Garb for Nicolai

In his quest for Knighthood, one of the pieces of feedback my love, Nicolai received was that he needed to look the part (IE, we needed a sharp(er) dressed man). So, he decided that he would be most comfortable wearing and portraying some mid period Norman styles.

So this last spring, Helena and I sprung into action making him a new wardrobe. The plan was to create period underwear, 2 Norman under tunics, 4 heavier over tunics, 2 new pairs of trews, at least 1 new arming cap and a norman/norse cloak.

Below are photos of the garb that was produced in this effort, the cloak and trews are still in process- now with a deadline of his elevation ceremony at 12th Night LI.

Tunic #1: Embroidered design into fabric already, with gold roping and faux pearls for trim.
           


Tunic #2: Burnt umber linen with brown linen cuffs and braided trim on neck/cuffs, woven trim on hem.

        

Tunic #3: Hunter green medium weight wool with gold embroidery on silk feeling trim.

    

Tunic #4: Blue linen with White linen bands backed in white wool for body. Teal wool applique with gold roped couching. 

             

 

An Tir 50 Year Celebration

This year is the 50th anniversary of the beginning of an Amazing Organization, The Society for Creative Anachronism. It has grown past anything it's founders ever imagined, and is a place I not only cherish for myself, but also for my family and community.

I was asked this year to create a presentation centering on the Artistic stylings of the many Scribes and Calligraphers in our great Kingdom of An Tir to be sent along with many others like it to a massive celebration in Indiana, SCA 50 Year Celebration.

This is a conglomeration of art from over many years and many artists, I attempted to give credit where it was due, but may have missed some, please understand that no where near this total of art is mine, although some of mine is included. I put together the collection and presentation however.

Now for you pleasure:

An Tir 50 Year Scribal Presentation

Hastae Leonis- An tir

Upon the beginning of their Reign, his Royal Majesty Havordh and Her Royal Majesty Majesty, Mary Grace bid their scribes create new designs for their award charters. Later period, preferably English or some similar culture. 

I requested to design the Hastae Leonis, as this award was something dear to my significant other, it is the Award for prowess and chivalry on the field of heavy combat in An Tir, specifically for war fighters, I believe.

 

I found this lovely woodcut on a website called German History in Documents and Images

"Augsburg around 1500 (1493)

The quintessential German Renaissance city and one of Germany’s oldest, Augsburg was a rival to Nuremberg, just 75 miles to the north. During the sixteenth century, Augsburg hosted many Imperial Diets and surpassed Nuremberg as the largest German-speaking city and financial hub of the Empire. Woodcut by Michael Wohlgemut, Liber Chronicarum, 1493, pp. 91b-92a."

 

I first decided upon a layout, something a bit different than what I'd see in a while in An Tir. Although still a trusted and recommended design from a previous reigns design book. 

 

Once words were created, by Nicolai
and approved by their Majesties, it was time to fit it to the aloted space. Trial 1, didn't work very well. 

 

Trial 2 was more successful with new spacing.

 

After some contemplation of the image, I decided to vary it a bit from the original to elongate the image and make it not an exact duplicate.

 

Once I was satisfied with the image layout in pencil, it was time to ink it. 

  

Here is some up close detail of the wood cut image

And a completed, scanned clean copy with words to be provided to the Royal Scribe. 

Caidan Award of Arms

 

      

Since I've had the pleasure of knowing them, Mairghread inghean Dubhghaill and Eoghan O'Briain have loved to tell the saga of their missing AOA scrolls. Eoghan was in the armed forces for many a year, which caused their family to move around within several kingdoms, due to this and several other outstanding factors, in this year, almost 10 years after they received their announced award of Arms from their then King and Queen, we decided it was time to fix that missing document problem. 

It all began with a plea to Caid, via their kingdom scribe, explaining the issue, and asking if they would be willing to work with us to right this issue. After several months of no contact, I was able to successfully reach someone, who was more than happy to help! She indicated that in Caid, unlike An Tir, they create originals for all of their awards, and asked if we would like to have this work farmed out to one of their local scribes, or if we would like to do the design and have it approved. 

We chose to create these charters (scrolls) on our own, for the sake of personalization and expediaency. Words were provided from the Caidian kingdom scribe, and off we went! 

