William Arwemakere Order of the Grey Goose Shaft scroll.
This scroll was completed for June Faire in Dragon's Laire this last weekend (one of my alternate activities during May Crown weekend).
Also should state that William is a VERY good friend, because I don't do this kind of thing for just any Grant level award:-]
And yes, the Dragon's Company charter was a quick study for this scroll:-]
Oh the mysteries of LiveJournal, somehow the main photo for this scroll has disappeared so go to the Scrapbook to find it under one of the Kingdom Scroll albums:-s.
Scroll Text
Tremble before these words for with a voice of thunder & a visage of lightning do We, Ieuan, rightful king of An Tir, & Gwyneth, Our beloved queen, declare this Our will.
Let it be known that We do hereby execute due just recognition & reward having witnessed the deeds of our faithful William Arwemakere in the fields of An Tir & having received report of his accomplishments from Our loyal subjects, as well from Our noble cousins in Their southern wars & on hearing the acclaim with which he has been met having distinguished himself through feats of skill with a bow & of his leadership in instructing others in this his chosen avocation.
Thus We are minded to exercise Our sovereign prerogative to enter him into Our right noble Order of the Grey Goose Shaft & do confer upon him all the rights, honors, privileges & responsibilities appertaining thereunto.
And that this decree may for all ages remain valid & unshaken We have ordered the present document to be confirmed by the authority of Our seal & by the character of the royal signatures this second day of june anno Societatis xlvii, being mmxii gregorian, & declared while We are seated in Our court while We are met at june faire in Our barony of Dragon’s Laire.
Completed scroll
The overall structure is pretty pleasing though it was a matter of understanding some of the details of the manuscript better once I started to lay in the colors. The court scene with William and Their Majesties I had always intended to have a blue background to offset all the yellow tones that were being used that would have faded against a gilded background and I had intended to offset this with blue in the Castle scene as well, but when I started looking at the Morgan Bible closely I found that the gilded areas, when there, were always in the lower right hand side and the upper left hand side. Because of the way they divide the outside border colors (a couple of ways usually either quartered or "per pale") this meant the Castle background needed to be red. To pop the design out again (because the gates were already red at this point)the castle became blue which was fortitious since I then had Gleann Abhann and Trimaris's colors well represented:-].
Line drawing & calligraphy
The rectangular design area is about the same size as the original from the Morgan Picture Bible http://www.themorgan.org/collections/swf/exhibOnline.asp?id=282 also sometimes called the Morgan Bible of Louis IX, the Book of Kings, the Crusader Bible, or the Maciejowski Bible.
There are parts of scenes that go outside the borders which were used extensively in this design. Originally there was going to be a trebuchet along the right hand side at the top and down the right hand side, but I need to put other things in that area (unfortunately the space makes it look like the top text is floating instead of resting on the design:-s) so the chivalwarus is resting on the bit of land the trebucheter would have been standing on.
Because I was working from a photo taken of William at Gulf Wars on one of the ramps he had to be faced in a specific direction. While for reasons discuseed in the completed scroll photo it would have been good to have put TRM and William on the lower lefthand panel, that would have had everything going in a single direction that would have visually have made the design tip to one side so I ran the scene in the opposite direction. The lion was added as a counter balance to the tower on the opposite side (the person shooting the trebuchet original would have been the balance, but as they didn't get on there...) the lion also gives a frame to the Royal signatures...
The text was much longer than I had planned and as I was realizing this I pulled the seal up into it (I had about 3-4 inches at the top that I had put out of the scrolls design because I thought I was going ot have plenty of space) and ended up changing some of the text referring to the signatures "below" since they went to the side though that was serendiptous to have Them sign near Their images.
Gilding completed
Had some issues with the gilding, the morning gilding went really well, but I continued through the day hoping to get it all done when I should have stopped until the dew fell, I needed a little more humidity in the air to make the gold leaf stick better. I ended up having to re-gild areas as well as put an additional coat of gesso on some of the worst spots so the gilding seems a little rough to me, if I would have had the humidity with me (I was considering going in to the bathroom to work with it with the shower running...) this gesso mix would have been pretty good (it was a batch of Secreta recipe made during the scribal slumber party weekend).
