Pelican Scroll

It has been quite a while since I last wrote anything in my blog. The Barony of Smoking Rocks holds its largest event in June, Vinland Raids. This year it was especially difficult since it also hosted the King and Queen's Archery Championships. I spent quite a bit of time making targets and setting up the tournament. On top of that I got a tick bite from which I got both Lyme disease and Babesiosis. I have been spending the last couple weeks recovering from both of those and the side effects of the antibiotics I was on. Anyway, now all of that is over and I can get back to working on projects.

Back at the beginning of June I had a scroll due. I showed the very beginning of it back in May. It was the first peerage scroll I was assigned and I especially wanted to do a good job on it. This picture shows the scroll when it was about half done. At this point I hadn't even decided what was going to go into the final medallions. In the end there were 2 medallions which I did not really like. The ones which hold the archery equipment. The way the red paint convered the yellow did not work out the way I wanted it to. It ended up looking a little clumpy and crude. All together, though, I am happy with the way it turned out.

The scroll was based on The Grandes Heures of Jean Duke of Berry. Unfortunately it is very hard to see the fine details on this picture. This is scroll # 22 for the A&S challenge.

Well, I guess it is not going to be quite that easy to get started on the gloves. typically I found I need a few other thing before I can get going. I did find some beautiful pictures of flowers in Mira calligraphiae. The book I am using is still under copyright so I cannot post pictures here unfortunately. Here is a link to the book I used which shows a couple of pictures of flowers, but not any of the ones I am planning on using. http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1756&handle=book&pg=1

The ones I chose are a tulip, iris, violet, lilly and columbine. I do want to check on the symbolism behind the various types of flowers before I make my final decisions.

Then I looked into my fabric stash to see if I could find some nice satin, preferably silk. Ha! Just as I was writing that I suddenly remembered I had stashed a bunch of silk remnants in a drawer in my bedroom. I just found the perfect piece: a beautiful white silk satin just the right size. that is one hurdle over.

I did have to go to the store and pick up a new embroidery frame. I already have two, but of course they already have a partly finished project on them. Now I have one just for the gloves. I also have enough white linen for the interlining. Next I need to figure out the size of the cuffs and mount the fabrics on the frame.

I am very excited. I just ordered a new book from Australia on early bobbin lace. http://www.lacedaisypress.com.au/publication1.html I have her beginners book on bobbinlace which I think is one of the best for complete, but not intense instructions. The picture on the cover of the new book shows some great examples. According to the blurb, there are 30 patterns in it. that is a huge number. Up until now, I have only been able to find maybe 10 reprductions of pre-seventeenth century pieces. If I cannot find a lace pattern in here for the outside edge of the gloves, I will have to start working on one of my own interpretations.

In the mean time I am working on my first peerage scroll. It is a Pelican, the society's highest award for service. I asked my apprentice sister to do the calligraphy for me. When I picked it up last weekend with the words written in, I was greatly impressed. Eva is really very good at doing the Gothic hand. Eventhough she did feel obliged to point out her worst word. Even her worst word was better than all mine. Well anyway, for my part I have just started putting the gold in. Luckily I have 6 weeks to finish this scroll, it is going to take a long time. This is as far as I have gotten so far. The calligraphy is covered to protect it, and keep the recipient a secret for now. As you can see, I am not very far along yet.

I have decided I want to use this blog in a slightly different manner than I have been doing. I want to follow some of the projects from their conception to their completion. Eventhough, it may take years for some of them.

I am going to start with a pair of gloves. There are quite a few pairs of 16th and 17th century gloves on the worshipful glove makers website. http://www.glovecollectioncatalogue.org/ I have been especially smitten by accession number 23345 (to see a picture of the specific pair of gloves click on the "Spence Collection at Bath 23337-23361, then scroll down to number 23345). They have everything I have been looking for. I wanted to do a fairly small project with gold embroidery. The metal work on these gloves are all styles I know how to do. The small bobbinlace edging should be an easy-ish pattern to duplicate. In addition, the embroidered flowers are gorgeous. I really like to more realistic look of these. They remind me of the flowers pictured in Mira Calligraphae. I even get to try making a stumwork tree. Another motif I have been wanting to try.

