And that's official . . .

It's been a busy few months for me as I prepared to take the mantle as Principal Herald of Calontir.  Garb to make, contracts to write, calligraph, and illuminate, ceremonies to write, and then bits to learn and create and find out about.

Photo by Marie le Faivre/Kate Gill

So, garb.  I was gifted some absolutely gorgeous teal silk by my lord that was purchased in the Middle East.  I don't trust my sewing skills, and especially not on silk, so I sent this to a friend of mine (Anna, of annasrome.com) to work her magic on it.  I do, however, trust my skills on decorating garb, and so, after it arrived, I started beading it with freshwater pearls, peridot, moonstone, and amethyst, which I must confess I selected because of how it would look, and not because of periodicity.

Beading the Byzantine on an off day.

I sewed several very tiny beads onto the silk (and not period trim), taking care to couch them so they wouldn't move too much.  All are sewn on with size 11 straw needles and a doubled length of regular sewing thread.  I did find that the beads were occasionally problematic, as I purchased hand-cut rounds, which sometimes didn't fit on the needles, so I found myself overbuying beads to ensure I had enough.  I clocked about 40 hours, if not more, on the actual beading of the dalmatica.

Now, when I wasn't working on the dalmatica, I was working on the ceremony, which was based on Byzantine functionaries, who were required to swear fealty.   I found an oath, and I blogged about it here.  I then calligraphied the oath (after clearing the ceremony though Their Majesties), and signed it in court with a quill pen borrowed from my friend Mirabel.  My unsigned oath has been photographed, and was based on Byzantine illumination from the Rossano Gospels, which are a purple dyed codex of the Gospels.  I did not dye the pergamentata, but I did try my first gilding experiments on this piece.  I did put myself in the illumination, but I also put Their Majesties in Byzantine garb.  My calligraphy is not the best, but, being a lefty, I do have some issues with beautiful writing.

Photos of my investiture as Gold Falcon can be found here.  I look forward to serving the Kingdom in this role - it's going to be fun.

Gulf Wars Largesse

This year, I was requested to make something "kickass" for a largesse gift basket for Their Majesties Calontir to give to their recipient kingdom.  It didn't have to be big.  But it did have to be neat.

So, given that my mundane job has taken up much of my spare time (I'm actually writing this on a very rare snow day), it needed to be something that would work well.  The receiving kingdom is currently in a dual reign: 14th century English, and early Muromachi-period Japan (which corresponds to about the 14th century through the 16th century at the late end).  While this complicated things, it also gave me some ideas.

You see, I found those glass veil pins from the 12th century (with similar ones made in the mid-14th century that were excavated in London).  And purchased some more wire and played.  The wire I purchased is not what I wanted to use: it's coated copper wire, which  was scraped off when I sanded the pins into shape, but, I'm otherwise pleased.  They're a bit big for veil pins, but there are other things to use pins for, including attaching items to clothing and to act as decorative items.

I will hopefully have a tutorial on how to make these soon, once I have someone who can photograph me making the pins themselves.  (operating a camera with hot glass is not recommended.)

There are more projects to come - I just have to have the right items picked up for those, including a duo of diamond point engraved goblets, which there will be a tutorial on, as well.

But, I have go sharpen brass to make some new veil pins - maybe some for my etsy shop!

Calontir Wiki and more!

So, Calontir has started a new wikispaces project.  I jumped on board, and now I have a wikipage.  I hope to update it soon with examples of my jewellery and scribal and other bits and things soon.

You can find it here: http://calontiri.wikispaces.com/Konstantia+Kaloethina

I'm also in the middle of a largess project for Gulf Wars.  Not big, but I'm hoping it's going to be taken well.

Additionally, my apprentice-sister was made a Laurel last night at Birka.  Our Laurel requested that our family make beads, but there was also a request for earrings.  I also made some veil pins for her, as well.  The earrings are the Roman-style earrings found here, made with amethyst and pearls, as well as gold spacers.  The veil pins are glass headed brass.

Time to get into the workshop!  What projects are you working on?

A Panoply of Scrolls (and other things)

I've been juggling a couple of things lately, including three scroll commissions from the outgoing queen of Calontir, and learning how to use my new lampwork torch.  I also entered a blank border contest.

So, after my trip to the Middle East, I was inspired by the many, many, many Qu'ran pages I saw at Qatar's Museum of Islamic Art, as well as this page that I saw on Pinterest.  One thing I liked about this particular page was the variety of colour, as well as the ability to modify it somewhat for SCA use.  In the future, I think I'll add more bars, like what is in the extant (which is a 13th century Persian Qu'ran), but I'm otherwise pleased with this.  There's so many techniques to try and learn (I suspect the extant also has gold leaf, which I really must learn to do soon).

