Short time frame-ish, as this scroll had to be completed after school let out at the end of June and between my trip to Alaska and Seattle and BEFORE going to Pennsic when it would be given.  Eleanor Catlyng and I worked on the wording together, and I think the words would make Alys MacIntoish very proud. Then Eleanor dived into the Elizabethan secretariat, leaving me space for a cadel and for a figure from a period rapier manual and the medallion of the Order of the Golden Rapier.

Since pen and ink are my forte, it took me just a little over two days to complete it.  I have been practicing my cadels and will dig up the other B I did on another scroll in this time period so it went fairly quickly.  I dressed it up with some flourishes (what I call deely-bops! :-)) and started researching an appropriate two sword master to find a figure to place on the scroll.

This is where I enlisted the help of my cadet, Lucien de Wyntere.   He and I were on instant message on FB while I tried to remember what fencing master Thomas of Effingham studied.  Lucien seemed to think that it was Fiore, so I started looking.  The conversation went like this:

Me:   Fiore sounds right.     Awesome, it is mostly pictures of people neck punching.

Lucien:   LOL.     http://wildgeesefencing.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/liberi_2122.jpg

Me:  See what I mean? Junk punching!   But, yes, that is helpful.

Lucien: he was a bastard like that

Then Lucien proceeded to help me find more exemplars:

http://www.fioredeiliberi.org/image/fiore3.jpg

And I found this :  http://www.thearma.org/essays/Fiore/FioreDeiLiberi_StudyGuide.v3.6.pdf

and he found a cleaner version

http://www.lonin.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/sword-middle-dente-cinghiaro1.jpg

And the exemplar below:

So I was off and running.  Take the guy, take the crown off and we're good.

Things to note, I used a crow quill pen for the figure and badge, straight up black and white drawing for the badge and cross-hatching for the Fiore figure.  In this particular case the original was on velum, done with pen and ink with gold highlights.  Since I was not doing a crown on Thomas of Effingham, the pen and ink would suffice.  We use pergamenata, which is a good substitute for velum and a preferred surface for both Eleanor and myself.   I also used a number 1.5 nib for the cadel.

The pictures below show the end product with close ups of certain features. 

The first one is a close up of the Fiore side sword person, given Thomas' hairline and manly beard.  The second picture is the Golden Rapier Badge.

The above two images are the close up of the cadel "B" for Brennan and the photograph of the entire scroll.

Things I would do differently - Take more pictures.

So I decided that we should do Calligraphy and Illumination and All Things Scribal at Pennsic during the afternoon in the Artisan's Row.

The setting up was relatively easy to do.  I proposed it at a Carolingian Calligrapher's guild meeting, people thought it was a good idea, and so I submitted a request to the coordinator and she said yes.  Cool. 

Eleanor and I came up with the write up and we sent it out willy and nilly to people.

Afternoon Art: All Things Scribal (2400) @ Pennsic

Nataliia and Eleanor are hosting (along with other members of the Carolingian Calligraphers' Guild) a drop-in scribal afternoon at Pennsic, middle Saturday, 12:30-4:30, Artisan's Row B.   Please feel free to drop in with any scribal questions, beginner or more advanced.  We will have some materials and resources with us, and you are welcome to bring current projects, images of prior work or works in progress, etc to just work side by side or get some feedback and guidance.  This is intentionally a drop-in, with no obligation to come at any particular time or stay for any particular duration, and our topics will depend on those who attend.


Bios

Nataliia Anastasiia Evgenova: Nataliia has been a scribe for the East Kingdom for over fifteen years.  She is mainly an illuminator, specializing in portraiture and the use of period paints. Recently, she has also been experimenting with making her own paint brushes.   Over the years, she has illuminated in many styles, representing a wide array of periods and cultures.  She is a Companion of the Order of the Maunche in the East Kingdom, primarily for her illumination.  She has also been working on her calligraphy in her spare time.  Mundanely, she has a degree in Art History and Art Studio.


