I received a request for an Award of Arms for a young lady from the Barony of Settmour Swamp. It was the first assignment I had where I had never met the recipient, nor knew anything about her. A little Facebook stalking, and a reach out to the award contact brought me a bit of information. She dabbled a bit in Rus and really liked her boars. Though she had no arms, I wanted to include boars in whatever I did to help personalize the award for her.
I began researching and with an assist from my husband, we stumbled upon the Egbert Psalter. The manuscript had traveled a bit, and spent some time in Kiev where some pages had been added. The illuminations were beautiful and in “thumbing” through the pages, I fell upon the page below which just blew me away.
The first thing I noticed which might need altering was the border. With everything surrounding the Snartemo band, I sought some opinions from some trusted sources. We were in agreement, that the border should be changed for the sanity of everyone. I opted for a simple greek key pattern as I felt it would keep with the aesthetic. In addition, I altered the background to include boars for the recipient.
The final piece was done on a 9×12 inch piece of pergemenata. This was the first piece I had done on perg, and it proved to be a challenge as it was not as flat as I would have liked. However, writing on it was magical. I prepared it with a little gum sandarac. Once I had dusted it off, I lined it for the calligraphy. The hand was akin to Carolingian miniscule, and I felt like I had accomplished it well. In the last few pieces, I have realized I struggle with spacing and that is something I will work on. This one, however, was not bad.
Once the calligraphy made it on to the page, I began the painting. After several sessions, I ended up with a completed piece with no black gouache on it–a first for me. I was quite happy with the end result, and was happy to hear the recipient loved it. Below is the slideshow of the progress from start to finish.
Paper: Natural Pergemenata
Ink: Ian the Green Iron Gall Ink
Paint: Holbein Artists’ Gouache / Winsor & Newton Gold Gouache
Words: Lord Edmund Beneyt
The Voice of Audrye Beneyt 