The Baroness' Book

 I was asked to make a book by the incoming Baroness of Carolingia.  She wanted something to keep a journal of her time as Baroness and had been inspired by a picture she had seen of a noble woman holding a small book with ribbon closures.

I should get the reference information for this picture.

It was decided this book would be blue to match Carolingia's colors and the decoration on the front and back would be simple blind tooling.  Of course, the elephant in this room was that fact that I have never added closures of any type to any of my books.  So I would need to come up with a way to make that happen. I decided to go with an technique that I saw in the Coptic books in the Morgan Library and Museum where they inserted ties through the boards and glued them down on the inside of the board.

I put this together like many of my other books.  The text block is made of 8.5in x 11in sheets Beckett 60lb antique vellum cut in half to get the correct grain.  The signatures are four sheets folded together and sewn on linen double cords with waxed linen thread.  The endbands are blue and gold silk thread wrapped around a linen cord.  The cover boards are birch craft plywood boards 1/8 inch thick, hand sawn to the correct dimensions.  The boards are attached by treading the textblock cords into the holes drilled into the boards and then fanned out and glued to the inside of the board.  The endbands are similarly laced in the boards.  The cover is blue veg-tanned goat leather attached with modern PVA glue.  The endpages are a gold, handmade paper purchased at a local craft store. The ribbons are blue silk threaded through the cover boards and glued under the endpages.

 Here are some process pictures.

Cutting the sheets of paper to get the correct grain.

Punching sewing holes into the signature.

Text block in the sewing frame.

The endbands are silk thread wrapped around a linen core.

View of the inside of the endband.

Craft plywood bookboard, hand sawn to size.

Cords fanned and glued to the inside of the cover. The endbands were also attached to the cover.

Blue silk ribbons threaded through the cover board and glued to the inside.

 And here is the finished product.

Cover with blind tooling.

Fore edge with tied silk ribbons.

Back of the book with more blind tooling.

Endband.

More endbands.

Spine.

 

13th Century Planh (Troubadour Grief Poem)

This year, the following Laurel Challenge put forth by Grim the Skald: 

"Write a poem in a discretely period meter and a context appropriate to the poetic form. The form can be from any time or culture within the SCA period, but must be used in away that is appropriate for that cultural context – i.e. if the poetic form is only used with natural allegories then you need to use a natural allegory. Similarly the subject can be of whatever you chose, but must be appropriate to how the form was used in period. SCA specific subjects (SCA History, awards, etc.) are explicitly allowed if used appropriately, but not required."

The poem I wrote was based on a 13th century planh which is a grief poem or lament for the dead.  I decided to lament the year lost to COVID.  

 Here is a link to me reading the poem:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16RfpVZUdukD7xnYA7_nghR1cMo7Op5Mc/view?usp=sharing

Here is my poem:

The Spring grants blessings to all that is green

Raising even the lowly grasses high

Life all around us struggles to be seen

The azure dome stretches across the sky

Yet I know not how to find verdant bliss

And my heart knows not how to join the song

For my love is gone and all is amiss

The plague has changed what was once right to wrong 

Though the world has turned from Winter’s cruel frost

And spun around to face Spring’s pure gaze

Though new born leaves dance spinning and wind tossed

And the sun on water does spark and blaze

I will find no joy in the birds’ rich choir 

Nor will I take pleasure in fields of gold

I will wail and weep and call Spring a liar

Bereft of comfort with no love to hold

My sighs as cruel as blizzard’s freezing gale

My tears as cold as Winter’s icy flakes

My body weakens, withers, I grow frail

My wretched heart with each beat slowly breaks

There is no life to spark within my breast 

For oh my love has been taken from me

His gentle hands in mine no longer rest

For the plague tears apart all we can see

No more do his eyes shine bright with love’s spark

Nor do I feel his soft touch on my face

No more does he sing, my dear meadowlark

Nor do we dance in love’s sweet embrace

For the plague keeps him from my loving arms

Tis nothing I can do to draw him nigh

Not honeyed words nor woman’s magic charms 

Nor fervent prayers nor songs sent on my sigh

You dank and wretched plague, why have you come

To keep me so far from my soul’s delight

Fiend you have stripped me of all I have won

Turning the bright Spring to darkest of night

A pilgrim’s path you have placed me upon

How far have you thrust my beloved away

There is no day without his light to dawn!

There is only night without his loving day!

