With thanks to Sir Callum, who provided these images.
The two top images are Sir Callums personal arms, some of his awards are on the hood. Made using a variety of techniques.
Tag: Heraldry
HC2018 – Lady katherine’s bags
HC2018 – Lady katherine’s bags
Something to cover the mundane – Lady Katherine Stewart. One of those bags you get goodies in at shows, with the writing on it covered with applique
And a lovely gift, made by Lady katherine for Sir Callum
VPC2017: Meisterin Christian & Dona Isabel Maria’s Refurbishing of Cushions and Cushion Bags
This joint project is for the categories Show Us Your Arms, One Metre Material Project, Give What You Get, Fly the Colours, Remake, Reuse, Refashion, Reconsider, Containment System.
Meisterin Christian says:
Baroness Ginevra recently completed embroidered Baronial augmentation cantons for the baronial kneeling cushions. She asked for a volunteer to sew these to the kneeling cushions and I obliged. She also asked for bags to contain and protect the cushions (the baronial cushions had never had bags, and the Lochac kneeling cushion bags had disappeared). On close inspection the cushions were very dirty, and the velvet fabric very faded, so I offered to refurbish them so they would not look a little tatty against the new embroidery. The cushions were originally embroidered and constructed by Baroness Eleonora and Mistress Madeleine more than 20 years ago, so its no surprise that they were in need of a little care and attention.
I dismantled the cushions and vacuumed the embroidered pieces (it is best not to try and wash or dry clean embroidered needlepoint, as this can ruin the piece, esp. anything red). The canvas had become very soft over time and had started to come apart in places. I mended and over sewed the edges and seams to keep them together. Thanks to THL Ydeneya for donating some red velvet for the project when there was none to be found.
The augmentation of arms cantons were stitched on by hand, with some additional tacking stitches to ensure the soft cushion canvas did not rub against the stiff new canvas and become damaged. The cushions were reassembled and the canvas bottom layer was renewed. The canvas needlepoint of one cushion has always been out of square, which makes this cushion a little awkwardly shaped and wrinkled.
The cushion bags are simple and practical (and fairly ugly) and have their purpose written on them in hope they will not be lost again. Please take care of the cushions and bags, and ensure they don’t get lost or further damaged!
HC2018 – The introduction
Richard and Ginevra, Baron and Baroness of Southron Gaard, in appreciation for heraldic display, and the high standards of inventiveness seen amongst the populace, would like to announce the Third Baronial Heraldic Challenge.
- Standards and Banners
- Something to wear
- Something to adorn you (jewellery, tokens, favours…)
- Something to eat, or eat off (food, plates, glasswear, napkins)
- Something to mark your territory (chairs, chests, cushions,…)
- Something to protect you (umbrellas, shields, tents, buildings…)
- Something to hide the everyday (throws, bags, things to keep the mundane out of sight)
- and, to serve the barony (We have many projects that would be easier with more hands, such as blinging up the pavilion, helping make banners for the group, which we’ll arrange workshops for through the year, but this would also include making a heralds tabard or ceremony cover to stay in Gildenwick, or Wildmoor and other things like that)
The Challenge shall run until next Baronial Anniversary, when we shall hope to see a magnificent display of both personal heraldry, or that of any awards you may have received.
Please direct any questions about the challenge to Baroness Ginevra.
If you’re interested and not sure where to start, we are also running monthly Creative Commons evenings during 2018. These are held the first Tuesday of each month at Avice Hill Community Centre. For more information, please see the list, or the FB page.
VPC2017 Her Excellency Ginevra’s Appearance In A Play & Throne And Kneeling Cushions
Her Excellency writes to inform of her appearance in a morality play at Canterbury Faire. This falls into the categories Break A Leg, and Out Of Your Comfort Zone.
Additionally, these throne and kneeling cushions, submitted as Show Us Your Arms, Give What You Get and Embellish It.
The kneeling cushions of Southron Gaard were looking a little tired after 20 or so years of service, and did not have the augmentation of the arms of Caid on them, as that was granted to us when we moved to Lochac. Her Excellency charted and worked the augmentation, and Meisterin Christian dis-assembled the old cushions, washed the embroidered tops, attached the augmentations, and reassembled them with nice bright red velvet, so they looked as good as new, and ready for another 20 years service.
VPC2017: Mistress katherine’s Dog Collar, Puppet Theatre Towers & Bookmarks
The increasingly prolific Mistress katherine adds the following to her Challenge entry hoard.
Firstly, a medieval dog collar for the category Togs Togs Undies!
This is a dog collar, based on the comments by Gaston Phoebus in 15C Book of the Hunt, and from illuminated manuscripts. Common features: red velvet, embroidery with gold thread or wire, a leashing ring, single eyelet, rumbler bells, studs of various kinds. Modelled by Mercalli (“what a good dog!”). Here’s a good site with lots of doggy and hunt info.
