Remembering

This morning, for the first time in a very long time, I gazed affectionately at my 10 year old white iBook laptop. With a smile on my face I had flash backs of using my first tiny little Macintosh computer at college, with it's black and white screen and floppy-disk drive. Then, at a different college using larger versions of the Macintosh as I learned to be digitally creative.

I remember when the art department at the newspaper got its very first batch of G1 Power Macs and we were all so excited because they were a huge upgrade to what we had been using. I remembered being jealous of my boss at the newspaper because he had an Apple Newton.

I remember buying my very first computer at Harrods, a black all-in-one PowerMac, and reminisced about how excited I was to be able to use it's (I think) 12kph modem to connect to the internet at home using Netscape Communicator. I remember the 100mb Zip Drive I bought not long after.

I remember living in Aruba, hating that I was without a computer and then paying extortionate amounts of money to buy my iBook because there was an Apple dealer on the island. I remember being able to watch DvD's for the first time in my dingy little island home after spending long days underwater. I remember finally being able to get rid of all my really heavy scuba instructor manuals because I could now buy them on CD's.

I remember laying on a balcony studying for a scuba instructors further education class in Florida when some random cute guy started talking to me. I remember IM'ing with that same guy late at night once I was back in London as we made plans as to which Caribbean island we would find work on. "That guy" would later become my husband.

I remember being in the British Virgin Islands and able to research my family history because I had my iBook and a high speed internet connection. I remember the excitement of finding long lost cousins and slowly being able to piece my way back to 1747.

I remember my disappointment, once we were living in the USA, when I realised that I would have to buy a PC as the desktop computer at home.

I remember the Keynote events that launched the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. I remember the excitement of buying my first generation iPad because I was back to using the brand I loved. I remember my husband saying to me "I'm never buying a PC again, only Apple from now on"

Thank you for my memories Steve Jobs. Rest in peace.

Photo-A-Day Project: Day 2

Wandering around a local shopping mall, I noticed this reflection of the American flag in the entrance windows which I thought was pretty cool. Unfortunately I was shoo'd away by a security guard, apparently you're not allowed to take photo's of their mall without prior permission.

Irony

EDIT: It's just been bought to my attention on 500px that there's a little irony behind this image and its story. As one commenter put it "[...] The world must carry on and we must be free to enjoy our hobbies. Terrorist, in my mind would be undercover and probably not use a big obvious DSLR. [...] Doesn't you flag stand for the land of the Free rather than the land of the scared. [...] Glad you got the pic before you were moved on, as there is some sort of irony in the pic and the story."

Photo-A-Day Project: Day 1

I'm starting a second project which is pretty closely related to my LIFE: Ruled by Signs, Logos & Words project. My goal is to take one photograph every day. Its an exercise in "seeing" my surroundings, getting back into taking photographs and having fun with it in the process.

So, here my first entry.

Standing Sentry

I'm not overly thrilled with this image, it feels very grey to me. I've done some post-processing but meh.

New Art / Photography Project

I'm finally realizing the benefits of having one of these "smart phone" contraptions. I always resisted buying one because for how little I use a cell phone I couldn't justify paying not only the cost of the phone but also the obscene rates that the phone carriers charge each month. I've been on a "pay-as-you-go" type plan for ages now but even that was starting to look like I wasn't getting my money's-worth as I was still over paying for not using it. I was with AT&T at the time, which by the way SUCKS.

I was roaming around one day when I suddenly discovered that Virgin Mobile actually has a presence in this country. DOH! Yes I know, late to the party and all that. Anyway, one carrier switch and smart phone later I'm all tech-ed up.

The beauty of this is that I can now (like the rest of the world) roam around taking random photo's and videos on the spur of the moment. Because of this I've decided to create an ongoing photography project for myself called "LIFE: Ruled by Signs, Logos & Words". The premise is that I can only take photo's of my daily life if they include signs, logos or words, since these are the things that constant but often taken for granted or overlooked. Initially they can be seen in their own Picasa album and on their Google+ photo page until I can best figure out how / where to display them in the way I want them to be seen.


