Nine Tiles: Butterfly Blues

Nine ceramic tiles painted with portion of butterfly wings in three shades of blue. Sold a few weeks ago before making it to the Etsy store.

Nine Tiles: Nature and Birds

This is the first of a series of painted ceramic tiles that I recently produced. It sold this week on my Etsy store, Currant Thoughts . The kiwi was my favorite mini-painting and may inspire a whole new nine tiles set of odd bits of nature.

Juliana’s Laurel Scroll

Laurel scroll for Mistress Juliana Foxcroft
Adapted from several pages of the Macclesfield Psalter with a bunch of specific elements to represent things special to Juliana. For instance, irises are her favorite flower, a butterfly represents my household, the stag represents her husband, the house of cards is a no to an SCA household of which Juliana is a member, a bee for Maeva, a thistle for Finneadan and the list goes on.

• Calligraphy and drawing by Mistress Finneadan
• Gilding by Baroness Maol
• Illumination by Mistress Gwenllyn

Sadly, Finneadan and I had to do this twice as the original piece was lost in the mail and diverted to some sort of mail limbo for a few weeks.
Not sure what the hours count would be on the whole piece, but for my part: Gilding prep, sizing, gold application and burnishing took around 4.5 hours.

Navah’s White Scarf

Recently I visited Mistress Navah’s home to work on a silk painting project. While there I noticed a scroll on a high shelf that looked pretty cool. I asked Navah who had done the scroll and she looked at me pretty strangely and replied  “Um, you did.”

Huh. How about that? I looked a little closer and noticed the calligraphy. Yep, that’s mine.

How can I not remember a painting that I did? Calligraphy that I wrote?

Let’s be honest here: I have done a lot of these. I never thought to count how many illuminations and pages of calligraphy that I have done over the years but it probably numbers well over 1000 pieces in the last 12 or so years.

After staring at the page for a bit, it started to look familiar but I had to look up the source anew as I could not remember a single detail about it.
The page was inspired by “Anonymous Fechtbuch Manuscript I.33” a 13th century manual about sword and buckler fighting.  I don’t remember why I chose the particular images that I did from the book. Likely they were featured in an illumination survey book that I owned. It looks like ink and watercolor gouache on bristol board. I have no idea how many hours were spent on the page.

Being surprised by your own artwork is an odd experience. Still searching Trimaris for other pages that I may have forgotten.

Rock the Garden

Hand painted herb markers for the garden.
This is part of a group of projects I started and completed on a super crafty weekend a few weeks ago.
These will be heading to the Currant Thoughts Etsy store. Pictures of the rest of the projects from that weekend are coming soon.

Jebe’s Knighting Scroll

Created by:

• Drawn by: HL Gwenhwfyr ber Cain
• Illumination by: Baroness Maol Mide ingen Medra
• Illumination detailing by: HL Finnguala inghean Alister
• Calligraphy by: Mistress Finneadan ingen Ruadhain

Inspired by:
Izbornik Sviatoslava – 1073
Created for Sviatoslav Iaroslavich (1027 – December 27, 1076) Grand Prince of Kiev
About this piece:
A lot of the detailing had to inferred, pieced together or just created as the original page is damaged and we had a difficult time finding good images of any pages from this book.
I do have to say that this piece truly shows how much we love Jebe, as we all pretty much loathe Rus illumination from this period.

Summer Challenge #1: Mira, Folio 61

Summer 2012 Challenge #1

Source: Folio 61, Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta

Subject: Satyr butterfly, false Jerusalem cherry and common milkwort.

Time: 5.5 hours

Materials: watercolor gouache and mineral pigments on pergamenata

Size: 5 x 7 page

Pearish the Thought!

Pearish the Thought, a Sunday morning spritzer.

2 parts sweet white wine (of dubious quality)
1 part pear nectar
2 parts seltzer water
2 dashes orange liqueur
Garnish with a sprig of mint and a sprig of lemongrass

This made a fine morning pairing with lemon blueberry pancakes and a somewhat obscene amount of bacon. I was looking for something light and refreshing and was hoping to try a bottle of wine that I purchased for $2.97. Unsurprisingly, I was dubious of the quality of this bottle of wine and thought it might lend itself to being mixed with a lot of other ingredients.

This made for a fine way to spend a Sunday morning with friends.

