Pennsic A&S award scrolls

At the beginning of July Ibrahim, the EK A&S general, posted around that he was looking for scribes to some simple small scrolls for the A&S competition at Pennsic. I decided sure, I can help with that. So a few of us who volunteered were given the wording and told in previous years the scrolls were half the size of a 8x11 page.

So I mapped out how much room I had to put the words and figured out I could nestle the A&S badge at the top, only needed to nestle it into the first two lines. I had even bought a simple goache paint set and a could small brushes at Michaels so I didn't have to rely on anybody else to do that. I can trace a badge and do a simple coloring book style paint job, nobody's going to critique that.

Simple (for me) textura quadrata, and my first attempt at "illumination". I just dabbed a little paint from the tube onto the brush and slapped it on the scroll. Discussing it later with Fiona she said it's best to mix a bit of paint with some water, put it onto the scroll and kind of nudge it to the edge of where I wanted it. OK, so next time I have a badge to do I'll try that.

Rollant de Blois AoA

This was a nice and simple scroll. Brigit asked me to do the calligraphy on her scroll and she came up with the words, word count was just over 100. The exemplar was mostly picture with only 8 words, The Flight into Egypt; Master of the Harvard Hannibal (1420-1430). 

So it was definitely Textura Quadrata, but there wasn't enough words for me to really tell if there were any deviations from the standard alphabet. And Brigit gave me a nice big area to put the text, she's doing all the viney stuff and leaving the people out. So I measured out the lines and penciled in the words. They fit pretty much perfectly.

The pen and nib gave me no problem, the ink gave me no issues, doing my favored script/hand, and no smudges or smears when I went to erase a few pencil marks. All scrolls should be this easy!!

Markus Silver Crescent

I had offered to Hugoline to do calligraphy for a Silver Crescent scroll she was doing, since she was going to try for an early period scroll, but couldn't do the roundy-type hand (uncial). I said I loved doing that.

She couldn't find an illumination exemplar that she liked and felt was within her skills, but she did find something else that was pretty cool. She sent me the exemplar, Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, 729 Opera (Hugo de Sancto Victore)

It looked like early gothic, which is not my favorite to do, but I can do it. It had a spot with all Lomardic capitals which I've never done. I couldn't figure out a good way to integrate those into the words, so I left them out entirely. Comparing it to my books it was a cross between early gothic and foundational, which made it SOOO much easier for me to do. The text was not long, I'm sure Aislinn has a write up on her research for that. But I got the line spacing to a point I liked and got it done fairly quickly. I'm satisfied with how it came out, and the recipient seemed to like the scroll as well.

Aislinn Silver Brooch

 This is the second silver brooch I've calligraphed for an Aislinn. This time I don't know the gentle, but I was asked by a friend to do calligraphy on her first kingdom level scroll.

I got a picture of the exemplar, an early 16th century page. I had a hard time comparing it to my calligraphy books figuring out what hand it was, but eventually landed on batarde, with more than a couple different letters. I'm not upset at these letters as they're much easier for me to write.

I did the practice sheet and it came out much shorter than the allowed for space. Looking at the exemplar again, decided there was more space between each line than I had, so I re-wrote it with 2 lines of space. The new scribe was also the wordsmith and she had put the fully complete event name, which was quite long. "Brennan and Caoilfhionn's Ducal Challenges & Settmour Swamp Day of Champions". But shortening it down to simply "Ducal Challenge" made it fit just about perfectly. I know the King has a vertical signature and I wasn't certain if that allowed for enough room, but I also then looked at photos of a few scrolls that were just given out at Pennsic, and for some of them he split his signature into a 2x2 block of kanji instead of the 4 all vertical. So, either he'll split them again, or there will end up being enough room for it.

Silver Wheel for Demetrio

I was notified that my protege was going to be receiving a Silver Wheel. When I was arranging which event he'd get it at, I sent a quick email to Tyger Signet asking for the assignment. Which I got, so I decided which of the scroll blanks to use and started researching. The illuminator, Lorita DeSiena, helpfully wrote on the back what her inspiration piece was. A French hunting bible, Le Livre de la Chasse. I found some photos online although I don't think I found the exact piece she used. But it seemed to have 2 hands: early gothic, which I learned from doing Ryan's Mark scroll that I severely dislike that one, but it also had Textura Quadrata on some parts. 

 

So I took out the 2 calligraphy books I had and compared them to the exemplar. I usually go with the one from the David Harris book, but the exemplar was a little more flowy, so I looked at the  Marc Drogin book and it was a bit closer. 

Some specific letters and nuances that are different. I traced the practice area onto a sheet, marked some lines (3mm, 5mm, 3mm) and made notes on top of the letters that were different in the exemplar from the book.

I had to decide where to put the order badge on the page. I kind of like putting it right in the middle so the words flow around it. I like that idea, but I wasn't 100% thrilled with how it looked where I had it. Maybe I could move it up to the lines that have less words so it all blocks out more evenly. But I went back to looking at pages from the hunting bible and saw that many of them had a puzzle letter in the upper left of text. I'm not doing that exactly, but what if I put the badge there instead? Ultimately I decided that the badge wouldn't look right there either, so I put it at the bottom under the text. I used a micropen and a circle template.

Words:

Ryouko'jin, Demon-King of Heavens Three 

And Indrakshi, Horned Queen have come forward 

Together, Monarchs East have reached an accord 

There is one whose acts need acclaim, by decree

He has surpassed every measure, all agree 

Demetrio Antelini da Lucca 

His ardent dedication has struck a chord 

With Varied positions in his repartee 

In those roles he exceeds all expectations 

Displaying his intense commitment and zeal 

For now to receive official citation  

His merits are such that they cause bells to peal! 

Today exalted by these great orations 

Do We present Demetrio the Silver Wheel 

Done this Pennsic War, Anno Societatis LX 

Sometimes they just don't go according to plan.

I got an assignment for a person I don't know, and didn't find much information on him. The recommendation was fine, pretty standard for a Silver Tyger. But still, off I went to my wonderful wordsmith and Aislinn came back to me pretty quickly with words. She said it was a hidden acrostic, meaning instead of the letters going down the side spelling out something, it was specific words within the text that spelled out "silver tyger". So I had the idea to do the letters in a red ink, the rest of the text in black. 

I got out one of the blanks Lorita made for me, and figured my standard Gothic hand would match it.

My pen... ugh, I need a better pen I think. The inkwell slip-on thingy was a little wonky, and my size 2.5 nibs are old, so the points didn't line up right. (I have since ordered new nibs) It mostly worked, but it felt like it was fighting me, and in a few spots it just splooged. Plus I missed writing one of the letters in red, so when I tried scraping the letter and redoing it in red it really did not work and still looked black. Plus the red ink I used was really dark, so those letters did not stand out like I'd intended. Not even subtly. Just like, if you know to look for it, you can find it (except the one letter), but I was cursing this page out and put it in time out.

I asked Vettorio to paint on the Silver Tyger badge, so a few days later when I got it back from him and looked at the calligraphy again I didn't absolutely hate it, but I was still not satisfied. But it was due soon, so I took it to the post office and mailed it out, since I was not going to the event.

After all that fighting, I cursed and yelled at my pen and beat the inkwell into proper(ish) position and started in on the next scroll.

Words:

Solomon of Acre has found
A home in Our esteemed ground. 

We’ll take this time to iterate
Laud and expound his martial plate

Verily to all those present 
Examples of practice well spent 

Raising others to much success  
Yet still gives time and praise not less

Today the Eastern Majesty
Of Ryouko’jin and Indrakshi

At Malagentia to confer
This, Solomon’s Silver Tyger 

Done at this Great Northeastern War
Anno Societatis 60

Ryan's Cursed Scroll

Lada, Vettorio, and I received the scroll assignment for Ryan's Mark on May 11th. We didn't have much time to figure out how we would split it up, but we knew we could do it. Vettorio would do a cadel and the order badge, Lada would do some gloriously clashing illumination, and I would do the calligraphy. It was requested that the words be done in charter style. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth on my part and I passed the making of words off to the more experienced of them. Lada sent me the words and their inspiration documents. I took a look and since they came from 1100, 1412, and 1297, I thought either Carolingian miniscule or early gothic hand would do best. The calligraphy books I have for the early gothic also have an example where they used Rustic Capitals, so I technically was learning 2 new hands for this. I'm not thrilled with the early gothic hand, and I really hated doing the rustic capitals.

I got a photo of the layout from Vettorio, so I measured roughly how much space I'd get and did a practice sheet from that.

Lada was supposed to come out to our area on Memorial day weekend, but first part of the curse, her husband got very ill and she had to stay home in Brooklyn with him. So I got the scroll and did the calligraphy. I wasn't happy with it, but it wasn't horrible, so I accepted what it was and shipped it UPS off to Lada on Wednesday May 28th. By May 20th (curse part 2) the tracking said it was still in a distribution hub in NJ. So I got another piece of the same size bristol paper and restarted the scroll. I got the spaces penciled out and got the calligraphy finished Sunday June 1st. I actually was more satisfied with the calligraphy on the second go round. Giving it a day to dry, I passed it off to Vettorio on Monday. He stayed up late redoing the cadel and badge and Tuesday evening Lada drove out to Long Island (about 1.5-2 hours each way) to pick up the scroll. She then developed a cold (curse part 3!) but finished the illumination of an archer based on a 16th century German statue and the heraldry late Friday in time for the event. Oh, and UPS delivered the scroll to her work place where I'd originally shipped it to Friday afternoon when she was of course working from home. She also said the paint on the heraldic banner on the last part of it was giving her problems (Curse part 4!), but it worked out for our purposes.

So, does this count as 4 dings? Learning 2 new hands and doing the scroll twice. but it's done, and Ryan seemed to like it, so yay. Oy.

Aislinn's Maunche

It's been a while since I got to work on a scroll, I was fearing I was getting out of practice. But a dear friend was getting her well-deserved Maunche, so I was invited to do the calligraphy for it. Hell yeah, tag me in!

Fiona was doing the illumination, and normally she and I would go to Aislinn for the words. Team One Functional Scribe! But we obviously couldn't for this one. So I asked the other wordsmith I always go to, Jenna.

Fiona showed me the style illumination she was going to use, including the exemplar.

At first glance I was all like "Great, I can use textura quadrata." And then after doing the practice sheet and getting the lines down on the scroll I took another look at the exemplar. Oops. It is not Textura. I went looking through my alphabet books and decided it was Rotunda. But the scribe had used long S's. There's two different r's in the calligraphy book, they used the one that looks more like a number 2. And the h was a little more angular, more like Textura. So back to the practice page, I didn't need to adjust the line spacing. I used purple ink, which the ink settled in thick/thin dark/light areas on the letters, so it gave a really neat effect. I let the ink fully dry for a few days and erased the pencil on Thursday, and packed it up to head up to the event on Friday.

I had a little over a week to get this done, and now somehow I bent the rules of time and got it done with a few days to spare. I'm certain with more practice I'll get more consistent in size and spacing, but I'm happy with my first scroll using this new hand. One more for my scribal CV!

Illumination: Fiona the Volatile
Words: Jenna Childslayer
Calligraphy: Violet Hughes, Rotunda hand.

Words:

A call rings through the glorious East Kingdom for words to honor her great populace.

That call is answered with joy and enthusiasm by a devoted wordsmith with a love for wordcraft and for praising the hard work done for skill in service, craft, and Martial forms.

So today does the East's daughter, Aislinn Chiabach, answer a different call. To join the ranks of the illustrious Order of the Maunche, for her artistry and skill in prose, poetry, and wordplay.

Done this day at Crown Tournament AS 60 by Ryouko'jin Saisei, Demon-King of the Three Heavens, and Maharani Indrakshi, Horned Queen of the Night Sky.

Backlog Silver Wheel

Osanna painted a backlog scroll that was based off a late period Italian white vine page, I was asked to do the calligraphy.

Looking at the exemplar I decided the hand was Humanistic. But then I noticed the s's were all the long s. Even the double s, and the last letter of a word s. Which, after looking up the "rules" for long s, was wrong. And the g's were drawn differently.

So I confirmed what I saw with Vettorio and just did it how they did it on that page. *shrug* I saw the e's were also slightly different, the middle line was higher up. But I couldn't figure out exactly what was different about those e's from what is in my calligraphy book, so I didn't worry about that. 

I was given words for this scroll, but I don't know if I would ever put "honorable lady" in the text if I was the wordsmith. Yes, I did look up her OP and saw she has a GoA. just to make sure it wasn't stepping on any toes to include that. But I didn't want to tweak the wordsmith's words too much, so I left that in.

I've sent that off to the backlog deputy, and I've cleared out my list of backlogs I'm working on. I've nudged a few illuminator friends to make blanks for me by the end of the year, so I can pick up a few more backlogs or hold them for live assignments for the next reign.

Backlog AoA

I was handed a beautiful backlog illumination for Grainne inghean ui Neill, painted by Fiona the Volatile. She said it was based off the Lindesfarne Gospel. So I googled around a bit and found a blog from a writer who was doing research on that for a book she's writing. She had a few photos, including one page with writing.

So, comparing this page with the ones in my calligraphy books I decided it was insular majuscule, and got to work with the words I was given.

This hand was a bit harder, as the nib was to be flat horizontal. So I ended up rotating the lap desk I work on while also twisting my arm into a position that was not really comfortable. For the t's and g's there's a little extra bit on the leading edge of the top line, I left it out at first, as it would require turning the nib basically 180°. Then I went back in after the rest was done and added those in to get the correct look. 

As much as it physically pained me to do this hand, I am really quite happy with how it turned out.

*tap tap* Is this thing on?

I decided to resurrect my blog and pivot to the arts. I've started taking doing calligraphy a little more seriously, so I wanted to document what I'm doing. I might start with a gallery of what I've done so far. Or I think I might instead just pick up from what I'm currently doing and go from there. Maybe fill in earlier stuff as time allows.

History: I started with textura quadrata (gothic), since it clicked the best in my mind/hand. That's all I did for a while. Then I started branching out a little, kiiiiinda matching the 2 or 3 hands to the style of illumination, but always defaulting to gothic.

I did try to learn how to do cadels in the interest of being able to do a scroll entirely by myself. But honestly it's too much "arty" for me to grasp. That's why I don't do the illumination, I can't paint. Nor do I find any joy in doing it. Plus there's way more people who only want to do illumination than want to do calligraphy, so I feel it works out.

So anyway, watch this space for more updates.