Philomene’s Scriptorium

I confess that I wanted this to be elaborate and golden and full of fancy decorations. To which his wife replied, “Umm, no.” She explained that he was a simple man who really liked geometric designs and his favorite colors were blue and gold (his heraldry colors). Oh, and could I fit in a portrait of their dog?

Now those who know this amazing man know he is beautifully dedicated and skilled.. He has received ALL the awards of Atlantia, some of which no longer exist. He is the oldest active knight in our kingdom. But, I feel that the scroll should speak to the recipient (as I have noted before) and who would know him better than his spouse?

Research brought me to the exemplar that I used, it fit the bill of geometric and correct colors, but was not stark or plain.

In place of the marginalia, I placed his achievements….his Baronage, his Laurel, his Pelican and his Knight’s Chain. I also placed him alongside Spike, holding is favorite weapon. And of course, his pup received a place of honor in the primary initial!

This was gouache painted on pergamenata, with gesso and gold leaf. The chain is shell gold.

Where to begin with this one? The recipient’s wife advised me on this person’s passions which happen to exist between service and science fiction. While most would feel that this scroll is not “period appropriate” , I would beg to differ. I feel that this is a beautiful melding of old and new, personalized tradition that is unique to this individual.

Windmasters’ Kittyhawk is a cat with wings. It has gone through many many iterations, from something vaguely dragon-like to a current hissing representation created over a decade ago by our then-MoAS. With this knowledge comes freedom. I was able to play and make an outline drawing into a realistic winged cat. Therefore traditionally non traditional.

Next Sci-Fi. The recipient had varied interests including Star Trek (he’s a member of a RPG), Harley Quinn, Deadpool, and Firefly. How to fit these in? Science…astronomy….two things sprang to mind.

The first was the gorgeous awe-inspiring Astronomical Clock, aka the Orloj, which is located in Prague, in the Czech Republic. Created in 1410 by Mikuláš of Kadaň and Jan Šindel with calendar dial, zodiac signs & the sculptures added around 1490. Below the photo is a link to a more recent article about its wonders and some new discoveries.

For my purposes, this was beautifully perfect. The colors are drool-worthy, the gold numerals and bars….and all of the dials and circles. This was created, as was the rest of the scroll, using gouache. The gold is 24k leaf over my raised gesso recipe.

Next was an exemplar that was advanced for its time, showing comments and other similar phenomena. I found a comet that fit the scene, including the background colors, forming in my head and suited my “Easter Egg” surprise within its center.

Inside of the center of the comet, visible only under a black light, is the USS Enterprise, taking off as the Kittyhawk watches.

Grasped within his tail is a key, the symbol of a seneschal as well as the key from the recipient’s heraldry.

Hanging from a branch is Jayne’s hat from Firefly. And finally, tucked into the crevice at the bottom of the tree is an escapee from the ship, a Tribble.

The scroll is gouache on pergamenata, gesso and gold leaf.

This had a few challenges ….it was my second scroll writing over gouache, and never this thick…it worked for the most part. I had originally thought to use a white ink, but it looked horrible and had to be redone along with a portion of the background. The clock face angles, colors and keeping proportion was a test as was creating the spaceship…in the dark with a black light shining on the page as I put down the ink.

This scroll brings me joy….it’s a story being told in front of your eyes, with mysterious clues and secrets.

This recipient is quite knowledgeable about Viking clothing, accessories and timelines for the known clothing. As such, I wanted something that was precise and exemplified her chosen period.

While researching other scrolls, I had come across these gorgeous glass and angler playing pieces. Digging deeper showed them to be a part of a game called Hnefnatafl. Much to my delight, I discovered that there were grave finds of boards. I particularly liked the Knockanboy board as it had side handles which I could put to good use.

As I don’t blow glass and time was short, I created playing pieces out of Fimo clay and baked them with holes down the centers to turn into beads. The King piece was also clay, and I created the award emblem (a Pearl on a half-shell) as well.

I enlisted my Laurel, Goodwife Michel Almond de Champagne, to help recreate a playable board, based upon measurements of the original (and to which the pieces were sized). We spent a good part of a morning working on the board, and then she had her laser cut out the base and frame, Where the handles were on the original, we created “picture frames” — one for signatures and one for the helm and veil over her heraldry which is part of the award. The wording was done in Norse (for her persona) and used as scrollwork decoration around the frame.

I also added in a small 5×7 pergamenata and ink write-up of the wording for her to hang adjacent to her board with a Pearl done in ink Squashed Bug technique at the bottom.

The helm is that of the recreated Sutton Hoo, again, to fit her persona’s timeline. It was made on pergamenata, using my homemade gesso and moon gold leaf & 23k gold leaf to mimic the gold and silver of the original with embossing to recreate the patterns and pictures of the helm. The veil is my use of Squashed Bug style to make it appear translucent over the heraldry and helm where it draped.

