Pennsic 40 (2011)

Pennsic was a blast. Its has been for the past three years. What was even better this year though is that we committed to the full two weeks, making it a weird (to some people) but proper holiday. And off course I didn't take one god-damned flippin' photograph.

We took a leisurely drive out on Sunday morning, leaving a little later than planned due to an unexpected migraine. A beautiful sunny day, hardly any traffic on the road, no road-work to get caught up in and the ability to lock up the truck-bed at service stations. We'll be doing it like this from now on. Eight hours later we arrive onsite to get mobbed by our seriously awesome camp-mates that we don't see nearly enough.

Peace Week was phenomenal. We spent a seriously lazy week finishing camp set-up, food shopping, and general laying around doing NOTHING. Well almost nothing, next year we may as well have a published A&S track in camp for all the cool things we were teaching each other. I can now spin fiber and have refined my lucet technique to the point where I don't have to look at what I'm doing any more. Our Pennsic camp is seriously awesome and filled with people that we don't get to see nearly enough. We're very diverse in our interests and when we get together all sorts of strange things end up happening or being planned. Needless to say, don't enter into the camp and then proceed to sit there and tell us that you'll NEVER do something.....

Then there was "Saturday Night at the Glen" .... Words really cannot describe how entertaining this was, but serious thanks must be given to our across-the-road neighbours and the assortment of people headed down to The Bog on that Saturday night. Imagine the scene, the road lined on both side by almost 40 people in camp chairs, heckling and cheering people to promenade past us with as much style and grace as possible. Then there was the singing of "Koom-by-ahh" whenever security headed our way in a delusional attempt to keep them from knowing what we were up too! Apparently we could be heard CLEAR across Pennsic. The one thing that surprised me the most was that it was the folks with pointy hats and bling that got into the merriment the most, whereas the "fringe" folks kinda kept their heads down for the most part and scuttled on by as quickly as they could.

I did however manage to get my four scrolls finished. They all arrived at Pennsic "mostly done" with just the odd few finishing touches needed on each of them. Off course, did I remember to take photographs of the finished scrolls? NO. I'm an idiot. I do know they all went out though, one Baronial Sapphire for Lady Osa Silverhair, two Kingdom (a Silver Crescent for Leonhard Schuwert and a Troubadour for Mhari Brewbane),  and one backlog Court Baroncy for Sarra Elisabeth Graeham of Birnham. If ANYONE has or knows off photographs for these awards then I would love copies. Pretty please.

Towards the end of Peace Week I trundled myself off down to the fencing field for some pick-ups, where I discovered I was getting sick, getting my arse handed to me in the process. Turned out to be a headed cold which knocked me out for a few days with the associated sinus congestion sticking around for the rest of War. In fact I still have the remnants of it. I rested for the most part, willingly doped myself up on DayQuill, but got to the point where I needed to do "something" so headed back down to the lists to help Marshal and inspect others as they were arriving. Was a little weird being in that situation because I would rather have been fencing but I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

War Week was a mixed bag. The head cold was lingering and so I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked, my fencing activities suffered because of it. I didn't get nearly as much pick-up action as I would have liked as I was pretty much conserving myself for the War Points and in case I was needed on the Champions Team (I was an alternate). However, I did have fun in the Tortuga melee, the Ansteorian Tourney and the Cadet Tourney where I got to the "sweet sixteen" out of 72 fighters, and of course it was my practice buddy Alfonso who knocked me out.

I had planned on being in the Atlantia 5-Man Melee tourney also but for various reason sat out, which worked out well as I ended up teaching a new fencer. We had a blast discussing various things and sparring a bunch. I hope he manages to find a convenient practice as he took to it really well and would be an awesome asset to the community.

I've been writing this post for a week now. There is LOTS more and as I remember aspects I will post, but for right now this post is getting too long!

Fencing Armor Update

Well, its mostly complete and I've now worn it at two successive events, NRWC and GNEW.

I'm really liking how it looks and feels as I was a little worried that I would find it to restrictive, even though I constructed it so it wouldn't be. There' a couple of spots where the stitching needs repair because I did a bad job to start with but other than that it's holding up very well, as I'm not the daintiest of fencers!

Its been designed as a (modified) dress. The best thing about this is that it involves and undershirt which can be washed after every stinky practice and event. I've thrown together a very rough shirt for the time being but I need to look at shirt patterns, specifically bag-sleeves, because I'm not completely happy with this first iteration of it. However, it will work just fine for now.

The next step in my process is to just repair the stitching then try and get the neck area done for Pennsic.

Perfect Moments

Every now and again throughout one's lifetime there are PERFECT moments. I've known a few, mostly related to diving, but there have been others. My most recent happened this past Saturday at Barony Wars, a PERFECT off-hand lunge for a one-shot kill.

