it and I do miss that he stopped fencing and started archery, and then he even moved onto art.  He has definitely found his calling because he is an extremely talented calligrapher, one of the finest that I have met.  He has more talent in his little finger than I have in my whole body.  And he is super nice on top of that. 

But a nice way to start the month after a couple of real tough ones.

Onto more work.  Hopefully will post something later this weekend.