Gasp! She posts!

Yeah yeah yeah, so sue me. I've been too busy with life to blog about it. Which means you would think this would be a long posting. Heck no! I've got too much to do to sit here and ramble on about making a sour dough starter from Cato's beer scum and being totally overwhelmed by fabric in trying to find the appropriate ones for Turkish garb. But I did want to put up a few scans of the scrolls I've been working on. Sad thing is that this isn't all of them. I seem to forget to scan them before sending them off to TRM's. Coronation is this weekend (not going) and I have sent up several Meridian Majesties, a few AoA's, a Velvet Owl, a couple Meridian Crosses and 2 Rising swans.

This is one of the AoA's. It's after a 13th century English book of botany. I tried recreating the hand, but I didn't have as much to say on the scroll so the calligraphy is larger than the original. I did manage to add in the paragraph markers, which on this manuscript were actually used to separate sentences as well. I've been trying to do my goldwork first. Not sure how I like doing it that way. It doesn't matter much considering that I'm not using leaf but paint (Holbein gouache) but it does mean that I don't have gold in as many odd places as before. I'll try it this way a bit longer and see.

This is one of the Rising Swans. It is from the Salisbury Beastiary. I've done this one in the past and incorrectly assigned it to the Aberdeen Bestiary. I know the recipient so may contact him to let him know. I did leave the dead fish out of this one's beak though. It seemed a bit cartoonish and I wanted this to have a more elegant look to it. I like how the swans feet actually look like they are in water better than the other (which may be in an earlier blog.)

Again here I'm trying to incorporate the print from the manuscript into my scrolls. Did a fair job I think, although my letters aren't as evenly leaning throughout. Must work on this hand some. This is from a 13th century Icelandic manuscript. It's all I really know about it. I think it was from a Bible. I love all the red line work, but the red ink I'm using is too dark. I have tried using paints in the past with not as nice of results. It may just take a while to find the right paint or ink to get the look I'm after with these red scrolly lines. I'm totally enamored by them. I always get the impression that they are a bored scribes doodling and then they became popular.

OK, so that's it. More in some unknown future date. Too much to do before Crown List.