Some of my Arts and Sciences efforts landed at Ursulwyck Medieval Faire this last weekend!
First up – the second gambeson I sewed Rollo made its first appearance at the event! So glad it worked out how he wanted once he added the arming points!
Next – my Protégé contract. Zahra had asked me to create the contract since I’ve been practicing my calligraphy, with instructions to write it twice on one page with room for signatures below both, with the intent that each of us would be able to walk away with a copy once it was cut in half.
The trouble was, I had written too much and I couldn’t conceivably fit all of that on one 8.5” x 11” space at the skill level I’m at with the pens I have on hand. Given that this was done in the last week leading up to the event, I didn’t have a lot of time to change my plan, so I pivoted from what I’d initially pictured and wrote it on both sides of the paper, flipping the page head over heels, with a gap in the middle of the contract on both sides so that when cut, we each had as close to a duplicate as possible. During the ceremony, the careful cut was done with some squiggles to make it a unique key-like match, showing the two copies as a pair.
I’m really happy with how this turned out, and am amused at the image with the lightbox behind it showing the delicate space the cut had to be made, lest screw up the entire plan!
And finally – my first original scroll! This is a Golden Estoile, a second level service award in Aquaterra. The words were adapted from The Day Sky by Hafez by Zahra bint al-Rammah and calligraphed by me in Uncial font. I chose elements and colors to reflect the idea of stars in a day sky from Codex Amiatinus, linked below. Their Excellencies awarded this scroll to Peter of Aquaterra this past Saturday!
Also, here’s a Golden Estoile charter that I painted. I am most pleased with the face I added to the moon, inspired by many medieval examples
As a final fun note, Ilian Lucious Michelle Gloschat drew me while I was sitting in court and blessed me with the piece to take home. This was one of my top five moments of the event!
Ursulwyck Medieval Faire – part 2 of my personal experience – specifically my protégé ceremony binding me with Zahra bint al-Rammah! I was so honored and humbled by this experience!
I don’t generally get stage fright or struggle to speak in front of a crowd, but this was vulnerable and emotional and truly drinking the Kool-Aid in a way I haven’t done thus far. The time to be overly self-conscious came earlier than expected, though, since I needed to find a witness to represent me in the ceremony! Since Jaida, Zahra’s first protégé and one of my favorite people, was already involved in the ceremony as our Herald, we opted to bring in other folk for these roles.
How do you choose who to include in something like this? It turns out there were a lot of people that are important to me at this event, but for this, I hunted down Skallagrim and asked him, awkwardly, “As my oldest advisor, will you please be my witness?” I was met with a big smile, and if he was laughing at me instead of being happy for me, he didn’t let it show! So, I had a witness, and then a trail of spectators as we made our way to the appointed space, just off to the side of the merchant’s row.
Before long, it was time for the ceremony and Zahra and I approached it equally weird, just as we’d planned, just as we’d acknowledged from day one of our formal mentor/student conversation. Good things are weird! What can I say?
We had agreed to a variation of Sample #3 on this site (http://www.modaruniversity.org/Protege.htm) though she did include a last chance for me to run! When we reached the point where I ‘gave her my lands and property as a token of my pledge’, I moved my string of bells that I’m well known for from my neck to hers, as a symbol of that moment and in turn, when she ‘returned all my lands and property’, she returned my string of bells to my neck. I love that this adds to their story and meaning!
After that, it was time to sign the contract, followed by our witnesses, Geirleikr and Skallagrim, before cutting it in two!
Zahra had asked me to create the contract since I’ve been practicing my calligraphy, with instructions to write it twice on one page with room for signatures below both, with the intent that each of us would be able to walk away with a copy once it was cut in half. I believe she also knew that taking the time to calligraph the contract truly added to the experience. Calligraphy is a slower art, and you have time to contemplate the words very specifically, as you create them on the page, and by the time you’ve drafted your words and then calligraphed them twice, you really get in touch with them. I feel like this adds to the ‘are you taking this seriously?’ of it all, and I appreciate that.
So, after all that work to create it, she let me be the one to carefully cut it in half, reminding me to add some squiggles to make it a unique key-like match, showing the two copies as a pair.
And then Zahra gifted me with a truly handsome golden yellow necklace, adorned with a deep red teardrop jewel. This was gifted in lieu of a protégé belt, as I’d told her I don’t tend to wear belts with my persona’s garb. She included the beautiful jewel representing the blood drop that is a symbol often used in the SCA in association with service and sacrifice.
Zahra – I’d expected some kind of token, but this is SO in line with my aesthetic and persona and even my little goth heart! Thank you so much for this truly heartfelt gift! I need you to tell me more about it now that my brain isn’t so overwhelmed! Baroness Tabitta, said she taught you how to tie the individual beads on?? I need to learn these ways, because this whole thing is so well made!
After this, my *tiny* token of connection I gifted in return was a small brass bell each for Zahra and Jaida (as my now ProtoSister) – an offering of protection and joy, as the sound of bells is believed to ward off negativity, evil spirits, and to bring peace. I have duplicates of each of those bells and will be adding them to the string that I often wear, symbolizing that I’ll be carrying them with me going forward.
