Long in the making...

The following peerage scroll was a long time in the making, but it is finally finished and has been given to the person it was for.

Size: 16 x 20
Support: Perg
Paint: Mixed pigments with gum arabic binder
Gold: 23 kt leaf

Testing out the new slope

I finally got around to building a period looking writing desk or slope.  A few years back I made a bunch of slopes with folding sides to make them easier to travel with, but I always wanted a nice big slope simular to what you see in the illustrations of monks at work in various manuscripts.

I'm happy with the outcome.  I'm very much a beginner at work working, but I'm really enjoying it.  The slope is made from furniture grade plywood and modern tools were used in it's construction. 

The finished slope, just about ready to use.

I let the stain and finish set for a week or two, to be sure everything was dry and even now, the slope is a little smelly. 

The list of awards I received for our Yule event included one that I haven't finished making a master charter of, so I thought, perfect time to test the new slope, I'll cut a new quill, use the ink I just got from Ian the Green.  The Iron ink started as very gray on the pergamenta paper.  After talking to Ian about this, I'm guessing it's the size on the perg.  The photo below was taken shortly after finishing the calligraphy. The ink did darken to a nice black in the two weeks between the calligraphy and giving it out.

Special Project for Special Thank Yous

The past four years our local group has been using a church to host our Yule event at, and I was asked to create a special piece of illumination and calligraphy to help thank one of the churches individuals for all of their work on our behalf. It's not in the pictures below, but I eventually added our groups leaders first initials on the last line of the second page for them.

Materials include:
Parchment from Pergamena
Iron Gall ink made by Ian the Green
Cut quill pen, lead tin stylus, various medieval pigments

Rough draft of design and calligraphy on modern papers

Ruling out my lines, using a lead tin stylus

I forgot to get a picture of just the calligraphy, at this point, I had started adding other details

Gesso has been applied to the areas I want to add gold leaf to.

Started the leafing, one of the "two pages" finished.

Started laying the base colors

Adding layers to being out details.

Finished

Close up of "page 1"

Close up of "page 2"

Yule 2015 Invitation

For the 2015 yule event for my local group, I tried out a different style.  It's modeled after a few different later period manuscripts.  I combined the split inside and outside views along with a feasting and dancing scene. I worked on this piece off and on over a few days.

Tourney Letters

A couple of letters of intent to various Queen's Champion Tourneys for a wonderful friend.

Catching Up: Black Hours

The certificates' winners name as well as the signatures at the bottom were filled in using gold.

Catching up: Black Hours

Catching up: Black Hours

Big 25th anverssary of the local group so I was asked if I could do the invitation and champion certificates in a black hour style.

After trying several inks and different paints, I settled on using watered down talons gouche paint. I used black art board as my support. Calligraphy and illumination was done with a dip pen, a 1mm Brause nib and a pointed nib for all the lines.

Playing Catch up

It's been several busy months. I've managed to get several new pieces done  since I last posted.

A good fried ask me if I could do a really nice letter of intent to fight in a Queen's champion tourney, he would provide the text... The image above is the third different attempt to execute this project. The first two designs had room for painted decorations and just didn't work. This third attempt came about from just playing with a calligraphy pen and the text. 

Fall Coronation Invite

I was asked to do a nice invitation for Ansteorra's fall coronation.  It took me a few days to get it finished and turned out rather nicely.

Back to Verdigris

Last time I was at the store, I remembered that I needed some cheese cloth for when I get back to my verdigris experiments. So, getting the homemade wines I had been given late last year into jars and put up to vinegar has been on my mind. The other day while in the middle of waiting for the baking I was doing to finish, I pulled out the wines, jars, and cheese cloth to get the vinegar making started hopefully.

What I've found on making vinegar from wine has been really simple, expose the wine to air and let it sit. In clear jars you want dark ares as the light apparently harms the bacteria you want to grow.

So, we'll see how things turn out in a few months or so.

The two wines in jars in a small unused cabinet

Owen's Chivalric Quest Book: Part IV

Covering the boards with the white leather went pretty well.  The wheat paste didn't attach well to the ends of the perg paper, so I'll need to look into other glues and see what will work better.  But, even for that, the book seems nice and sturdy.

Pasting the outside down.

Pasting the turn-ins.

Getting ready to paste down the end papers.

Finished book.

Owen's Chivalric Quest Book: Part III

The book board were another challenge.  My first attempt I only dug channels in the inside for the supports to go; this time I drilled and chiseled out channels going through the boards to lace the supports through the boards.

Channels cut through the book boards.

Supports laced to the book boards and attached.

 It was touch to get the draw knife started when trimming the pages.  I see why the draw knife was eventually dropped for a book binders plow. 

Pages trimmed to the boards.

End bands sewn in

Owen's Chivalric Quest Book: Part II

The binding process made me nerviness.  We had spent so many hours working on all of those sheets and now I had to punch holes in them and cut them to shape eventually.  While I did the binding, Nic work on the brass clasps.

Punching holes in the gatherings was the point I was at my most nerviness. After that, it was a lot easier to do what I had to, to turn the gatherings into a book.

Punching holes in the gatherings.

Sewing frame all set up.

Sewing the first gathering on.

 I did manage to stab the tips of a few fingers while doing the sewing, drawing only a little blood each time, so bleeding on this project was kept to a real minimum.

All finished.

Owen's Chivalric Quest Book: Part I

Owen's Chivalric Quest Book has been completed and presented, so I'll be getting into it's creation and process.

You can find a documentation write up, here.

Once all the calligraphy was finished, we started drawing the illumination part of the project.  We did a page with miniatures at the start of each section, and every page of calligraphy received at least a boarder.  In total there are 170 pages that were drawn on and painted.

Adding Drawings.

 We mixed our own paints, besides for the gold.  It would have saved some time and fussiness if we had gone with store bought paint for all of our colors.  We went through two to three batches of paint for the major colors.

Nic mixing pigments to paint.

We painted the base colors on each page.  If I had the space I would paint one side of every sheet in a gathering at a time.  By the end of the project, we had figured out how to assembly line the illumination.

base painted areas

Drawing the black lines around the painted areas made it look really dark.  We ended up having to remind ourselves many times that the white work would make it look better.

outlined in black

 Adding the white work brought everything together.  This the the stage we started getting excited about how things were turning out.

Finished sheet.