Monday, February 17, 2014

Blanks for the Gulf Wars gift basket

ScrollExemplar
Gulfwars '14 Blank 1Sloane 265
Gulfwars '14 Blank 2Burney 6
Gulfwars '14 Blank 3Harley 4903
Gulfwars '14 Blank 4Royal 6 D VI

Since the easiest light-weight, easy-to-pack contribution that I can make for overseas gift baskets is scrolls, I wanted to do a few blanks for TRM to take to Gulf Wars. I picked out one exemplar on Jan. 1, because I remembered how fun other initials of this style were to make for last year's Pennsic basket. I sketched out the margins the same day, but then did not have time to return to this until Feb. 14, when I picked out for more exemplars. Feb. 15, Gwen actually played happily and let me sketch out the margins and base frameworks for all of them, and then I began painting while she napped. I managed to complete the first one (based on BL MS Sloane 265 f. 2) that day. I completed the second (based on BL MS Burney 6 f. 4) on Feb. 16. For as simple a design as it was, I made a lot of mistakes! I definitely want to do this one again, since I think I could improve it quite a bit. I completed the third (based on BL MS Harley 4903 f. 137v) the same evening after Gwen went to sleep. I love this style -- it's really pretty amateurish, but I think the palate and the bold leaves are really striking. And when you do it with gold leaf instead of gold paint, it doesn't look cheap. I then started and finished the fourth one (based on BL MS Royal 6 D VI f. 58v) on Feb. 17. It took "Northanger Abbey" plus about 10 minutes of "Emma" to complete.


© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Letter for Nobelesse Largesse gift

Naomi

I was asked to step in as an "angel" swapper for the previous Nobelesse Largesse gift exchange. The theme for that exchange as "high persona", and included the requirement to write a text in-persona to your recipient. I miffed the intro to my text, intending to spell my name in Latin and then failing. Oh well.

I hope to transcribe the text of the letter and add it soon.


© 2014, Sara L. Uckelman.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Lindquistringes for Tamara Samuilova of Thamesreach (a blank used)

I always love it when I get pictures of blanks that I've made after they've been completed. You'll recall back in October I posted images of four blank scrolls I'd made for a new scribal arrival in the kingdom, Lord Andrew von Otelingen. The first has been used and given out (my illumination, his calligraphy):

Tamara

Turned out very spiffily indeed.


© 2014, Andrew Grosser & Sara L. Uckelman.