My opponent had single sword and buckler, a fairly large one for a guy that was (in my opinion) on the smaller side in his stature. We had each achieved a kill on the other, we also had one double kill. We were in the process of lining up for our fourth bout when my world went very quiet, almost to the point of tunnel vision and I just somehow KNEW what I would do next. Its a very strange sensation, something deep down inside of me told me what I should do, all I needed was to listen. I remember hearing the marshal asking if we were ready, and then hearing her say "lay on".

I was like a coiled cobra, IMMEDIATELY launching into my lunge. I felt the tip of my sword connect, I heard a quick gasp, then people saying "NICE SHOT!"

It all happened in a fraction of a second. I don't even know if my blade came straight in or if I popped it upwards at the last second. All I know is that it connected exactly as I had seen in my head only moments before.

For me, it was a PERFECT, beautiful shot that I will remember for a very long time to come.

Project Fencing Armor: Update

The main dress is almost complete with just some hemming, tidying up of the neck line and attaching the front closure to go. Its exactly how I imagined it and am really pleased with the result so far. I've been prancing around the house in it for the past little while and it moves wonderfully, its only gonna get better as the linen softens up even more.

Now I have to figure out the under shirt, I want pretty billowy sleeves...


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Project Fencing Armor

YAY! My nice new red linen arrived.

I decided back around the time of K&Q Fencing Champions (Jan / Feb?) that I really wasn't happy with my current armor. There's nothing really "wrong" with it, I just don't like it. It kinda just hangs like a sack and the sleeves are annoying me.

SO ... I have two pictures I'm going to be using for inspiration. Both can be found online at the Hope Greenberg site and they're actually part of the collection of  images I used while working on my red 15th/16th century Court dress that I've worn in the past.

This image probably shows the upper detailing a little better than the other one. The dress is going to be in red and will detail the square neckline and short sleeves as shown, it will also be just past knee-length so that I don't trip! The sleeve-ends and skirt bottom with be trimmed in black, similar to my current fencing armor.

However, because it's to be used for fencing I'll need to make sure that none of my skin is exposed at the neckline. This means that where you see the exposed throat in this image I will actually extend the black all the way up so that I still give the impression of the under-dress but that so it is list legal.

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.

War of the Roses 2011

What a blast!

Unfortunately we only seemed to get about half the turnout we usually get due to the threat of inclement weather. Sorry for those of you that stayed away though because, for the most part, it stayed dry and sunny. We had a couple of overnight storms that made the ground soft but the days were beautiful.

We packed up the truck Friday morning, taking practically everything SCA related with us. Primary we wanted to see how things fit with the new cap on the truck but we were also being lazy and couldn't be bothered to unpack the stuff we didn't need. We meandered over to the site about lunchtime and began to set up camp in the lovely afternoon sunshine. I spent the evening working the gate, helping to check people into the site.

Friday night there was a pretty significant storm that blew through with high winds and torrential rain, but it left the all the campers pretty unscathed except for a couple of isolated incidents. The only unfortunate thing is that it made the ground wet again, after it had spent all week drying out. It wasn't too bad though, a little soft and a few mud puddles on low ground but more that okay for the various activities.

Fencing on Saturday was a little weird for me. I woke up feeling REALLY groggy and out of it, more so than my usual morning grumpiness, and it never really left. I had a low-grade headache pretty much all day and I felt dehydrated even though I know for certain that I wasn't since I was drinking LOTS (water and Gatorade) and pee'ing regularly. Salt was also being replenished. Not really sure what was wrong but I had a solid day of fencing nonetheless with some great bouts, even making it into the final of the first tourney against Wyatt. The second tourney was the dagger one, at which I'm not great, but it was still fun, and we had the pleasure of His Majesty joining us for a while. Unfortunately his loaner dagger "broke" so I gave him mine to use and pulled myself from the tourney, which actually turned into a plus since I got some much needed MiT experience. Lastly was the Blood Money tourney which relies on NOT killing your opponent, and even though I was terrible I had some great bouts! All in all, a GREAT day fencing.

Sunday started with the Baronial Champions for both Heavy and Fencing.  Don Thomas put on a great fencing tourney, starting with a bear-pit that allowed everyone a chance to fight and have some phenomenal bouts. My goal was to go out, have fun and enjoy fencing regardless of the out-come. That mind-set worked really well for me and my fencing felt very solid and its starting to feel like I "fit in my skin". I didn't make it in to the final rounds but was very pleased with my fighting nonetheless.

The Tournament of Roses was an interesting couple of hours, primarily because there wasn't nearly as many people competing as there usually is. By the mid-way point we seemed to have lost even more fighters that had wandered off to do other things. My goal was just to stay healthy and go the full two hours which I accomplished. I don't view this tourney as anything more than an opportunity to fight a BUNCH of people in a set time-frame. I'm not about to kill myself from heat exhaustion or dehydration trying to win it. Instead, I just want to have fun with it and fight.

As far as the Heavy fighting went, the hubby says he had a couple of great days fighting, even winning his Tournament of Roses which was quite funny considering he made the winners prize! I now have a small wooden chest with a rose carved in the top, I'll post pictures at some point.