While that was being worked on, I also received a commission for three separate scrolls, and for a very important client: the sitting Queen of Calontir.  She expressed that she wanted something French, but she also wanted to personalise the scrolls a bit, as the recipients were for the Queen's Endorsement of Distinction.  The Queen's Endorsement of Distinction is listed as such on the Calontir Awards page:

As the patroness of all gentle and courteous behavior, the Queen of Calontir may, at her own discretion, bestow this recognition upon some few individuals. It may be given only thrice during any one reign, and only once in each category:
1. Unto the individual combatant or archer who has shown the highest of chivalric behavior;
2. Unto the individual who has best exemplified gentle and courteous behavior; and
3. Unto the individual who best exemplified the ideals and goals of the Society.
The Queen may bestow any or all of these recognitions as she chooses. She may bestow upon those individuals a badge of her own initials entwined with a rose, constructed as she desires. Members may place the initials QED after their names. Individuals may be so honored by more than one queen.

So, each scroll is personalised - one with bees, one with an archer and bunny, and the third with a later period knight.  I'm pleased with how they turned out.  You can see them here.  There was a part of me that wanted to add some more marginalia, and there's a lot more vining and detail that I could have added that in the future for a scroll from 14th century France really should have. On the other hand, each recipient loved their scroll.

Scribal work feeds both my service needs and my arts niche.  It's a lot of fun, but definitely takes a steady hand and a gentle heart.

My new lampwork torch and supplies have been a lot of fun - I've been making beads and veil pins and all sorts of glass fun.

There's a lot that I still can't remember or don't have all of the supplies to do, but the evening I figured out how to enrobe beads in clear glass very much made my day.  It's a bit of a challenge, really - it's making sure the glass is warm enough that it doesn't crack, but cool enough that the clear glass doesn't deform the cooling glass underneath.  It's a challenge, but the results are beautiful.
The veil pins, though - fun!  I found some 12th century veil pins (here) with glass that appeared to be wound around the brass. I used 18 gauge brass wire, hammered it in two directions, making sure to flatten and spread the wire a little bit to keep the glass on the pin, and then cut the wire at an angle.  After the pin is worked, the metal was heated slightly while being held in pliers to prevent thermic shock, and then the hot glass was added to the pin.  I then let them cool down in a heat blanket.

In the future, keeping the pin round, but work hardened will be work to figure out, but I look forward to the challenge.

Scarab Rings, Pinterest, and You . . er, Me.

Sometimes, I go on Pinterest trawls.  I find awesome things.  Including scarab rings (which are a bit out of period/location for my persona), but also other sorts of rings, including one with a completely wire-wrapped band, intaglio rings with essentially a bead, and plain wire rings.

I was given a carved bead to work with about a year ago, and I wasn't sure what to really do with it until today, when I saw the scarab ring on Pinterest and decided to experiment.


Most of the time, when I experiment, I end up having to try a couple of times to get the results I want.  No exception here.  I first tried with 20 gauge Artistic Wire, and I found it difficult to get enough of a wrap on the bead to stabilise it.  So, I removed that, and went with 22 gauge non-tarnish brass wire, which is a little thinner, and a little less flexible, because of the nature of the brass itself, and just passed it through the bead hole twice.  In period, rings like this are almost all universally made of gold, as far as I've researched.  Gold is a much more flexible material and can be pulled, twisted, wrapped, and manipulated much easier than brass can be.  You'll notice that I also wrapped the brass wire around the scarab bead to keep it from moving around too much.  After all of this, I started to wrap the ring itself, stopping when the wires met each other at the bottom of round.  I then clipped these short and then smooshed (it's a technical term) them so they would lie flat and not get caught on anything.

The ring itself is large enough to wear comfortably on my left pointer finger, but as it's not really my period, I'm going to tuck this away for some largesse basket for my kingdom to give.  I'd be interested to see where this little guy goes off, and hear all of the adventures it has.

I now also have a great way to use up orphan beads, and it really didn't take too long.  In fact, I managed to make another ring today using some of the same techniques as this one, but that one looks quite a bit more suited for modern tastes.

Sorry for the Absence!

2013-11-02-1145, a photo by vhersch_rhianydd on Flickr.

I've had to get some non-SCA life things in order, hence my absence. Let's get caught up, shall we?

A couple of reigns ago, there was a blank border contest. I entered, and won third place for this entry.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. A well-deserving lady was awarded the Calon Cross. The scroll was turned around - and the realisation hit.

I painted the scroll.

Talk about a really cool thing, right?

Surprises, surprises. . .

Photo courtesy of Mergriet van Wijenhorst (Amanda Poirer-Kratz)

This weekend was a pretty big weekend in my Laurel's group of apprentices.  My apprentice-brother, His Excellency, Baron D'Unstable Peregrinator, was made a member of the Order of the Laurel.  Our Laurel all gave us things to do as we could - so I volunteered to make the wreath and the medallion chain.  Syr Yesungge, Bess' husband, made the medallion.  It is all kinds of super-spiff.

While the wreath is not based on anything in particular within SCA-period history, the techniques I used on the chain are the same wire-wrapped links that are used on Roman and Byzantine jewellery.  As for the pressed glass leaves, I'm not sure the periodicity of them.  I'd have to do more research.

Still, congratulations, Your Excellency!