And a good image from Gaston Phoebus of white pointy-eared dogs with collars.
Mistress katherine says:
I was particularly delighted to read that the Boke of St Albans describes the kind of dogs to be found in a medieval Scottish town including a ‘prick-eared cur’
The next entry is new towers for the puppet theatre at Canterbury Faire, made from scavenged cedar shingles and painted up like 14-15C examples. These are for the category Out Of Your Comfort Zone, which katherine assures us she was.
She says: This took me out of my comfort zone — I had to use power tools and — worse– ask an unknown neighbour for permission to raid his construction skip. I also looked at the shingles after I’d painted them and realised that circular saw marks were clearly visible, which Master Edward confirmed was a no-no to proper woodworker eyes, so I flipped them over and sanded them down to start again.
Some examples of puppet theatres in manuscripts can be found at the Bodleian here and another example here.
Finally (at least for now!) – bookmarks in baronial colours for the largesse chest. From the 12C onwards, cords, threads of strips of leather were attached to beads, buttons and similar shapes to make stand-alone bookmarks. Multi-threaded bookmarks were particularly popular amongst the clergy for flipping back and forth in service books. These are for the category Fly The Colours, but they also meet the requirements for Give What You Get. More information about these from katherine here.
VPC2017: Her Excellency Ginevra’s Tiniest Unicorn
This delightful piece of embroidery from Her Excellency Ginevra is for the categories Here Be Monsters, Show Us Your Arms, and Give What You Get.
Her Excellency says:
This depiction of my arms is worked with silk thread, on silk, in split stitch (with thanks to Melissa for teaching me) and is 1.5 inches high. It’s been given to Mistress Rowan, to be part of the Broiderers Guild of Lochac Banner.
VPC2017: Baroness Agnes’ Banner
This entry is Baroness Agnes’ second, a painted banner submitted for the category Show Us Your Arms
She says:
The plan was quite simple: paint the Hous Amberhearthe badge on to one of those big white pieces of fabric I got from Kutwells. The execution was complicated by the intervention of the feline, eventually requiring the white of the ermine border to be painted in due to green pawprints. However, I am pleased with the final effect. In the end the whole banner had about 7 coats of paint! The white was trimmed down, a backing of heavy linen tacked on, sewn, inverted, pressed and hand finished. Pole inserted and braided cord attached.
VPC2017: Mistress katherine k’s Armorial Tombstone
Submitted for the categories Forget Me Not, and Show Us Your Arms, this entry marks Mistress katherine’s fifth entry into the Challenge, and makes her the first person to meet the Pentathlon requirement, and complete the Challenge!
She will receive a prize for doing so.
Here is her description:
This rather macabre project involved producing a tracing of katherine kerr’s tombstone, which is very similar to that of her cousin Ionet Ker (Lady Restalrig). According to the 1927 drawing made by S.T. Calder in Restalrig Church, Janet Kerr died on the 12 Day of Maii Anno 1596. Katherine’s tombstone follows the same pattern, but notes that she died on the 31 Daie of Dec 1599 (the last day of the SCA period); cites her as being a Pelican & Laurel; and includes her arms (with the hopefully soon-to-be-passed augmentation) marshalled with those of her husband Master Bartholomew Baskin. You can find Ionet Ker’s tombstone here.
VPC2017: Mistress katherine k’s Travel Coronet, Coif and Necklace
Mistress katherine has been very busy indeed, submitting several projects to me at once.
These three are a Travel Coronet (Remake, Reuse, Refashion, and Show Us Your Arms, and Embellish It), a Coif (Embellish It) and the Kerr Necklace (The Neck Best Thing)
About the travel coronet, Mistress katherine writes: This tablet-woven mini coronet was inspired by Viscountess Mountjoye’s spiffy example at Faire. It uses one of the lovely tablet-woven garters Mistress Catherine d’Arc gave me which displays the curs’ heads and tower from my arms as well as my livery colours or red, white and blue and my motto. It is embellished with the six pearls of a Court Baroness; the copper and brass mounts are actually letterpress printers’ thins used to make leadtype tight when setting text, a reference to my Laurel speciality.
The coif details are: Adding pearls, beads and some couched gold thread and trim has blinged up a plain commercially made hairnet.
Finally, the Kerr Necklace: This necklace is based on the well-known portrait of Anne Boleyn from the UK’s National Portrait Gallery, in which Anne has a capital B suspended from a pearl choker around her neck. I’ve had a craftwood initial K for a number of years, but delayed making this, hoping to be able to find a metal K rather then use a wooden one. Some slathering of gold paint has produced something that may pass in low light and I finally found a use for the large string of big freshwater pearls I’ve had for a while. The portrait of Anne Boleyn can be found here.