Eleanor Catlyng:  Eleanor began working on scrolls for the East Kingdom for over twenty years, but began calligraphing much earlier, when she received a calligraphy kit for her tenth birthday.   She specializes in late period hands, but has done a wide variety of hands from all periods and many cultures (including hieroglyphics on real papyrus!) over the years.   She sometimes illuminates when she cannot talk Nataliia or others into doing it. Occasionally, she stops calligraphing long enough for Nataliia to teach her about painting, too.  She is also a Companion of the Maunche and Laurel for her work in this field.


I only have been able to grab two photos of what happened.   Photos by Brita Svensdottir. 

Eleanor and Eva Woderose were the calligraphy gurus, and I took on anyone needing help with painting, but we both crossed over to help and advise anyone who came in.

The photo below is Eleanor showing some calligraphy examples, with some people working on painting, with paints that I laid out and showing people easier ways to do things. By the looks of things, Brita had just stood up and was taking the picture after she was able to practice some calligraphy and then paint the badge for the Golden Rapier.

Below is Eva and I looking at...............something, with me with my eyes shut. :-)  Unfortunately, I believe that this is an automatic reaction to a camera. 

It went well, we were able to work with several people who were interested in starting calligraphy and were able to give hands on training on things that people just don't even think about, like the Ames Lettering Guide, and using a t-square and the Ames Lettering Guide to set up your calligraphy.  I was also able to get people excited about painting.  It started out slow with only one person arriving the first hour and then departing and then people starting trickling in each hour until we had around 7 people by 2 p.m.

Thoughts for next year: Eva, Eleanor and I kicked around some ideas.  One is to just have the three of us set up working on specific pieces much in a scriptorium style and talk about our pieces, our choices, and show our techniques.  Another thought is to provide a topic each hour (research the first hour, layout the next, inking the next, calligraphy the next, painting the next, etc) so that we have some structure to the time.

I had a couple of scrolls that I collaborated on go out at Pennsic, so I can publish the information now.  The first scroll was a collaboration between Marguerite inghean Lachlainn and Cezilia Raposa on a Silver Rapier scroll for Robert Earlson.  Being a close friend of ours, as well as Marguerite's husband, there was a lot of work that was done under his nose and there was quite a bit of running around in secret, passing the work back and forth.  Plus we were sure that he would kill us DED when he found out.

Marguerite came up with the words and her process is here.  It told the story of Robert's adventures at Mudthaw in a very lovely way.   I am in wonder of her writing ability.  During that time a couple of us worked on the research for an appropriate Scottish manuscript.  I enlisted the help of Aildreda who was able to pull some images, most of them were without any illumination, because the Protestants of the time period had basically shut down all production of manuscripts unless it was purely text.  But we continued to dig and came up with several sources that might work.  

In the interest of sharing with people some of our finds in case they want to go in this direction, the links are as follows:  

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_88929_f001ar

https://images.nationalarchives.gov.uk/assetbank-nationalarchives/action/viewAsset?id=20095&index=1&total=29&view=viewSearchItem

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_33933_fs001r

We decided to chose the first one and Cezilia got working immediately on the layout and commenced with the calligraphy.  The manuscript that we chose was done between 1485-1509.  It was a roll containing prayers in Latin and English to the Arma Christi, the Virgin and seven saints.   The particular illumination that I found compelling was the unframed representation of the nails of the Passion, in burnished gold, piercing the Sacred Heart, the feet and hands of Christ, and the Crown of Thorns.   This looked like swords to me, and well because Robert is mundanely a carpenter, the nail thing was neat and could easily frame the badge of the Silver Rapier.  So what I started with as the exemplar is on the left, and what we ended up with at the end is on the right.

And now to the process:

First was sketching out the design and inking it in.  The recipient's animal spirits are spiders, bats and I wanted to include the Northern Army star since he is in the Northern Army Rapier division.

Things I would do differently.  I would position the nails/swords closer together and make the main illumination more unified and closer to the original.  I need to work more with the mosaic gold because it is not laying down like I would like it to.  I suspect that I simply need more practice.  I did get some nice tips from Randthulfr Asparlundr, a Midrealm laurel who came to the Artisan's Row Scribal get together.

So on to the next project.