Adeliza then surprised me by gifting me with a ring that Rosamund had gifted her, to remind her of her oath, in hopes that it would do the same for me. I am so touched that she thought of me and gifted me with something that meant so much to her!
The ceremony ended after that and was followed by a flurry of congratulations and hugs and it all became a blur!
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Zahra, I am so grateful to you for this opportunity and for agreeing to do the ceremony with me at this demo event. We knew it’d be awkward, and it was, but it also ended up being so much more touching than I had expected. It’s not just Kool-Aid, folks, it’s friendship and support when done with the right people. You can see more of my gushing in the contract, but truly, you have been somebody I’ve admired for years and I feel so fortunate to share this experience with you.
I would also like to thank Jaida, not just for Heralding the ceremony, but for more than that. You were the one who inspired me to get involved in volunteering again after a break and connected me with some really good folk, including Zahra. I couldn’t ask for a better ProtoSister!
Geirleikr and Skallagrim, thank you so much for your support all this time, and for standing with us and joining in the ceremony as our witnesses. This weirdness is in part thanks to you both, and I am so glad you were both able to be a part of it!
Michael and Angharad, thank you so much for taking photos and helping memorialize this whole thing. I was surprised at how emotional it all was and would regret not having these to remember it by!
And I would also like to thank Camilla and Lóftr for organizing such a joyful event! I can’t imagine a better atmosphere to have shared this moment, so thank you both so much!
And all of you who chose to join us and observe this ceremony, thank you so much for taking the time to be a part of that! I hope you enjoyed a good laugh, felt the joy, and are inspired to pursue your path and help others on theirs as well!
Continuing from yesterday’s post about the very busy event!
The event was my last day as Aquaterra’s Arts and Sciences Champion, a role that was a lot more fun than expected. I am thankful for the opportunity to help shape the A&S activities in our barony over the last year and hope to keep supporting those in the future!
One of my last official duties was running a Scribal Competition sponsored by our Seneschal, Camilla Valerian, in an effort to help encourage interest in the scribal arts in our barony. The competition was to create blank charters (scrolls used repeatedly for most local awards) for either the Blue Stag or the Blue Kraken awards. There were four folk interested in participating, but life happened in all cases, so for the majority of the day, it looked like we weren’t going to have a competition.
Then, Kat Draggon decided to create an entry while on site and convinced their friend Dagr Bjornskaege to participate as well. Between the two of them, the populace vote was super close, with Dagr barely prevailing. Dagr has also since contacted me and offered to create a fully finished version of their charter for Their Excellencies’ use! Such a turnaround from what it appeared would happen!
by Dagr Bjornskaegeby Kat Draggon
My final responsibility as Champion was to run the competition to replace me for the coming year, and I believe that turned out incredibly well despite only having one competitor. Domina Aenor de Pessac presented a well-informed explanation of her exploration of creating painted banners in the styling of painted stained glass. The judges were impressed, and Their Excellencies swore her into the role at evening court. Unfortunately, I was remiss in taking photos of her entry, but her presentation was so very thorough and educational that it exceeded my expectations for our local competition, so I’d very much say that was a successful end to my year and I’m so excited to see what she does with the role!
There were a couple other bright points of the day, as though there weren’t enough already. One was witnessing Camilla’s protege ceremony, making Aenor her Pelican. I am so glad to see this connection and expanded support for Camilla!
The other bright point was that I received my first Arts and Sciences award, a Griffe et du Lion, the AOA/first level Kingdom A&S recognition!
Whew! So much for one, single day event!
It’s taken me some time to get to posting since I also re-structured my SCA blog site and updated my SCA resume and wiki to reflect the changes that happened this past weekend, but seeing all this in print really is good for my brain and I hope to keep improving on documenting my SCA experiences – especially the wins!
First, I’ve had a plan to replace the main body of the A&S Champion regalia bag for some time, but this was the deadline. The original bag was made from wool, which collected all the pet hair, and it was starting to show signs of wear and tear, so I removed the existing embellishments, folded in the edges and created patches when needed, and sewed them onto a new bag I made out of linen. I then used a couple of the main pockets from the original bag to be the internal pockets so the soul of the bag is fully intact. The various embellishments have been added over the years, I believe by previous Champions, and I wanted that to all live on.
I made my first ever donation to the dessert auction, 25 Chocolate Covered Cherries with Hazelnut, and they went for far more than I could have hoped, and I was asked to make a second batch so the second bidder could *also* make their donation and get a set of chocolates, so that’s in my future! I also won a bid for some Espresso Brownies, but forgot to photograph those before they made it into bellies!
Shortly after I walked into the event, my friend Camilla Valerian surprised me with this perfect set of jewelry she made me to go with my mourning gown project! I am so excited to debut this, it’s helping give me to gumption to move to the next part of that project! Thank you, Camilla!
I was also able to finish up painting my first handful of charters in a very long time and got them submitted to Their Excellencies. Since they’re not unique scrolls, I’m posting them now. I’m so excited to have gotten back into this art, and to have treated myself to better tools this time!
