This is quite possibly the best scroll I have done to date. It's oak gall ink, gold leaf, and gouache on vellum, and basically every single thing about it, I love. Originally I had wanted to do supporters as well, but I quickly realised that my artistic skills would not be up to drawing them, and that I would rather having something simpler done well than something more complex that failed. And you can't even tell that I spilled tea all over part of the border while putting down the gold size!
The design is one of my favorite types of borders, which I last used almost 10 years ago for another Pelican scroll for a dear friend. It's amazing to see how I've improved in a decade.
The text reads:
To all true gentle and noble people these present letters reading hearing or seeing we Vitus and Isabel, king and queen of Drachenwald send due and humble commendations and greetings. Equity wills and reason ordains that women virtuous of noble courage be by their merits renowned and rewarded and one such person especial is our beloved cousin Baroness Mor inghean Bhriain, gentlewoman, lady of the lindquistringes. So that not only in her person in this mortal life so brief and transient but also in her good name and fame to be of noble memory after her departure out of this life and to be in every place of honor ever more reverenced so that by her example other persons may the more sooner desire to apply themselves to dispend their lives in honorable works and virtuous deeds therefore we the said sovereigns have by the power and authority given us by law and custom make the said Mor a member of the ancient and honorable Order of the Pelican and have ordained and assigned unto her the sole and unique right to bear the arms argent a rowan tree issuant from a base gules the tree frcuted and the base charged with three bezants and for augmentation on the middle bezant an ancient crown sable as is depicted more plainly herein these letters patent which we have caused to be drawn up so that we may sign them below in confirmation on the xxj day sept liv.
I did not plan my time very well with this, and spent the last four days before it had to go in the mail working on it for ~3 hours a night. Prior to that, I'd probably done another 3 hours of prep work, so I'm guessing this took around 15 hours in total. Below are a variety of in-progress pictures and close-ups.
© 2019, Sara L. Uckelman.
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