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Marian (left), Perronnelle (right)Marian (left), Perronnelle (right)We’re VERY serious ALWAYS.
Unto the Populace of the Barony of Bergental do we Baroness Marian Kirkpatrick and Dame Perronnelle de Croy send our warmest greetings.
Let it be known that we present ourselves as candidates for the baronage of Bergental. We love the barony and its diverse people. We seek to help it grow and prosper long into the future. As ambassadors for the SCA, the East, and the Barony, we pledge to be a voice for our populace and nurture passion for our game wherever we find it. As to each of our individual qualifications and experience, we have included links to our Wiki pages, Order of Precedence entries and website/photo gallery of projects in our signature blocks.
Together we have over 40 years experience in the SCA as active participants. In that time we have traveled extensively to lands near and far. We have fostered friendships and strong working relationships within our neighboring groups, households, and baronies. We have been witness to the benefits and necessity of fostering and sustaining a strong working relationship between all baronial officers. To that end, we will continually encourage them to collaborate with each other and bordering counterparts to support the continued success of the Society.
It is our greatest hope to embark on a dual prong strategy to enrich and foster continued growth for the Barony in the areas of recruitment/retention and pageantry/medieval ambiance. In a time where membership and recruitment are increasingly in flux, it is vital and of utmost importance to us to encourage continued dedication and service from our existing populace. Over the past several years the society has seen an overall drop in membership and involvement. Our barony is no exception. To combat this and ensure the vitality of our group we need to make recruitment and retention a priority.
First, let us speak to recruiting new members. The Barony of Bergental is home to several higher education institutions which have proven to be great sources of interest in the past. Reaching out to these and other community groups and clubs with adjacent interests can only benefit the Barony. We recommend holding practices and meetings in public places and engaging in regular outreach (e.g. through demonstrations). We would encourage individuals to set up demonstrations in their own communities with support from the Chatelaine and the populace of the barony.
Retention is equally as important as recruitment. Our barony is vast and includes several households representing various disciplines and skill sets. We would like to encourage and promote their participation at business meetings and invite them to take part in the planning and execution of baronial events, tasks, and initiatives. In addition, we also would like to facilitate mentorships between the experienced persons of our baronial populace and younger or newer SCAdians to capitalize on the wealth of knowledge they represent. We would also work to create more children’s activities and teen programs whenever possible as these youth represent the future of the SCA.
Having traveled near and far in service to the East Kingdom, various royal reigns, and the Barony, we have found a passion in pageantry, creating medieval ambiance, and heraldic presence. In an effort to expand medieval ambience at events and our presence among the East Kingdom, we would promote heraldic display(s) whether it be banners, or garb. We would also strongly encourage anachronistic disguises/cloaks to better blend modern tools with a medieval aesthetic. To that end, we propose a series of workshops in block printing, stamp making, stenciling, applique, etc., which will be utilized in a series of smaller projects to progressively work toward an inclusive and cohesive medieval immersive experience. We acknowledge the various challenges that can come with the desire to embellish or improve upon one’s own kit. As such, we seek to make such effort less cost prohibitive by encouraging a community minded approach and knowledge sharing among the populace. Along these lines, we would encourage individual heraldic pursuits, so that the populace may be a beacon of inspiration for others to join in an increased heraldic presence. Moreover, we seek to promote and champion the diverse artistic prowess of the Barony’s artists throughout the vast Eastern lands.
It would be our great honor and a humbling experience to serve as the next baronage. We look forward to the opportunity to support and nurture the populace of Bergental as they have supported and inspired us throughout the years, regardless of the outcome.
Welcome to Madame Perronnelle de Croy’s home on the web. Within the SCA I play a middle 12th century Frenchwoman from the northwest or Brittany region. This is my collection of esoteric knowledge and experiences within that august organization. Please feel free to look around, comment, and learn. While the offerings are meager at this time I am hoping to continue to add to this collection as time goes on. If you have any questions or input please feel free to contact me using the “Contact Me” link in the top right corner. Thank you and enjoy!
The past few months have been busy, apart from my shoe project. Some of it was planned and some has not been. It’s all good news and good things so I’m going to try and break things down here.
Letter of Intent
It was several months ago when one of my besties, Baroness Marian, approached me with the topic of potentially running as candidates for the baronial seat of Bergental. It was something that I had thought I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do. I currently live in the Shire of Quintavia but only by a couple of miles. This matters as Society Corpora states that baronial heads must reside within the boundaries of the barony that they are heads of. What is lesser known, is that people can apply for a variance from the Board of Directors which, if granted, would allow a person living outside of the barony to run as a candidate.
The Variance Application
Since I live outside of the boundaries of Bergental, I knew that we would have to apply for a variance. Fortunately, Marian lives within the boundaries of the barony and this made this process easier in many ways. I would have an “anchor” so to speak. But how do we begin? Where do we start? This is not something that is widely discussed. Even though there are precedents it’s not something that is common enough to be a topic of discussion. There’s no form or “how-to” to get though this process. We opted to write to the Kingdom Seneschal for further instruction.
We were advised that I should write a letter requesting the variance. The letter should include my history of participation with the group and include signatures from the greater officers of the Barony to confirm my active participation. That wasn’t too difficult and I was able to get the letter done and signed fairly quickly. I did have to use E-sign for one signature which was a non-issue and readily accepted as an alternative. In addition to this Marian wrote a letter of support which we sent in together with my own.
Out of our Hands
Once we had the letters it was a simple matter to turn them into PDF’s and email them off to the Kingdom Seneschal (KSen). At this point it was out of our hands and I can only relay what the KSen reported the process to be.
The KSen reviewed our request and approved it. She notified us of the approval and that she was forwarding it on to the Society Seneschal (SocSen). I knew going in that this part would be the longest. We had already reached a conclusion that this would likely be discussed in a Board of Directors meeting. I still can’t say if it was or wasn’t. What I can tell you is that we heard the verdict a week and half or so after the last BoD meeting. The board granted our request for a variance!
Full Steam Ahead
Now that we had the official okay, it was time to sit down and put words to paper for our letter of intent. I would think it fairly obvious but we had discussed our priorities and interests prior to getting the approval in broad terms. Now we had to sit down and hammer out our points and get more detailed. We also opted to do a photo shoot which I think turned out pretty well. Fortunately, Marian and I are often on the same page when it comes to certain topics. Even we have differences of opinion, we are both level headed enough to have it be a productive conversation. We have always worked well together even under some of the more stressful situations so putting the letter of intent together went pretty quickly.
Next Steps
You can read the letter on the baronial website. As for next steps, I’m not sure. There was some mention of a town hall type Q&A session. Apart from that, we will wait for polls to be mailed out and returned. We will see and I will try to keep on top of the process and post things as we do them.
Another Letter….A Writ
This bit is overwhelming. A little over two weeks ago I was called into morning court at an event called Birka along with Syrine, a friend, and also part of the royal household for this reign. Our Sultan, Mohammed al-Manil Al-Wajdi Al-Abderaffi Ibn-Horrah Ibn-Gowan (Mo) addressed us….well there’s video. He said that we needed to remember what we had done, discussed at Pennsic. Syrine and I searched our brains and drew massive blanks. I still feel like I the principal called me into his office, I’ll admit. I thought I had gone and stepped in something I shouldn’t have, big time. He then informed us that this would then be a surprise and the Herald called in the Order of the Pelican. My eyes nearly fell out of my head. For those that may not be familiar, the Order of the Pelican is essentially a lifetime service award within our society.