Sunday night in camp was pretty cool also. A lot of campers had already packed up and gone home so the site was quieter. We got a cooking fire going so we could make coals and preceded to make stewed rabbit with red wine and Herbs de Provence - DELICIOUS! It was a great evening.

Other than that, there was LOTS of catching up with friends and talking with people we've not seen in a long time. To be honest it's nice to be back outside after such a cold, bleak winter.

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.

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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.

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.

The Great Debate: French-Canadian or Classic French Translation

So, a couple of weeks back I was assigned a scroll to work on. I've been busy practicing my calligraphy since then as I'll be using a hand I've not done before, but this past weekend I got the final version laid down and I'm very happy with the result. The hand looks "clean" and the spacing seems to be the best I've produced so far.

Two days ago I was asked ".....did I mention that the scroll needed to be in French......"

ARRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Erm, NO! It was never mentioned in the assignment that it needed to be in French.

PANICK!!!

I guess I should probably have asked since the Barony has a very French-sounding name but to be honest it never even crossed my mind. I will off course start over and re-do the calligraphy in French but my big dilemma is whether I should use a French-Canadian translation or if I should use a classic French translation. I do not know if there are significant regional differences to choose one over the other for an award-scroll. Originally I had done the wording in English as that is what is considered "usual" for here, so I assumed a French-Canadian translation to be most appropriate for a native speaker. What are others thoughts on the matter? What is "usual" for that region?

Isabel C XII

**SIGH**

So I'm currently working on a piece that will be presented this coming Saturday at the Kingdom 12th Night event in New Jersey. Stylistically I love the design and in that respect I'm proud of it, but technically its showing some issues that I'm worried about. I'm finding that in some places very small dots of paint are chipping off, I'm doing my best to repair them though as I find them. The other issue is that in a couple of places the gilding-size is not sticking, again I'm repairing as needed but am apprehensive about damage that will occur on Saturday once the recipient has it in their hands.

Then off course there's the calligraphy, I'm seriously disappointed in how messy I think it looks. My test pieces looked pretty good but it seemed to all fall apart on the actual piece.

The Alphabet...

"But above all astonishing inventions, what loftiness of mind was that of the man who conceived of finding a way to communicate his most recondite thoughts to whatever other person, although seperated from him by the longest intervals of space and time! To speak with those who are in the Indies, to speak with those as yet unborn, or to be born perhaps a thousand or even ten thousand years hence! And with what ease! All through the various groupings of twenty simple characters on paper" - Galileo

As found in "Biblioclasm" by Marc Drogin

Dead Sea Scrolls to be made available to all

Thu, 2010-10-21 12:01

Submitted by Charlotte Hodgman 

 

Collaboration between Google and the Israel Antiquities Authority will make the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls available to over a billion internet users from 2011. Scientists believe that digitising the scrolls, which are currently kept in darkened, temperature-controlled rooms at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, will ensure the preservation of the 900 manuscripts for future generations, and means the fragile parchment fragments need not be exposed to light and air.

How AMAZING is that.

Scribes at London Guildhall

Scribes at London Guildhall were responsible for promoting Medieval English Literature: "Two University of York researchers have found evidence that the London Guildhall served as the cradle of English Literature in the late Middle Ages. It was the home to scribes who copied the first manuscripts of works by fourteenth-century authors Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower, as well as early copies of other Middle English authors including William Langland and John Trevisa.

Professor Linne Mooney and Dr Estelle Stubbs, of the Centre for Medieval Studies at York, discovered evidence of the identities of several scribes of Middle English literature who were members of the civic secretariat at the London Guildhall.

Click here to read the article from Medievalists.net

New Book to Read

So yesterday I went to the bookstore to buy a birthday present for someone else, I got sidetracked like I always do and came out with new reading material for myself.

First on the list, The Great Mortality by John Kelly, an intimate history of the Black death, the most devastating plague of all time. The back cover reads as follows:

La moria grandissima began its terrible journey across the European and Asian continents in 1347, leaving unimaginable devastation in its wake. Five years later, twenty-five million people were dead, felled by the scourge that would come to be called the Black Death. The Great Mortality is the extraordinary epic account of the worst natural disaster in European history - a drama of courage, cowardice, misery, madness, and sacrifice that brilliantly illuminates humankind's darkest days when an old world ended and a new world was born.

I read the introduction last night and was already starting to get quite engaged so we'll see how the book as a whole progresses. Apparently it's author was intrigued by "...original source material, the literature of the Great Mortality - the chronicles, letters, and reminiscences written by contemporaries..." It seems to have gotten some pretty decent reviews and I guess I can blame my Mother for being interested in reading "histories". Definitely not a bad thing considering my new favourite past-times!

Shinies for Us

So, to our surprise, we were awarded our very own Awards of Arms at Pennsic 39. Both pieces are absolutely stunning to look at and look amazing on the wall. Thank you to all that were involved in creating these.