The Hundred Years' Wardrobe

I had a very good weekend. Midwinter A&S went well as far as I know; I had a great time, but I'm easy to please. There were a lot of good and inspiring entries. I had a bit of a personal challenge trying to judge an 11th century Angle-Saxon tunic that I knew next to nothing about, but between my fellow judges and the documentation I hope I managed to put together some useful feedback.adelavanbrugge scored well with both of her C&I entries, and got some good comments. She's already plotting her next project, which should surprise no one.

This was also the field test of the Bronzino suit, which performed reasonably well. I cobbled together a pair of sewn-in netherstockings from an old pair of 15c linen hose. They worked fine standing up, but when I tried to sit down (a precarious adventure at the best of times in this kind of suit) half the stitches blew out on one side, as you can see here. I think that a new or refurbished pair of stockings will make this a good suit for being flashy in, but the old grey linen suit (which I switched into in the afternoon) is still my most comfortable.

Royal court was brief but filled with good things, not the least of which was Mistress Temair's well-deserved elevation to the Laurel. Baronial court was in the afternoon and was quite entertaining. I got to do several scrolls for this court, including the A&S tourney champion scroll, a pair of matching baronial Tower awards for Arnora and Cynwrig, and Cynwrig's Baronial Jeweler scroll. One piece of court business that I did not have prior knowledge of was serafinalamanni 's selection as baronial A&S champion, which was a happy surprise for all. Court was followed by an amazing feast cooked by our own George Ploppy, and a bit of dancing before people started packing up.

On Sunday I dusted off my armor and went to the amazingly well-attended baronial fighter practice. I think I managed not to embarrass myself too badly. I didn't sustain any serious injuries, but my entire body is stiff and sore today; my hands are so stiff it's difficult to type. It was a good time, though, and I wish there were a fighter practice that was within a reasonable distance from home. I may have to make some more inquiries in that direction...

My lovely wife adelavanbrugge has offered to create my Laurel scroll. She's started prep work for it, and I convinced her to post about it. It's kind of strange to watch my own scroll get made, but also fun. :)

adelavanbrugge received a request a couple weeks ago for a scroll for Kingdom Arts & Sciences (which was this weekend). Rather than try to find someone else to complete it on such short notice, we decided to take care of it in-house. To keep the layout simple, I suggested we base it on this page from Poggio Bracciolini's Orationes in Laurentium Vallam (c. 1485). It's a relatively simple example of Italian white vinestem that doesn't require a full page border, but is still attractive. I laid out the design in pencil, then transfered it via light box to a sheet of Pregamenata. I made two mistakes when inking the design: 1) the pen I chose was actually a very narrow oblique rather than a crow quill, so the lines came out a bit wide, and 2) the ink I randomly chose from what was already set up was Higgins Black Magic, which, as it turns out, gold is very happy to stick to.

Once I got the initial inked, I turned it over to adelavanbrugge for text and gilding. This is a relatively new hand for her, but I think it turned out very well. It's a very modern looking hand, which is not surprising as it's the basis for a large number of modern typefaces.

After the gold was applied, I got the scroll back to do a quick paint job. This style is very paint-by-numbers, so I just kept alternating red-green-blue until everything was filled in and then put little trios of white dots everywhere they would fit. The example I was working from appears to have left the vines themselves unpainted, without even any shading that I can see, so that made things go a lot faster. I also went back and re-inked the places where the gold had stuck to the lines with a technical pen.