Wrapping My Head Around It
It still hasn’t sunk in. I have my vigil in a couple of weeks and my elevation at coronation on April 1st. It’s weird. I’ve been a protégé for three years and while it’s been a goal to be worthy of the honor, it’s not one that I thought I was ready for. For one, I can be about as tactful as a pile of bricks which some people find uncomfortable. I try to keep it in check for the most part. This particular step in my journey was always one of “someday” rather than any time in the near future. Needless to say that my friends, chosen family and sovereign got me good. There is a video that I will try to upload when I get it but Mo really had us going. I’m sure that I will have much more to say after my actual vigil and elevation!
The weekend preceding the most recent Birka had me searching for my nearly new shoes, purchased at Pennsic from Boots by Bohemond and worn exactly once. Naturally, I couldn’t find them as the brownies have decided that they were appropriate items to take and sit on for a while.
Not finding them, I decided that three days before the event I would MAKE some shoes because then, surely, they would appear. This is the story of that adventure.
The Idea
So I had purchased a piece of leather some time ago, prior to Pandemic, that I had decided I was going to make into shoes. I have a lot of harebrained ideas. I had the upper leather but no sole. This summer when we cleaned out the garage I found my husband’s bin of “would have been” leather craft. It had a much heavier weight leather inside. I had found my soles! Then, of course, the project lingered at the periphery of my consciousness until the Shoe Incident.
There are times I’m thankful for my ADHD. I had the materials, tools, and just enough time to pull it off if I was careful and didn’t screw up. So I started researching shoes in the early period that would be fairly simple, a good starter shoe, if you will. Boots were out as I didn’t think I had enough time to finish them. Slippers were also out due to plantar fasciitis. I wanted something that would secure to my foot well and not have me toe gripping because I felt like they were going to come off. (A common problem for me with slippers that are tied at the ankle.)
The winner of the search was a 1000 year old shoe found in York and remarkably preserved due to the soil there. The find, dated between 866 and 1066, was the perfect inspiration. I was able to pull a few images from online and was able to see the hint of the triangular heel that rises into the upper. The extant piece was definitely a boot but I wanted a shoe. I decided to modify the look to get what I wanted. In the end I thought it would be easier to make a smaller shoe.
Changes
There were a few changes I knew I wanted to make to make things a bit easier for me. I wanted to take into consideration my own feet and customize the shoes so that I would be comfortable wearing them for long periods of time. The goal after all is to have wearable shoes!
Pattern Changes
The shoes pictured above have a very distinct side seam that moves in a diagonal, from right (closer to the heel) to left (closer to the toes). I’m not sure as to the purpose of the slat of the seam and, as I have a high instep, decided that this may prove a point of wear if I went with a seam in the same place. I opted for a straight seam, from my mid arch to a couple of inches in front of my ankle.
As I mentioned before, the orignals are boots and I wanted shoes. This meant that during the mock up process I had alter the placement of the strap. I didn’t want a boot so the upper section had to go and the strap was moved lower, right over the top of my foot.
Toggle and Loop
Another slight pattern change was the closure strap. The original has bone toggle and leather thong loop closure. I did not have bone so I copied others that have made similar shoes and made a leather toggle following the tutorial (posted below) I found on YouTube. Thanks to Boots by Bohemond for posting that! Unfortunately, you can’t see any details as to how the toggle or the loop that holds it is anchored in place. You can kind of see that there is some kind of leather lace or thong that makes up the loop and hold the toggle.
The easiest thing I could do is to reverse the position of the toggle and loop. This would place the loop on the closure strap and the toggle on the shoe portion. I opted to to go with a thicker strap with a rounded end instead of the triangular point so that I could make a hole for the leather toggle. The leather toggle was a bit bulkier than the horn option so I made sure the strap was wide enough to accommodate the larger hole. I did not want it to rip or pull the leather around it with normal wear and tear.
Materials Roundup
My tools for this project are all modern and mostly things that I already had around the house. I’ve heard tell from friends that leather working is hard on the hands. Since I have issues that affect my hand strength I simply used the tools that didn’t aggravate those issues. The list below is everything I’ve used in the making of the shoes. I did “guesstimate” on the weight of the leather though.
Old holey sock
Duct Tape
Shears
Tracing Wheel
Awl
2oz (?) Leather for Uppers
6oz (?) Leather for Soles
Mallet
Wood Scrap
Leather Hollow Punches
Xacto Knife
Mink Oil
Rag
Application Brush
Sharpie
Ruler
Pattern Making
Woodcut of shoemakers from Frankfurt am Main, 1568.Shoemaker Ott Norlinger (1476) from the Hausbuch of theMendelschen Zwolfbruderstiftung (Neurenberg, Germany). Folio 96 recto.Peter Velner, Shoemaker. From the Mendel housebook (Blatt 93v) dated 1474
Modern Shoe Rack, courtesy of Wayfair.com
Modernly, shoes are made on wooden lasts which are made to fit generic sizes. Certain places still make custom lasts for clients but these aren’t what I would call affordable. In period, shoes were also made on lasts but they were more for shape and style than size.1
I have looked at depictions of medieval shoe makers and included the images I was able to find to see if I could find the lasts. The woodblock print on the left is hard to decipher than the two illuminations to the right. These are much easier to see in comparison. In both of the illuminations, in the upper left corners there seems to be a bar attached to the wall with shoe shapes wedged in. My guess is that these are the lasts. I have included a modern image of a shoe rack that stores shoes in the same way. While this is only a depiction, I think that the fact that both of these only have one set reinforces the fact that they didn’t have the dozens of lasts at their disposal.
I don’t have a set of lasts however I do have two feet. Include the added benefit that my feet are fairly symmetrical and I have a good starting point. So I opted to only make one pattern versus two and planned to simply flip the the pattern to make a shoe for each foot.
Duct Tape Is My Friend
Pattern making tools.
To make my pattern I went with a method I found online of wrapping my foot in duct tape. Some people used a plastic bag to and taped over that. I thought it would be too loose as I wanted to make sure my shoe would accommodate my orthotic inserts and planned on taping over them as well. Instead of the recommended plastic bag, I decided to use an old holey sock. My husband’s old holey sock that was about to go into the rubbish so it didn’t matter if I had to cut it apart.
I took the sock and put my orthotic insert into the sock then put the whole thing on my foot. It felt rather weird, I will admit. Next, I used duct tape to wrap my foot using athletic ankle taping methods as a starting point. The process continued with me taping the sock so that it was snug, but not uncomfortable, as I anticipated the leather stretching over time. I used short strips of tape until all of the sock was completely covered.
Drawing the Actual Shoe
Shoe pattern drawn on duct tape.
Next, I took a Sharpie and scribed a line where my foot hit the floor. This would become the sole. I also scribed a line from the inside of my big toe to the top of my shoe, aligning it with my shin, creating a “centerline.”
Based off the “centerline” I drew what I wanted my shoe to look like. (See image at left) This included the lower opening that hit just under my ankle bone, a thicker closure strap, and straight side seam. Also, I put hash marks on the lines I wasn’t supposed to cut. Next came the the drawing portion. While this was tricky and would have been easier with a second set of hands, especially going around the heel, I managed to get the job done. As you can see from the following photos that the drawing was rough and not very clean. Clearly, doing this all on my own also meant that photo opportunities during this part of the process were limited as my contortion abilities are also limited.
Pattern Removal and Transformation
The pattern freed from my foot.
As soon as I began the taping process I knew that getting my foot free again was not going to be easy. I didn’t want to make any additional or unnecessary cuts to the pattern to extricate my foot if I could help it. Using sharp shears, I cut the duct tape and sock combo down to the ankle line of my shoe in sections. Once done, I worked my foot out. It took some maneuvering and some strength. Despite it’s snug fit, I was finally able to take it off without cutting into the pattern proper or ripping the thing. I really didn’t want to have piece together the pattern more than I had to so I was happy for this bit of success.
