Ottonian Award of Arms for Andreas von Wittelsbock Sunday, Apr 13 2008

Click for larger images.

So, this is my second SCA award scroll, an Award of Arms for Lord Andreas von Wittelsbock of the Barony of Dragonsspine (my former barony). It’s based on a page from the Trier Gospels (late 10th century German, according to the book I had, but possibly earlier? And the image I used as reference doesn’t look like the Trier Gospel images I’m finding online…). I’m still struggling with the gold-on-purple, so I did regular calligraphy for this one (and I think it’s better spaced, but more wobbly and inconsistent). I’m happy with the composition of the illumination, and my color choices, not so much with my lousy planning on the test layout. The zoomorphic B is a direct copy, except I simplified the tongue a lot to save my sanity (it was late). The original knotwork tongue fills the majority of the letter and makes me cross-eyed. The E is also a direct copy. The border is simplified. Overall, I think it’s a vast improvement over my first scroll, and I’m pretty happy with it. I hope the recipient is as well!

Paints Used:

M. Graham gouache: Pyrrol Red, Viridian, Titanium White, Ivory Black
Winsor & Newton watercolor: French Ultramarine (Green Shade) — this is, as far as I can tell, pretty indistinguishable from the usually more violet ultramarine, which kind of annoys me. So far, I’m pretty disappointed with most of the W&N products I’ve tried.
Holbein watercolor: Indian Red
Jacquard PearlEx: Brilliant Gold

Colors Used:
Green: Viridian + Titanium White
Blue: French Ultramarine + Titanium White
Red: Pyrrol Red + Indian Red
Gray: Ivory Black + Titanium White
White, Gold: unmixed

Paper: Canon cold-press watercolor paper (not up to trying to cut my big sheet of Arches hot-press yet)

I think my plans at this point are to exactly copy manuscript pages, mimicking the letter spacing, until my calligraphy starts looking “right” to me, and to find the perfect outlining brush. My outlining is better, but still not as tidy as I want.

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Ottonian scroll #2! Saturday, Apr 12 2008

I finished my second AoA scroll, for a specific person I haven’t met. It’s also Ottonian, and while I wasn’t able to figure out what I really wanted to do, it’s more complicated than the last one and I’m pretty happy with it (aside from the fact that I had Poor Planning on the text and I’m crossing my fingers it’ll be approved with such abbreviated text and the Royal signatures at the top instead of the bottom…if not, I’ll redo it). I did better with my color choice this time, although my outlines still need serious work (I think I just haven’t found the perfect brush for outlines yet–it has to carry sufficient paint but not too much, and have a fine point).

I shall post a picture later, after it has been awarded. Photos in bright sunlight are definitely better than scans or color copies, wow. Good thing I live in Colorado.

On other projects, I found an amazing gold and red chenille remnant and I’m working on a kirtle (fronted with Martha Stewart tableclothes I’ve been hoarding forever, haha) and loose gown. It is so. freaking. pretty. And I love loose gowns, because they are comfy, look fine without a corset, and are not fitted much and are thus less stressful to make. Sasha fitted me for a doublet and bodice pattern, and now I need to make a boned kirtle and then go from there.

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Ottonian doodles Sunday, Mar 30 2008

I have been working on an approximation of the Ottonian gold-on-purple calligraphy. The originals were on murex-dyed vellum (or, in some cases, vellum dyed with cheaper dyes) in shell gold. As I cannot afford murex and don’t want to work with shell gold yet, I’m trying to come up with substitutes. Ideally, I want the purple to be semi-transparent and slightly streaky, but not extremely streaky. I think this should be possible with watercolors, but I’m not very good with watercolors, as this doodle shows.

This doodle is on purple watercolor (which came out way too streaky) with an acrylic gold calligraphy ink. Previously I tried W&N drawing ink (MASSIVE FAIL), thinned gold W&N gouache (fail), and PearlEx mixed with gum arabic and water (better than the others, but didn’t work well). Anyway, the acrylic calligraphy ink worked okay, but unfortunately, it has a brown base and the gold isn’t very bright, so the contrast with the background isn’t very good.

