When last we left our intrepid scribes, they were taking a wee cordial break. After we finished imbibing, it was time to make some iron-gall ink. First we started out by grinding Aleppo oak galls (you can use domestic US oak galls, but you have to use so many more because they are not as tannic […]
Scribal Playdate, Part the Second Read Post »
A couple of very lovely, wonderful ladies got together last Saturday and threw a Scribal Play Date for those of us who were interested in learning some intermediate scribal techniques. It was almost ten hours of scribal classes and experimentation, and we still didn’t get around to mixing pigments and painting. I’m going to break
Scribal Playdate, Part the First Read Post »
I try to make it out to a new guild meeting every month. When the Leatherworkers Guild started meeting again, I jumped at the chance to attend. I wasn’t the only one, either. There were six or seven new people in attendance, and we all went around the room and discussed what we wanted
Guild Hopping: Leatherworkers #484 Read Post »
One of the things that I have been meaning to do is attempt indigo dyeing. We did it at Willow’s dyeing weekend last year, and since I started knitting the Egyptian Socks of Doom, I knew that I wanted to make another pair with a more period kind of yarn, indigo dsfddyed by me. So
Adventure in Indigo Read Post »
Remember when I went to KWHSS and took classes on gesso and gilding? Well, I thought I’d try it at home to see if it worked as well as I hoped (hint: it didn’t). I reconstituted the mostly-dried gesso unto a thin paste and painted up some pretty leaves and an illuminated letter. The off-white
It’s shots like this that make me think of the Dutch Masters, and all the beautiful food they painted. And in other food-ish news, Edmund and I have decided to get together with our friends Cecilie and Oddketil and start experimenting with brewing. Our first batch of beers will be three one-gallon variations on
Maybe a little more than halfway, actually. There’s the other two quadrants to be finished, and two lines of yellow chain stitch around the outside of the bowen knot, plus the stem stitch outlines.
One of my continuing goals is to be as authentic in my craft as I feel I can reasonably be. Sometimes that means that I machine sew my clothes except for visible stitches. Sometimes that means I order three ounces of white silk tram to dye with natural dyes for embroidery. This time, it means
Parchment and Quill Read Post »
A couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to go the the Known World Heraldic and Scribal Symposium (or, cumbersomely, KWHSS). People came from all over the SCA world, some from as far away as Drachenwald (most of Europe), to take classes and share knowledge. It was tons of fun. Penelope working on a
Known World Heraldic and Scribal Read Post »
Progress on the Welsh Triskele cup cover. I’m split-stitching in a non-divisible spun silk thread, which is a little chunkier than DMC Pearl Cotton 5. It’s a little more, uh, rustic looking than I had planned, due to the larger stitches, but I’m actually finding that I like the effect. You can also see the
