Cocktails and dreams

The limoncello project started on December 30th 2011 has reached it’s end tonight.
My friend Brian and I  cooked up a simple syrup using some of the lemon juice that we reserved from the zested lemon, strained out the zest and added the syrup.
The final product is still cooling but the first taste was quite good- all sweetness and lemons. So here is the yield for the limoncello project.

• 6 liters vodka base Limoncello
• 1 liter grain alcohol based Limoncello
• 1 liter white overproof rum base limncello

In addition, I put up several pints of vodka to infuse with herbs and flower flavors.

• 1 pint hibiscus flower vodka
• 1 pint lavender infused vodka
• 1 pint orange blossom infused vodka
• 1 pint ginger, lemongrass, lemon balm and lemon verbena infused vodka
• 1/4 pint ginger infused vodka

I hoping to use these infused vodkas to make some very delicious old time feel cocktails. I’ll be acquiring or making some lavender, ginger, orange and lemon sugars to pair with these infused vodkas.

P!nk

This incredibly pink page was inspired by a leaf from the Hours of Engelbert of Nassau, executed by the Master of Mary of Burgundy.

This manuscript is fascinating having originally been owned and likely commissioned by Engelbert II of Nassau whose heraldry and motto appear throughout the manuscript. The book later came into possession of Phillip the Fair and his heraldry was painted over the coat of arms on Engelbert.

I have to admit, this is a LOT of pink. After the shadows on the vines and flowers it gained some depth and the small hatching in pale pink and pale grey helped to tone down the blaring nature of the all pink background. It may be kind of girly, but it turned out fairly pretty in the end.

This page measures 5 inches in width by 7 inches in height and will be turned in to the Chart Signet for general kingdom use.

Inspired by Folio 79v- Hours of the Cross: None

Another Catherine of Cleves Folio

Based upon folio 157 of the hours of Catherine of Cleves, this border surrounded a miniature of St Elizabeth.

Produced circa 1440 in Utrecht by an anonymous Dutch artist known as the Master of Catherine of Cleves, this book includes beautiful tromp l’oeil borders and miniatures of increasing intricacy. This border is unique among design elements in the book.

Again, this piece was mainly done to get myself back into the design and styling needed for Kingdom use scrolls rather than intricate and elaborate commission pieces. Drawing, inking and illumination probably came to about 5-6 hours of work. I produced this page at Hoggetowne Medieval Faire while talking to guests so nailing down the time spent is really difficult. I turned the page in to the Chart Signet of Trimaris for general Kingdom use.

Painted Love

My Valentine’s Day present from John:

Inside the capitals are included elements of our SCA heraldry: his cross fleury and my compass star and butterfly. He had a small folder of research which included historical designs for the capitals and the heart which was inspired by a portion of a Pennsylvania Dutch hex sign. John also showed me a whitework design that he had intended for inside the heart of a pendant tulip hanging from the inverted point of the heart and lovebirds with overlapping tails turned away from each other but each glancing back to regard the other. I hope some day to see that in paint and not just pencil.

Not surprisingly, there were tears.

Thank you my darling. I <3 you too.

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire 2012

  A few weeks ago I spent a weekend doing a demo of illumination at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire in Gainesville FL. The SCA demo area looked fantastic and we had a great range of arts and crafts on display including spinning, weaving, embroidery, dying, blacksmithing, metal casting, cooking, illumination and more.

While painting I easily talked to a hundred people over the weekend who were specifically interested in the scribal arts of the middle ages. One of my favorites was a girl of about seven who brought every member of her family over to see me and later told me “I think you are amazing at painting and also a very nice lady”. Precious. Shockingly, I managed to entirely finish one new piece and make it 80% of the way through a second even though I was constantly stopping to talk to guests.

I’m going to try to do a few days of illumination demo at the Bay Area Ren Faire over the next few months. Hopefully the experience will be just as great as Hoggetowne.

Thanks again to the Barony of An Crosaire for being so welcoming and accommodating. Special thanks to Thalassia for the bed and to Finnguala, Thalassia and Ryan for the great company!

Thoughts on Time Spent Painting

Time spent on these illuminations is a funny thing as the great effort of these pieces is somewhat devalued by the fact that they are handed out by the King and Queen free of charge to recipients. Scribes are the only artisans who are regularly expected to give away their art. This is why, years ago, I lobbied for and was granted Kingdom funds to purchase scribal supplies for members of the Trimaris College of Scribes and thankfully this funding is still being provided. We sometimes hold fundraisers and occasionally profits from events are donated to this account.

For those of you planning to volunteer at Gulf Wars, you can indicate the Trimaris College of Scribes as the recipient of the war profit split derived from your volunteer hours.

When I create commission pieces I have to ask for the recipient to pay the materials and framing costs. I didn’t always do this but one day I figured out what I had spent on several pieces I had created and realized that I was running myself into a financial hole. This is also why I have been working on the speed of my pieces and trying to limit myself to less than 5 or 6 hours per illuminated page for Kingdom use.

