My first scroll in more than two years, thanks to the pandemic. I have struggled a lot with impetus, energy, creativity, and space, both mental and temporal. But the principality signet was in need of scribes at a point where I felt like I had all those things, so long as it could be something small, and not terribly elaborate.
Enter the Ffraid! A chance to give a token of recognition and thanks to someone who has probably already received another award, and hopefully already has a fancy, colorful scroll, meaning I could do one that focuses on craft and materials rather than bling and design: I.e., vellum and teeny calligraphy.
The initial is taken from British Library MS Arundel 66 f. 284v; I was really happy with how my interpretation of the face turned out. I was also aghast at the state of my gold ink when I pulled it out of the drawer for the first time in more than half a decade, but I gave it a thorough mixing and it turned out that while I couldn't use it as ink, it worked well as paint! If I didn't have the capacity to do gilding, this is a reasonable alternative.
The text reads:
Siridean and Rogned right noble rulers of Insulae Draconis to our dearly beloved cousin the Lady Catherine of Carey greetings and good wishes. Know that long have we observed your labours and many are the reports we have received from trusty and worthy witnesses of the same so that we in our might and justice and in accordance with ancient and honourable law and custom are minded to admit without prejudice or concern you into the ranks and numbers of the most noble Order of Ffraid. In witness whereof we have charged our clerk Ary, called the good, to daw up this present charter which we have signed with our own hands and presented on the vii day of may, anno societatis xxxxvii.
As always when I make up my text as I am calligraphing, I am enormously pleased at how well the spacing turned out in the end.
© 2022, Sara L. Uckelman.