Upper tier - Gulf Wars
From left to right: in the tower is Iain, whom William calls the best crossbowman in the Society, the banner of Gleann Abhann ended up being a little shorter than the others because it was headed through HRM Gwyneth's name:-s, The doors on the tower are red with the black hardware to represent that the castle is in Gleann Abhann. The walls are blue to represent the Trimarian forces (and behind them are soldiers both in red and blue), the castle is a little larger than most of the castles in the Morgan Bible so I could get it to look closer to what I was seeing in a photo of William on a siege ramp (the ladder is more horizontal as well to get the right look from the photo).
In the other tower in Jon who is the war commander for the Gleann Abhann forces at Gulf Wars, which William told me when he looked at the scroll was not an archer... oops.
The black and red banner represents the Wolfpack, one of the war companies William fights for, and is held by a soldier in blue and white to represent Tir Righ, the Principality where the Wolfpack is centered.
The figures in black with yellow trim are to represent the Company of St Sebastian that William fights for when he's down at Gulf Wars and whom he's been down to see in Ansteorra as well which they are out of (those are little black stars in the yellow trim:-]).
The horsemen's banners in order are Ansteorra, Merides (the two principle combatants to Gleann Abhann and Trimaris), An Tir, and the Company of St Sebastian.
The little piece of green to the side is "Williamland" once it's been translated out of Latin and sitting on top of it is the chivalwarus, so named because Viscountess Callista told William that was what he was:-]
Pigs Fear Me
Porci me timent. One of the young people William was camping with gave him his motto... he frequently takes a pound of bacon (or more) for services rendered in wars:-]
I guess I was a little too exacting in my details - the red line down his back somehow velcroes over to hide a camcorder cord making it a much simpler per pale. There is a pig crying (for fear) on the shield even though he's on William's (out)side for the moment.
Lower Tier - Court Scene
From left to right coming from other kingdoms (distant towered states:-]) I depicted Duke William whom William met at Gulf Wars, and Mistress Sigrid his laurel (the white objects at her neckline are supposed to be birch leaves from her heraldry). Then we have some random celebrators (needed somebody to make a joyous noise since I can't carry a tune), myself with paintbrush in hand, Baroness Rosamund from Aquaterra, which is a branch William has play quite a bit with (the rose on her cloak is an element of her heraldry), she is holding Williams banner, then Lianor who had made a bracer for William (he ended up inheriting one from Baron Julian of Aquaterra), William, and Their Majesties Ieuan and Gwyneth.
Lower Right hand scene - William before Their Majesties Ieuan and Gwyneth
Hope I got enough lions in there to prove this is An Tir:-]
Also should state that William is a VERY good friend, because I don't do this kind of thing for just any Grant level award:-]
And yes, the Dragon's Company charter was a quick study for this scroll:-]
Oh the mysteries of LiveJournal, somehow the main photo for this scroll has disappeared so go to the Scrapbook to find it under one of the Kingdom Scroll albums:-s.
Scroll Text
Tremble before these words for with a voice of thunder & a visage of lightning do We, Ieuan, rightful king of An Tir, & Gwyneth, Our beloved queen, declare this Our will.
Let it be known that We do hereby execute due just recognition & reward having witnessed the deeds of our faithful William Arwemakere in the fields of An Tir & having received report of his accomplishments from Our loyal subjects, as well from Our noble cousins in Their southern wars & on hearing the acclaim with which he has been met having distinguished himself through feats of skill with a bow & of his leadership in instructing others in this his chosen avocation.
Thus We are minded to exercise Our sovereign prerogative to enter him into Our right noble Order of the Grey Goose Shaft & do confer upon him all the rights, honors, privileges & responsibilities appertaining thereunto.
And that this decree may for all ages remain valid & unshaken We have ordered the present document to be confirmed by the authority of Our seal & by the character of the royal signatures this second day of june anno Societatis xlvii, being mmxii gregorian, & declared while We are seated in Our court while We are met at june faire in Our barony of Dragon’s Laire.
Completed scroll
The overall structure is pretty pleasing though it was a matter of understanding some of the details of the manuscript better once I started to lay in the colors. The court scene with William and Their Majesties I had always intended to have a blue background to offset all the yellow tones that were being used that would have faded against a gilded background and I had intended to offset this with blue in the Castle scene as well, but when I started looking at the Morgan Bible closely I found that the gilded areas, when there, were always in the lower right hand side and the upper left hand side. Because of the way they divide the outside border colors (a couple of ways usually either quartered or "per pale") this meant the Castle background needed to be red. To pop the design out again (because the gates were already red at this point)the castle became blue which was fortitious since I then had Gleann Abhann and Trimaris's colors well represented:-].
