Of Fairies and Consent

People get on my case sometimes for overusing the word 'consent'. I don't blame them, however, every time I use it for something else, it is like a cog clicks into place in my brain and things work better than before.

So G (age 5) has his first loose tooth. And despite it being one of the grossest things I've dealt with as a wife and mother, it's brought up the interesting conundrum of the Tooth Fairy.

Now I adored the Tooth Fairy growing up and I still adore her today. I still want Santa to be real and the first time someone told me Santa Clause wasn't real I wanted to spit on them (funny story, the second person, I did spit at. Totally missed. It did not help my case.)
There are loads of blogs talking about the benefits and downsides to 'keeping magic alive/lying' to your children. I'm merely documenting mine so I don't forget.
G is a very smart little boy. He has the engineering brain from his grandfathers, so I know better than to water down answers for him or try to lie. However. Since gaining an imagination just shy of 4 years old (a late bloomer), he's taking stories and fears more seriously (gaining a fear of the shadowy stairwell (but not of a pitch black bedroom full of boxes)) and you can't belittle that.

I've learned by now it's no good to assume things with Gideon.

"So what do you want to do with the tooth once it falls out?"

And we begin a half-conversation of me not letting the cards show and him not wanting to guess the wrong answer and lose out on something... magical. It's how I know he still needs magic: he wants it.
I tell him a few scenarios about me keeping his teeth. I remind him about the story of Loki and his ship of toenails, teeth and hair of the dead. He can throw them away. We can make him a tooth necklace. He can invite a fairy into our home. She might not be good, I remind him. Not all fairies are good, even in stories.

"The tooth fairy is a good fairy Mom."
"I thought you said fairies weren't real."
"Well. I don't -know-. I know people who believe in fairies and've seen them but... But the Tooth Fairy is a good fairy. And I want good fairies in my life. I want as many things protecting me as I can have."
"And you feel like the tooth fairy will do that?"
"I do."
"So you want to have some magic in your life?"
"Yes please."
"Okay then. Let me know if you change your mind."

G knows that his father and my opinions on the matter only help to shape what will happen in this kind of scenario, they don't dictate it. He asks us what we think about things and we tell him and also remind him that people think differently and we explain their reasons too, as best we can.

[We arrived at 'Santa Clause is the embodiment of Goodwill towards all Humanity' and 'representative of Christ's love for us' and 'We are all Santa Clause' years ago and maintain it as such. That 'belief' is a family one, like a recipe for conduct, rather than an actual belief or tradition. ]

G needed to say yes. He needed to invite in the invasion of his sleeping space and the removal of his body part from his possession. It had nothing to do with his safety or physical health, so I ask for his consent. His input matters and it always had. He knows that if he gets passive, things will happen that he won't like, like weird dinners or Netflix viewing choices. It's a double edged sword. I don't always get what I want and have to model that graciously. -Mostly- I see that it's working. Everyone so often he'll flop to the ground and groan at me that life's not fair.
But it's not. And I agree with him. If there's room, I flop down next to him and groan too. Misery loves company. Being 5 is no exception. Feelings matter. And how we act on those feelings and on situations, matters.
So I asked for consent before I transform into the tooth fairy.

A scroll for my Laurel and his Lady

Back in, gosh, August? His Excellency of Stonemarche, Dorio, requested I help him out on a project. I agree, pretty much at once, because he's never given me a boring project.

He wanted to honor my Then, Soon-To-Be-Laurel Master, Harold von Auerbach and his wife, Mistress Aine, by naming them Sentinels of Stonemarche and Professors Emeritus. Some fun shtick to honor two people who have given us more than we can ever really repay.
So I with my big mouth said 'Well, if we do an Italian scroll, I'm sure I can figure out humanist hand well enough for it.'

You know. For my Illumination/Calligraphy Laurel. Hah!

Dorio and I went halfsies on the wording, which was loads of fun. I can't wait to write more scrolls later. But I digress. I learned a lot of things with this scroll, namely how to sort of use my Ames Lettering Guide and how to never take on a project behind my Laurel's back because then I can't ask him for help. Brilliant.

My reference page/Inspiration was this History Naturalis. And now here's a series of progress shots.

(Gouache on Pergament, 11"x 14".)