It looks more like a shoe….
Once free, I cut the extra off around the ankle to my pre-drawn ankle line, or shoe opening. Finally, I can start to see what my shoe will really look like at this point, which is exciting. Then I realize that I can’t cut the closure strap as a single piece from the pattern without wrecking the pattern. So I focused first on making a flat patter. I also realized I needed a side seam to make the pattern flat. To do this I marked and cut the side seam, about mid point of the outside of my foot, then up the side to meet the center line, meeting at the base of my closure strap, to create a flat pattern.
Adding Pieces to the Puzzle
Looks nothing like a shoe.
It was clear that my patterns was missing a few things. I couldn’t cut the closure strap free without ruining the base pattern. In addition, the sole has a triangular piece that juts into the upper had to be removed from the upper pattern and added to the sole. Both changes were fairly straightforward and simple.
The Closure Strap
I was going to have to add the strap piece to the now flat pattern. To do this, I made a “sheet” of duct tape. First, I laid two pieces sticky side face up and slightly overlapping. Then I covered them with another two pieces overlapping in the other direction. Next I drew the closure strap onto the sheet of duct tape. I made sure to add a bit extra (slashed bit) as a “seam allowance”. Lastly, I used the seam allowance portion to attach the strap to the main piece of the pattern.
Traced strap onto tape canvas.Strap cut outStrap aligned with center line.Strap taped in place
Heel Modification
The heel modification was easy enough. I began by wrapping the existing upper pattern around my foot and marking the center back of my heel. The triangle in the extant pieces don’t look very large. I made mine about an 1.25 inches wide at the base and 1.25 inches high. Initially, I was going to do a flat 1 inch for both measurements. Instead, I decided against it. I wanted to make sure that the heel would look right after it had been sewn in place and turned right side out. I added the extra quarter inch to ensure it would look right and that there was enough of that triangle showing.
To construct it, I marked the triangle with a Sharpie and cut it out with scissors. Next, I wrapped the upper around my foot again while standing on the sole piece and marked the opening of the triangle on the sole. This way I would know exactly where to attach the new piece. Removing the pattern from my foot I then prepared to attach the new triangular piece to the sole. I then ripped three thin strips of duct tape that were about 3 inches in length. That done, I laid my sole and triangle piece flat on the table. Using the strips of tape, I wrapped the triangle using the ends of the strips to attach the triangle to the sole on both sides.
Sole and upper with strapPiece to cut!Where to attachSole with triangle attached
Half Way Done!
With the sole and upper patterns now complete with all their pieces, it’s time to move on to leather. All of the previous steps were done on day one. The next steps of tracing the pattern onto the leather, cutting and punching holes were also completed on day one. However for reasons of loading time and breaking this into two digestible chunks.
Part 2 will contain the actual leatherworking portion of making shoes!
Bibliography
Neergaard, Margrethe de., Grew, Francis. Shoes and Pattens. United Kingdom: Boydell Press, 2001. Pg. 47
A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by the Signet of the East with a potential scroll assignment. Pandemic had me scale back a lot of my scribing and participation because of home life etcetera, so I was eager to get back into it. The added benefit was that this particular award was for my protégé sister (mostly mamluk persona) so I was doubly excited to do it.
Challenges
Right out of the gate I knew I was going to have a couple of challenges. My protégé sister has an undecided persona but tends to the Mamluk and Arab bent. Safe to say, not my usual style. Not even a style I had ever done before. So I had to do some digging to find an exemplar to inspire me or copy from. In addition, the wording style is different and there were no examples of SCA specific wordings for awards for those cultures. Not only would I have to come up with something, but then I’d have to translate it coherently into French, her primary language. Lastly, time was a huge factor. I don’t do calligraphy and so I had roughly a week to get the award done and handed off to the calligrapher to get it done on time. It was a hair stressful.
Who?
While I appreciate the lovely clothing and art that comes out of the middle and near east, both past and present, I have to be honest and say that my concept of that region’s history is not my forte. I figured since I was going to be reproducing the art of these people I should know more and was able to stumble onto a stub from the Britannica website that brought me to this lovely snippit:
Mamluk, also spelled Mameluke, slave soldier, a member of one of the armies of slaves established during the Abbasid era that later won political control of several Muslim states. Under the Ayyubid sultanate, Mamluk generals used their power to establish a dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Mamluk”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Apr. 2020, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mamluk. Accessed 10 May 2022.
There’s more to that article but at least I had a little background and a general sense of what to look for or what I was looking at.
Mamluk Inspirations
I have never done a scroll in this style so I really had my work cut out for me. It’s intimidating to tackle something new and I forgotten that. I turned to my friend, Google. I had some idea of what I was looking for and after a while narrowed it down to the ones I liked best. (See below.) The real deciding factor was time. I Iove the pages with the knot work and the more carpet style pages. My fear was that I wouldn’t get it done in time with all the small details. I ended up going with the simpler, smaller blue, red and gold find.
Wording
Words were going to be a trick and a half. I wanted to make it true in style to fit the scroll and sound at least somewhat like it matched what it was being put on. Through my wanderings on the internet I found a poem from the 1100’s that was written by a woman, Ḥafṣa bint al-Ḥājj ar-Rakūniyya. One of the few extant women poets of the time and place, Ḥafṣa bint al-Ḥājj ar-Rakūniyya’s reply to Abu Jaafar’s love poem was short enough that the text would fit and was a fairly simple eight syllable per line and rhyming couplet model. While from much earlier (1160’s) I thought it appropriate for the persona and person I was making this for. So it’s a bit of a Frankenscroll but I think the wording worked well!
In northern lands, we have heard well Where cold and polar lights do dwell, A glass worker wise, truth to tell, Has gained renown and greater fame. The people sing praise, clap, and cheer The pleasure her gifts bring is clear So to honor, do we draw near Indeed it is our great delight
Brooch of silver we give to you Are worthy of, for it is true No one can doubt, nor can we rue, This accolade so well deserved. Khyara Bint Sa’id do draw nigh, Display your talents, be not shy, No one can doubt or wonder why, You stand a lady of our court.
Words by Dame Perronnelle de Croy based on Ḥafṣa bint al-Ḥājj ar-Rakūniyya’s reply to Abu Jaafar’s love poem
Do not suppose it pleased the dell That we should there together dwell In happy union; truth to tell, It showed us naught but petty spite. The river did not clap, I fear, For pleasure that we were so near, The dove raised not his song of cheer Save for his personal delight.
Think not such noble thoughts as you Are worthy of; for if you do You’ll very quickly find, and rue, High thinking is not always wise. I scarce suppose that yonder sky Displayed its wealth of stars on high For any reason, but to spy On our romance with jealous eyes.
Origninal reply by Ḥafṣa bint al-Ḥājj ar-Rakūniyya’s reply to Abu Jaafar’s love poem
The Work Begins
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to trace pieces of this particular scroll as the intricate gold bits were too faint. Also I was planning on re-sizing the overall page to fit the pergamenata that I had. I did briefly contemplate cutting the 11″x14″ sheet in half but then I was concerned that I would have to get two pages drawn out and painted in a short time. I opted instead to resize it and make it bigger so that it would all fit on one page.
Rulers and Free Hand
Lines are drawn in outlining the text block area and the border.
I first drew in my half inch guidelines all around the edge of the paper draft to allow for framing. Then I scaled up the image and drew in the text block area and corresponding border area. I tried to follow the general gist of the gold work on the border of the extant Mamluk piece. Unfortunately, even photoshop didn’t help and a lot of the gold work was faded and too faint to make more than an educated guess as to the rendering.
