A Non Traditional Scroll

Kerocaro/ March 28, 2024/ A&S, Illumination, Scribe/ 0 comments

One of the things I have wanted to do is a Non-traditional scroll. So when I received an assignment for my own sister’s Silver Stirrup I decided it was time. The award is for equestrian arts, and my sister had just recently acquired a horse of her own. So I decided that he needed something pretty! I started looking at different things I could make and more important have done by Battlemoor. My first idea was to go with a collar. I was lucky to find Bar C Saddlery who had an impressive selection of blank pieces for various horse goods.  Unfortunately, after research, I realized I didn’t have the time to sew together leather and get the scroll text copied on it. They did however have a Fancy Halter

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Swan-Ragnar’s Hammer

Kerocaro/ January 8, 2024/ A&S, Illumination, Scribe/ 0 comments

This one started in a whole different direction. Mostly because I was having difficulty finding anything out about the recipient.  However, after talking with the Kingdom scribe she advised that they liked swans,  and with some general Google I came upon Harley MS 647 * This was a case of perfect illumination. The award was given due to their service at Battlemoor for helping cut grass by hand, a major part of getting the site ready. So drawing a bit of inspiration from The Untitled Goose game and adding in the required hammer I came up with a plan. The first step was working out the text. With no good way to “math” out the letters, I decided to jump in and work them out in the design. I had

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Award of Arms Scroll- Part Two

Kerocaro/ September 4, 2023/ Illumination, Project/ 0 comments

When we last left off I had been re-doing the layout after discovering I had only put in half the text and only had a PDF version of the original. The image on the left was the original I drafted and on the right the correct one with all the words. Starting from scratch was probably for the best as it took a good deal of fiddling with the text to get things to line up. I also got the chance to make the images less muddy and easy to trace. By this time the joke was I was going to get this thing done by the time my kids left for college. Once I had the image traced out and the calligraphy done I took a short break to

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Playing Cards

Kerocaro/ March 20, 2021/ A&S, Illumination/ 0 comments

Once again the scribes group struck. One of the members had been posting a request for Playing cards as part of their Kingdoms A&S Scribal Challenge. Having no idea what a playing card of the time would look like I did some fast visual research. Lucky for me The Met in 2016 had hosted an exhibition of cards entitled World in Play. Unfortunately, many of the pieces have rights restrictions so you are not able to get a close look at them. But working with what I could see I settled on the Ten of Swords. I worked up my sketch, all while cursing my inability to see crossed lines. After almost tossing the whole card out of frustration I laid down some color to try and correct my mistakes.

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Mystery Animal Painting!

Kerocaro/ January 28, 2021/ Illumination/ 0 comments

Long story very short the below was posted in one of my scribes groups looking for submissions for the Triskele Turn-in Trial. A segment in the newsletter from the SCA Kingdom of Trimaris. This Mystery Animal “…is a shaped like a lizard, but is covered with spots. It is so cold that it puts out fire on contact. It vomits from its mouth a milky liquid; if this liquid touches any part of the human body it causes all the hair to fall off, and the skin to change color and break out in a rash. It is fatal to drink water or wine when a….has died in it, as is drinking from a vessel from which the creature has drunk.” – Pliny the Elder, 1st Century CE “The….. alone

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Now with Video Part 2

Kerocaro/ September 5, 2020/ Illumination, Project/ 0 comments

When we last left off I was waiting for packages to appear and provide me with the needed pieces for my overhead rig. I was not disappointed and by Tuesday night I had a camera in the air! Using my new-found knowledge I set the camera video settings feeling proud I could get a better-looking shot. However, lighting continued to be an issue. The LED I had picked up was in a different light color from the other two lights I was using. I also had a light glare. Some fussing with options and I finally gave up. I will sort out later on how to get less of a light reflection and fix the mix-matched lights. Worst case I just got a bed side lamp. The AC adapter did

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Now with Video!

Kerocaro/ September 2, 2020/ Illumination, Project/ 0 comments

This little project is 100% a quarantine project. You stay home long enough you start to get crazy ideas. Then, you get some friends who inspire you and well before you know it is bad idea time. I decided to branch out to video. I had been playing with streaming what I was working on for A&S with little success as I found out my camera only will film for 30 minutes. So why not film several segments of me painting and post them up later? Or some basic tutorials! Or a class! Simple right? Well. No. First I needed to get a better workspace together. The folding table set up I had been using wasn’t cutting it. The table was sitting in front of half my storage and developing

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Painting with all my Own Paint

Kerocaro/ June 12, 2020/ A&S, Illumination/ 0 comments

So these past few weeks I have been using Marion Forester’s hand out for making pigments. I have three made up thus far and have been learning a lot! The first was Daffodil, red tulips, and finally Iris. I am not sure how lightfast they are but it has been nice to play with something new. So when the Knowne World Aspiring Scribes Forum on Facebook started a Thursday Quill Quest I was excited to try out my new paint. The downside is I have exactly 3 colors. Neon yellow, olive, and blue/green. Not going to get a scroll done buuuuuuut just the right mix for BUNNIES. It was an experience. They did not paint like my commercial stuff at all. It took more to build up the color. I

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From Dye to Pigment

Kerocaro/ April 18, 2020/ A&S, Illumination, Project/ 0 comments

I need to start by saying that THL Marion Forester is probably the best enabler there is. She was kind enough to post her hand out for Pigments in her blog recently, and with my things to dye stash dwindling I decided to give pigments a go. Before you dive in I HIGHLY suggest reading up on her blog. Pigments, like dye, can be toxic and it is best to have some idea of what you are doing. So were did I start? Well with a snow storm and an Amazon order! I needed a mortar and pestle, gum arabic and some droppers. The snowstorm part provided the flowers as we had to cut the blossoms in out in our garden. We had some sea shells on hand and I

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Tri- Baronial 2019-Prep

Kerocaro/ February 4, 2019/ Events, Illumination/ 0 comments

So this year was slightly different, I accepted an assignment from our baronial scribe to create an award scroll. With that and the bitter cold weather I was unable to get another round of dye in to try and compete with. Thus I deiced to simply display a piece for an entry. And of course, I decided this the week before with the assignment scroll still being worked on. What is an assignment for an award scroll? Rather simply the amazing scrolls handed out in the Outlands for the various awards and recognition, all come from very talented scribes. To keep track of all that our Baronial Scribe maintains a list of things they need done and when a willing party is found gives the details and deadline. I had

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