According to the glove makers website, the lower part of the gloves are leather and the decorated part is satin. The first part will be to find some satin in my fabric collection and start designing the patterns. I am not going to worry about how to make the actual glove part yet. I do not think I have any apropriate leather at the moment so that will have to wait a while.

I have completed one more scroll for the challenge. This is scroll number 21. That means 29 left to complete my challenge. I still have many years so it is looking good for completion of this part of my challenge.

I am also starting my first peerage scroll. It is off getting the calligraphy done right now. I usually do my own calligraphy, but I am the first to admit I am not great at it. My apprentice sister Eva, on the other hand, is much better than I. Therefore she is helping me out on this one. The scroll is based on the Grande Heures of Jean Duke of Berry. I sketched out the pattern before I gave it to her so she knows where to put the calligraphy.

The table runner is finally finished. I don't think I will include another picture of it. I have certainly posted enough. Anyway the most recent photos were only missing one row of lace so they are pretty close. So now I am at the enviable spot of being able to start a new project. I think starting new projects is my favorite part. I did a small trial piece of lace from the book by Brigitte Bellon " Gekloppelte Reticella". This is one of my favorite books for bobbinlace patterns. I think she has a nice collection of patterns that look very similar to picture of existent pieces from Italy in the 16th C. This is the 19th piece of lace I have made for the 50 challenge.

In the scroll category, I just finished a grant of arms based on the Codex Purpureus scrolls. The person getting the scroll has a Roman personna, so I was trying to get something that would have been appropriate for her period and era. It is a fairly simplistic type of scroll and I was a little leary about making it for an award as high level as a grant , but in the end I really wanted to stay closer to her personna than make something flashy and inappropriate. I also wrestled with the idea of leaving the scroll with the original greek letters or move to the roman letters which is closer to her personna. In the end I stayed with the Greek letters that were on the original scroll. The Midrealm Dragon in the picture is actually green, but the picture does not show that very well.

I have chosen the next big project for lace making. The new Janet Arnold book "Patterns of Fashion 4" has 2 smocks on page 60. One of them has inserts of bobbinlace in a chevron pattern, adn the other is made of recycled cutwork. I am going to try making a chemise with bobbinlace insert. I think I will try making the chemise pattern from the cutwork chemise though. The chevron pattern is a little more difficult, and I would rather start with the slightly easier piece. For a lacemaker that book is absolutely gorgeous. We usually have to make do with photos of portraits. This book shows real closeups of the lace itself. I am looking forward to trying to workout the patterns of a some of them myself instead of depending of someone else's version of the pricking. I am almost far enough along with bobbinlace to be comfortable enough with the techniques to try making up my own patterns for the pictured pieces.

I have been waiting patiently to post again. I have a group of scrolls that just got finished, but I had to wait for them to be given out before I could post about them. The first 2 were both given out at Kingdom 12th night. The Grand master bowman on the left was a back-log scroll which should have origianally gone out a couple years ago. I was actually very lazy about this one. I was given the assignment months before I even started it. The second one on the right is a Sagitarius (the order of high merit for archery in the East Kingdom). These 2 were numbers 17 and 18 for the challenge.

Then 2 weeks later at Birka the AOA I made for Alys went out. this piece was #19. I am making a good dent in the 50 scrolls I want to get done. I however, am not too happy with some aspects of these latest scrolls. I just don't seem to be getting any better at the Gothic script. I especially enjoy the later period scrolls, so I really need to get better at it. Ygraine told me there were exercises I could use to make it better. I am going to have to get back to her about that. The other part is the shading. Sometimes it works very well, and other time not so much. I would like to get a little more consistent with it, but I think that is a case of more practice.

