I have made my first batch of ink! It is based on the recipe of Vespasiano Amphiareo, a 16th century priest as published in the book "Scribes and Sources Handbook of the Chancery Hand in the Sixteenth Century" by A.S. Osley which was my anniversary gift from peteyfrogboy.

The recipe calls for 30 ounces of strong white wine, 3 ounces of Istrian galls - broken not ground, 12 ounces of copperas (ferrous sulfate), and 1 ounce of gum-arabic, solid form. I ended up quartering the recipe due to the limited amount of ferrous sulfate I had. It came in a 100 g bottle which is only 3.5 ounces. I started this project on the 19th of December by putting the broken oak galls in the wine and letting it set for 12 days.

Tonight, I strained the liquid through a piece of linen and added the copperas. I ended up putting in all 3.5 ounces so it may end up a bit to the sludgy side, we'll see. I forgot to order gum-arabic so I did a quick run by Michael's for the liquid version. I ended up using 2 ounces of that. The residue on the inside of the jar has a dark purple hue to it.

The ink is supposed to sit for another 15 to 20 days to be at its "best and blackest". I don't have that much patience - the initial test shows that it is going to be very, very black. It is much thinner than the Higgins Black Magic but it does work its own special magic. The test letters I did went on as an almost transparent gray and *poof* before my very eyes, it immediately started to blacken.

It looks like it made at least 10 ounces of ink. On the bright side, I have enough ink to last a year or so. On the down side, I have enough ink to last for a year. (I'm already ready to make some more!)

So, this is a bit after the fact but just to document before I totally forget everything:

The good people of the Shire of Tir Briste hosted a scriptorium at their event. To encourage the scribal arts, scroll painting counted as points to the competing Romans and Barbarians. Partially painted pre-prints were worth 1 point, completed pre-prints were worth 2, and a completed original was worth 6 (I think they just made that up for me) :)

Since I was sans children, I had pretty much the entire day to sit under the pavillion and work on a Grant of Arms. I went with a 15th century Flemish type border - doodles were based on a Cathrine of Cleves folio. Gothic textura text was done with a steel nib (1.5 mm because the 1 mm turned out to be way too small for the text space) and the ink from the penner (omas). Illumination and gold were all done with Winsor Newton gouache. The final size was 8"x10" illuminated area on an 11"x14" sheet of bristol board.

Probably one of the coolest things about it is that I got to be there when it was given out and knew who the recipient was (Guillame de Pyrenes).

As peteyfrogboy mentioned in his post, I am working on a (hold on) sewing project! (He is turning into a bad influence!)

So far, I've got the pants/shalwar/thing cut out and the gores attached. The pattern itself may need a bit of tweaking as the original was created as a unisex so the crotch area is hanging a bit lower than I would like. We'll see.

I spent most of Sunday at my Laurel, Mistress Jadi's house. She helped me to pattern a new Persian coat. It will be made out of summer weight black wool. It was patterned off of her red linen coat with some slight modifications for my frame. We took in the back a little, added a set of back gores, and made it a few inches longer. Right now all the pieces are cut out and I have a set of instructions on the order to sew everything together. This week will be a crazy madhouse of sewing to get it all pieced together by Friday night so I can wear it to Crown List on Saturday.

Well, maybe not plenty of time but enough. I took off a 1/2 day Wednesday and Thursday & Friday to make certain peteyfrogboy's scroll was done on time. I got it done at 3:00 pm on Friday.

The gilding took a lot longer than I thought it would. It shines pretty nicely if you catch it in the light just right. The painting turned out OK. I still need to work more on shading.

I'm mostly just glad it is all over! Thanks to everyone who came out!!!!

until MGT. I think I am still on track to have peteyfrogboy's scroll completed by then. I started outlining the vellum last night and finished the calligraphy and outlining today. Instead of outlining with a technical pen like I usually do, I used a steel pointed nib with iron gall ink. All of the calligraphy in the main body of text was done using quill with primary red gouache paint and iron gall ink.

I botched in the lower body of the text when the quill needed to be resharpened and I didn't quite get it back to the right size. It was far larger than it should have been and I should have cut it back a line or so before I did. Need more practice with quills!

The final piece is still a lot more warped than I would like. I will put it back underneath some weight and wait to work on it again until Friday night or next Saturday.

Picture so Far

...and one to go!



I'm not totally thrilled with the whitework. I think the paint needs to be a bit thinner next time and will probably try a different brush also. I'll be a lot happier with it in a few weeks.

I'm hoping the vellum for peteyfrogboy's scroll will be flat enough to work with tomorrow. Most likely I will end up having to tape it down. With only this weekend and next weekend left to work on it, I need to make good progress over the next two days.

