I called dibs on a Silver Crescent assignment for Caoilfhionn.  She, along with Brennan, gave me my Master of Defense, so there is a little bit of a desire to give her something special.  I also want to encourage her in her endeavors in fencing.  I was given quite a bit of latitude on what I could do.  I was told that she liked my fencing manuals but would love anything that I did.  I wanted to make something stunning.

I did a lot of thinking and some research.  I found a medieval representation of a mermaid.  Caoilfhionn also has blue and white flowers as her badge and I wanted to incorporate that into the design. 

I used Black Arches paper, 80 pound, with miniatum ink not regular miniatum because I wanted to make fine lines.  The white ink was Dr. Martin's White Ink and the paint was Holbein or Windsor Newton goauche.

The Dr. Martin's white ink definitely made a more consistent layer on the black paper.  My calligraphy is getting better, but I can still see some slanting here and there.  The pencil layer is visible, and the layer of miniatum layer is almost invisible against the black paper on the left hand bottom of the paper.

First layer of gold leaf on all that miniatum.

Second layer of miniatum, and some buffing.  You can see the shine in the upper portion of the photograph.  I started to add details and white accents.

Layer of ultramarine goauche, Windsor Newton.    I continued to put several more layers of blue to even out the color.  As you can see from the photograph, there are dead spots where the paint was just soaked up by the paper.  Helpful hint for those doing Black Hours scrolls, always make more paint than you think you will need and leave time to do several, several layers. 

It has been since June that I posted last, and boy has there been a lot going on.

First up - I received the honor of receiving a Laurel in July.  Yay.
Next, I took over as Tyger Clerk of the Signet for the East, and that has cut into my process photos of artwork and documenting my progress. 
Luckily I have taken some pictures, which I will share here.

Laurel scroll for me by Mistress Isabelle Chamberlain.  Wow, just wow.

Summer ended up with me teaching the drawing class again at Pennsic.   Below are pictures of the portrait class.

Count Ruslan is one of my regular models.  

My fabulous model, Mistress Anastasiia Gutane.