Line drawing & calligraphy
The rectangular design area is about the same size as the original from the Morgan Picture Bible http://www.themorgan.org/collections/swf/exhibOnline.asp?id=282 also sometimes called the Morgan Bible of Louis IX, the Book of Kings, the Crusader Bible, or the Maciejowski Bible.
There are parts of scenes that go outside the borders which were used extensively in this design. Originally there was going to be a trebuchet along the right hand side at the top and down the right hand side, but I need to put other things in that area (unfortunately the space makes it look like the top text is floating instead of resting on the design:-s) so the chivalwarus is resting on the bit of land the trebucheter would have been standing on.
Because I was working from a photo taken of William at Gulf Wars on one of the ramps he had to be faced in a specific direction. While for reasons discuseed in the completed scroll photo it would have been good to have put TRM and William on the lower lefthand panel, that would have had everything going in a single direction that would have visually have made the design tip to one side so I ran the scene in the opposite direction. The lion was added as a counter balance to the tower on the opposite side (the person shooting the trebuchet original would have been the balance, but as they didn't get on there...) the lion also gives a frame to the Royal signatures...
The text was much longer than I had planned and as I was realizing this I pulled the seal up into it (I had about 3-4 inches at the top that I had put out of the scrolls design because I thought I was going ot have plenty of space) and ended up changing some of the text referring to the signatures "below" since they went to the side though that was serendiptous to have Them sign near Their images.
Gilding completed
Had some issues with the gilding, the morning gilding went really well, but I continued through the day hoping to get it all done when I should have stopped until the dew fell, I needed a little more humidity in the air to make the gold leaf stick better. I ended up having to re-gild areas as well as put an additional coat of gesso on some of the worst spots so the gilding seems a little rough to me, if I would have had the humidity with me (I was considering going in to the bathroom to work with it with the shower running...) this gesso mix would have been pretty good (it was a batch of Secreta recipe made during the scribal slumber party weekend).
Upper tier - Gulf Wars
From left to right: in the tower is Iain, whom William calls the best crossbowman in the Society, the banner of Gleann Abhann ended up being a little shorter than the others because it was headed through HRM Gwyneth's name:-s, The doors on the tower are red with the black hardware to represent that the castle is in Gleann Abhann. The walls are blue to represent the Trimarian forces (and behind them are soldiers both in red and blue), the castle is a little larger than most of the castles in the Morgan Bible so I could get it to look closer to what I was seeing in a photo of William on a siege ramp (the ladder is more horizontal as well to get the right look from the photo).
In the other tower in Jon who is the war commander for the Gleann Abhann forces at Gulf Wars, which William told me when he looked at the scroll was not an archer... oops.
The black and red banner represents the Wolfpack, one of the war companies William fights for, and is held by a soldier in blue and white to represent Tir Righ, the Principality where the Wolfpack is centered.
The figures in black with yellow trim are to represent the Company of St Sebastian that William fights for when he's down at Gulf Wars and whom he's been down to see in Ansteorra as well which they are out of (those are little black stars in the yellow trim:-]).
The horsemen's banners in order are Ansteorra, Merides (the two principle combatants to Gleann Abhann and Trimaris), An Tir, and the Company of St Sebastian.
The little piece of green to the side is "Williamland" once it's been translated out of Latin and sitting on top of it is the chivalwarus, so named because Viscountess Callista told William that was what he was:-]
Pigs Fear Me
Porci me timent. One of the young people William was camping with gave him his motto... he frequently takes a pound of bacon (or more) for services rendered in wars:-]
I guess I was a little too exacting in my details - the red line down his back somehow velcroes over to hide a camcorder cord making it a much simpler per pale. There is a pig crying (for fear) on the shield even though he's on William's (out)side for the moment.
Lower Tier - Court Scene
From left to right coming from other kingdoms (distant towered states:-]) I depicted Duke William whom William met at Gulf Wars, and Mistress Sigrid his laurel (the white objects at her neckline are supposed to be birch leaves from her heraldry). Then we have some random celebrators (needed somebody to make a joyous noise since I can't carry a tune), myself with paintbrush in hand, Baroness Rosamund from Aquaterra, which is a branch William has play quite a bit with (the rose on her cloak is an element of her heraldry), she is holding Williams banner, then Lianor who had made a bracer for William (he ended up inheriting one from Baron Julian of Aquaterra), William, and Their Majesties Ieuan and Gwyneth.
Lower Right hand scene - William before Their Majesties Ieuan and Gwyneth
Hope I got enough lions in there to prove this is An Tir:-]