I have also gotten a couple more piece of lace finished. There is only one more piece to finish the table runner now. It has now gotten long enough that I have to either hang it on a door, or clean off my project table to get a picture of it. you will notice it is on the door. I am beginning to look forward to finishing this project. I have so many other things in mind that I want to make.

I have not posted in quite a while. I have been busy working on the table runner, smock, and scrolls.

First the table runner. I have finished the unicorn and 2 of the bobbinlace dividers. I am putting the runner together with spacers of linen with hemstitched edges.

As you can see, I am still missing a couple of the elements. The bobbinlace piece on the right is not attached yet, and the one for the other side is not finished. As a matter of fact it is barely begun.
I have about 1/2 a repeat done so far. The finished ones are 8 repeats long. I should be done fairly soon after the new year. I get a fair amount of time off at this time of year.

The spacers of linen are hemmed and attached to the edges of the lace pieces. Just a little bit of hemstitching keeps the lacy touch I am trying for. I have not decided whether I am going to do some whitework in the linen spacers. I may keep that part of the project for another day.

The Lacis piece was #7 in my A&S 50 challenge, and the 2nd bobbinlace insert is #16. There was quite a while between the start and finish of that lacis piece.

The smock has been moving along very slowly. More because I keep moving it to the back burner, than because it is difficult. The smocking was mostly finished back in August. I took it to a smocking round table discussion at Pennsic. The best piece of advice I got was to add a couple more lines to the smocking. After I had done that I think it has a smoother more finished look. In the picture you can see the stabilization band that I put on the back.

The ruffle is just hemmed. One of these days I would love to make another smock with bobbinlace around the neck, and a couple of inserts of lace. It is on the "list". I chose not to gather the ends of the sleeves to approximate the looser style. I have the fabric to make an Italian gown to go over it. I have decided I would like to finish it for Birka which is at the end of Jan. That gives me about 1 month to make it. We will see if that is too ambitious.

I have only finished one scroll since the last time I updated this blog, and unfortunately I do not seem to have made a scan of the finished piece. I really have a memory of doing it, but can't find it in the computer anywhere. Oh well, anyway it was a persian style AOA which would make it #16 for the challenge. At least I get an oportunitty to make up for my mistake. I have 3 scrolls due in the next month that I will try really hard to make scans or copies of.

another scroll and lace update

I have been working along on the A&S 50 challenge. As I go I seem to be starting more and more complex projects. I have decided the latest lace project is going to be a table runner with 2 lacis panels and 3 lines of bobbinlace surrounding them.

The first strip of bobbinlace is finished. The bobbinlace I am using is a repicated pattern from a 16th C Piece in "Onder de Leop" by Nora Andries. It looks quite a bit like a connecting piece used in an Italian lace piece in "Old Italian Lace" from the 17th C. It uses 40 bobbins and 60/2 linen thread. This is the first piece I have made from that book. This was the 15 piece of lace for the challenge.

To go with the bobbinlace I finished the first piece of the lacis. I posted a picture of it when it was partially done before. The lion is now done and the accompanying unicorn is started. At the moment the unicorn is kind of creepy. It looks like a unicorn torso, but it is going quickly and will pick up a head and feet pretty quick. In the meantime it is appropriate for the All-Hallowed Evening holiday coming up later this month. Because of a long delay between the start of the lion and the start of the unicorn they are numbers 7 and 16 respectively.

On the other hand I finished another scroll. This one is a silver cresent done in the Persian style. The recipient has a Persian personna in the SCA (http://www.sca.org/) so the style was especially appropriate. I really like making scrolls in the Persian style eventhough I consider them to be difficult. Some of the pieces from the Safavid period are almost unbelievably beautiful. With dragons appearing from around trees, and extraordinarily complex patterns on the buildings and tents of the people, they are gorgeous. I have not attempted to make one that is close to the more complex patterns. I think it could take months of continual and hard work. For now I chose to replicate a picture of a tree which dissappears behind the script box. This was the 15th scroll out of the 50 I want to complete for the challenge.