New painted crafts

Hand painted flower pendants

Hand painted ceramic tiles

Hand painted ceramic bud vases

These crafts are already or soon will be available at Currant Thoughts. If you would like to commission a particular item, just contact me at melessee@gmail.com

Gems and Pearls

Inspired by folio 41 of the Hours of Engelbert of Nassau by the Master of Mary of Burgundy. Total size is 5 inches by 7 inches and the illumination was executed in four sessions with about 2-3 hours of work each.

Painting gems is a lot of effort in colors, but thankfully has a pretty high payoff. I did really enjoy working on the pearls.

I changed the blue cabochon at the bottom center to contain a badge for an award rather than the rather lovely naked lady from the original.

Wearable Miniatures

Hand-painted miniatures under glass and with a frame ready to hang from your necklace. I love flowers and am enamored of the Victorian language of flowers where each species signified a different emotion or concept.
Tonight I started with a Peach Blossom (meaning: I am your captive) and a Purple Columbine (meaning: Resolved to win). Each pa inting is 1.5 inches square with a message on the back that identifies the bloom and gives its Victorian meaning. Meanings of flowers have been obtained from the 1884 edition of Language of Flowers by Kate Greenaway
I’d love feedback or suggestions

Cathedral Trimaris Silk Painting Insanity

After being asked to help dress up the pavilion in which we hold Kingdom courts in Trimaris, a plan was hatched to create six enormous silk paintings that looked like stained glass windows.  Each panel features a Trimarian icon and measures 54” wide x 9’ in length.
The current set of panels feature:

• St. Martin (as himself)
• St. Gryfyn (as herself)
• St. Patrick (Styled as Duke Bytor Fitzgerald)
• St. Timothy (Styled as Duke Mittion von Weald)
• St. Olaf (Styled as Duke Baldar Langstrider)
• St. Vitus (Styled as Baron Octavio de Flores)

The project was enormous and could not have been done without the combined efforts of about two dozen people from three different Baronies. These ladies and gentlemen worked beautifully together to make this project happen in less than two weeks of actual work time.
Photosynth by Ld Tristrum de Kerjean.

Design

• Baroness Lisabetta Maria da Firenze, OL
  • Wyvernwoode
• Mistress Finneadan ingen Ruadhan, OL
  • Marcaster

Planning and Organization

• Baroness Melangell merch Mariot, OP
  • Marcaster
• Baroness Maol Mide ingen Medra, OL, OP
  • Wyvernwoode

Execution of silk paintings

• Baroness Lisabetta Maria da Firenze, OL
  • Wyvernwoode
• Baroness Melangell merch Mariot, OP
  • Marcaster
• Baroness Maol Mide ingen Medra, OL, OP
  • Wyvernwoode
• Baroness Madeleine de Somerville
  • Wyvernwoode
• Baroness Jeanette de Lille
  • Darkwater
• HL Kale Adriene
  • Marcaster
• HL Arianna Rosa Cristina Veneziano
  • Wyvernwoode
• HL Bronach of Kildare
  • Wyvernwoode
• Lady Cristiana atte Mere
  • Marcaster
• Countess Grainne ingen Anloin meic Cerbaill
  • Wyvernwoode
• Lady Genevieve la Fey
  • Marcaster
• Lady Milesenda de Bourges
• Darkwater
• m’lord Brian of Wyvernwoode
  • Wyvernwoode
• m’lord Barbarossa of Wyvernwoode
  • Wyvernwoode
• m’lady Adelyn
  • Wyvernwoode
• Thorlief Ulfvarinson
  • Wyvernwoode

Assistance

• Baron Severin Visconti, KSCA
• Wyvernwoode
• Baron Damian von Blauwald
• Darkwater
• Duchess Maisie of Dunbarton OP, OR
• Wyvernwoode
• Duke Gregory Ahern, KSCA
• Wyvernwoode

Installation

• Earl Thomas the Incomplete, KSCA
• Marcaster
• Earl Lorcann an Dubhgaile, KSCA
• Wyvernwoode
• Baroness Maol Mide ingen Medra, OL, OP
• Wyvernwoode
• HL Bronach of Kildare
• Wyvernwoode
• m’lord Brian of Wyvernwoode
• Wyvernwoode
• m’lady Adelyn
• Wyvernwoode
• m’lord David Archer
• Marcaster

I am certain that I missed a few names of those who helped to put the banners up on Friday night. My apologies to anyone who participated and was not mentioned here. Just send me a message if you know someone I missed an I will be sure to correct the list. My thanks and eternal gratitude to all os those who assisted in this project.
We hope to continue this project with several other phases that will help to further improve the look and feel of Fletcher Pavilion.
More photos can be seen at Hon. Lady Bronach of Kildare’s Picasa photo album.