I’m still trying to get the hang of metallic calligraphy. The examples of Ottonian gold-on-purple calligraphy I’ve seen in books definitely aren’t as crisp as regular black calligraphy; I think it’s an inevitable byproduct of the metallic powder. But I think I’m going to try thinning some yellow gouache and mixing in PearlEx for a brighter gold and see if that works as ink. I’m also going to use a more reddish purple (one of the pieces I like is more of a purpleish red), and use quinacridone red gouache and a touch of the indanthrene blue watercolor, so it’ll be very slightly transparent, but not as wet or streaky as the watercolor. Hopefully that will work! I really want to figure out this technique.

The borders are just different experiments based on a few different examples. I’m happy with parts of them but not others, and of course I’d be more careful about my lines on an actual scroll. I think more whitework would definitely improve them. I’m not sure I like the wide border on the left–the multibanded border on the top looks more interesting to me.

The colors are pretty far off the original–anyway, the greens are viridian- and sap green-based (viridian is a pain to work with! I think I’d rather use phathalo green), the red is pyrrol red (too bright and not orange enough–also covers badly, so I think I need to use a different red for outlining, although I might be able to mix it with one of the red earth oxides), the blue is ultramarine (it scanned BADLY), purple is indanthrene blue + quinacridone red, gold is PearlEx Brilliant Gold. I wish I could figure out how to correct the colors better, but oh well. I should probably just take photos in natural light.

Anyway, I think I’ve got an idea of where to go with this next, which was the point of the exercise.

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Linen! And sewing and scrolls Wednesday, Mar 26 2008

It appears after burning that the mystery dark wine-purple linen or linen blend fabric I picked up on the Joann remnant table for $5/yard a couple weeks ago (I think I got almost 8 yards) is probably 100% linen, and definitely contains nothing melty. It’s got a nice hand, much heavier than the linen/cotton blends I’ve bought before. Anyway, yay for nonmelting! I think I shall use it for a boned kirtle/basic camping dress, and I’ll have a bunch leftover I can use for lining things.

Definitely need to sit down and actually sew, stop buying fabric.

Today I finally got up the nerve to cut out the Anglo-Saxon overtunic pieces from the embroidered wool tablecloth. Whew. I need to wash the linen for the undertunic and cut it out, but it will be nice to do a genuinely quick and easy project. I have some lovely inkle-woven trim I bought to sew on by hand, but I may just do that on the undertunic and use the rest for a belt.

Last weekend I started working on a Dorothea-based pair of bodies. I did the first fitting of a mockup (based on the Reconstructing History pattern, modified to bring it more in line with the original in Janet Arnold) and it’s pretty off in some ways but should be fairly easy to fix. Once I have a pair of bodies, I shall ask a kindly local Laurel to fit me for a doublet and then I can make some serious inway on the fabric stash, I hope! In the meantime, I have a kirtle and cotehardie to put together. This cotehardie will be based on a Spanish painting in Anderson’s Hispanic Clothing, which has the open hanging sleeves like a bliaut. I imagine the sleeves will annoy me to no end, but I want something distinctively Spanish, and I don’t have any plaid in my stash to do the parti-colored plaid cotehardie. Someday.

Melchior put up the wire shelves, so I’m (slowly) working on turning the boxes and piles of fabric and craft stuff into something resembling organized. I think some of it will end up free to a good home. Yay for organization, slowly as it comes.

I have a scroll assignment for Kingdom A&S. I’m very excited–it will give me a chance to try some neat Ottonian stuff if I can get it to work. I really need to figure out a Gothic hand, though, since there’s a lot of illumination I really want to do that requires a Gothic hand. Bleh, Gothic.

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Awesome website! Tuesday, Mar 25 2008

WARNING: This post is completely incoherent.

Natural Pigments is an awesome website–historical dry pigments, equipment for making paint, and watercolors made with natural pigments (somewhat pricey, but not too bad). The prices are decent (especially for malachite, azurite, and lapis lazuli) and they sell small quantities.