It was a fun surprise to pull this off under Harold's nose, and on the day of my Apprenticing, no less!

EK Calendar page for 2018

I'm one of those people that needs a push.
I think it's because I got emotionally smacked down a lot when I was younger: I had a knack for sticking my nose in where it wasn't wanted and, well, not being wanted. I was like a puppy who kept saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Now I like to wait. I wait and I listen to make sure I'm wanted/needed. This means that people don't always know what I can do or that I'm willing to do it.
People also don't ask, in my experience.

So it's really wonderful when someone takes a chance on me and speaks up for me. In this case, that would be Christiana Crane. She is one of those people who believes that YOU CAN DO THE THING. And then tells people you can.

At the EK Scribal party/meetup at Pennsic this year, she did her normal thing. Pushing me up to someone and saying "Haaaaave you met Keziah? She's new. And great! And can -do the thing-."
In this case, the person was Mistress Rhonwyn and the thing was a page for the EK calendar.
I was all about that, man.
Mistress Rhonwyn had barely spoken "The theme is "Around the World" and we're asking--"
"Armenian."
"What?"
"Armenian. I would love to do an Armenian page."

Apparently those were the right words.

Source/Inspiration from the Armenica

Source/Inspiration by Toros R'oslin.

Calligraphy is still not my jam, but I did it anyway. Like I'm saying constantly, I learned a lot and I know now more of what -not- to do.

Gifts for the taking of an Apprentice

So being apprenticed by not one, but two amazing Laurels that I have respected and admired for years will take a longer post, but for now, I wanted to get my act together with posting what I make.

While I worked away at a scroll assignment from my Baron (post to come) I needed something else to work on while the gouache dried. So I took a quote from Canterbury Tales and a page from the Macclesfield Psalter (I think. I can't find the link/source right now.) and decided to do a cute little piece for my Tailoring/Research Laurel, Mistress Astryda Borowska.

And I gotta practice my Gothic hand but look at my tiny knight!

Look at him! He's so SMALL. And I'm sorry the light is so bad. I was using the only lamp I had and it was terrible. I have a new lamp now and it's much better.

So with that piece done, I did a little sewn piece for my Illumination/Calligraphy Laurel, Master Harold von Auerbach.

Those are his arms! Aren't they great?

It was supposed to be a bookmark but the embroidery was too thick so I ended up fingerloop braiding and finishing it up to make it a marker/tie-on whatever thing. It's nice, but I really had no plan and it shows.

I got it all done in time for Baronial Birthday however, and I signed a lovely contract and was embarrassed to no end by complements. 

(Thanks to Lee for this picture!)

A coronet for Bianca

So I have this housemate, Bianca.

And she's one of those sneaky background people that gets things done. She remembers things and scoots around behind royal court taking care of stuff and she looks AMAZING doing it.

She was presented with a court baronetcy recently and at the last minute to boot. I offered up my services to make her a coronet.
And if that meant getting it done in 6 days then so be it.

(Bianca and I at the Met after going south for Ducal Challenge.)

Deciding on the height and shape of the coronet was the hardest part. I messaged Fortune constantly for tips, since she knows Bianca best and has much better taste than I.

I cut it with an X-acto knife but anything would work. I needed to use more than one sheet of plastic grid.

The small sheets of plastics were sewn together, over lapping by one. It passed the tugging and toddler test. (Gideon had a lot of fun playing with this.)

Bianca's heraldry features swans! So I had to draw them out and try to make them not look like ducks. (hint, it didn't work. But as she likes to say, she is a Swan Among Ducks (and it's true!))

I traced the coronet onto the fabric and used the crosses to mark where the swans would go.

Fun fact, I was getting sick when this was going down so I made sure to do every step for each swan as I went, just in case I ran out of time. So all the outlining happened for all the them before I did the filling. Split stitch shown here in white silk (on black wool/silk)

I was making good time so I began to fill them in with klosterstitch because it is the fastest and most secure stitch for something like this. 

I ran out and bought larger pearls, put them onto headpins and then threaded the head pins through the grid, bending the wire to behave and keep the form straight. It was pretty snug so I didn't hot glue this in. That gave me the opportunity to change the pearls if Bianca didn't like the slightly golden shade of the pearl.

