Category: Art

A Poem and a Card

Wrote a poem! Did my first calligraphy! Threw in some illumination from the Book of Kells!

I was sick so the poem wasn’t as dramatic as I wanted it to be and the whole thing was late!

Text:

To Cuan, king of      considerable worth:
Your bard begs you     a brief moment
of time, attention,     tolerance, and reprieve.
A report of a birthday     reached my ears–
so a chronicle I conceive     for the King of Atlantia,
a poem of his prowess,     praising his might
with words of wisdom     to warn and advise,
extolling the integrity     of one .viii. times a king.
But unbidden, an illness     attacked my form,
muddled my mind     and mystified my pen.
Now my reason returns,     revived and hale,
But the moment is missed!     Mournfully thus
I weakly write     a wish, with all goodwill
of a belated birthday     from your King’s Bard.

“Millcross” Knotwork Embroidery

The finished embroidery, out of the hoop.

In fall 2019, I wanted to improve my embroidery, so I drew a knotwork design that I decided to fill using a combination of satin stitch and split stitch. While the knotwork has finally been completed, I still have yet to decide what I’m going to sew it on to.

 

Ballpoint pen sketch on linen with first attempt at satin stitch.
Figured out that outlining first helps support satin stitch!
Satin stitch looking much better thanks to outlining.
Millcross base finished; millcross outline and small knotwork in progress.

 

Main embroidery 3/4 complete.
The main embroidery was finished in May!
Almost done with the border!
The final product!

 

Urnes-Style Scroll

I picked up scribal in the fall of 2017, and although I was unable to attend the following Twelfth Night, I desperately wanted to enter the New Scribe Contest. Based on Her Majesty’s whims (Viking persona and a love of horses and the color red), I decided to do an Urnes-Style Horse and Grasping Beast Scroll. I was honored that my scroll was selected as the winner!

Because I wanted a challenging design (and I could not find any digitized exemplars of period illuminations that fit my concept, as Nordic manuscripts are rare before 1100), I decided to base my design on Urnes-style knotwork (c. 1050-1132). I used three artifacts as inspiration: 

I decided to adapt one of the Urnes-style grasping beasts into a horse, based on Her Majesty’s whims. The color choices were also influenced by an Urnes-style scroll found online dated 2007; I could not find the name of the original artist.  I used gouache and pencil on pergamenata.

As my third scroll ever, this scroll had many firsts for me: 

  • first entirely original composition for a scroll, 
  • first completed illustration of knotwork of any kind 
  • first attempt at freeform knotwork, and 
  • first scroll on pergamenata.
Sketch

 

Final Scroll

 

Scroll detail

First Scroll Blank

I painted my first scroll blank in 2017, the same year I joined the SCA. The elements were an amalgamation of elements from early 15th century manuscripts (I believe I pulled from BNF MSs. Français 117-120, which was made between 1400 and 1425, with some modifications to the illuminations in the 1460s). I then entered this scroll into the Twelfth Night scroll blank competition in 2019.

Photograph is courtesy of Tannis Baldwin, as I am awful at remembering to photograph my own items!