I (possibly stupidly) agreed to do a document for Caer Galen Defender (which I can’t even attend, as I will be traveling for research). More stupidly, I’m attempting a totally new style–the Flemish Book of Hours with naturalistic borders style. I am fairly happy with my version of batarde (although it is more English than French, I think there’s a lot of flexibility with bastard hands), but I haven’t tried out any of the naturalistic flowers and insects yet. I’m still struggling with layout.
But I am very excited, because there is much more scope for symbolism and little personal details for the recipient with this style, and also I am so frustrated with Carolingian it is a relief to do a more forgiving hand.
The text is very long, though which is giving me a challenge of proportions, even if I use the smallest reasonable nib. It will probably end up being a much larger scroll than I like to do.