Of particular note,

Malachite (fine grind)
Lapis (premium)
Lapis (standard)
Lapis (Baikal)
Lapis (Afghanistan, standard)
Lapis (Afghanistan, standard)
Azurite (coarse)
Azurite (fine)
Genuine cinnabar (that price is practically UNREAL for natural cinnabar)
Vermilion (China)
Minium (red lead)
Orpiment
Jarosite (doesn’t look as bright a orpiment, but also doesn’t contain arsenic)
Rabbit skin glue (I really want to try glair + glue for Persian miniatures now…)
Lapis in a tube (pricey, but worth it if genuine–definitely looks granular enough)
Malachite in a tube
Vivianite (pretty! Can’t document it, though)
Gold Ochre (possible saffron substitute?)
Very reasonable price on genuine gold leaf (conveniently sold in a book rather than a larger quantity)
Shell gold (ditto)

They also have blue and green bice (copper pigments used pretty frequently in medieval times to substitute for lapis, azurite, and malachite).

The prices for lapis look almost too good to be true, but it DOES appear to be natural lapis rather than synthetic ultramarine. This company knows their Cennini, which is awesome, and they admit that the lapis is not prepared in the traditional manner (although they claim they will offer that eventually). There’s enough variation to the powders that it really does look natural. For $7.50, I can totally afford to order some and try it!

OMG I love these people.

The SCA needs to know about this! Making your own pigments is great (and they’re a resource for that), but I bet there are a lot of people who’d go for premixed watercolors with period pigments. The comment about lac lake being more lightfast than cochineal or madder lakes is interesting. And these have so much more texture than the standard watercolors.

I’m considering the possibility of making my own paints and storing them (on account of LAZINESS), but I’m not sure about spoilage. I wonder if I could use watercolor medium and simply use a pigment amount proportional to gouache rather than watercolor? I also let the saffron from last night dry out to see if I can rewet it reasonably. Lacquered watercolor tubes.

Article on making shell gold and icon painting

The website’s navigation is somewhat buggy — I had to use the search box at the top of the page to find anything.

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Fun with color swatches Monday, Mar 24 2008

Paint Swatches

Mostly M. Graham, except earth and indanthrene blue watercolors (Winsor & Newton, Holbein for the Yellow Ochre and Indian Red) and saffron (natural). The colors are a bit off:

Saffron: Attempt #1

A color which is made from an herb called saffron is yellow. You should put it on a linen cloth, over a hot stone or brick. Then take half a goblet or glass full of good strong lye. Put this saffron in it; work it up on the slab. This makes a fine color for dyeing linen or cloth. It is good on parchment. And see that it is not exposed to the air, for it soon loses its color. And if you want to make the most perfect grass color imaginable, take a little verdigris and some saffron; that is, of the three parts let one be saffron; and it comes out the most perfect grass-green imaginable, tempered with a little size, as I will show you later.
-Cennino d’Andrea Cennini, Il Libro dell’ Arte, trans. Daniel V. Thompson, Jr.

Saffron was typically mixed with glair in medieval times–a pinch of dried saffron was allowed to infuse into glair and it was good to go. It was used for both calligraphy and illumination in books, due to its fugitive nature. I’ve found some about saffron (especially in calligraphy) in Islamic illumination, but I have to pursue that further.

I also found a great reference from a Persian manuscript about how verdigris (prepared with yogurt!) will damage paper, and this may be averted by mixing it with saffron. So the verdigris + saffron combination wasn’t just a European thing.

Anyway, on account of wanting to see what saffron looked like, I infused it in gum arabic, since I haven’t mixed up any glair yet. It took a while to infuse (I might have speeded this process by mulling; I’ll try that next time), and made a very transparent, pale, bright yellow very close to true but with the faintest warmth to it. To be honest, I was expecting something with more of an orange tint to it. It was warmer than azo yellow and much cooler than gamboge hue, so I’m back to the drawing (painting?) board on a synthetic substitute. I ended up mixing the saffron with a touch of titanium white to make it cover more readily.

Here are the yellows I played with today. The saffron is natural Spanish saffron (yum! It smelled really good while I was painting), the azo yellow, titanium white, and gamboge are M. Graham gouache, and the gamboge WC is M. Graham watercolor (the viridian is also M. Graham watercolor, and I think I may end up getting the gouache version for mixing with white as a malachite substitute–it’s not quite right for verdigris, and I think I’ll have to carefully make some before I can really do comparisons. The photo is, of course, not a perfect representation.

