Imperfectly Period

    Stumbled across this photo of pure linen and wool needlebooks I handsewed for largesse 11 years ago, finishing the edges with blanket stitch in blue wool on the lower three and the top two had *squints* split stitch topstitching in light blue wool.

    I thought I was so smart in hiding this one from my partner since they're not great at cold reading calligraphy, but I left my notes lying out and spoiled the surprise.  :(     First time doing art with ink and pen.  At the time, I was so upset because the exemplar had wash shading, which I had no idea how to achieve so I resorted to dots which now I think look great, but at the time I hadn't managed a "perfect" replica.  I was also fighting the ink, can't remember which kind it was but it was likely Speedball India Ink or Noodler.   I'm now in love with Pilot Iroshizuku Take-sumi, but I managed to spill my barely used bottle and the Papiery is out.  At this time of year, they can't risk shipping ink in glass bottles when it's below freezing in the areas it would have to travel through.  Tried another random one from the Papiery, and I really don't like it.  For some reason, it negates the thick/thin delineation so it all k...

These went out to a couple who basically created our baronial equestrian team from scratch.  Not terribly happy with how I did her face and hair, but it was bloody hard to find an exemplar that worked so it was basically free-hand.  

I may be wrong, but this might be my first project using bastard secretary.  Either way, it's not one of my go to hands yet.  If you look closely, you'll notice I completely forgot the H in "worthy."  Didn't catch that until now. Pretty boring (I blame our current baron who prefers warrants be plain text for accuracy of legal documents), but in comparison to my last post you can see worlds of improvement.

While preparing to teach Wordsmithing and the Bob Ross Approach to Scribal (aka Anybody Can Freaking Scribe!) I was digging through my photos and came across some of my earliest work and wow does my calligraphy climb uphill!  Pretty sure the smudging happened after I turned it in, or at least that's the story I'm sticking to!  Still, I'm proud of the art.      

  Recently our barony opened up a service route for courtiers.  Since I was already a Scholar, the A&S track, I threw my hat in with the first two applicants to support them and give feedback on the process from someone who's already been through one path and from the side of the applicants.  Basically I'm there to poke holes in things and report on what breaks, but not destructively. I got an advent calendar of inks that are shimmery, colourful, colour-changing, etc. so I used one for my letter of intent since I don't really care about historical accuracy on this since it's not an award.  Doesn't mean that I didn't pull out all the epistolary stops including salutation, securing of good will + proverb, narration, petition, and conclusion with all the requisite butt kissing.  I also gave him rhubarb curd that I'd frozen from my last batch since the baron had said he'd love some for Yule. The merovingian hand was a little bit of revenge for springing ...