Some day's there might be LOTS and other day there might be none, it just all depends on what inspires me and say "this is part of who I am". I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and here's my current favourite photo of the past couple of days...

Slacking Off

It would appear that I've been slacking off pretty badly with regards keeping my scribal pages up-to-date. Granted, there hasn't been that much off it due to other commitments but still! So here is what I've been up too over the past few months:

Blades & Blarney: The Resurrection / "Best Blarney" Winner
I forgot to take a photo of this piece, although the recipient has said she'll oblige me.


Sean of Carillion / Award of Arms - LINK

Aoife inghean Conchobair / Order of the Sapphire - LINK

"No shit there I was..." sitting in Baronial Court, at this years War of the Roses when my dear friend Aoife got called up to receive an award. I was so excited for her because she works so very hard and deserves every recognition she gets. I was actually stunned to see that it was a work that I had produced!

Now, this work has a little history to it. A year ago I made my entry into the East Kingdom scribal circle by producing the backlog Silver Crescent for Lylie of Penhil as part of a larger deception that ended with her being inducted into the Order of the Pelican. My inspiration for that piece came from a 14th century English Psalter residing in the Huntington Library Collection and I actually produced a number of practice blanks during the prep. stage. This was one of them. It was actually my favourite as I always thought the dragon head was fun and whimsical.


Sir Yoshi / Order of the Diamond - LINK
I was really pleased to receive this particular assignment, even more-so after reading the words His Excellency, Baron Pierre wrote for this award (see below). The words are so very apt for Sir Yoshi and I remember feeling amazed that he hadn't already received this award.

The Craft, Rather Than the Art

Very recently I've come to the realization that its the CRAFT behind scribing and illuminating that interests me the most. Don't get me wrong, I love producing works that are handed out to people, and I often loose myself for days when creating something. However, I get so much pleasure reading about all the practicalities of the craft, like producing my own pigments, of learning to cut my own quills, reading about all the industries that could be fed by-products of say woad or leather.

Not sure how this will translate so well into A&S displays / competitions as what I produce may well end up being more like a research paper than short documentation.

So yeah....

The last two weeks ended up being a nightmare.

Work has been crazy, with the culmination of two HUGE projects. First there was the ongoing saga of the company brochure. We took the first steps for this project in December, asking the printing company to organize a designer. The first one SUCKED! Just because Photoshop and Illustrator have a bunch of plug-ins and filter, doesn't mean that they need to be used at every single opportunity. She quit after I sent back a rather scathing email. The second designer did a solid job and produced a good proof but didn't really "get" what the boss was looking for. So, after some discussion, I convinced him that we'd be better off having me do the design as he would get exactly what he was looking for and it would end up being quicker than trying to get an outsider to understand his ... erm ... "tastes."

So after a number of weeks of back-and-forth we finally have a new company brochure. There are things I would have liked to do differently, but for the most part I really like it and its a huge weight off the shoulders.

The other project was a MASSIVE redesign of the company website. We put this in motion literally just before Christmas and the first few weeks was hands-off as the web company worked with us on the design and then started coding it all. The last three weeks I've finally been able to start filling in and updating ALL the content to get it to the point where we could go live. Its been a couple of weeks of long, lunch-less days and delayed home-time to get it out by my self-imposed April 15th deadline. However, the deadline was made and the website is live even are there are more developments in the works for it, the main thing is that they're not as imperative.

Then of course I'd been goaded into entering my very first A&S competition, which happened to coincide with the website deadline. To say I was stressed last week was an understatement! I spent all week dealing with the website only to come home and have to finishing preparing my three A&S entries for Pent Central. By Friday night I was done, completely drained and ready to just fall over.

Pent Central was pretty cool. Never entered into an A&S competition before, but was goaded into it by JP. I entered the Calligraphy, Illumination and Fine Arts categories. For calligraphy I showcased my 14th century cursive hand in the form of a paragraph from a period document. For illumination, I enter the Silver Crescent award scroll I did for JP and I have to admit that it looked pretty impressive sitting on it easel, framed. For fine arts I submitted my personal research and experiments with gilding. As always, there's room for improvement but I was happy with it and got really positive feedback from the judges. I even won two of the categories, calligraphy and illumination, so I'm now the proud owner of scrolls by Heather Rose =)

And now I can breathe again. I can sit, I can relax, I can play WoW, I can read, I can do what ever the hell I want without feel pressured but stuff I HAVE to do. For a couple of weeks anyway.