With greetpg's scroll, that is. Got the gilding done Tuesday night. Started with a plane flat size of 1/2 glair, 1/2 garlic juice. It really wasn't sticking like I'm used to with gesso. I ended up reconstituting some gesso with the size to a thin consistency and used that instead. I think it worked pretty well.

Tonight was on to the painting. Word of caution - peteyfrogboy is an enabler! I was considering playing with the pigments that I got at Pennsic many, many years ago (pre-children) and he was supposed to talk me out of it. He didn't. So I mixed up the synthetic ultramarine that was in my little box with some of the glair and started painting. It went on pretty much like the gouache I've been using all these years. Very cool!!

The dragon's blood didn't work out nearly so smoothly. After all these years, it had turned into 3 large clumps. I crushed it up with mortar & pestle but didn't quite get it fine enough the first go around. Ended up putting the mixed up bits back in the bowl and grinding some more. Turns out that it works much better that way and got it fine enough to work with.

At this rate, I should have the painting all finished on Saturday. :)

Ok. I'm a bit too chicken to actually start on peteyfrogboy's vellum scroll without ever having worked on vellum before so I'm cranking out a Meridian Cross for greetpg. She was given the award at Midwinter A&S last year as sort of a drive by in the middle of court and did not receive a scroll at the time.

For this one, I am working on a bit of vellum that Mistress Grainne gave me at RUM to play with. It should end up being a 5"x7" frameable area size. The overall size will be a little bit bigger than that but not a full 8"x10".

I got to use the quills that I cured & cut last Sunday. It ended up working out pretty decent. The hardest part seemed to be trimming it after it got dull and getting it back to the same size again. That took several (5-10) tries to get it right. It definitely writes best when the quill is kept at 90 degrees from the writing surface. I used the oak gall ink purchased several years ago. (It didn't go as evenly as I would have liked so I'm hoping it will be better once it has all darkened up in a few days.)

The hand is basic gothic textura. The source style is based off of a 14th century English manuscript. The bees are extra. (Greet likes bees.) :) The harp & calipers are extra also. (They are the symbols associated with the award & Greet likes harps & calipers.) :)
Picture

So, I've got a new commission. The Laurel scroll for one Lorenzo Petrucci. (peteyfrogboy) I am quite excited and nervous all at the same time. This time I know it is going to end up hanging on a wall in my house so I don't want there to be any glaring, ugly flaws! :)

I am trying to do this one as fancy and true to period as I can. Lorenzo selected the piece that it is to be based on. It is the dedication page of De Pratica Seu Arte Tripudii by Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro. It is a 15th century dance manual by some dead Italian guy. I think it is quite fitting to his persona.

Material. It is going to be done on vellum. I ordered a hide a few weeks ago. It came rolled up in a 4" square tube and is now being flattened out between the mattress and bunk board of D's upper bunk. I think (hope, hope, hope) it should be ready by Labor Day weekend.

Text. I've got the spacing worked out. It is going to be a mix of Roman capitals and Humanist. I've only done practice rounds using steel nib on paper so far but I will be quite pleased if it turns out as well on the actual scroll.

Quills. I am going to do all of the text with real live, dead bird feathers. I spent yesterday waiting for the sand to heat up in my little crock pot and then waiting for it to cool down. Sand left unattended and forgotten will get very hot (>300F). Note to self - when doing this project again, set a timer. I also learned not to pour the water off of the feathers until it is time to actually cure the feathers. Otherwise the membrane is not quite as easy to scrape off.

The actual cutting part is not as intimidating as I thought it would be. Mostly, I think that will be a matter of practice, practice, practice. I ended up cutting or re-cutting 11 quills. I've only tested 1 so far using red gouache. It worked fair enough on paper. I'm hoping it will work just as smooth, if not better, on vellum.

My current project is a laurel scroll commissioned by Mistress Derbail inghean Conchobar for Ophelia aus Bavaria.  Her persona  is mid 14th century German but the style was left as flexible.  Initial work began on this project in early April.

My inspiration piece is taken from a great website on the Burnet Psalter.  It is a 15th century psalter that was donated to the Marischal College in Aberdeen during the 16th century by one of its alumni Gilbert Burnet.  The site has full images of every page of the manuscript!  The design has textura quadrata calligraphy (used in northern Europe from the 13th century through the early 16th century), basic red blue and whitework color scheme, and LOTS and LOTS of pretty GOLD.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/heritage/collects/bps/text/152r.htm

Hello internet and live journalers everywhere!  I have finally decided the time has come to have one of these new fangled LJ things.  I am not really much of a writer.  I am mostly using this as a tool to track progress on scroll projects.  Other stuff might come up from time to time.  We shall see.