Catalogue of Digitized Manuscripts.

Nummy.

I'd been having the itch to paint for a little bit and I got the excuse to do so this week. mightyjesse  wanted a prize for her Sleeve Holder and I had these lovely lockets that I acquired a few years ago and had been stockpiling against future need, but this seemed a perfect application for them. There was one for the Sleeve Holder and a spare in case some other gentle that inspired her.

First, I cut an appropriately sized piece of Bristol board and jammed it into the locket. Usually, a portrait would be put into the locket after painting, but I was afraid the guache would crack if I fiddled with it too much. Then I penciled in a vague outline as a guide. (I forgot to check the dimensions of the locket, but the miniature is about 1.5 inches by 0.75 inches. Bristol board base, guache paine, mostly 10/0 and 0000 brushes.)



Then I blocked in the color



Then added the details:



I'm not super thrilled with how they turned out, but considering I had Thursday evening, while I was hosting the BBQ, to do them, they were OK. mightyjesse completed the lockets with a lock of her own hair, solving the mystery of one of her Super Seekrit Projekts and the reason her bangs are wonky.

I should work on my backlog of things I want to paint while I have the bug, I suppose... Right after I finish that weaving I warped up, and the sewing I need to do and the cleaning my basement needs, and the 1,001 other projects in the queue. :P

What an absolutely lovely weekend!

Thursday night I stayed up too late picking and choosing the best/most likely to be requested books from my Viking, Anglo-Saxon, and costuming collections to take to the Border Downs Project Day. I know what books I have, but sometimes it is a lovely thing just to indulge in a little pride over the collection and lovingly pat all the pretty books. Even better, the selected tomes were all going on a library roadshow again, so I knew they would get the chance to be fondled by other loving hands soon. I really should put together a standard roadshow list some time - I'm always worried about forgetting a key book - but that would spoil a chunk of the fun!

Friday, I got up reasonably early and hit the road for Border Downs. It's about a six hour drive and, other than a tiny bit of construction, it went quite smoothly. This was my first long solo road trip in some time and the freedom and quiet were welcome in an odd but pleasing way. Once in Sioux Falls, I met up with my host for the weekend, zarhooie  and ingus  came over, and we all had a really scrummy dinner before heading out to the fiber geekage night. Over the course of the night, we had eight folks show up for socialization and/or fiber fun. I distributed the tasty library samplings to the folks who had requested them (and a few "bonuses" I had suspected would be found droolworthy, if not directly requested) and then helped with a variety of patterning tasks. At about midnight, we packed up the library and crafty goodness and went out for a nice middle-of-the-night breakfast. It was a truly delightful day of projects and socialization with friends new and old.

Note to self: Even when you tell yourself that you do not need to be to site until noon, disappearing nearly a full bottle of whisk(e)y between two people and staying up chatting past 6AM is not advisable. Fun. Good work. Still not really advisable... At least not on a regular basis. ;)

After a lovely Indian lunch, we finally rolled into site around 3PM on Saturday. The population was on the low end, but everyone had a project and there was some bardic-y goodness going on. Since everyone was already doing their own thing and the ceilings were not really conducive for whipcording, I just started in on some illuminations for the scroll drive. I whiled away the day with painting and some very bad work with a drop spindle, plus some time out to deal fiber-crack, of course. (Not all my painting was on paper, though - I added some graffiti to the "grafiti" in the college's Back Alley, a room where they had a faux alley with painted-on buildings and other "urban" things. I decided the flowers in the windowbox needed a ladybug. So now there is a ladybug. And a tiny Viking helmet for the lady bug. I, sadly, did not take pictures. ;P) In the later evening, we started up a Bardic circle, but that ended reasonably early since most of the attendees had either been up far too late the night before, had worked during the day, or both. There was an entirely more reasonable bedtime and volume of Scotch on Saturday night. Again, I cannot say that the day was anything other than lovely. There is great merit to the little bitty events and although I think there were a grand total of thirteen people in attendance, it was full worth the trip.

Sunday started lazily... An expected delivery did not show up by the time I left but there will be other opportunities for delivery, I'm sure. The delayed departure was advantageous, though, as I missed out on the snow that hit Albert Lea, MN. I saw the evidence as I drove through, but by then the highway was clear and dry. I had to contend with some Wizard-of-Oz-level wind on the way, though. While largely benign, the gusty winds will be making me seek out some car paint repairs tomorrow. When I stopped for gas at one point, the winds seemed to have abated, and I had opened the car door a crack when the "your lights are on stupid" chime went off. Unfortunately, as I reached to turn off the lights, a gust of wind came up and flung the car door all the way open and smashed it into the metal part of the handle of the gas pump. :/ The damage is just on the very edge of the door so it won't be hard to fix nor noticeable once done, but annoying nonetheless. The rest of the trip home went quickly, with an odd soundtrack of Hedningarna and The Beatles.

I had expected this to be a very fun weekend, and it exceeded my expectations in every way. I am home now, relaxed and pleased. Just a lovely weekend altogether.

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EDIT: Per zarhooie 's request:
The exemplar:


The illuminated initial, with miniature from the exemplar, finished size 2.5 inches x 3 inches
(I hope They use it for a crwth, since it is a musical theme and done at a Bardic event)


And since zarhooie demanded polka-dots, I did a quickie of the beasties in the bottom right rondelle.
Finished size - just a tad bigger than a 20 oz soda cap, since I did not have a compass. :P

So, as part of my ongoing attempt to turn LJ into an online A&S display, I bring you the story of my latest project - a banner based on an extant 16th century ship's banner. This is loooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggg, so is mostly hidden beneath cuts. 

I decided to make a painted banner as a present and after about a year, had both the necessary documentation and motivation... I've done illuminated scrolls - how hard can a banner be? ;)

 

 

                       Original                                      Reconstruction                                        

Here I am, up stoopid late, working on a project. That's both good and bad, I suppose. 

Prolly 3-4 hours to go.

*sigh*

As promised, the speed illumination from earlier this week, including exemplars when possible.

Whew! Three scrolls in 4.5 hours (illumination only, text by someone else). The last will be done tomorrow and if my camera holds out, I'll post the pics on Saturday night. (They are being done on a semi-emergency basis for Cecil's Siege this weekend.) 

OK, since some people have asked about the scale of the project, the final scroll painted area was ~6"x11"
For those of you who do better with a visual, here is Cam before I added the fine detail and my splendid 20/0 brush, both with a quarter for scale!   :)

 

I don't usually do C&I, but had been thinking of taking on a big project as part of Hrodir's "Coming Storm" challenge, and the opportunity presented itself somewhat unexpectedly. The Tuesday before Gulf Wars I was offered the commission of the Court Barony scroll for Don Mateo. I was able to find a perfect exemplar scroll - a 1563 grant of nobility from King Phillip of Spain. Cwynthryth did the calligraphy on short notice and I had hoped to do the illumination on site. However, after some delays and near disasters. I decided I'd rather do it right than quickly. So, after weeks of intermittent work, Saturday I finally delivered the finished scroll.

See behind the cut for the exemplar and a C&I diary of the project...

One of my many projects is done and, gods willing, will be part of the A&S display at crown. I'll post details and pictures when I get back!

So, it appears I may have to stick my nose into Misty Mountain, the local gamer geek shop. I'm working on a painting and am just not satisfied with my brushes... the 18/0 is just not fine enough. :P