So, I'm off to think about the design for an AoA I have to do and chill a little before Game of Thrones makes it's debut on HBO =)

Mudthaw

So, Mudthaw was a blast.

Lots of fencing to be had during the tourny - fight as many as you can during a two hour period, with winners reporting to the MoL to receive a couple of points. I spent a fair bit of time in the line so I know I won more than I lost but I wish I knew what my final tally was and where I placed. Not that its all that important, my fencing felt REALLY solid and I felt the best I have in a long time. Lots of really great quality fights too.

Today my shins ache, so OUCH! I really must remember to wear my trainers when we're on a hard, unforgiving surface. The boots are nice but just don't have enough cushion for anything other that grass or springy gym floors.

One of my scrolls was given out in Baronial Court to the winner of the baking competition. Enjoyed doing this one and I was able to use a source I've had my eye on for a while. Was very pleased with how it turned out.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Good Pouncing

So, after some discussions with a few people it looks like preparing my pergamenata with a light pouncing is the way to go. It should soak up the small oily spots I've been finding and I'm hoping that with a couple of changes to my paint mixtures it'll help the cracking / chipping issues too.

So I ordered some Gum Sandarac from John Neal Booksellers without thinking how to apply it. I found this post after using my Google-Fu:

Grind it down to as fine as you can, until it is almost white. Cut a 10cm square of cotton or linen cloth, place you pile of the finely ground powder in the centre, gather up the corners and bind them together with a rubber bamd. You have now made a pounce.

Pounce over the paper/vellum by tapping it on the surface and the fine powder will sift through. With clean hands, spread it over the total surface --- then wipe (or dry brush) it all off ! That very, very thin layer of gum left on the surface will do it all for you. And the smell is beautiful!

The gum resists water. When the pen's edge carries the ink acroos the surface, it pushes away the very fine layer of gum in its path but the ink will not move outside the path --- leaving a sharp edge. This repulsion of water, however, makes it difficult if you want to add any watercolour ornamentaion or backgound painting, So do those before you pounce.

The Aromatic Plant Project also gives a pretty good definition.

This has me worried now though. It sounds like it might cause further issues with the paint adhering to the page? I also bought Dental Pumice and am wondering it the following might work best for my own uses:

How to Prepare Vellum

Vellum has a slightly greasy surface, which makes it a challeng to work with. This will need to be neutrallized before work can begin. It will also need to be given a nap or tooth, which will accept the paint ad ink mediums and bond it to the vellum.
Pouncing accomplished this goal. Pouncing is sort of like sanding the surface of the skin with an abrasive powder.

A recipe for pounce follows:
4 measures of ground Cuttlefish Bone
8 measures of Powderd Pumice
2 measures of Gum Sandarac

Sprinkle a little pounce onto the surface of the skin and gently rub it around in a circular motion with a scrap of vellum until the skin feels smooth. Once the desired smoothness has been achieved, brush off the powder with a soft brush or feather. Do not touch the surface of the skin once it has been prepared. You may transfer the oils from your skin onto the vellum. Be sure to have a piece of paper handy to lay over the surface of the vellum to protect it as you work.

Source: http://brigscribe.webs.com/classhandouts.htm

 I guess its time for me to experiment...

Maunche for Shadiyah al-Zahra'

This is the latest piece I have completed, it was the Maunche award for Shadiyah al-Zahra' and was presented this past weekend at a Baronial Investiture up in Canada.

Its based on a design found in a 12th century Italian Psalter housed in the British Library. More information can be found at Medieval Whimsies.

Soap

So, we've discovered the wonder world of hand-made soap. I bought some lavender soap from someone I know while at Birka this past January, we used it, loved it and then Ken just bought two more from the same person. This got me thinking that I should probably learn to make our own soaps.