I had two good examples between the two pages so I used those and filled in the rest with bits I stole from other spots on the edge. Since I made the overall image larger I did have to fill in some extra spots as well and so tried to stay with the overall shapes that I had been using in the rest of the border.
When Enough is Enough
Empty border filled in on top and bottom.
Thankfully this was all done on a paper draft to start. I fiddled with the corners quite a bit and got one to look semi decent and just decided to rotate the perg version around so that I didn’t have to free draw the rest of the draft which would save me time. At this point, I stopped for the night as I knew that if I started painting late at night I would definitely make mistakes that I couldn’t afford. I wanted to make sure that my eyes and brain were on the same page, especially since I wasn’t super familiar with the style.
Timing is everything though. I suffer from some carpel tunnel issues and arthritis so I tend to break my work into manageable chunks of time. I’ve found that just pushing though will often result in not my best work and I tend to be in pain after. It’s not worth it. Rather, I just allot myself a little more time to get it done.
Lines and Blocks
The paper draft overlaid with Perg and blocks of color laid in.
I went ahead and ended up working my way from the inside out, like I do on most scrolls. It just so ended up that it meant painting the larger block of color first. These were easy. They also provided me with a framework for the gold border bits.
You can barely see it in this picture but there were some spots where the gold was a little faint or light. I ended up going back and repainting certain parts two or three times to get the coverage to a point where I wanted it. I have never had this issue before with this particular gold, which was interesting.
Results
Unfortunately, I kind of am the worst at documenting progress after a certain point. I get so into the project that I forget to document as I go. This means that I don’t have further evidence of the progression of the scroll. I did manage to get a photo though of the completed scroll with calligraphy.
Completed scroll: Illumination, Words and Translation by Dame Perronnelle de Croy – Calligraphy by Master Aleksei Dimitriev
Good Things
I am quite happy with how some of the finer lines done in gold came out. I’ve been working on trying to keep my lines dainty or light as I tend to have a heavy hand. There are some places that clearly need a little lighter hand. I also can spot the difference spots when I was painting later at night or was more tired. My had gets heavier and my lines aren’t as straight as they could be. Lesson learned…I hope!
I also strayed from the original. There are supposed to be more of the little blue spikes on the sides but I accidentally made them gold. The perg is forgiving enough that I probably could have carefully scraped them off and repainted them. I didn’t for the sole reason that I didn’t want to somehow be overzealous and end up damaging the perg, which was my last sheet. Initially, I also had the silver broach at the top or bottom of the scroll. I decided rather late in the design to move it to the side as I didn’t feel like I had enough space on the short edges to make it large enough to be noticeable or impactful.
I was a little concerned over the calligraphy but Master Aleksei pulled out a fabulous pusedo-Arabic hand and was able to write the scroll in French so that the recipient could read it. That was the icing on the cake. The little flowers and the recipient’s name in Arabic bubble letters at the top and bottom? They were added the night before it was given.
Overall Review
Overall, I’m happy with how the whole thing turned out. I’m not as intimidated by this unfamiliar style which is an added bonus and another tool to my arsenal. I will likely work on smaller elements for practice purposes though. My line work still needs help as it’s not where I want it to be. The most important thing is though that the recipient loves it and it got that unrehearsed gasp in court which always gives me the feels. More of my scrolls are on display in my art gallery if you’d like to take a look!
Something that I have picked up on in the past few years is that no one really talks about camp finances and organization. I don’t mean the chores and infrastructure but rather the back end of things, the things that happen before and after Pennsic or other large wars occur.
A couple of years ago I took over the camp organization / management of the Barony of Bergental’s camp. To be clear, I’m not the land agent. I’m just the person that organizes the information. I’ve made some discoveries since then and I thought I would share my little bits of gleaned knowledge from the experience.
How the Camp Functions
First I’ll give the bare bones on how our camp typically works. We have a land agent who takes on the registration and typical land agent duties. In addition, we have someone that takes on the mapping of our camp that works with the land agent. In addition we have a seperate person that spearheads the meal plan shopping and organization.
My responsibilities include budgeting, receiving the money for camp fees and meal plan money, spearheading the planning meetings and keeping meeting minutes, as well as making and keeping the camp registration forms and emergency contact forms for those that camp with us. Post Pennsic (our major war) I enter all the receipts, make sure reimbursements are issues and tracked, and compare our predicted budget with what we’ve actually spent.
Post Goals
My goals for this post is to hopefully start a conversation on how camps are run. What works and what doesn’t. Eventually I think I’d like to lead a discussion or create a class around this. To that end I will be talking about the tools we used to organize camp working from our camper’s first point of contact.
Face the World
Many camps work by invitation. To camp with them veteran campers invite others that they think might be a good fit with their camp. Our baronial camp is slightly different. Anyone is welcome to come and camp with us, provided they let us know. For some people it’s their first time going to Pennsic or are new and haven’t been invited to a camp yet. You don’t have to be a Bergental resident to camp with us. We have people from the West and Ansteorra camp with us as well. Some stay with us moving forward, others find camps more suited to their interests or become part of a household and join their own camp.
Discussion and Invites
When people want to camp with us, veteran members of the camp extend invitations to others. The first thing we have new camp mates do is join our Facebook group and/or the Google group. Both groups get the same informational posts. Meeting minutes, announcements, etc. This helps conversation happen between our camp mates that live too far to make it to the physical meeting.
We try to make the operation of the camp transparent and the Google group and Facebook group allow us to do that. Large expenditures have to be approved by all members at the meeting, such as upgrades to infrastructure like tents or heaters. If enough opposition is raised in the following discussions online than we reassess the decision to make those purchases. It’s all fairly straight forward.
How to Keep Track
I use a number of Google spreadsheets and forms to keep track of the camp finances and who’s coming. A lot of my forms and spread sheets tie in to each other, so I’ll try my best to cover that here.
Master Questionnaire
The master questionnaire is where everything begins. This comprehensive form asks for the arrival date, how many people in their family unit, how many tents and their footprint. I’ve posted a PDF copy of the Google Form below.
This form feeds into a spreadsheet which totals the amounts of people attending, how many are on the meal plan, etc. I take the foot prints of each tent with names and send them off to our camp map guru, who does the layout. I take the rest of it and put it into the yearly work book. I’ve embedded it below.
Complicated…But Not Really
This yearly workbook is composed of five separate worksheets. The first one is where we keep track of who’s coming, what they owe, and check boxes to indicate if they’ve paid. The bottom row totals everything so that I can see at a glance what’s going on. This sheet feeds into the “Budget Projection” sheet and the foundation for the camp finances, because of this we encourage everyone who can let us know if they are coming as soon as possible. The other sheets feed off these two sheets.
Budget Projection
This is where all the magic happens. This sheet is the basis for our entire year. The structure of this budgeting sheet is similar to what my shire uses for The sheet with names feeds into this sheet. The TRUE and FALSE columns play a really important part because the “Budget Projection” sheet uses formulas that rely on these two columns.
The participation portion of the worksheet.
The cells for Adults Week 1 and the others pull information from the other sheet using the following formula or a variant:
=SUMIF(‘2020′!B3:B27,”TRUE”,’2020’!D3:E27)
In the dummy workbook I embedded above there are three groups of people registered. This is reflected in the participation cells. I can look at this and say okay, week one is going to have four people so far and week two is going to have six people. If I continue filling out the 2020 sheet with meal plans etc, that populates here as well by using a simple grab of information from the totals at the bottom of the “2020” spreadsheet, seen below.
The totals at the bottom of the “2020” spreadsheet.