I have found that I must balance the use of my time and find the point where I can produce a good number of very good pieces rather than just one extraordinary piece so I can be more helpful in my contributions and more responsible with my personal time. I work full time and have several hobbies so I have to be realistic about how much time I can dedicate to this craft that I love, but from which I do not generally profit. 

The illustrations on this page were created for a brochure that I illustrated in 2009.

I wanna see your Peacock… feathers

This border is based upon a page from the Hours of Engelbert of Nassau which was illuminated by a Flemish artist known only as The Master of Mary of Burgundy. Painted bear Brussels circa 1485, this book was created for Englebert II, Duke of Nassau. This border of tromp l’oeil peacock feathers was inspired by folio 97, verso. 
This border is 5 inches by 7 inches, much smaller than usual SCA illumination used for awards but I was concerned that the intricacy of design would not scale well any larger.

I used this border for a Pelican scroll for Countess Grainne but I wanted to try just the border to see if this sort of design might be both acceptable for Kingdom use and a good use of time. The trouble with blank borders is that sometimes it can be hard to find inspiration when you are illuminating for an unknown recipient.

Also, I have found that I must balance the use of my time and find the point where I can produce a good number of very good pieces rather than just one extraordinary piece so I can be more helpful in my contributions. I created this piece in about 4-5 hours but I mucked about with the detailing for longer than I should have.

Flowers of the Cleves Master

Based upon the simple border of flowers and leaves from folio 70 of the Hours of Catherine of Cleves.

Produced circa 1440 in Utrecht by an anonymous Dutch artist known as the Master of Catherine of Cleves, this book includes beautiful tromp l’oeil borders and miniatures of increasing intricacy. This border is unique among design elements in the book, but appears in other works attributed to the Cleves Master.

Again, this piece was mainly done to get myself back into the design and styling needed for Kingdom use scrolls rather than intricate and elaborate commission pieces. Drawing, inking and illumination probably came to about 5-6 hours of work.

Pink Flowers

Based upon a prayer book illuminated by Michelino Molinari da Besozzo. This illumination was inspired by  folio 44,  St Anthony of Padua, May 10th. Illuminated circa 1420 in Milan, Italy. The original size of this piece is 170 x 120 mm but I have scaled it up for easy SCA use. This page was mostly a speed exercise to help me get back into the swing of making less complicated pieces for Kingdom use.

• Draw time: 1.5 hours
• Gilding time: 20 minutes
• Paint time: 2 hours
• Total time: just under 4 hours

Foxglove

From the Great Hours of Anne of Brittany, digitalis purpurea as a border with an imaginary butterfly.

This manuscript was executed in the early 16th century by Jean Bourdichon, a likely student of miniaturist Jean Fouquet. As official court painter to four successive French kings: Louis XI,Charles VIII, Louis XII, and François I, Bourdichon came to be a wealthy man. Designing illuminated manuscripts, panel paintings, stained glass and even coins, Jean Bourdichon created countless works of art, many of which did not survive to modern times.

The book was created for twice Queen of France, Anne of Brittany who was married to Charles VIII and then to Louis XII.

This page was created mostly as a teaching piece to show a small group of students how to execute gilding. Afterwards I decided to finish the painting and hand it in for Kingdom use. It’s pretty bling-tastic but I hope someday that someone will like it.

On the wing

Milkweed, a monarch caterpillar and a monarch chrysalis painted on the wings of a monarch butterfly.

I started with a base coat of white acrylic paint that had not been thinned. The tiny scales on the butterfly wing are hydrophobic and cause water based paints to bead up. Thus, acrylic (which is my least favorite paint medium) provided a good base coat. I used watercolor gouache and gold paint to execute the rest of the miniature. Not terribly detailed, to be sure, but hey: it was a first attempt at a new and really challenging substrate.

The most difficult portion of this is that you cannot sketch on the wing without putting the graphite straight through the wing so I sketched an image to scale and then free painted everything on the wing.

Additionally, you can’t hold on to the butterfly to keep it from moving without damaging the wing edges. I used a few small flat-bottom glass pebbles placed around the butterfly to help hold it still. Don’t attempt this is a breezy room or on an evening when you don’t have a lot of patience to spare.

In future attempts I plan to work on to of a piece of Styrofoam so that I can pin supports all the way around the edges of the butterfly to hold it in place. With the challenge of "the damn thing just keeps moving!" resolved, I should be able to execute a more detailed miniature.

Disclaimer: No butterflies have been or ever will be harmed in the process of me turning them into art. I grow butterflies for a living and have a somewhat unending supply as they only live about 2 weeks to a month. All butterflies, both whole or in part, have all lived their natural and happy lives of flower sipping, mating, whizzing about and egg laying before they died of natural causes, mostly just plain old age.

Coneflower

Commissioned by Jill S.

Time to execute: 90 minutes

Materials: watercolor pencil, watercolor gouache, bristol board

Size: 2 in x 3 in