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A list of historical pigments/lakes/dyes Monday, Mar 17 2008

Mineral Pigments

Ultramarine (lapis lazuli)
Azurite
Malachite
Verdigris
Vermilion/Cinnabar/Minium
Red lead/Orange lead/Minium
White lead
Bone White, Eggshell White
Lamp Black
Bone Black, Ivory Black
Vine Black
Charred peach stone/almond shell black
Raw Umber
Burnt Umber
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna
Sinoper/sinopia, Venetian Red, Indian Red (not sure how to break up the red earths, since they varied so much in period)
Hematite
Copper blues
Terre verte
Orpiment (I like how Cennini tells you not to eat it)
Realgar (not very important as a pigment)
Giallorino?/Massicot/yellow lead
Yellow ochre(s)
Van Dyke Brown?
Burnt Ochre? (generally not sure what to do with earth oxides, since they’re not very standardized)

Lakes
Brazilwood/Sappanwood (Caesalpinia sp.)
Gamboge (pre 16th century in Asia, possibly also Asia Minor/Eastern Europe)
Cochineal, kermes, Polish cochineal
Lac
Woad, indigo
Sap green
Iris green
Buckthorn yellow
Weld

Unlaked Dyes
Saffron
Dragonsblood
Folium, turnsole
Tyrian purple
Orchil (minor use if any–questionable)

Out of Period
Viridian
Cobalt Blue (19th century–I’ve actually seen this recommended as a “better period blue” than ultramarine, which is one of the reasons I’m working on this chart*)
Madder Lakes (much more difficult to lake than the cochineals or brazilwoods, probably not used as a lake pre 19th century)

*This list of possible substitutes is good, but not as comprehensive as I’m going for, and eventually I want to do swatches and such.

On a side note, while I am still loving the watercolor pigment resource, comments like “the antiquated and highly fugitive pigment cochineal (genuine carmine), which since the 19th century has been appropriate only for food coloring” irritate me because “antiquated” is a value judgment without qualification (for modern artists, perhaps; for people doing historical reproductions or restoration, no), and cochineal is an excellent fabric dye with good lightfastness for those who like the “antiquated” tones of natural dyes (synthetic paints can do a pretty good job mimicking, but I have yet to see aniline fabric dyes that look like natural dyes or fade as gracefully). “Antiquated” is one of those obnoxiously condescending words like “quaint.”

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Color equivalencies Monday, Mar 17 2008

This site is amazingly comprehensive on the subject of watercolor pigments and colors. The author notes that lightfastness (both his and manufacturer’s) should be taken with a grain of salt–if you want to be really sure, test your specific tubes of paint.

I don’t really agree with him that modern synthetics are better in all ways than historical pigments, but hey, I’m in the SCA. I think that it’s important to at least understand the way historical pigments work–for example, a medieval illuminator would not typically have mixed red lead and white lead because the paint would probably turn black (in theory, they can be mixed if absolutely free of sulfur impurities). So mixing a modern orangeish red with titanium white to get a light red would produce a color the medieval illuminator wouldn’t have. But I also find that the historical colors do look subtly different, and working with them provides me with a historical experience that modern substitutes never can, even if I mix them myself.

Am I going to use saffron and glair on a piece for someone else? Absolutely not! But I still want to try it out on an intentionally impermanent piece for my own education. And I don’t think using less lightfast pigments on pieces that will not exposed to light–such as books–is a bad idea. Medieval manuscripts have, after all, retained their beauty for centuries.

Anyway, I’m working on a chart of historical pigments and modern watercolor and gouache equivalents (both authentic and substitute), and I think I’m going to have to list by major brands. It’s an interesting project. For some things, such as vermilion/natural cinnabar, it’s easy to find a universally recommended substitute (cadmium red light). For others, I’m going to have to mix up the period paints and try to figure out what I’d use. And some are just going to be a shot in the dark–synthetic dibromoindigo seems to be impossible to find, so I’m going to have to guess at possible transparent substitutes for Tyrian purple based on photographs (and Tyrian purple was hugely variable based on both mollusc species and preparation technique).