The playing pieces are not really meant to be worn, but I strung them together to create the strand of jewels which would hang between a woman’s brooches holding up the overdress when the board was mounted to the wall.

Wooden board, Fimo clay playing pieces, pergamenata side pieces and gouache. Gesso (made by me), with Moon gold and 23k gold leaf.

Research:

The Knockanboy Board: http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/92/archaeological-finds

Playing Pieces: King based on Birka 750; (other pieces loosely based on other Birka finds)

Sutton hoo: The helm on Coat of Arms done as a recreation of the Sutton hoo helm. https://smarthistory.org/the-sutton-hoo-helmet/

History of Hnefatalf: http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/3/the-history-of-hnefatafl

Playing instructions (assumed): http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/88/fetlar-hnefatafl

And now for something a bit different….this falls under my bucket list of scrolls. I had wanted to try Psyanky since I had seen a scrolled ostrich egg a few years back. The inspiration came from the recipient’s own heraldry which was an egg…how better than to give her one?

I understood the concept of Psyanky, and watched a TON of YouTube videos and bought two books. Then I purchased the egg and crafting supplies. I drew out by designs on graph paper first. Besides her egg heraldry, a large part of her service was through Troll; so I also drew a troll cross (or trollkors) which is not really an ancient symbol or rune, but thought to have come about this past century.

The egg’s shell was cleaned and stripped of its glossy coating, and I then drew cross lines and circles to aid in placement of the drawings, done with pencil lead until they were placed to my satisfaction. Bees wax and dying ensued, using a large gallon zippered plastic bag to swish around the egg and color (after first plugging the bottom hole). Half way through, I flushed the colors that weren’t covered by wax off in order to “restart” and prevent the colors from being too muddy – especially that of the main blue background.

Words were written using (quite anachronistically) a permanent Sharpie pen as period inks would not take and black dye would be a bit too transparent. One all was applied, the wax was melted off, some finger tips were singed, and the surface cleaned. The white remaining areas were then treated with miniatum and gold leaf. I chose such a modern size due to the porosity of the egg, the surface smoothness and the known stickiness and behavior of the miniatum. The last thing I wanted was for gesso to just pop off with time or handling. The bottom was sealed flat with wax, and the egg presented with a stand.

I confess to a great deal of enjoyment from trying Psyanky, and have purchased more accessories for further decorations. And possibly another award.

When I first received this scroll assignment, I knew exactly which exemplar I wanted to use. I’d had it in the back of my mind for quite some time and it would be perfect for a scribe. The difficulty occurred in finding the source, finding more than just a low resolution photograph and hunting down the source. The exemplar, from the “Libro d’Ore di Leonor de la Vega”, Bibloteca Nacionale de Espana, Madrid is (to my best knowledge) NOT digitized. I found ONE (luckily high-res) photo from foliamagazine.it from an article in 2014….entitled “San Giovanni Evangelista compone l’Apocalisse”, miniatura tratta dal ‘Libro d’Ore di Leonor de la Vega’ (Fiandre, XV secolo), Biblioteca Nacionale de Espana, Madrid. Even more fortunate was finding that clicking on the photo opened up a larger image…yes!

Now to personalize….I did remove a portion of the middle, the boatman, the eagle and other details were not pertinent to the recipient. Titivillus definitely was, the scroll was, and I made use of the city in the back to insert her barony’s heraldry onto the keep wall and to place her award symbol as part of the sky. I also stalked her on social media to find a photograph to use for her face.

All is gouache on pergamenata, the detail on her robe and on the demon is shell gold. The full scroll was done as a triptych with the wording adjacent and similarly framed. As an aside, I was trying to copy as closely as I could and realized that the original scribe had a very uneven white border which I tried to replicate. Finally, while photographing the final piece, I realized I had misspelled her name with only one “L”. Below is my correction, and my admission on this page because I think it is important to show errors and how you corrected them as well to admit to them, the better to learn (in this case the essential details!)

I admit to being in awe of the Mira. To have such an amazing piece of art done by not one but two artists far beyond their contemporaries is astounding. One, Georg Bocskay, showed the world what heights of calligraphy could be performed while the other, Joris Hoefnagel, created such realistic art to accompany each written page. They flow together seamlessly synergistically creating more than each separately.

The recipient of this scroll specialized in hospitality and service to the kingdom. To me there is no better example of a representative of Atlantia and all that it embodies than Spike, our horned seahorse.

Wanting to do this in the Squashed Bug style, I searched for a photo of a seahorse that appealed to me and had a nice coronet. I did find the one that I used as a model, but that one was orange, and this being Atlantia, Spike most definitely had to be Atlantian blue.

Spike is all done in gouache with a bit of shell gold along the spiral of his horn (hard to photograph). The calligraphy is my take on one from the Mira. Studying the photos zoomed in shows just how Georg Bocskay created his swoops and swirls around the letters. My take has the words closer together (line to line) than the exemplar due to the wording in the scroll.