So fast forward a little, after having done some reading, I've decided that I'm going to follow the instructions provided on this blog article by orthogonalthought.com. Its clear, concise and best off all it has pictures.

First things first, I need ingredients. So I headed off to Walmart for supplies and was very happy to discover that I could get everything but the lye there. I decided to buy cheap utensils and bowls that I can use specifically for soap making as I don't want to mix the regular kitchen supplies with lye...

My shopping list ended up looking like this:

• 100% Lye - bought from Ace Hardware under the drain cleaner brand on Rooto.
• Olive Oil - yes, the stuff you use for cooking.
• Coconut Oil -Mmmmmm, sounds good enough to eat!
• Caster Oil - found in the pharmacy dept. as a laxative.
• Distilled Water -do you know whats in your tap water?
• Digital Thermometer - obvious, is obvious.
• Measuring Jugs - plastic and heatproof.
• Hand Whisks - not buying an electric one until I know I'll make more soap.
• Plastic Spatula - for stirring the soap mixture.

Once everything was to hand and the hubby was sent packing it was time to experiment!

First things first, measure out the lye crystals and mix it into solution so that it could cool down while I prepared the other stuff. This actually happened very easily and without any mishaps. Everything was done in the sink so that I had a controlled working space and I could immediately flush things with water if needed.

Next up was the oils. I measured out all the oils and melted them together using the microwave as directed but I feel that next time I will only heat the solid oils and use the others at room temperature as they took a while to cool down.

Then its a waiting game. The instructions said to mix the lye-solution into the oils when they're at about 110F and within 20 degrees of each other. When I mixed mine (impatience) they were within 20 degrees of each other but the hotter of the two was at about 130F Hopefully this won't turn into an issue. I mixed them for about 45 minutes and achieved what I would consider to be "light trace", a kind of soupy, gravy consistency, before pouring into my mold.

And then it just sat there for two days. I did notice what I would consider a little "excess oil" on Saturday night but by Sunday morning it had absorbed back into the hardening block. This morning I pulled it out of the mold and sliced it into "bars" and it looks like I think it should. Now it just needs to cure for 4 weeks.

All in all it seems to be a success. I stupidly haven't taken any photos though so that will have to wait for the next batch I do.

Working Through Some Technique Issues

So, this weekend I spent my time finishing an award-scroll that will be given out next weekend, I'll post details at a later date once I know it's safely in the recipients hands. But recently I've been having some issues with my works and now that the same thing has happened for a third time its obviously a pattern. What do they say? First time is a mistake, second time is bad luck, third time is a pattern.

So here's the issue, I'm having a problem with mediums not "sticking" to my pergamenata surfaces.

My first reaction was that I'd mixed my powdered pigments into paint that was too brittle. This is completely plausible and I'm sure it is definitely part of the problem since I'm pretty new at this. I've been creating test patches for the batches I've made and they have stuck to the test-strips with no issues, and seem to be right as the colour hasn't transferred off when I've wiped paper over them. I have been following the recommendations of others although as yet I haven't added any honey / sugar into the mix for more flexibility. I will try this on my next piece as I'm sure it will probably help.

The reason I feel that this is only part of the issue is because I have also experienced the same chipping / flaking when I've used commercially made Windsor & Newton gouaches.

I'm beginning to think that my working surface is also part of the problem. Everything I have read says that pergamanata DOES NOT need any surface preparation before use, you can just go ahead and start working on it. However, I've been finding what I can only call "oily" areas dotted around the surface, not everywhere, just small patches here and there where the paint will pull back from where I've applied it. Initially I thought I must be transferring oils from my hands onto the surface so I started wearing gloves and covering areas I wasn't working on with glassine-paper. This made no difference, I still came across these small patches.

I'm wondering if it might be worth putting a little bit pf prep. work into the surface of my page. Maybe a light sanding with a VERY fine-grit sandpaper to create some "tooth" for the paint to adhere to? Maybe a light coating of dental pumice to remove these small oily spots? Has anyone experienced these issues before and can offer any suggestions? I really love the look and feel of perg. as a working surface and I really want to remedy these issues.