A Wedding Blessing

I completed this Wedding Blessing for a friend who wanted just the right gift for her brother’s wedding. Her brother and his fiancée love the outdoors and hike often. Thus Jill chose blackberries and pine needles to represent the simple beauty of the woods, a poppy in honor of their home state of California and a Buckeye Butterfly in honor of her brother’s favorite team of Ohio State.

The Buckeye Butterfly is based upon a photo taken by the lady who commissioned this page. The poppy and blackberry are based upon images from the Mira calligraphiae monumenta. The pine needles are modeled after needles from a tree on my street with a nicely low hanging branch.

Calligraphy is done in a Carolingian Miniscule with brown Windsor Newton ink to continue with the natural feel of the piece. 

Known also as the Apache Blessing, here is the text of the poem:

“Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be the shelter for each other.

Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be the warmth for the other.

Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before.

Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your life together.

And may your days be good and long upon the earth.”

Grainne’s Pelican

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Award: Pelican

Recipient: Grainne ingen Anlon meic Cerbhaill

Materials: watercolor gouache, various period pigments, pergamenata, gold leaf, gold ink, ink

Total work time: 35 hours

Painting Assistance: Lady Bryna of Kildare

Calligraphy and Illumination: Maol Mide

Based upon the peacock border pages [ff.97v-98] from the Hours of Englebert of Nassau by the Master of Mary of Burgundy.  The major illumination of the Annunciation was removed from folio 97v. and the smaller illumination was moved from folio 98 and adapted for the left hand side of the scroll. The piece was adapted by changing the coloration of the female figure to match that of the recipient, my friend Grainne. Also the castle in the background of the original was replaced with a building modeled after the main hall at Camp Indian Springs, the campsite where Grainne’s local group traditionally holds their events.

Grainne’s device includes a peacock so this border seemed the perfect match for her Pelican scroll. She specifically asked for something small in size so the full page as just smaller than the opening in a 8.5x11 inch viewable frame and mat.

Lady Bryna did a grat deal of the underpainting in the peacock feathers and her awesome help gave my hand a very needed rest.

Fernando's Knighting Scroll

Award: KSCA

Recipient: Sir Fernando de Valecia de la Rosa

Materials: watercolor gouache, various period pigments, pergamenata, gold leaf, ink

Total work time: 35 hours

Drafting: HL Gwenhwfyr ber Cain

Painting: HL Melangell merch Marriot

Calligraphy and Illumination: Maol Mide

The major illumination is based upon the early Spanish manuscript Beatus of San Millan, folio 92 "Adoration of the Lamb". The page is an illustration of John's vision of the Lord enthroned in the guise of a Lamb surrounded by the Gospelers and elders from chapter 4 of the Apocalypse. The central figure of the Lamb of God was removed and replaced by an illumination of a triumphant Christian warrior adapted from the Gerona Beatus of 975 folio 134 verso.

The figure of the warrior has been redressed in green, white and black which are the heraldic colors of the recipient. To add some symbols of knighthood, the innermost white circle has an added amulet of gold chain and the outermost white circle has been adapted into a white belt tipped with the recipient's heraldry.

The script is adapted from several examples of insular minuscule from the same period.

Argent Palm for Meara

Award: Argent Palm

Recipient: Meara

Size: 4in x 6in

Materials: watercolor gouache, bristol board, faux gold leaf, ink

Total work time: 6 hours

Last week I had the privledge of creating a scroll for my SCA niece, Meara. This young lady has a quick wit and a taste for gothy things. As this was her first SCA award, an Argent Palm, I wanted to make it special for her.

I created a page inspired by the Hours of Mary of Burgundy. This book of hours was created around 1475 for Mary, Duchess of Burgundy by an anonymous artisan known as the Master of Mary of Burgundy (active: 1469 - 1483 ). Mary of Burgandy was the only child of Charles the Bold of Burgundy and Isabelle de Bourbon and wed Maximilian, archduke of Austria, of the Habsburg (Hapsburg) family, who later became emperor Maximilian I. The book is richly decorated and contains a gorgeous opening illumination showing Mary of Burgundy in contemplation with a book of hours.

The page I created was inspired by a page with white acanthus leaves and flowers on a field of gold leaf. To suit the piece to the young lady, I exhanged one of the pea flowers from the original manuscript page with a skull from the Office of the Dead near the end of the manuscript.

Gallery of images here

Elspeth's Rose

A number of years ago Brigid Caileen and Mittion were the Crown of Trimaris and TRM Caileen had a very special project. Her friend, Duchess Elspeth, had been in the SCA quite a number of years and although she had received many accolades, she had not received many illuminated pieces to commemorate those awards. Caileen set up to have scribes create all of the pieces that Elspeth was missing.

Caileen asked me to take the commission for the Rose scroll and although I was swamped at the time I could not say no to her. Saying no to Caileen is like saying no to your sweet grandma wrapped in a hurricane because she is a darling and a force of nature in one.

I had been toying with the knot-worked calligraphy from the Mira Calligraphae Monumenta for some time and decided this would be a good piece. I selected three of Hoefnagel's roses pictured in separate parts of the book and paired them with the knot-worked calligraphy. In the calligraphy, the award text was not long enough to create the cross shape so I added in lines from a medieval poem that I cannot recall.

The calligraphy on the curves was not easy and I recall not being entirely happy with it but the illuminations helped me to feel better about the piece as a whole.

A Finished Icon

Here is the finished product of the Russian icon style Pelican created for Master Sasha.