 

After some discussion, Jose and I decided that based on each of their persona's a design based after the Book of Kells would be fitting. And so, Jose found inspiration, and set off to work, translating it into something we could use. 

Once the design was complete, and calligraphy added, the scans were sent off to Caid to get approved by their heralds. This is another step that An Tir normally doesn't do, however in Caid, your Arms are actually emblazoned on your AOA, and therefore must be checked with the Kingdom Herald. There was one minor issue that had to be corrected for Eoghan's emblazon, and all was approved and ready to be painted!

Jose and I paired up to paint both of these, starting with the base color blocking. Then Jose painted the figures based on the coloring from the original:

Once the main pieces were painted, I took on the job of doing the redwork, which essentially is white work details done up in red. 

After the red work is completed, we added white work details on top. And now itwas basically ready for signatures and seals.

With a final review and approval, signatures were provided, and seals were mailed to me to attach. And these were presented to Eoghan and Mairghread at grand thing A.S. 50, roughly 10 years after the award was originally created. 

Final with Signatures together (the idea being they can be framed together)

 

Mairghreads version of the story: 

The story of Eoghan and my's AoA's...lol
While sojourning from our beloved AnTir, we found ourselves in Caid. We played in a couple of Baronies as the modern military moved us around, meeting wonderful people, learning new things and trying to uphold AnTirian values and standards.
In 1999, we were recognized with AoA's from Their Majesties at a lovely event Frost Dragon. Now, AnTir does things differently than pretty much anywhere else. We were given photocopied pieces of paper (one was on green paper), signed with red marker, to serve as Promisaries. Once you have your name and device passed, your name goes on a list, then you can have a scroll denoting your AoA done with seals.
As life sometimes does, life happened and we didn't work on our names or devices.
After moving back to our homeland AnTir, we rededicated ourselves to getting more appropriate names and devices and working with our wonderful Heralds. I communicated with the Caid Kingdom Scribe at that time, hoping to hear good news. Well, the wait list for scrolls was 7 (yes, seven) Years long, so they had done away with the list. If you wanted a scroll, you could commission someone to make it and get it approved, signed and sealed. That was frustrating and life demanded more attention. We pretty much put it out of our heads and chalked it up to history.
Fast forward to last weekend at Grand Thing. Friday evening, our lovely Baron Finn Grim came into our encampment and called for a Court.
Our dear Friends (two Caidian Royal Peers, two determined and sneaky wonderful Scribes and a host of wonderful people) surrounded us as Eoghan and I were called to join him.
Ana De la Sara and José Cabrera de Castilla had created amazingly beautiful scrolls for our AoA's, had them approved and (seals are in the mail).
I could not be more grateful and humbled that our dear friends had worked so hard and long on something that we had given up on. And to have my Laurel (Contessa Ilaria) and my Knight (Earl Edward) stand as representatives of Caid, made it even that much more special to me.
Thank you seems such a short sentiment for how much this act has truely touched me. My friends...my family.. Thank You!

Old Fashioned Thank You

In Dragon's Mist, we've been blessed with a very generous contributor to our SCA activities, who doesn't personally play. His Excellency Finn's grandmother has been an amazing sponsor for several years, and this past year, we decided it would be nice to send her a very special Thank You.

Finn, himself reenacts a persona from Norman 11th Century England, and so we thought that a thank for that period would be appropriate. I'd never done anything in that style, so upon discussion HE and I decided to use the most well known Norman art source, the Bayeux Tapestry as reference.

So I searched through the plates and found one that I liked on which to base my design.

I decided to use the building on the left for a framing mechanism, and add the remainder of the illustration into the entablature. Once again, I used tracing paper to begin, and flesh out the design before transferring it to the nicer paper. (Upon reflection of this project, I wish I'd taken a bit more time to make this more even on the paper).

 

Now I ink it out with a Micron pen,getting it ready to paint. 

A close up of the art and text, the text taken directly from the reference peace. 

 With the addition of the text, done by the hand of Helena.

And with the addition of color blocking: I decided to make the structure very pale, and varied like earthen structures. and the use only colors in the illustration as found in the original example.

 

I was pretty happy once the shading and white work were done.