Income and Expenses – The Meat and Potatoes of Camp Finances
The second part of the “Budget Projection” worksheet is the income and expenses. (See Below) These use basic SUM formulas to add the independent line items and subtracting the total of the expenses from the income.
Here the expenses include a lot of items. Ice, water, wood, and, because our common area tent is rented, tent, table and chairs. Expenses also include the space rental fee that we pay to Cooper’s for our trailer to be stored year round and a line item for “Emergency Camp Supplies” for when a cooler dies, hoses bust, or stakes go missing. I tried to think of all the yearly expenses and give us a little extra so that we don’t get surprised later on. Keep in mind that our expenses may seem rather high but we typically have a camp of anywhere from 25-30 people, including children.
Food and Truck
The food and truck line items in both the income and expenses cancel each other out. They are there so that I can see how much each of those budget items have for the year.
The truck line item pulls from the totals line and multiplies the total cubic footage by $2.50. We’ve rented the truck for several years and the average gas cost added to the truck rental cost and the tolls is divided by the total cubic footage of the truck.
The meal plan line items get added together and that is the total budget for the entire meal plan. The costs of the meal plan include dry ice for the freezer cooler, regular ice for the refrigerator coolers, water for cooking, and groceries of course.
Total Profit/Loss
At the bottom of the projected budget sheet is the Total Profit/Loss cell. This is the bottom line. Are we breaking even, in the hole, or in the black? This is REALLY important. The only real options for any camp is to break even or be in the black. Ideally, you want to be in the black before war. If you are just at the break even point after war, okay. For the next war you may need to change where and how you spend your funds. The important thing is to If the camp is in the red, it’s not viable. It’s all a matter of solvency and responsible spending.
Solvency
Solvency is definitely important for any camp. It’s not a business but it’s a definite investment. It’s a monetary and time investment. Every camp that I have seen that lives paycheck to paycheck, so to speak, will suffer eventually. All camps want to keep the camp fee low and accessible. However, there comes a point that the camp needs to have some money in reserve to replace parts of infrastructure that fail.
If your camp lives paycheck to paycheck and you have a common area tent fail or your stove decides to break where does the money come from to replace it? Camps need to have something in the piggy bank to take care of those things. By planning for the future you make it easier for yourself and your camp mates thinking about it now.
Above I’ve included a completed worksheet. With everything, you can see at the bottom in the Total Profit/Loss cell that we are black by almost $300 dollars. I’m not looking for another place to spend that $300, I’m holding that in reserve. We may end up needing it this year maybe not. It might be hotter than Hades this year, and we blow through ice and water for the camp. That’s what the surplus is for. If we don’t use it, then it can go in the bank for next year.
The sheet above is, in fact, our camp’s predicted budget for 2019 and the line items include everything that we needed last year. At this point we take our money and this sheet and go to war.
During War
During war there are a few things that have to be taken care of and they mostly entail keeping track of paper work. We moved to PayPal a couple of years ago and it’s been the best thing ever in regards to helping keep track of funds at war. The bulk of which is accounting for any cash withdrawls and reimbursements to individuals if they’ve purchased missing groceries etc.
PayPal
We have set up 3 seperate accounts in PayPal. One for general camp funds, one for the meal plan, and one for the truck. This has helped a lot as we can more clearly see what has come in and what has been paid out. It has also lessened the necessity of keeping much cash on hand which can be hard to keep track of. It’s made renting the truck, paying for an EZ pass, and gas purchases so much easier to track,
Ice Difficulties
There are a few points that have arisen that have proved a little inconvenient. The biggest of these is purchasing ice. The funds for ice to keep food cold is part of the meal plan funds and as such, come from a different account than the funds for the ice for the water cooler. We have tried a couple of different methods. The first is pulling the money allotted for ice purchases from both accounts and keeping it in individual zippered pouches with their relevant receipts. The second paying each with their respective PayPal cards directly. Both have their pros and cons but there’s no sure fix.
The one important thing to note is that our food coolers don’t need ice everyday. This means that using the card to pay for ice is only a mild inconvenience once and a while, so we’ve stuck with using the cards.
Our fellow campmate Eli of Bergental, made a great little form to keep track of personal ice, camp ice, and food cooler ice, which has helped enormously. I’m then able to match receipts to forms and keep track of what went where.
Post War
During the war I have to keep track of the cards and make sure all the receipts make it into the zippered pouch of doom. Post war is when things get interesting. A couple of weeks after I get home from Pennsic and the mountain of laundry has been washed I pull out the pouch of doom and all of my paperwork from ice runs.
Receipt Confetti
Now I have to reconcile all of my receipts and paper work. I sort my little bits of paper into piles for groceries, camp, and the Bergental water-bearing cart. In addition to all of this, I have to print out the transaction logs for each PayPal card so that I can make sure all of the out going funds are accounted for. I then enter all my final numbers into another tab in my workbook that is identical to the Projected Budget. There are years where some people don’t come at the last minute for whatever reason. Our policy is to refund their camp fee and meal plan and so some of the numbers may change.
Also, it’s important to note that I don’t keep the receipts forever. I will keep them for 5 years and then they will get tossed. I have one of those envelope sized accordion keepers that I keep everything in until it’s time to make room for another year.
Projected vs Actual
In addition to this, I enter the receipts into a master spreadsheet (where it will total the categories) and then these numbers (see image below) will be pulled into one last worksheet (Projected vs Actual) for the sake of a quick overview. I can then also then pull numbers easily to compare numbers year by year to see trends in expenditure.
Projected vs Actual table
That Seems Like a Lot of Work…
Yes, you might say that but honestly the most time consuming part was setting everything up. Entering the receipts is probably the second most time consuming thing. Overall though it’s not terrible since the worksheets do all the math. I do double check it though, just in case. This has helped our camp so much, we now have money squirreled away for a rainy day or emergency fixes. It lets everyone breathe a little easier and makes war a little easier as a vacation. It’s my humble opinion that the camp finances and planning needs to be transparent and well tracked.
Don’t Do It Alone
I don’t do this all myself either. I have an unrelated party go over all my numbers and count the cash and we both sign off on a printed report that we present at a camp meeting. It gets looked over by everyone at the meeting, and, barring any concerns, it gets filed away. Also anyone in our camp can ask to see the worksheets and information.
In addition to all of this I will send out a questionnaire at the end of Pennsic covering questions like what worked for you this year, what needs improvement, etc. In the spring, after the first couple of meetings, we send out another questionnaire. This one is in response to the one taken in the fall with 3-4 areas of improvement or changes. Some of these may or may not include purchases asking for our campmates to prioritize the projects. We keep a running list of potential improvements for precisely this reason.
The Take Away
As Scadians I think it’s important to share this kind of mundane information as well. I have seen many camps come and go for various reasons. Money or the camp finances should not be one of them. Learning and teaching others how to plan and maintain healthy camp finances is imperative for any camp that wants to survive. The fact that this isn’t taught or really talked about I think is something that needs to be changed. I know of a few camps that are struggling due to finances (which pandemic has not helped.) Others are simply struggling as many of their members are don’t come to large wars anymore for various reasons. In either case, the knowledge isn’t being passed down, like it should. So here’s my two cents worth and if anyone has questions you can always send me an email at perrodecroy “at” gmail dot com.
Not long after COVID closure happened all over the country, we began to realize the impact it was going to have. On ourselves, our friends, and our chosen family. Among those were the merchants that fill our streets at war and events near and far. Without events to go to they had to rely solely on their web or virtual sales. In sailed Countess Slaine (from Trimaris, I believe) and her idea for goodie boxes for Scadians.