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Award: Pelican

Recipient: Sasha

Materials: watercolor gouache, various period pigments, pergamenata, gold leaf, gold ink, ink

Face details on angels and central figure: Mistress Finneadan

Text Translation to Russian: Master Octavio de Flores

Calligraphy and Illumination: Maol Mide

The original icon upon which this is based was executed by Russion iconographer Andrei Rublev who lived from the 1360's until about 1427 in Moscow. The image is based upon the icon "Christ in Glory" which is a motif that Rublev replicated within his own works. The figure of Christ seated within a red diamond upon a blue oval bordered with a red curving-sided rectangle and gilding was painted several times by Rublev with variation in the details.

The halo of the central figure has been removed and the details in the four corners of the red have been adjusted to Pelicans. One of the angel faces has been replaced with Jack from Nightmare After Christmas. The text in the book was a last minute addition not pictured here but it was a Latin equivalent of ‘Give him the bird’, which is a joke we have used on several Pelican scrolls in the past.

An icon in progress

I am working on Sasha's Pelican scroll and decided to take some in-progress shots of the work as it continues. The original icon upon which this is based was executed by Russion iconographer Andrei Rublev who lived from the 1360's until about 1427 in Moscow.

The image is based upon the icon "Christ in Glory" which is a motif that Rublev replicated within his own works. The figure of Christ seated within a red diamond upon a blue oval bordered with a red curving-sided rectangle and gilding was painted several times by Rublev with varietion in the details. This is my own variation of his work.

This past weekend, HL Finneadan worked on the faces for the angles and the seated figure that is styled as Sasha rather than the savior. Her work is gorgeous and I will get details of the faces up soon.

The second photo shown is the progress made last night. I worked most of the night on the drapery of the clothing and think I am pretty much done with that section.

Daimhin's Pelican

Codex Aureus of Canturbury pages as a Pelican Scroll for Daimhin.

Many small details of the orginal were adapted in favor of personalization for the recipient. Photos of the original work can be viewed in this post. An angel in theoriginal work ws exchanged for a pelicn with similar wings and the pink background was changed to green to suit the recipient's personal colors. An addition of diaper work was added over the green background of a falling script in whispy white asian character looking letters as a nod to the Matrix.

The saints in the upright finials of the original were exchanged and now are representtive of two formative Peers of the recipient. One, Baron Taly, holds a scroll bearin he alpha and omega and the exploding singulaity behind him represents the big bang... which he may have been there to witness. The other, Baroness Bela, bears a wooden stick with a shiny nail through the end and the diaper ork behind her is a spray of white gouts, as found on her device.

Within the initial the original letters were adjusted and several of the xenomorph characters were adjusted to pelicans and dogs.

Piece executed in gouache on pergamenta taking far longer than it should of.

Awards for Eadain

HL Eadain is a really awesome apprentice and a really great friend. She's also wickedly funny and one of the best illuminators I have had the pleasure to know.

I have had a few opportunities to create award scrolls for her and on several occasions I have chosen to go tiny. Something about painting for a great illuminator always makes you question yourself, even if that illuminator is your apprentice. Perhaps especially so in that case because the last thing I wanted to do was mess up something that would hang on her wall.

Both of these pages inspired by my beloved Mira Calligrapiae Monumenta are a total size of 6x4 with about 5x3 inches of artwork. Working on this scale can be a challenge but I love to work on delicate flowers and minute shading. I chose each of the subjects of these pieces carefully to create a nice balance of art, calligraphy, color, and light.

The end result of the daffodil in the first piece really pleased me and it had a good quality of light. The purple and yellow columbine flower took longer than expected but the complexity of the flower required a lighter hand with the needed shading. I am not sure I was ever totally happy with the end result of the acorns, but overall the piece turned out well balanced. This piece was a Grant of Arms so I tried for something a little more complex than a non-armigerous scroll.

In the second piece I think that the snail was my favorite part to create. I was truly surprised by how many hours of my time disappeared into that little gastropod. This award is a Trade Winds given for excellence in teaching of the arts and sciences. The flowers on the piece were actually pretty quick to paint but I never was entirely happy with the bee critter.

Octavio, Baron of the Court

Court Barony for Master Octavio de Flores.

I was working on this fun little tromp l'oiel piece when I got a call about a court baronet scroll being needed for my dear friend Octavio. At that point I dropped about ever ounce of my available effort and artsy-ness into the page as Octavio is quite dear to me.

The end result was remarkably shiny but turned out well enough to make me happy. Yah, that's a lot of gold.

I remember the little purple an yellow flowers, the caterpillar on the bottom left and the berries were all especially fun to paint. However, my idea of fun is not always the same as everyone else.

Page executed in AS 4o by the reckoning of the SCA but these photos were only recently collected by a friend.

I urge all you scribes to take photos of your work before it goes out because once a piece flies free from your hands you may not have another chance to photograph it for many years.

Mairi's Laurel

Laurel scroll for Mistress Mairi inspired by a page from the Visconti Hours. This piece was done in AS 39 but I have not had a picture of it until recently.

This one gave me a bit of grief as figures have never been my strong point. I love painting drapery an clothing but it has always been faces and hands that would keep me up at night.

The red pen squiggles were a lot of fun and provied nice text filler.

I think I selected this piece because of the vast number of acorns depicted in the original page as Mistress Mairi is quite fond of them.


Watercolor gouache on bristol board. Windsor Newton calligraphy ink, speedball nib, gold leaf.

More botanical fun!

Featuring a four-o-clock, a lemon, and something I cannot remember at the moment. I have a little bit more detailing left on the four-o-clock, like the flower stamens. Finish up a few page shadoes for the lemon and the mystery flowers and I should have this wrapped up. Hurrah.

Sorry for the slightly blurred image. I do not rock as a photographer.