I’m going to continue this in another post, since this one is getting quite long!
In addition to the A&S Championship competition, I’ll be hosting another competition at Good Yule in the realm of Arts and Sciences! Our Coronets are looking for new award charters for our Blue Stag and Blue Kraken awards and They’d like your participation in this! Please bring your entries with new, original designs to Good Yule. Their Excellencies will have the option to use any of the entries, but all entries will be displayed for populace vote at Good Yule and the winner will receive a prize!
Charter design entries should include the linework and calligraphy for the award done on white paper so the Scribe can more easily make copies onto ‘parchment’ paper later for folk to paint before use by Their Excellencies. Charters are painted by folk with different experience levels, so please keep that in mind when creating your design, and consider how easily somebody will be able to interpret where to paint when looking at it with fresh eyes.
If you are interested in creating a design for this competition, please let me know so I can send you the verbiage needed!
This was my entry for the Iron Ink held at Banner War 2014. Unfortunately for my House, I didn’t win, though it was said to be a close competition.
The object of the competition was to take the bit of prose they gave you (everyone received a different one) and either do the calligraphy on the blank parchment provided, or the art with room for the quote to be added later, or both. I did the writing first, and then opened my little mini book of inspiration, tagged in a previous post, and it happened to land on a picture of a man hanging from a crane. I couldn’t resist trying to re-create that around the provided quote since it involved ‘tasting flight’. Here is the inspiration piece:
I also had brought documentation of the one place there is evidence of holes in the parchment being repaired, so I managed to get the nerve to cut a hole similar in shape to those in the pictures of the parchment repairs and stitch it up, almost dream catcher style. Here is an example from this archived page from Uppsala University showing the extant pieces from one book:
If I had spent all of the allowed six hours on this project, it would have had a better chance, but honestly, it doesn’t look finished enough, and I need to do line work before starting calligraphy in the future, plus finishing lines on the freehanded painting would have helped.
Overall though, I am very proud of my entry because it shows my growth so far. The Scribe said that I may have inspired a class with my addition of a repaired hole in my parchment which would be incredible!
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
Our next local SCA event is in less than two weeks, and I am actually going to get to help my house compete! Aside from helping to make donations to largess/war chest, one of the many activities is Siege Cooking: Siege Cooking Challenge
“Maestra Fiamma the Unquenchable has issued this challenge:
Demonstrate the bounty of your house and bring a period potluck to the Open Tavern, serving at least 10 folks as part of the Tavern Meal that will be served to the populace and provide a complete ingredient list.
The more authentic and period the dish, the higher the score.
Documentation can be as simple as a copy of the original period recipe. Your redaction (interpretation) of the recipe a bonus. No New World ingredients, unless you can document their use within the SCA period.
The winning dish will be worth one War Point.
Please remember to bring your own cooking/heating/serving equipment and to clean up and remove your stuff as soon as the food serving is finished. If you have any questions, I am available for consultation on ideas and sources for period recipe. Please contact me.
How the Judging works: each person attending the tavern (including entrants) will receive a nut, which they may put in a cup by the dish they like best. Certain people (such as Their Excellency’s) will have multiple nuts to award as they see fit. The judge will award additional nuts for authentic and period dish, simple documentation see rule above, your redaction interpretation. See rules above.
Judge / Coordinator: Maestra Fiamma the Unquenchable (fiammetta@aol.com)”
I’ve never taken a medieval recipe and translated it myself, so I thought I would work with something I have some experience in, but try to apply it to an authentic recipe. For Fiamma’s Vigil, I made mini meat pies using this basic recipe: http://www.godecookery.com/goderec/grec11.htm That was more like a formula, not a specific recipe though, so I have been curious about exploring those more. In there, it refers to Austin’s Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books which Google quickly helped me find a link to in black and white .pdf format:
Time to start studying the different options and see what I can come up with before the house meeting on Saturday. I would like to be able to present an actual plan at that point and maybe solicit help. I have an idea for presentation that would be quite amusing and I think the house would be on board.
Since the meat pie can be made ahead of time, and can be served warm or cold, I should be able to still have plenty of free time on site. Looking through the other challenges, another challenge I would like to help with is the Scribal Challenge:
“Iron Ink
You’ve heard of an Iron Needle to test sewing prowess? This year we are testing your scribal skills in an Iron Ink. Bring your scribal kit and demonstrate illumination or calligraphy or both in the creation of a scroll.
Contestants will receive a charter blank and a piece of prose and have 6 hours to complete their piece. Winner will receive a War Point for their House. Remaining pieces will be donated to largess.
Judge / Coordinator: Daigo Tsukime Kitsume”
I have some ideas for incorporating documentable repairs, as that would be part of a scribe’s job, and will definitely make it stand out from the rest. I also recently purchased this tiny book for inspiration when working on scroll painting. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789202166/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It is so tiny, but it travels well. Time to hunt down my calligraphy pen that got packed away a while ago and make myself a scribal kit!
*This was initially published on a different blog and moved here 10/2/25
Sabina di Zorzi 