Calligraphy

Coral Branch for Elvira

April 2025: A Coral Branch scroll for Lady Elvira de Luz. Illumination by al-Sayyida Naila al-Zarga, based on the Kitab Surwar al-Kawakib al-Thabita of al-Sufi ("Constellation of Pegasus"). Iran, late 15th century.

The evocative poetry was written by Ollam Lanea ferch Kerrigan. Her beautiful words can be read in full here.

The calligraphy is done using Noodler's ink in black.

Highland Foord Lark for Lord Benedict Bainbridge

November 2024: I received several fabulous scroll blanks from Baroness Sionan ua Diarmuit (Puffin) at War of the Wings in October. Using one of these scroll blanks from Noble Naila al-Zarga, inspired by La Somme le Roy , f.91 vo. by Master Honore, 1290, I did the calligraphy for this Lark presented to Lord Benedict Bainbridge at Highland Havoc. The framing work done by Noble Naila is truly lovely!

The calligraphy is done using Noodler's ink in black and yellow. I chose to use a form of textura quadrata for the hand.

Highland Foord Lark for Herrin Clara Huttmacher

November 2024: I did the calligraphy for this Lark presented to Herrin Clara Huttmacher (fka Clara Brauer) at Highland Havoc. The red and green colors presenting as wavy line running down the middle of the page is meant to evoke elements of her heraldry. The lovely illumination is from a scroll blank crafted by Baroness Lucrezia Sarta di Napoli.

The calligraphy is done using Noodler's ink in army green, red, and yellow. I used a form of Secretary for the hand to match the flow of the flower stems and because of Herrin Clara's later period persona.

Highland Foord Lark for Lord Vilhjelmr Larrenson

November 2024: This stunner of a scroll blank was made by the uber talented Noble Naila al-Zarga, from the Leon Bible of 920 Spain. I did the calligraph for this Lark presented to Lord Vilhjelmr Larrenson at Highland Havoc.

The calligraphy is done using Noodler's ink in army green, red, and yellow. Because the Lark was presents for Lord Vilhjelmr's roman clothing and persona work, I opted for a Roman hand.

Highland Foord Excellence for Frauva Svana Masdottir

April 2024: I collaborated with Ollam Lanea verch Kerrigan (words) and Meisterin Kolfinna Valravn (illumination) on this scroll for Frauva Svana Masdottir.

Frauva Svana has a Viking persona so we selected a Viking smoothing board as the base for this Highland Foord Award of Excellence. Several smoothing boards are extant, including this one at the Walter's Art Museum in Baltimore.

The calligraphy is done using Noodler's ink in black.

Magnifica Thea de Nes's Pelican

April 2024: Thea's ICOP indicated a desire to have a team of Shirelings work on her elevation scroll. I was honored to work with the team of Herrin Clara Hutmacher (layout), Lady Jill Dýravörður (illumination), and Meisterin Ishmael Stedfast Reed (words). I did the calligraphy.

Herrin Clara chose the exemplar from The Visconti Hours (late 14th century).

The text of the exemplar uses black and blue Winsor and Newton ink. Magister Ishmael had composed a sonnet for Thea, but the layout strongly suggested that the text was set out in a triangle, which worked against the normal layout for a sonnet. With help from Meisterin Kolfinna, we decided to use blue ink to set off the capitals of each line of the sonnet.

Photo credit: Lady Jill Dýravörður

Lord Nicolo's Golden Dolphin

March 2024: I had the pleasure of working with Lady Jill Dýravörður (illumination) and Lord Aurelio Vitrisoni (words) on the scroll (top left) for Lord Nicolo Santorio's induction into the Order of the Golden Dolphin at Kingdom Arts & Science Festival on March 2, 2024. Lord Nicolo has a fifteenth century Venetia persona so Lady Jill and I were delighted to find an exemplar that suited his medieval self.

The exemplar (bottom left) is from the Libro d'Oltramere, a fourteenth century account of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem written by the Franciscan friar Niccolò da Poggibonsi. A German translation of the book dating from the fifteenth century, and the source of the exemplar, is kept at the British Library (Egerton MS 1900).

The text of the exemplar uses brown and orange ink. The orange is often used to highlight and embellish certain letters, a feature that I carried over to the calligraphy for Nicolo's scroll. For the scroll, I used a walnut ink made from a traditional recipe dating from the colonial era. The orange embellishments were done using Winsor & Newton ink.

Crown Invitations

September 2023: At the request of their Majesties Mary Isabel and Ragnarr Blackhammer, Doom Scroll: Scriptorium Valravn created invitations for unbelted fighters to participate in their Crown Tourney. I created the invitations for three fighters: Baroness Sionan ua Diarmuit (Puffin), Lord Hugh de Montilucon, & Noble Fritz von Lyndow.

Photo: Meisterin Kolfinna Valravn

Cyneswyth's Laurel Book Project

May 2023: Participated with Doom Scroll: Scriptorium Valravn in creating several of the pages for Cyneswyth's laurel book. I did the calligraphy for a page and Lady Jill Dýravörður did the beautiful illumination.

View additional pages.

Meisterin Kolfinna Valravn introduced me to calligraphy.

First Scroll

I was able to repay Lady Kolfinna's kindness at Coronation in October 2022, when she received her writ to contemplate joining the Order of the Laurel. I had fun collaborating on the writ with Ollam Lanea, who wrote beautiful words with stunning imagery, and Lady Jill of Roxbury Mill, who crafted the gorgeous art of the raven skeleton and the fun skelly bois. Check out the hysterical captions that Lady Jill created!

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse