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.

Th-th-th-that's all folks!

My friends keep the best secrets. After presenting some very silly scrolls in morning court Their Majesties said “Oh, Violet. Hang on a second, we want to talk to you.” Uh, ok, sure. I remembered to bow this time before kneeling in front of them. Ryou starts talking about how anytime they needed help I was quick to answer and quick with the help. I said “I was hoping the LOaR would get published this past week so I could greet you with good news today, but it didn’t happen. Any day now.” He’s talking a bit more about how I do this for everybody and I’m thinking “I already have my silver crescent, what are they doing? Court barony? King’s token?” And I’m handed a familiar box of chocolates. I’m still confused. I notice the slight change on the box just as they called in the Order of the Pelicans! WHAT. THE. EFF. Ryan kneels down next to me and says “Gotcha”. I said “You didn’t eat the chocolates!” I get fixated on dumb details sometimes.

They whisked me off to my vigil tent (loaned to us from Broch and Aislinn, so it was a purple tent) which hadn’t been fully set up so I wouldn’t notice it was for me. Of course I helped finish decorating it. Fiona and Saravit had brought the House Three Skulls camp banners back from Pennsic so those were put on. David brought the small banner I had put up for his elevation. Jenna had made a banner with my device on it that was used as a doorway between the waiting area and my private area. Only the side walls were put up so the front and back were open and there was good airflow. Which I really appreciated so I wouldn’t spend the entire time with a mask on.

Most of the day was a blur of people coming in. I ate some, but it was quite warm and I kept shifting my chair around to find the most comfortable/level spot I could while still being close enough to the visitors to hear them. I drank some cider and some sekanjabin. I didn’t even think about taking notes of what people said. When Their Majesties came to talk to me and it was a good chat. I asked if they would help me in pulling shenanigans, and told them what I wanted to do. They were all for it. After everybody had gone through and it was the first call of 10 minutes to court, I suddenly thought about what if they ask me if I want to say an oath? I had written up a thing in my google drive a year or so ago, just as a starting point that I had planned on building on and editing. So I took a quick look over that, changed a couple of words to update it (taking out sword and spear and putting in water and support) and thought it was good enough. I also thought about changing into my sari instead of the ghawazee, but garb has never been my strong suit and the outfit I was wearing was still very nice for me, also I decided there wasn’t enough time to run back to the tent to change. There was a bit of court before me on the docket, but eh, I didn’t have the brain power by that point to try to gussy myself up.

We started to line up, and Ryan was there like a sergeant pushing paratroopers off the plane. “You! Go! You! Go! You! Go!” So we’re walking up, me last obviously, and I didn’t hear the beginning of Jenna’s boast for me. But I heard something about “You may NOT have your charge be an ant!” and my brain was going “Why not?” then I head the lines “Even meant as a joke, Herald’s College do not poke, Because heralds don’t pun, they cant.” and I did the little hopping dance I do when I’m delighted. I was absolutely grinning under my mask. Then Ryou said I have business with another first, and Ryan came to take back his yellow belt. As soon as we finished that, I said “Your Majesty, I have a favor to ask.” I took the skunk out of my belt pouch, handed it to him and said “Please tell Ryan. I want him to know it was me.” And Ryan absolutely *freaked out*. There is a wonderful series of photos and a few videos of me pointing and yelling “GOTCHA!” and him pointing at me and yelling “FOUR YEARS!” That settled down and then the speakers were brought in. I put in my ICOP to have speakers do it in limerick. Or at least keep the speeches short, because I know how long court goes and speakers who go on and on and on, while it’s nice to hear that about the person, it does not do well by the tired people in and attending court. So Ozurr and Matthias actually followed my whim! Ozurr’s was a valiant effort and he followed it up with a few short words afterwards. Matthias had three or four sets of limericks (Still went quick though) that was absolutely amazing. The other speakers also gave wonderful and brief speeches. Two medallions were presented, one bought at Pennsic that was purple, and one made by Antonii that had a pelican perched over three skulls. Hugoline and David gave me one after court that is a House Three Skulls legacy stealth medallion. Suzanne made a cloak for me that is wonderful, made of purple velvet and has my badge (A suffolk knot) repeating as the edge trim, with various badges and my device in the loops of the knot. I absolutely love it and can’t wait to wear it to cold events. Then Syd presented my hat. A few years ago I had asked Ryan if a cap of maintenance had to be red. He said that’s what is listed in corporia, so yes. I was all “Fiiiine, I guess.” I had screenshot a facebook conversation between him and Honig where he said mauve is a shade of red, so I could argue for a purplish hat. But the hat that was made for me is a purple bycocket hat (a style I love and was considering getting one day) which fits my tiny head pretty well! When I saw it I said a quiet “Yes!” at the color. They asked if I wanted to do an oath, so I took out my phone (I hadn’t had time to write it down on paper), forgetting to hold the sword of state as well, oops, and being the herald I am, I spoke my oath loudly. It was a balance between projecting enough that the populace heard me and not being so loud that everybody standing at the thrones were being shouted at. They did their spiel of “we hear you and support you” and I absolutely love that it is my friends who were the royals that elevated me.

I haven’t 100% decided what title to use. Mistress is the traditional title, but there’s been a movement to start shying away from Master/Mistress with all the negative connotations for POC. I did originally like it because that’s what K9 called Romana. Looking at the College of Heralds approved alternate titles I don’t feel like there’s one that both is culturally appropriate for me that I also like. I was thinking maybe old English Hlaefdige, but nobody besides a select few people would know how it’s pronounced (Leftidge), plus I’d have as much trouble spelling it all the time as I do An Dubhaigeainn. I considered Sensei for a few seconds because I was elevated during a Japanese themed reign, but that didn’t feel right either. Possibly Portuguese Mestra because both TRM personas are actually Portuguese. But it doesn't roll off the tongue for me with the rolled r. There really is no rule that I know of saying I can’t keep using Lady. But I guess I’ll stick with Mistress for now. Of course, me being me I did a bunch of other stuff during the event. Calligraphed scrolls, retained, shennaniginated my husband and Ryan with awards, heralded my baroness' elevation, sent in an entry for the dessert challenge, etc. But that all pales in comparison to the tale told above.

I'm glad I'd been planning on the slow and steady path to Peerage so I feel nowhere near burnout point. And I will keep serving my barony, kingdom, and Society to the best of my abilities.

Pennsic deeds

 While I did not take any classes this Pennsic, I did teach one twice. "Heralds don't pun, we cant!" The class during peace week was 4 people (4 more than I thought I would get!) and during war week was 5 people. I think it went well, I explained canting, showed a few examples, then asked people if they could guess some. I might offer it again if there's interest.

I did retain once. The shift was supposed to be 2 hours, 11:00 - 1:00 and it was from the end of heavy list castle battle and a little afterwards. I followed their Majesties back to EK camp with their wagon of supplies. Arabella asked if I minded staying a little past my shift while TRM got their rapier gear on and headed back for the second battle where I would meet my shift reliever. No problem, I said. So I sat around with the other retainer and queens guard while Ryou and Indrakshi relaxed a little bit and assembled their armor. I also made sure they ate from the meat and cheese plate Arabella had provided. Eventually we all made our way back to the battle field and it was 2:00. I passed off the cart and saw Vetra and Vettorio, who I had promised to keep hydrated. They had their own cart with water, gatorade, and their daybags.  I hadn't eaten since breakfast, which was a cup of tea and a minibox of cereal. The other retainer had brought a basket of snacks and things for fighters so I begged a cheese stick off her. (So thankful!) The fight lasted about an hour, and my friends did great. 

I went to East Kingdom Court to see a friend get her writ for Pelican. I'm so excited for her! But before court started I was talking with Zippy (Herald for the next set of royals) and Yehuda (Brigantia herald). My Peer, knowing that crown herald is one of my goals, had told Zippy that I should be his deputy. So I briefly talked to them about it. Yay! I'm looking forward to learning more about the job. Especially the things needed in lead-up to an event. I know how it goes with baronial herald, but I don't think it would be that simple for kingdom.

So during court at one point I hear my name called out. Oh geez, what did I do now? Aislinn, who I had been sitting with, said afterwards she tried to get up to escort me in, but I zoomed up there too quick. Nerves. Also I realized afterward I forgot to bow to TRM as I approached. Oops. So yeah, now I got a Silver Brooch! With an *amazingly* gorgeous scroll done by my friends.

So let's see what else did I do this war? I was there peace week, so I helped set up our camp. I'd never gone peace week before, I thought it was going to be a lot more work. But it was more like set one big thing up each day and relax the rest of the time. Severus (my son) and I also went over to EK Royal when they had put the call out for volunteers to help set up their public area. So we spent a few hours helping there as well.

We had had some "interesting times" the day before we were going to leave for Pennsic, and my biggest fears were to get covid within days of arriving on site, or to come back home to a flooded house. Neither happened, so it was a very awesome time. We are likely to try doing both weeks again next year.

Potted Arms

Potted arms was a nice easy-going event. The schedule was set up well, the fighting looked fun. We did the Heraldic Tournament, I was talking to Sorcha, she asked if I was participating in that. I said I wasn't sure, I wasn't in the best of moods. As I'm saying that Jean Xavier comes over and asks if I'd herald for him. I looked at Sorcha and said "Guess I am!" I can't turn JX down, he's awesome people.

I checked in with Demetrio a few times over the day to make sure he had all herald info he needed for court. I offered to come up with the entourage and guide him through it. After the first one or two cues I stepped back to see if he'd take it from there or look to me for guidance. He did it all (Except announcing the winner of the rapier tourney, because he won that!) and handled it extremely well. He had taken my advice on changing up the wording of calling people into court. And he's a former theater kid, so he spoke clearly. After court I spoke to the coronet and told them I have full confidence that he'll be a great herald. A few days after the event he messaged me and asked me to check over the court report before he sent it in, and he did a fine job on that so with my blessings off it got filed with the EK heralds as well as sent to the barony newsletter.

Getting busier!

I went to Spring coronation, signed up for 2 retaining shifts, but was told I wasn't actually needed for either one. But I did introduce myself to the new Crown Herald and got to read a scroll in court. (For my sister! Muwahahah!) I also got to chat with Demitrio about what's involved for the baronial herald office and he decided to put his letter of intent in. He was voted in as of last meeting, I told him I'd be his first deputy right away to guide him, but once he got comfortable with his office he should find another deputy to train up to replace him when his term is over. 

After that event I went to Balfar's challenge. I signed up for retaining and did get to do 2 shifts trailing after His Majesty. I also got to read a scroll for Kayleigh, so that was awesome. I remembered what Ryan said after Coronation about projection and presence, so I tried to "talk to" a guy I spotted in the back row and put a little more emotion and variance of inflection into my words. It also helped that the scroll wasn't as long as Jenna's! 

June 18th is Potted Arms. Vetra asked for a volunteer to do PR and advertisement, so I jumped on that. It's likely going to be, as usual, almost entirely local people. There's some big events elsewhere in the kingdom that it's up against. But I've been doing my best to hype it up, and since it's only 2 weeks away I'll be ramping that up. The new information has been coming out steadily, so that's helped. 

Let's get back to business.

Things have been quiet since November, but it is the down season so that's not unexpected. I've still been doing the monthly Mosaic and Mural emails, but even that has been fairly quiet. Although with events starting to take place in person again, hopefully those will start getting back to normal amounts of submissions.

Over the past month I've been learning a new hand for calligraphy, Insular Minscule. It's a fairly generic medieval font so I can use it for more varieties of illumination. In preparation for An Dubhaigeainn schola I got 2 beautiful illuminations from Oda. Using the competition themes I came up with words for both. I'm really pleased with the one for bardic especially, it uses tons of alliteration that make me happy. I feel like I'm decent at coming up with words for generic champion scrolls. But I have no intent to do research and make my words more period. I mean, I've been mostly doing baronial champion scrolls so , I feel it's not as important to have them be more period accurate. We're a pretty laid-back barony. And everybody that I've helped do scrolls for seem to love them as they are, so I'm ok with that.

Schola was virtual again this year. The theme of the event was "Silly Schola" and I immediately wanted to do a class on canting. I stunt heralded morning court, but that's easy. Just intro and outro Their Excellencies. I had 4 people attend my class, one of them being a newbie. My class lasted about 15 minutes, and I discussed with the attendees at the end. I was hoping to do more a "match the device with the name" type class participation, but I hadn't gotten to making up slides. I think if I set aside time to actually think it through and try it out, then I can do this for Pennsic. I received enthusiastic feedback from the attendees, so I probably will!

The baronial herald was there for afternoon court, so all I had to do was hold the scrolls up to the camera as they were read.

The next event I'm going to is coronation. I've signed up to do a retaining shift with their outgoing majesties and one with the incoming majesties. I also emailed the incoming Crown Herald and offered to help read any scrolls. If I'm successful in restraint I will not volunteer to do anything more and will be able to socialize and enjoy myself.

I was talking with my sister and firmed in my head that it might take me another 30 years to be Elevated because I'm not being seen as doing major work. But on the other hand I probably will not burn myself out and disappear right afterwards, as I see happens to a lot of Peers. I'm ok with it taking a long time. Slow and steady wins the race, and I don't wind up being bitter and burnt.

St. Andrews

St. Andrews is our barony's big event, and I always volunteer to do a lot. Plus TRM wanted to attend, and they are super awesome people. But that makes the event that much bigger.

Again I volunteered to do two more champion scrolls. Oda just happened to be painting a scroll blank so she finished that and gave it to me to use, and Fiona found a blank she'd done over the summer. So that was taken care of, and I got the scrolls finished 5 whole days in advance. And I remembered to print out the cut sheets as well!

For this event I volunteered to head up the health checkpoint. The site only has one entrance, so with my 3 volunteers we'd stop the car as it pulled into the driveway, ask for ID and vaccination card or negative test, then send them along to Saravit who was in charge of telling people where to park. I actually had fun, got to hang out with friends and chat between people arriving. Slaine, Eslebeth, and Sarah volunteered to help me do the checking, and I'm very appreciative that they all put some time in with helping me, and the coverage between the three of them meant they all got to go do other things they liked as well.

Prior to the event I got an email from the Kingdom Seneschal, she sent me the sign out sheet for the checkers. And said since the BoD directions of splitting people up to check different parts of the alphabet didn't go into effect until the 15th, and our event was the 13th, I could arrange it any way I wanted. And she'd appreciate any documentation of why our version works, or if the alphabet version works. Photos would be great. So I had my son take some photos and videos of how we checked in the cars to back up that our way was better. 

Since I had 2 people checking at any point (I was one of them, and rotated through the others) when I was asked to jump in as deputy herald to lead Their Excellencies into morning court because the regular herald had to run off site for a few minutes, things were still covered. By 1:00 it seemed no more people were arriving, so I informed Oswin at Gate that I was stopping and passed off the paperwork and wristbands to him. At that point I had some food and got to hang out with friends for a little bit. After about an hour a tornado alert was on, so everybody was breaking down anything they could put away. 

After helping with that and filling in names on the scrolls, I offered to the Crown Herald to help read scrolls for afternoon court, so he let me pick one to do. I jumped onto the end of the procession line and hung out behind the entourage with my friends that were retaining until it was time for me to read. Oh, except for one point when I was called forward by my barony and inducted into the Order of Perseverance! I was really excited about that, it's the local award for contributions in all 3 aspects of the society: service, martial, and arts. Soon after that I read the scroll for my household brother, then headed back into the audience to knit and chill for the remainder of court.

Once that was done I helped clean things up from court, brought out tables for feast that I was not staying for, said my goodbyes and headed home for a well-earned adult drink.

Seeing people! In person!

When we last left our superhero...

My barony has had two in person events now! We only have one event site in the area, and it's got a HUGE outdoor space, so the events can be safely held to the comfort of the more cautious people. Me. I'm cautious people. 

I offered to do the champion scrolls. And 2 weeks before the first event (Arrows Axes and Ales, so three champions) I realized I needed scrolls blanks. Lilly Morgaine said she had one, a black hours scroll she had done just to try it out. She's freaking amazing. So she lent me gold ink and I got that one done up. Vettorio said he found a scroll blank his apprentice Oda Lally had done, so I used that and got the second one done. I decided to shoot for the stars and found a simple cadel online. I traced that and made the third scroll by myself. Which has always been a goal of mine, so yay! I'm proud of myself for that. When I posted it to facebook after the event I got a message from a gentle who's well known for cadels and he gave me a tip or two on how to improve on that. But I got those scrolls done 2 days before the event, whew.

At the event I took a turn at serving dayboard. To keep things clean as people came up to the table I would say "Hello! Welcome to dayboard, please use the utensils!" Because I had discussed previously with the autocrat that people are oblivious and would just reach in for stuff with their hands, right next to the spoons and tongs. So this was a friendly yet firm reminder. We also had sanitizing wipes to use every so often on high-touch areas.

After that I hung out with my friends a bunch, and relaxed.

Until the competitions were finished. I suddenly realized I didn't print out cut sheets like I'd intended to before leaving the house. So I begged some paper and was frantically writing out the words for the herald. As I'm halfway through that I'm told the winners names and that court should start soon. So between the chill in the air and the adrenaline from rushing to write out words my hands were a bit shaky and I'm not proud of the way the names came out. Oh well, can't be helped.

Court was enjoyable, it was late October and still warm enough to hold it on the outside stage. After that was a quick cleanup and break down and then headed home.

Waiting for things to happen now.

Since my last post, I still haven't done too much. Things with Blue Tyger office slowed down until the role changed over from Muirenn to Alys. Mosaic herald office had been vacant, so I volunteered to take that over as well as Mural herald until they find somebody new for that. But even those have both been slow. So I've been helping friends here and there with heraldry submissions. Not too many though. 

I read another time or two for scrolls in ethereal court, but that has stopped now that events are back to in person. I skipped going to coronation because I wasn't ready to jump into the deep end of peopleing. But next month is the first event back in An Dubhaigeainn, and then TRM are coming to our event in November, so those should be good.

I haven't been asked to help with any kingdom scrolls, but I did help Ostgardr with one of their baronial scrolls. Soon I'll ask around and see if anybody has already planned out scrolls for our event in October. But there's time for that.

And that's about all I've been doing SCA-wise.