Ok. I’m a bit too chicken to actually start on Lorenzo‘s vellum scroll without ever having worked on vellum before so I’m cranking out a Meridian Cross for Greet. She was given the award at Midwinter A&S last year as sort of a drive by in the middle of court and did not receive a scroll at the time.

For this one, I am working on a bit of vellum that Mistress Grainne gave me at RUM to play with. It should end up being a 5″x7″ frameable area size. The overall size will be a little bit bigger than that but not a full 8″x10″.

I got to use the quills that I cured & cut last Sunday. It ended up working out pretty decent. The hardest part seemed to be trimming it after it got dull and getting it back to the same size again. That took several (5-10) tries to get it right. It definitely writes best when the quill is kept at 90 degrees from the writing surface. I used the oak gall ink purchased several years ago. (It didn’t go as evenly as I would have liked so I’m hoping it will be better once it has all darkened up in a few days.)

The hand is basic gothic textura. The source style is based off of a 14th century English manuscript. The bees are extra. (Greet likes bees.) 🙂 The harp & calipers are extra also. (They are the symbols associated with the award & Greet likes harps & calipers.) 🙂

So, I’ve got a new commission. The Laurel scroll for one Lorenzo Petrucci. I am quite excited and nervous all at the same time. This time I know it is going to end up hanging on a wall in my house so I don’t want there to be any glaring, ugly flaws! 🙂

I am trying to do this one as fancy and true to period as I can. Lorenzo selected the piece that it is to be based on. It is the dedication page of De Pratica Seu Arte Tripudii by Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro. It is a 15th century dance manual by some dead Italian guy. I think it is quite fitting to his persona.

Material. It is going to be done on vellum. I ordered a hide a few weeks ago. It came rolled up in a 4″ square tube and is now being flattened out between the mattress and bunk board of D’s upper bunk. I think (hope, hope, hope) it should be ready by Labor Day weekend.

Text. I’ve got the spacing worked out. It is going to be a mix of Roman capitals and Humanist. I’ve only done practice rounds using steel nib on paper so far but I will be quite pleased if it turns out as well on the actual scroll.

Quills. I am going to do all of the text with real live, dead bird feathers. I spent yesterday waiting for the sand to heat up in my little crock pot and then waiting for it to cool down. Sand left unattended and forgotten will get very hot (>300F). Note to self – when doing this project again, set a timer. I also learned not to pour the water off of the feathers until it is time to actually cure the feathers. Otherwise the membrane is not quite as easy to scrape off.

The actual cutting part is not as intimidating as I thought it would be. Mostly, I think that will be a matter of practice, practice, practice. I ended up cutting or re-cutting 11 quills. I’ve only tested 1 so far using red gouache. It worked fair enough on paper. I’m hoping it will work just as smooth, if not better, on vellum.

My current project is a laurel scroll commissioned by Mistress Derbail inghean Conchobar for Ophelia aus Bavaria.  Her persona  is mid 14th century German but the style was left as flexible.  Initial work began on this project in early April.

My inspiration piece is taken from a great website on the Burnet Psalter.  It is a 15th century psalter that was donated to the Marischal College in Aberdeen during the 16th century by one of its alumni Gilbert Burnet.  The site has full images of every page of the manuscript!  The design has textura quadrata calligraphy (used in northern Europe from the 13th century through the early 16th century), basic red blue and whitework color scheme, and LOTS and LOTS of pretty GOLD.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/heritage/collects/bps/text/152r.htm