Scroll part 2( still more photos )

Working against the clock, I didn't have time to take pictures - but aryanhwy did a lovely job. It looks even better in her pictures than I remembered it when I made it.

This writ was to mark HE aryanhwy's winning the kingdom arts and sciences competition. She is thus the kingdom artisan for the coming year. It's not really an award from the Crown because they didn't choose her - the judges did. So it's more a acknowledgement of her accomplishment.

To find a medieval example text, I used two texts from Henry V's chancery, one where he is similarly giving his royal assent to a decision made by others (the church making someone a bishop) 1417C81/1364/41Signet of Henry V , and another where he delegates an appointee's commission to his recipient 1417C81/1364/36Signet of Henry V, leaving the fine details for a trusted clerk to figure out.

12th night is also called Epiphany, so I used that description as a date, rather than the exact calendar date - there's only one 12th night per anno societatus.

The calligraphy is a bit wobbly, but the overall effect is what I was after - something fine and businesslike, little fuss and muss. I fell back on a fine metal nib, not a quill, for this piece - I'd spent a lot of time trimming my existing nibs to get them finer, but could not get any finer than just under 1 mm - it's ok, but not as fine as I wanted.

I hold one of the copies of the kingdom seal, and have used it regularly over several years; the other seal is my own, made by my lord Robert for me last year. It's made of silver, and has my arms and a motto from the opening of the gospel of John ('In the beginning was the word'), and Ary's pictures show them both beautifully.

Robert spent well over an hour fiddling with hot and cold beeswax to get a really good impression of these two seals - he deserves the credit for the way they turned out.

One of the things I make for regalia is small purses, modelled on (surprise!) surviving seal bags and reliquary bags. They use up scraps of velvet and silk, and are finished with embroidery floss fingerbraid and beads.

So for the first time, I had a seal bag handy...to really go over a seal. Unfortunately I couldn't fit a second bag over my own seal and fit it all in the package for mailing! so I wrapped it in card and crossed my fingers for transit.

The seal cord is silk fingerbraid, by HG Alessandre Melusine, a narrow wares mavin, who keeps me stocked on request.

Text reads:




Lovely closeup of the kingdom seal - you can even see the custom addition of cat fur in the velvet behind the seal...



View of my own seal, threaded on a scrap of scribbled-on vellum.


Nice view of the text. Proofreading it afterwards, I had to squeeze in the year - whoops.

Snippet of a scroll for presentation at Crown. This is part of my resolution to use quills, except in dire need for speed.

This piece doesn't have the sharpest thin lines, but it's good overall. I just couldn't get the thin lines continuously.