In The Beginning
I wasn’t there at the inception but whoever’s brain child this was, it was brilliant. The thought was to support our merchants in a meaningful way and get things that people would use and appreciate into their hands. Enter the Medieval ReCreationist Box. The thought was to buy items in bulk from vendors and merchants and create goodie boxes at different price points for people to buy as a subscription. It would create a win-win situation. Merchants would be getting some help and people would be getting new items in the mail and, best of all, it was a surprise!
Not a New Idea
Subscription boxes are not a new idea. While there are all kinds out there, I think most would agree that there isn’t one that really is tailored to SCAdians. (Until now, that is!) I did a quick search and the closest things I was able to turn up were subscription boxes that are Medieval Themed but aimed at kids.
History Unboxed, for instance offers a Medieval subscription for varying ages. A quick glance tells me that it covers a wide range of cultures and several different types of crafts to really engage kids. This is not something that’s for adults though.
My Own Goodie Boxes
I had to jump on this. Pennsic is cancelled and I was unable to go to Birka – my two main SCA orientated shopping excursions. I signed up as fast as my little fingers could type and paid for a three month subscription of $15.00 boxes to test the waters. I was not disappointed. The box is not random and there is an additional form to fill out and indicate your color preferences, persona, hobbies, and the like. I was all kinds of excited and couldn’t wait to get my first box!
Box #1
Box #1
My first box arrived in mid April and I tore into it like a kid on Christmas morning. I may have squeed and giggled like an insane person. The contents are in the picture to the left.
My second box arrived late May. I was pleased as punch with what was inside this time too. The handmade beads in my heraldic colors were really awesome. The vendor, being located in New Mexico, is not one I’ve encountered before so that was really nifty.
1 Hand forged hair stick from Three Stump Forge. (Shorter and heavier than my usual stick but works just as well!)
Box #3
Overall Impressions
My goodie boxes brought me a lot joy during these months we’ve been housebound during COVID. In addition to helping out merchants from around the Known World, I received items that I might not have necessarily have bought for myself had I been shopping in person. Not because I didn’t want it, but rather because it may not be the highest priority. So I guess you can say that I’ve killed two birds with one stone. I’ve gotten things that I would have passed over on a typical year and supported merchants in the process, huzzah!
I would definitely recommend these boxes as holiday gifts, birthday gifts, and little pick me ups. With prices ranging from 5$ USD per box to 70$ USD there are options for everyone. I hope that you’ll support the merchants and bring a little happiness to yourself as well!
Apparently, now that the studio space is clean, I seem to have found my motivation. Unfortunately for me, this is when I tend to get the big, shiny, ambitious ideas…like this one. I’ve wanted to make my very own heraldic dress for a while but I’ve never actually sat down to sketch it out or anything.
To be fair it’s been a while since I’ve actually sketched anything out for myself. Since most of my garb is 11th century Norman and I’ve mastered my pattern, I don’t need to sketch much. I picture it in my head and just go. This particular dress is challenging because I have to play with where the colors are going to go and what would be more visually interesting. So for the first time in a while I actually had to draw things out. Since I can’t do anything half way I went through the whole process of layers, etc.
What do you mean “layers”?
Dress Building
When I was taught costume design I was taught to think in layers and design that way. Essentially this means using a lot of tracing paper but with good reasons. Anytime you add a layer on a body you are changing – however minutely – the overall shape. A corset will reduce the waist but emphasize the bust and hips while a tunic will obscure the shape and add a little overall bulk.
For this reason, we were taught to design in layers using tracing paper. I’ve done this with this dress so I’ll walk through the process from start to finish.
Layer 1: Croquis
A croquis is simply a quick drawing of a live model. I was taught the ball and stick method. Balls are the joints (larger balls for bigger joints) and sticks are the bones and muscles that tie things together. Kind of like the image A on the left below.
One of my croquis that was done back during college sometime.
Image A on the left above is actually a bit more filled out than my first draft croquis. Mine looks more like a glorified stick figure. The idea is the same though. The lines going though the shoulder and hips are guidelines that help keep the body lines consistent.
When all of that is done, you “connect the dots” so to speak so you wind up with something like image B on the right. I hate drawing croquis with a passion because I’m a perfectionist. My solution? If I draw one I like I keep that safe and sound and reuse it. A LOT.
This is my croquis on the left. I did this one sometime in college and I’ve kept it all this time. When the paper gets too damaged, I transfer it to a new piece. Yes, I hate drawing croquis that much.
Adjusting for Body Type
Clearly this croquis is far skinnier than I am. This means that I have to adjust for body type. Which I did in my sketch book but forgot to get a picture of it. Oops…
Layer 2: Base Layer
Original croquis with base layer or under dress overlay.
My base layer for this is going to be a basic t-tunic under dress. Most likely in white or off white. But in reality any of my under dresses would work. I did draw this one to drape as a heavier material though, so that the overdress will drape in such a way that the appliques would be more visible.
In the image to the right, I’ve layered the base layer or under dress over the initial croquis so that you can see the difference. You can see where I added “weight” to the base croquis to better exemplify my own shape from where the under dress sits. Particularly, you can see where the dress is “floats” on the right and left hip areas some distance above what would be the skin on the croquis. That’s where I added the padding. I also added some in the chest area and shoulders, though those are less noticable.
Drawing your under layers are important because it will affect how the layer on top of it sits. This is especially true with any shape wear or long skirts and dresses. Also keep in mind that I’ve cleaned these sketches up quite a bit. I tend to prefer simple lines
Layer 3: The Over Dress
Layers 1, 2, and 3 put together.
The next layer is the over dress. To make things easier for myself I tent to tape my layers on top of each other so that I have a complete picture when drawing out the clothing. This isn’t anything fancy but rather a base to put the appliques on. I made my usual Norman overdress with slightly belled sleeves and trim on the hem, arms, and neck facing which I tend to do in a contrasting color.
It’s all drawn in pencil so it can be hard to see on the computer but the image below is what I wound up with. This is hard to work with though so to make it easier on myself I actually do one last layer.
Layer 4: The Clean Copy
This step is not usually necessary but because I want to transfer a clean copy into my sketchbook I do it. I take one more piece of tracing paper and make a clean copy of all the layers together.
Croquis with clean copy of the layers together on a single page on top.
Final Copy
The last step to this process is to copy this last layer into my sketch book. I also photocopied this last layer to do color drafts. This way I can do multiple drafts and play with color combinations without having to redraw the whole darn thing.
I try to keep copies of my renderings in my sketchbook, especially since I don’t draw as much as I used to. Good practice and all of that.
Playing With Color
Now comes the fun part. I get to pull out my pencils, watercolors, or pastels and play with colors. I’m a very visual person and so I usually need to work out more complicated items on paper. This dress is going to be particularly fun since I’m using my heraldry.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while and have narrowed it down to two different options. One would definitely require more work than the other, having a lot more applique, but I can’t decide between the two in my head.
Layout option 1
Option 1
This option is my crazy option. It’s crazy for a couple of reasons. Number one reason? No sane person would ever put me in pale colors, especially that much white. You can’t take me anywhere and that white will be filthy in two seconds flat. Unfortunately I didn’t think about that when designing my heraldry.
Reason it’s crazy number two: see those little crosses on the blue hem and sleeves? They’re all applique. I’ve done something like it before for someone else but never for myself.
I’m not totally in love with design. I’m also having a hard time getting over wearing that much yellow. Yellow always makes me look sallow. Also all that applique…I don’t think I hate myself quite that much. Also I would like to have this done within the next 3 years.
Option 2
Option 2 is a little more standard by heraldic dress standards. Yes, there’s a fair share of applique but it’s large and making half the dress blue is far better for my complexion. At least I hope so.