I decided to put the seam at the top and whipped that together, folding the edge down and in. It worked really well actually. I had a lot of control with where the fabric was and was able to fudge parts where maybe my embroidery wasn't -quite- even. I also edged all the swans in gold and trimmed the top in the same gold cord. I -think- it's Jap 7, whatever that means. The label is handwritten on the little cards on the cord, and hard to make out. But it's SO shiny and nice I had to use it.

Added a bee for our household and eyelets for threading through ribbon/elastic cord (because I was still super nervous about it fitting. Much rather have her add a ribbon later than have Royalty try to put it on her and have the ties be off. Elastic was the way to go here.

And here she is looking fabulous! Going with a fabric coronet has been a great choice because she apparently gets headaches with heavy hats. I know from experience that the wool/silk blend is warm, but also really great at soaking up water/sweat. I'm confident it'll be comfy in the summer for her. But she knows if it's not, I'll get back to work for her.

I couldn't find a sewing tutorial for anything like this in SCA circles, so I hope this helps someone in a pinch.

Scrolls, scrolls!

A lot has happened.
And what that means is that I've not had time to write about amazing things happening.
We're going to start with easier things first.
I made a good amount of scrolls in these last few months.

The story of this 'A' from the Ramsey Psalter is that I had to do a 'D' earlier in the summer for Master Harold, and each 'D' I did met with a disastrous end, from being sneezed on (scattering paint everywhere), to dropping my brush (scattering paint everywhere) to using older painter's tape that left huge globs of glue on the edge (which I, in my foolishness, cut way, instead of using sandpaper. Never again will I make THAT mistake.) One of the 3 or 4 'D's I did for him, was from the Ramsey Psalter. He asked me later, for a matching letter 'A', which, thankfully, we have in the extant manuscript, because I was not looking forward to recreating those florals myself. 

I am heartily enjoying making White Vine letters. My "time wasting" project is making a whole alphabet of these, on small pieces of paper. These will be/are 4"x5 1/2". I'm going to try and get an extant example for each letter and then design the final few myself.

Oh this guy. 

(Source)

I did a lot of simplifying, really only taking it on for the fun bird-man. I turned said bird-man into two bird people and modeled them after our Baron and Baroness of Stonemarche.

But a funny story about this guy.

I ended up receiving it, when I was made Baronial Bardic champion. Which was a surprise to say the least (I mean, I competed but the other folks that sang and told stories that night... Wow. Just wow.)

I had joked with Master Harold that I didn't want to get my own scroll if I won, no matter how nice it may be (I will forever only see the smudge in the corner, the wiggly lines, etc.). That being said, it's nice to see it all filled with Master Harold's beautiful calligraphy and being able to slide that back into my portfolio for showing off.

Source is forthcoming on this initial, as I am totally unable to find it right now. I ended up giving this to Mistress Natalia at GNEW and I think she said she used it at Pennsic for someone. I love the challenge these monochromatic letters give me, because you have to make sure your shape is just right. You can't fudge it, because there's not much space to fudge with. You can't paint over it, because you need the paper to show through. It's so much fun!

I got a shipment of pergamenata in and I decided to do a practice piece on a smaller slip of that. I'm pretty sure this piece is 5"x8". It's the Wolf and the Sheep from Aesop's Fables. I decided to attempt calligraphy underneath to tell the moral of the story and for a somewhat first official attempt it's not... the absolutely worst. 

I feel that the moral is relevant to today's world.

(Source. I tried to make the sheep look more upset on purpose.) 

I did a handful of pieces that I plum forgot to take pictures of. Which is my bad. Some pictures (but not of all) have been promised to me. It's so cool sending them out like this, and I'll endeavor to get better at taking pictures of them.

Master Harold took the collection he had of mine to The Battle of 5 Armies (an event in Quintavia) with him and this picture was snagged by my housemate, Simona.

I didn't even realize it was my stuff at first! I truly thought it was someone else's. I didn't even remember doing the piece in the upper left hand corner because I'd done it so quickly for Master Harold. 

I feel sometimes like I'll never catch up on blogging...

A practice piece on figures

Trying to practice and so I chose a fave of mine to experiment on with no hope of it becoming a blank.
May add some more defining lines to the borders still...

Oh and here's the link to the source so you can see how badly I mangled the architecture and borders. http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=60440