I haven't been on tumblr much because I've been painting medieval things. Again. Hope you all have been well.

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I haven't been on tumblr much because I've been painting medieval things. Again. Hope you all have been well.
14th Century Alchemy Notebook
This was a project that I did for a class I took on the history of alchemy. The notebook is designed based on certain Coptic techniques as well as a medieval loose binding that I saw while in training as a bookbinder and printing assistant.
My concept for the project was that, as an alchemist who had traveled between different areas of the Middle East and Mediterranean and seen many types of scrolls and books in that time, I had cobbled together a notebook using various inspirations.
Aaaahhhhh I want to post these two scrolls I just finished but I can't
They go out on the weekend of the 23rd, I can't post them anywhere for a week and a half I'm going to dieeeee 🙃☠️
i made these to hand out at this weekends medieval reenactment event to increase baseline chaos levels and encourage mischief
Got myself some dip pens and ink, and I am learning a gothic script (littera textualis quadrata). So far I suck at controlling the amount of ink flowing out of the pen, but I don't suck at making the letter forms.
I'm having fun :)
Foxy clarify something in case people not know
Verbalflux/scribalflux NOT mean someone change verbal/scribal states
Being nonverbal, being nonscribal, is permanent state
Example, have speech loss episode not mean "go nonverbal", one not able temporary enter permanent state
Verbalflux/scribalflux mean ability change, ability speak fluctuates, ability write/understand words fluctuates
It is permanent state of fluidity, NOT "sometimes I verbal/scribal, sometimes I nonverbal/nonscribal" - it harmful to claim to have experience not have, harmful to say you non-xyz when you not
Foxy scribalflux
Foxy have fluctuate ability to write/type coherently
Foxy NOT "semiscribal/nonscribal sometimes", Foxy only unable to write/type clear sometimes - it is different, even if sound similar
Different level/state
Because Foxy not 24/7 permanent state of ability to write, Foxy not that permanent state (ie scribal or nonscribal ect)
Please remember and respect people of permanent state
That fluid is state in and of self, that it not mean temporarily becoming different states
Text :
DNI anti-endo/sysmeds, radqueer/transID, queerphobes, ableism, saneism, hostility
Finished product first, held by my wonderful spouse. Northshield is a kingdom big on the power of light. Our motto includes illumination as a virtue. We have a star named Griffin's Light. On top of the society A&S badge being a candle, our A&S awards are the Black Flame and Brigit's Flame. Since about year two of my tenure in the SCA I've dreamed of making a lantern scroll to honor that aspect and now I've done two. I'm so grateful to be surrounded by people who inspire me to push my boundaries and make cool art.
As such, these are lantern scrolls for Brigit's Flame awards, the GOA level Northshield arts and science award. One is for my wonderful friend Thegn Samson Muskovich (aka Samii), who does so much for the arts and sciences of the SCA. From metalworking with bronze and silver, to leatherwork and armoring, to teaching about existing as a trans person in the SCA and deep diving into the experience of the Gullah Geechee and making sure we know that the experience of Africans trafficked to America is as period as their resilience and resistance. I'm so proud that he's my cousin in the Choctaw tribe. The second is for the magnificent Dame Katerinka Lvovicha (aka Kat), who received her Brigit's Flame in 2015 but never got the scroll for it. She also does so much for Northshield, especially in the realms of heraldry and scribal arts, and she blasts a path for all Northshielders to feel safe by being extremely proactive about pronouns, cultural touchstones, and literally offering housing and travel assistance to people.
The inspirations for the project include these four lanterns and Morgan Donner's lantern build video. In the top row are two illustrations from period showing lanterns. The red lantern is from Book of Hours, MS M.972 fol. 1r, and has a bit of a splayed shape with a wider base and a turned dome at the top. It also has horn panels that aren't quite perfect fits for each side panel, as evidenced by the uneven horizontal lines. The second lantern, held by a crotchety dragonesque beast, is from Breviary, MS M. 8 fol. 158r and has a flat top with straight sides.
The second row shows two lantern awards made by other SCAdians. The first was made by Brig Ingen Erennaigh for a baronial service award called the Coill's Beacon, and the second is an Award of Arms by Northshield's own Tatiana Melville.
My original plan was actually to make a couple of so-called Viking lanterns like the kind you see all over Etsy. These usually consist of a top and bottom disc of wood, with dowels in between, and parchment or rawhide wrapped around the exterior. Extremely simple, and the parchment provides the perfect scroll text surface, but thanks to Morgan Donner's video, I now know those are dated to the 1800s. The idea of illuminated parchment stuck with me though and I decided to make a lantern more along the lines of the Breviary lantern but with simulated parchment in place of horn panes. I felt this was a good compromise between my original plan and a documentably period shape.
I didn't leave myself enough time to make this scroll, between the shield I made for Crown Tournament and Halloween festivities. Thinking fast, I ran out to my local hardware store for some precut 6 inch rounds. The ones I got have an ahistoric Roman ogee routed into the edge, but they'll add some nice visual detail to the scrolls.
Splitting my poplar side beams to width was vaguely harrowing on my radial arm saw. It would've been better to use my bandsaw but it's really not set up for use yet, so I made a janky jig and stood off to the side.
I was successful, and began the annoying process of carving 24 dowel tips.
Tools of the trade, and five doweled supports installed in the first base.
The coping saw did a great job of parting off each dowel end.
Dog bless the Shinso rasp. This thing makes my woodworking experience so much easier.
I got one set done and checked my progress. This looks really, really good so far.
I then grabbed some copper and went to town making the candle holders. I wanted these to have some give for different diameters of candles, including electric candles. These were made entirely off of Morgan Donner's video and aren't based on anything I personally researched, so I can't say anything to their historocity beyond knowing that sheet copper definitely wasn't the material of choice back then. I used a spare fat poplar dowel to form both holders.
I then used sidecutters to make the flanges, and bent them out flat. I used some brass brads to nail the holders to the bases, and pressed them through with my drill press just as I did with the tacks to the targe I made last month.
At this stage I needed to do a test fit, and boy was I happy with the way it looked so far. Now, I must say that this is not enough spacing between the candle and the lantern roof. It'll probably be alright, but it could also get pretty dang hot and risk a fire in there. A shorter candle would be better, but I have a hundred of these beeswax candles so I'm gonna give them away as gifts whenever I can.
Since the Book of Hours lantern is red and Samii's livery colors are red and gold, I painted his lantern red. I used a few different paints mixed together to achieve this shade, and then I sprayed the whole thing with matte polyurethane sealant.
I decided to make Kat's a nice golden oak color in contrast to the red lantern, based on so many being light colored in the various illustrations and illuminations I saw. It was down between this and painting it blue to match her arms, but I think I'm glad I did two very different finishes. The poplar is so green that the oak stain couldn't really compensate, but it's not bad. This lantern was sealed with finishing wax.
At this point Kim stepped in to get the scrolls done. This is Pergamenata, a perennial favorite of SCA scribes for having a similar surface feel and translucency to animal parchment. Usually I do illumination and word smithing while they just do the hand writing, but this time they took on all three of those tasks, much to my joy.
Here's Kat's scroll panes before color. You can see Kim used a template made off my test fit of the lantern to get the spacing correct. They used Speedball india ink and matched the hand to the calligraphy in CNM XXIII.C.124 Velislavova Bible, which they also took the design of the torch from.
Both scroll panes inked, painted and drying. We chose these scrolls to try tempera paint for the first time and the translucency of the tempera on the translucency of the perg is just so good.
Here's Kat's scroll panels with the oak-stained side supports.
Here's Samii's scroll panels with the red side supports.
The final assembly process. I had to cut the scroll panels into individual panes, because the spacing wasn't perfect. I used wood glue to affix the perg panes to the backside of each support, holding or clamping alternately to keep everything in place as the glue-wet perg curled away from the supports and then uncurled as the adhesive cured. It was a pain in the ass but it worked out. I then had to form two bronze rings for the tops of each lantern, and install hooks and loops to close the back pane, which has one end loose and wrapped around a thin piece of basswood.
Here is the final assembly completed, showing the door hooks made of bronze and the eyelet screws made of brass. This is not a very historic door shape, but it's what Morgan Donner hacked together for her lanterns and if it worked for her it'll work for me.
Kat's scroll completed as well, and here's the only view I have of the top suspension ring.
And of course it's not a lantern if you don't see it illuminated. I gave both recipients a beeswax candle and an electric candle, and this photo was taken with the electric candle in place. I had to wrap gaffer tape around the base to make it fit. The electric candle is actually pretty bright! Look at that pretty red paint, and not the fact that the support is slightly angled.
Hello! I wanted to make a general symbol for verbality.
It's a star! With an outline of a circle and a filled circle in the middle.
Each Point on the star represents:
Intersection of verbality; co-morbidity.
So, usually verbalism, altverbalism, and related could, and can be caused by disorders. Such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, autism, sensory disorder, ADHD, and a ton more. To represent the intersections of co-morbidities, I wanted to give the subject itself, it's own point. People forget that neurodevelopmental, sensory, physical, and mental disorders/disabilities can affect verbality in many ways.
Verbal, Verbalism, *Verbality* ; Speak, Speaking
The way one speaks, talks, and vocalizes words or sounds. This can range from alternate-verbalism/speaking, hyper-verbalism/speaking, semi-verbalism/speaking, non-verbalism/speaking, or undefined verbalism/speaking. As long as it goes off verbal-normatives or speaking-normatives, it will fit.
Lexic, Lexicon, Lexica
An inability, rather totally, partially, or undefined, to comprehend and understand vocabulary.
Scribal, Scribalism
An inability, rather totally, partially, or undefined, to write, or text using vocabulary.
AAC
So, AAC stands for Augmented and Alternate Communication. This includes any someone may communicate outside of speaking-normative ways. Rather it be using a text to speech app, buttons to text app, buttons to speech app, sign language, sounds, and a ton more! Rather, someone uses AAC or not, does NOT equate the worth and validity of someone who falls under the verbality umbrella.
When it comes to the circle, I personally added this for anyone who doesn't conform to verbality-normative. Rather it be using undefined to describe your verbality, not wanting to use AAC, not forcing yourself to talk, not wanting to mask, and/or a ton more! Generally includes any non-conforming individual who falls under the verbality umbrella.
ASCII : ✬
[Image ID: A flat, blue star outline with a large circle in the middle. The circle doesn't touch the star. End ID]
Note: While verbalism inherently relates to one's *speaking* abilities, I am using it as a *broad* term. Technically speaking, vocabulary is the correct term when discussing non-normative ways of such, I think people might understand me better if I use: verbalism.