Oh, I weep in time with the dripping clock 

For there is no Spring in this horrid year

I have no key for my joy to unlock 

If my dearest love cannot join me here

Poetry Month 2021

Someone on the SCA East Kingdom FaceBook page put up a challenge for Poetry Month. Every day she posted a word as a prompt for a poem. I was a little overwhelmed by the idea of writing a poem everyday for a month until it was suggested that a Haiku would fulfill the challenge nicely. So here are my thirty (or so...I might have written more than one poem for a few of the prompts) little haiku with their prompt words as titles:

LAUGHTER

Within silence joy

The smile is liquid music

Quiet laughter bright

COURAGE

Armies seek the weak

Castle safe from sharpened swords

Mockingbird holds fast

RAIN
Crystalline clear soft

Silken cloth dripping lightly

Covers garden green

FAMILY

Take my hand my dear

Waltz to the music of time

Together always

MOUNTAIN   

Gray arms stretch a yawn

Mist sighs sleepily through trees

As night blankets stone

COMPANION 

Friendship leaves us not

Wind stills yet touches us still

Hidden bulb yet blooms

SPRING

Walk the verdant woods

vines twined in mazes unsolved

Hearts echo birds’ song

OCEAN 

Sand’s skin spreads thin stars

Salt’s brine crackles on the wind 

Water’s heart beats strong

 

PROWESS

Follow the path home

Sword in hand needle in hand

There are many ways

HONOR

Words are soft music

Action’s song fills empty halls 

Sing honor’s great hymn

SWORD

Standing tall with pride

A shield to all in great need

A knight needs no sword

JOURNEY

No path stays the same

Rain and sun all come in time

Continue onward

FLOWERS

Gold coins in green fields

Rubies sprinkled in meadows 

Spring’s treasure to find

SERVICE

Sun bright in the sky

Giving warmth all below

Needs naught in return

Worth more than diamonds

The steady work of strong hands

Service builds the Dream

WIND

The song of the air

Leaves sing loud in harmony

Old trees join the dance

GRATITUDE

Cherry blossoms smile

Buzzing bees cuddle the blooms

A sweet grace given

SHARP

Blushing petals soft

Defends herself with sharp steel

Beware beauty’s thorns

TREE

April snow falls soft

As plum blossoms flutter down

Petals and flakes mix 

Generations live

Under oak’s storm strong branches 

From acorn a rock

CLOUD

Imagination 

Creates stories in the sky 

Clouds write in the wind

Clouds paint in the wind

Create stories in the sky

Ever changing worlds

SUNSHINE

Morning’s golden hand

Draws back the blanket of night

Wakes the sleeping world

BEAUTY

Stones strewn on the path

Plain wren flitting through branches 

All is beautiful 

FRIENDSHIP

Rains sweep fallow fields

Shivering in lonely huts 

You are my warm fire

HOPE

Mired in the darkness

Curled and stretching toward life

Cracked shell brings hope’s light

LEARNING

The wood duck’s first step

Is a far fall from the nest 

Still they learn to fly

HUMILITY

Who can understand

Bellowing voices ringing

Soft song carries far

NATURE

Great cathedrals rise

Chanting hymns of bees and birds

Praying with green leaves 

MOON

Hold not tight to her

As she waxes in glory

For her wane light fades 

 

CHALLENGE

Words are wily things

Slithering from their proper 

Place, making art hard

FEALTY 

My heart holds all oaths

Greedily keeping them close 

Gold never to fade

JOY

Dawn’s curtain opens  

And the orchestra of birds

Plays a symphony 

 

 

9th - 10th Century Coptic Book

Last year, I decided to enter the East Kingdom Arts & Sciences Championship.

 

My book was based loosely on MS M.597 in the Morgan Collection. My full documentation can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nRpE90n7faMvjLjomjkHUMsb-d784Mh9mo0PJeTxbxE/edit

 

I was particularly proud of the papyrus book boards I made. Here are a few pictures of that process:

 

 

Spreading hide glue onto a sheet of papyrus.

Smoothing another sheet over the glue. Do this about sixty times to get..

...book boards!!

Boards after sewing holes were added.

Some de-lamination after drilling holes into the boards.

And here are pictures of the finished book:

Front cover with blindtooled decoration.

Back cover with the same decoration.

Bottom edge of the book.

Fore edge of the book.

Inside the front cover.