Layout option 2
After drawing it out I think this dress also has a little more visual impact. This is likely the design that I’ll go with though I may move the ravens down to get them out of the way of my belt. Maybe I should just elongate them instead. I’ll have to draw it out on a true to size pattern piece to decide which I want to do. If I put the ravens lower and off center I think that would look rather odd. That’s a decision for another day.
Next Steps
The next steps in my process are to draft out the pieces. Fortunately I know the basic building blocks for this dress. The only difference for this one is that instead two single pieces for the front and back torso pieces I’ll be joining together two pieces for each front and back piece meaning I’ll need to add a little extra on each edge for the additional seam allowance.
I’m hoping to do the patterning in the next couple of days and list out my cutting pieces. I’m also going to have to draw the ravens out large. Considering I’m not very good at drawing anything not fabric, wish me luck!
**Now that this has been finally given I can post this article! I only started writing this article 6 months ago! Stupid COVID…*
This particular scroll was one that I assigned myself. We didn’t have anything in the inventory of blanks on hand that I thought would fit for Isabelle and her Sable Bear. I just happened across a find in my Pinterest feed (yes, I know that’s dangerous) that I thought would be fun to customize.
To provide a bit more background: the Sable Bear is the Barony of Bergental’s award for martial activities. The Sable Bear can be awrded for powress in any of the following fields: heavy list, rapier, thrown weapons, archery, siege, etc.
The Exemplar
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 440, p. 2r
The exemplar that I found and chose to use is a page from a psalter written at the behest of St. Gall Abbot Ulrich Rösch sometime between 1463 and 1491. It’s vastly different from what I’ve done before and the potential for personalization really made me excited.
The Layout
The current size of this page is 2.3 x 32.5-33.5 cm (16.65 x 12.8-13.19 inches). I say current, because it looks to me as if at some point the top was trimmed as a few of the top illuminations go clear off the page and several of the acanthus leaves are missing from that section.
Page top with cut off acanthus leaves / illuminations
The illuminated B takes up a great deal of space and, while I’m not adding the musical notes at the beginning, my layout will be squished somewhat if I try to fit it on my usually 8×11 inch parchment. Especially when I add my half inch margin all the way around to allow for framing. In addition, I wanted to customize this to Isabelle by changing the vertical gold line to her sword and somewhere I need to add a sable bear rampant somewhere.
Completed sword sketch with rough sketch of illuminated initial and acanthus leaves.
Basing Design on a Featured Item
I decided to sketch out the sword first to see how the acanthus leaves would work around it. When I was happy with the sketched version of the sword, I went over it with a micron pen to make sure I didn’t accidentally erase parts of it while I try to figure out the rest of the layout.
The pencil circles and initial block laid out this way, convinced me that doing the scroll in a landscape orientation would be the best idea. I had no faith in being able to reproduce the sword again, so I took it over to my handy dandy photocopier so that I would be able to slip the copy under the pergemenata to trace. Work smarter, not harder right?
I ended up going with an 11×14 inch piece of the pergemenata. The addition of the sword to the existing illumination would have left very little to no space in a vertical layout on my usual sheet of 8×11 pergemenata. I did try but I knew my calligrapher would kill me. I think that the horizontal layout will really look amazing once it’s done as well. I’m still not entirely sure where the sable bear will end up. Inside the initial? Standing on a quillion of the sword? I guess we will see later!
Putting Pencil and Paint to Perg
The first layers of paint on the scroll.
The drafting of the scroll came together really quickly, thanks to being able to trace the sword. Day 2 is when I started putting down the base layers of paint. The picture at the right was my stopping point for day 2.
This was my first time working with silver and not gold. Given that it’s the same kind of paint as the gold I have been using lately (Coliro pearl colors) but I soon came to the conclusion that wouldn’t be able to do shading or highlights with straight black or white paint as it would look rather odd. Instead I played with adding black and white to the base silver so for shading and highlights. It took a bit of experimentation on some scrap paper but the results make me happy, so I call it a win.
You’ll notice that I haven’t touched the horizontal line yet. I have this irrational fear of doing something new and so far out of my comfort zone. I want to complete the vertical so in case I screw up I won’t have to redo absolutely everything.
Day 3 stopping point
Day 3 – Highlights and Shadows
Detail of shading and white work
Day 3 I began to put in the highlights and shadows. I worked on this for about 3 hours on day 3 and was able to get the vertical section nearly complete. Well, complete. I shouldn’t touch it anymore but that’s no guarantee that I won’t.
I’m particularly in love with the bottom half of the acanthus leaves. I finally am getting the thin lines, thanks to the miniature painting size 000 paintbrushes that were recommended to my by a friend. Yay! Sometimes it’s the little things in life. I’m also quite happy with how the shading turned out. It’s something that I struggle with and I’m just so pleased with my own progress on that front.
I was staring at the paper for a while after I finished most of the vertical acanthus leaves and couldn’t help but think that I was forgetting something. That something was the center line on the sword. The sword looked really flat without it. I also just noticed that I forgot one of the little gold flare type flowers in the detail picture. OOPS! It’s important to have the second and third checks! But I’m sill totally pleased as punch with how this is coming out!
Horizontal Line Start (Day 4)
Time to fill out the top line! Today I worked on sketching out the acanthus leaves that will go across the top of the scroll. Ideally I would have liked to stick with as much of the original leaf design as possible. Unfortunately, due to the change of the paper orientation, that wasn’t going to work. The original layout would have ended about 3-4 inches before I where I wanted it to. I had to alter and add more leaves to stretch across the top line.
Horizontal line sketched out and ready for paint.
Tricky Going
The top line did not come out as even as the vertical. It has more of the organic look about it. I also had an oopsie when painting in the red leaf in the center. My paintbrush decided to go *phwip* and I had to use my exacto knife to straighten it out and tidy it up.
Scroll with base layer of paint on the top line.
Color Puzzle
The other tricky part about the top line was how to deal with the colors. Because the line is longer than the original I basically had to have a repeat in there to make it stretch the length I wanted it to.
For the first half of the top row I followed the exemplar as close as possible. After the blue leaf in the middle I kind of had to make up the color pairings as I went. Keeping with the exemplar, I tried to match the color pairings from the vertical leaves. This worked fine except in a couple of cases where the colors would have only repeated or become too monotonous.
Day 5 – Top Row Details
The shading and veins was trickier than planned. Because I extended the pattern and altered the order of the base colors the closer I got to the right-hand side, I also ended up having to change the shading and vein colors a little. I tried to replicate the color combinations from the vertical set of vines as and only do minor substitutions when possible. I think that I succeded overall as there are no blue vines with blue shading, etc.
The Inital & Bear (Days 6 & 7)
I’m not going to lie, the letter intimidated me a little. Some of the leaves are small and the shading was tiny in some spots. I traced the main curves of the letter and the star in the center then freehanded most of the leaves. Unfortunately this is one of the instances of “just get it done” and no pictures were taken of it in progress. So for your perusal I have below a before and after side by side comparison.
I think that the letter turned out rather well, especially considering how worried I was over the white work and shading. I still need to work on painting straight lines. They aren’t as straight as I would like.
The actual sable bear was a total trace. I can’t draw animals for beans. Thank God for the Book of Traceable Heraldic Art that has been put together by Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin. Otherwise you would have a black square with teeth much like #teambluesquare. (You try drawing heraldic tigers…PITA)
Project Completion
Ta-da! I’m quite please with the final product as far as my art is concerned. There are few things I could have done better like straighter lines and I’m not that fond of the pink, I think it came out a bit too pink. Now I just hand it off to the calligrapher and await for the final results! The completed article will be posted in the Art Gallery when it’s in the recipient’s hands!
As we ended week 7 of quarantine I was really feeling down. I had to take a long hard look at what I could do to get myself out of the funk. My solution is that I needed art. Art is good for getting me to relax. For the last several weeks of school, like many parents across the nation, I became teacher, principal, and lunch lady to my kids. My days left me with very (if any) energy to spend for myself.
It was a problem. I relax when I do art of any kind. Whether it’s weaving, illumination, sewing, anything! It’s time I can take to create and let that side of me decompress, for lack of a better term. Sure, I may cuss like a sailor at tangled threads or a sleeve sewn inside out, but I’m focusing on that particular issue. When I’m doing any kind of art I tend to let everything else fade into the background. I can’t worry about anything else other than what I’m trying to create otherwise all I end up creating is a hot mess.
Staying Healthy
I tend to forget (rather easily) that my overall mental health really impacts my overall mood and such. If I’m in a bad headspace, it’s really easy for me to just slide even deeper into a bad mood. Which is the point I had reached early last week. It was not a good place.
Getting Better
To take better care of my my mental health I knew I needed to do two things. I needed something of a schedule. My kids have one for their homeschooling and home days since schools were shut down, I needed one for myself. I’m slowly putting that into play as I try to finesse my schedule and the one for the kids.
The second thing I needed to do was to create. I needed to create. Art is good for me, personally. While starting or working on any large project just wasn’t something I was feeling up to. I started small. If I could start a small art project and finish it, that sense of completion would go a long way in pulling me out of this weird head space I was in.
Practice Makes Perfect
My thought was to make small practice pieces using the 5×7 cuts of perg that came in the pack I purchased last year from the Limners and Artificers Guild. I’ve never done a scroll for court on anything that small. I thought that if the practice pieces came out okay then I could give them over as blanks.
A Fine Line
Mammen style 5×7 done with Windsor Newton gouache.
The first skill that I practiced is my fine line technique. I tend to have a heavy hand and even with my finest brushes, can have a hard time keeping even pressure. For this exercise I picked a figure drawn in the Mammen style. It was something simple enough that it didn’t take up the whole 5×7 piece. Since it turned out alright, I’m glad I decided to do it that way so that the scribe has place to write!
My lines, especially in the bottom swirly bits, didn’t wobble too much and had fairly consistent pressure. The top portion has a few rough spots where my pressure slipped, though far less than my earlier pieces.
Push the Puddle
Completed 5×7 based on an item from folio 76 from the Minton Archive
My second piece was to practice “pushing the puddle” to get even paint coverage over a space. I’ve had a couple of spots in my past couple of scrolls where I just wasn’t happy with how I laid the paint down. There’s also only so much I could fiddle with it too. I have been saved by shading in one instance and white work in another. I’m still not satisfied though with covering it up though. It’s something I definitely wanted to work on. To that end I picked a pretty piece from a sketch book that was very lacy and done in a Gothic style. The challenge to myself was to get even coats of paint in each of the little areas.
I think it turned out really well but then, I did spend an inordinate amount of time on it for the size that it is. It was a challenge to really focus on outlining and then dropping a puddle to fill that outline. I have this stupid fear that the puddle will over run the outline, it never does though.
We are in unprecedented times, that much is obvious. For many of us who play our game, social interaction is a must. Now, with social distancing and mandatory quarantine laws we are moving to the internet to maintain our game. Online A&S challenges, wear garb to work, online meetings, and bardic gatherings are just a few things going on. There’s been quite a bit of discussion and arguments over the use of technology to hold virtual courts and coronations, meetings and A&S displays, with many people speaking out against the decisions to do so. My two cents are what follows. I apologize in advance if I ramble a bit.
Moving Forward
While my own Kingdom, the East, has chosen to simply postpone our Spring coronation for the moment, I can understand other kingdoms’ choices to hold virtual coronations.
But we’re a medieval society, why can’t we just wait?
So while we are at heart a society that celebrates the Middle Ages, we also have royals and their staffs that live in the modern world. I believe that that the crowns and their heirs will make the dicision that best suits them and their kingdoms. They will have a lot of guidance and support and I wish them all the patience and wisdom in the world. While they are in office serving their kingdom, they are also parents, partners, and employees that are going through the same thing we all are. Talk about stress! It’s important that we try to see things from their perspective as well. A reign is not easy work.
There are no events right now, how is that fair to the heirs?
Real talk? It’s not! Most of the previous crown heads that I have had opportunity to talk to have said that giving out awards and recognizing their populace is the greatest job perk. It’s not their only job though and unless the East moves to virtual courts to give out awards, the heirs will have the work without much of the fun if they decide to step up now. Curia will still need to happen. The difficult task of helping the kingdom and its populace make it though this and helping put in place plans for how things will continue is going to be a tough and stressful job.
The New Normal
At some point we hope that everything will return to normal, both in our everyday lives and in our medieval ones. It’s going to take a lot of work for our society to return to our idea of normal. Championships and crown tournaments will be rescheduled, some of the “usual” events may be taken off the calendar in order to allow for other things that need to happen to get our Kingdoms back on track.
The truth is we don’t know what our new normal will look like yet. For anyone like myself that tends to plan weeks in advance, this is difficult to say the least. In the meantime, we sit at home, away from our friends, with our garb and gear gathering dust.
Temporary Game Change
I know a number of us often joke about the SCA being the hobby that is all the hobbies combined. There is very little that it doesn’t encompass which is really impressive. For myself, the SCA is my only real hobby but I do a lot within it. Illumination, weaving, sewing, spinning, cooking, fencing, and archery are just a few things I do. Most of us enjoy various aspects of our society but there is one thing that I think we all agree on. Our friends.
Completed UFO’s. Right: Dublin cap with Mammen find embroidery; Left: Birka find – inspired bag with my own handmade wool trim.
The move to social media for sharing of art, giving classes, and meetings serves more than one purpose. It not only helps our kingdom and society maintain itself during this difficult time, but we get to see our friends. For many, our chosen family. A zoom call is taking the place of an event talking with friends because, for many of us, it’s what we need right now.
A Need for Escape
We are in a high stress situation. Many people are being laid off, furloughed, and being given reduced hours. Those that aren’t are working at home or are part of the essential group of people needed to make the rest of the world operate. It’s insane. In a time when what we need most is an outlet and comfort, it’s natural that we would want to be with family and friends. That we can’t, is only more stressful.
The move to virtual gatherings is a natural result using the technology we have. We cannot play our game alone with any real degree of success. Many of us are searching for normalcy and keeping in touch with our friends and sharing in our hobby is one way for us to do that. I think this is especially important for those of our friends that live alone.
Mental Health Check
While some of us are blessed to be riding this out with our significant others, housemates, and/or children (dubious blessing), a number of our friends are living alone. I can’t imagine what extroverts who live alone are going though. Not surprising is that there has been a rise in depression cases because all the social distancing, quarantine, and lack of interaction for many is affecting everyone’s mental health.
I’m not a doctor but I found this article from Science News on how social distancing is affecting people interesting. The American Psychological Association also put out an article and tips on how to deal with the situation. The APA lists “Staying virtually connected with others” as a tip to mental well-being. Huh, who knew?
Maintain the Game
I guess what I’ve been trying to say in the past several paragraphs is that we all need to do what’s best for ourselves and for the version of the game we want to play. I believe that it’s important to support our kingdoms as they try to navigate though this unprecedented time as best as they are able. The goal is to see our society thrive after this. Virtual meetings and coronations will never replace the in person versions forever. It’s all temporary measures to sustain us and the society though a difficult time.
So you take that online class on embroidery being taught from Northshield or complete a few items off of that unfinished project pile….or don’t! You do you and we’ll see each other in person, face to face, around a campfire soon.
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