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