I really want to put some of the Daniel Smith PrimaTek colors on a microscope slide and check them out with a petrographic scope now (assuming that would work with ground minerals rather than thin sections). I’m really, really skeptical that some of those colors are genuine minerals, particularly the rhodonite, and that should be easy to tell under a scope. I might even be able to tell with my old kid’s scope, if I still had it. I’ll have to see if I can check that out….

In other news, I’ve been doodling with gouache a lot, and my brush hand is a LOT steadier, so my next attempt at illumination won’t be as wobbly. I need to work on my Carolingian spacing, though. Yesterday I painted my first super miniature portrait (about 1.5″ across, round, because that was the only decent frame I could find–16th century miniatures were usually larger). Of course it’s in gouache and not oils and it has issues, but it vaguely looks like me, if I were darker, Spanish, and didn’t ever smile. Close enough for 1.5″, I think. I need to paint one of Melchior and varnish/seal them so they look less gouache-y and acrylic-seal the brass frames so they won’t tarnish and then we can wear twinky miniature portraits of each other.

I’m hoping to have some time over spring break (between sewing, embroidery, work, and homework, not in that order) to play with the period pigments some more and make glair and tempera.

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Calligraphy and illumination class! Monday, Mar 10 2008

I’m going to take a calligraphy and illumination class in May, which I expect to be fun. Here’s the class description:

Celtic And Historical Calligraphy

During this course you will learn the skills of the masters of European Calligraphy. We’ll cover historical inking colours, their origins and how they are made. Parchments and vellums, various papers, quill types, quill cutting, scripting tables, layout geometry, and related themes will be demonstrated and discussed. Period scripting and styles, including Celtic, Ottonian, Renaissance, and others, will be explained and illustrated. Skill in scripting, design, illustration, and illumination is used in historical reproduction work as well as modern art. The information presented will surprise modern digital graphic ad layout artists, enhancing their knowledge and depth in their own professional fields. Please bring $10 to class for materials.

It’s a two-day workshop taught by Dan Cheatham II, who’s clearly trying to spin it to appeal to modern graphic artists, but his real interests are historical. So more practice making period paints, AND he has genuine lapis and malachite to play with, which will be exciting since there is no freaking way I’m going to buy lapis to grind up myself at the current prices. So this may be my chance to find out how genuine lapis looks and handles differently from synthetic ultramarine.

Dan also teaches a longbow making class, which would really tempt me if I liked shooting longbows, which I don’t. But I am tempted by the leatherwork class, since several people have suggested tooling as an alternative to stamping for the Gothic-lettered motto belts I want to make from Dress Accessories, and Melchior and his boss don’t do tooling at work on account of things like profit margins. So getting some instruction in that might be a good idea. I’ll have to see how finances and time go.

There’s a baronial corset workshop coming up, so I need to do a mockup fitted as far as I can get without help on the modified Dorothea bodies.

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Mmmmm, silk Sunday, Mar 9 2008

Today I went to the annual bolt end sale of super-expensive men’s tie and waistcoat manufacturers Carrot and Gibbs. Absolutely stunning 100% Italian silk brocades and prints, many darn close to period and probably mind-bogglingly expensive, for $5 or less a yard (almost all 28″ wide, though, with rarely enough on the bolt end for a full garment).

I got a lot of bits I could make doublets or hoods or corset outer layers out of, and hopefully enough of a gorgeous purple and red brocade to get a cotehardie out of if I piece extremely carefully. Melchior bought some silk and also snapped up the last yard of a brown 100% cashmere that feels like a dream. C&G isn’t going to make any more cashmere scarves because the fabric’s too expensive, so alas, none of that next year.

I shall post pictures later! Melchior is thinking of making a swatch book of his fabric stash, and given that our collective stashed take up half the hall closet and a large chunk of the living room, I think he is onto something. It will certainly make it easier to see what I have when I’m working on a project.

And after a few years of this sale and projects from the fabric, I may have enough silk brocade scraps left over to made a crazy-quilt dan-gawari kosode!

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