Happy Holidays!

To celebrate this holiday season, I'd like to share a manuscript page with you (click to enlarge).

Source: British Library, Add. 16997 f.57 Book of Hours, Use of Paris. 1st quarter of the 15th century

This page featuring the Adoration of the Child features beautiful floral motifs, brilliant colors, and acanthus details. I wish you all the very best of holidays, no matter how or with whom you choose to celebrate.

Lots of love,

Crystal / Jaquelinne

Bling!

I'm super excited.  Holly over at Sable Greyhound Gifts made me a customized headband.  Ok, let's be honest.  I threw some money at her and told her what color I wanted.

You can get one too.  (I know, I've given her lots of crass commercial announcements, but LOOK!  Shiney!) She's on Facebook, but these are also over on her Etsy page.  Mine is indicolite.  I'm sorely tempted to get another in a more neutral color.  Another style even... but alas it must wait until more money is to be had.

Underwater Rococo Art Gallery

For those of you 18th Century junkies out there, Austrian photographer Andreas Franke has transformed a sunken ship into a Rococo art gallery.  Check out this article on weather.com.  This stuff is beautifully haunting.

Handkerchiefs

I had a random crazy happenstance occur last night. A week or so ago, I was telling Justin about the handkerchiefs I inherited from my Great-Grandmother a few years ago when she passed. I had not seen those handkerchiefs for a number of years, and was rather upset by it. Somehow they had gotten misplaced in one of my many moves following the divorce.

Last night, in a search for watercolor markers, I found them. I cannot even express how happy I am to see these little gems again. Grandma always kept a handkerchief tucked in her blouse.

The polka dotted fabric they are laying on is also an piece of my inheritance - it's an old flour sack from once upon a time. The "W" is for Wilma.

I love how light and sheer this one is - so delicate, and very fine in quality.

I adore how they turned a simple rolled hem into this scalloped embroidered corner. I presume these were machine embroidered, but the quality is gorgeous. I don't know how old these are, but would guess from the 1980's, so not terribly vintage, but they do come from a lifetime of her habits.

I spent a great deal of time with her as I was growing up, but am ashamed about how little I actually know about her past. I recall being told she had a government job during the Great Depression, and I know she raised her children on a small dairy farm - a farm which I was sad to see sold when she passed. I used to chase her neighbor's peacocks all over that place. Mom tells me stories about visiting and watching the cows get milked when she was a child.

Anyway, I'm so very happy to have found these and thought I'd share how pretty they are.

And Now for Something Completely Different

I recently came across this fashion plate, La Mode Illustree, France 1887, via http://oldrags.tumblr.com/:

If I had an occasion to make a Victorian Fancy Dress... I'd totally make the dragonfly dress. I do love the game one too, but you know me. Anyone up for a Victorian Halloween party in 2012 or 2013?

Serafina's Laurel Scroll

Serafina's Scroll was a collaboration between Duchess Caryn von Katzenberg, Mistress Bethany of Windermere, and myself, at the request of Serafina. Bethany was Serafina's Laurel, and Caryn was Bethany's Laurel, so it was sort of a family affair... except I'm just a crazy fangirl, not family. Needless to say I was surprised and thrilled to be asked to be a part of this process.

The three of us conversed via e-mail, and I uploaded some very poor quality images of inspiration ideas for us to consider. We then met to discuss things in person at Quest and decided on this beauty.


Biblia di Borso d'Este c. 1455-1461
Codices Illustres, page 333

Duchess Caryn did the calligraphy and Mistress Bethany sketched the basic layout and her section of acanthus and passed it on to me. I sketched in my portions of acanthus and spent what seems like forever mixing the perfect shade of lavender to replace the pink from the original piece. Purple/lavender is one of Serafina's favorite colors, which is why we decided to do this. I then began to lay paint.



I quickly discovered that to get the soft shading needed to replicate the look of the original piece, a lot of blending was needed. This became a time-consuming process of laying more and more paint, and I began to worry about the time-frame for completion. I knew that Bethany had a ton of work to do after I was done, so I needed to finish my portion as quickly as possible to give her the time she would need.

Below you can see the scroll as it progresses over the course of one week.






More images can be seen over here in my album:

From Serafina's Scroll

Once my portions were complete, I passed it on to Bethany who did all the miniatures, gold leaf (the gold you see on my portions are a fabulous gold gouache), and the rest of the acanthus. I do not have closeups of the final "done" version, but you can see a picture over at Serafina's Blog (scroll down to the bottom to see the award scroll, but pause to look at the other parts of her vigil and ceremony stuff).

I am deeply honored to have been able to be a part of this process - to have my work on the same paper as these two phenomenal women, to award yet another amazing woman.

Baron's War

Baron's War was pretty awesome. I spent a chunk of the day working as exchequer, but escaped for a bit to visit Serafina at her vigil and sample some of the amazing food she had there. I wore the chocolate kirtle and newly completed sleeves - pictoral evidence!

From Baron's War 2011

My beautiful coral bead jewelery was made by the lovely and talented Aine, whose jewelery and zibillino are gaining world-renown. You can even buy one at her Sable Greyhound site!

From Baron's War 2011

Yes, it was incredibly bright outside. You can click through and see more pictures from the event. I do not have pictures of Serafina's laurel ceremony as I was part of it. Sadness. :( But you can take my word that it was lovely - so many people shared so many beautiful truths about her. She also looked amazing (as usual).

Custom Tarot Cards - Eye Candy Edition

In a bright and glorious spring of 2005, the ever lovely and (disgustingly) talented (then Lady, now Mistress) Bethany of Windermere offered up her talents for a fundraiser at an event I was helping out with. I've done a great number of collaborative works with Bethany, and let's face it... she makes my work look good.

The autocrats decided to do a fighter auction of sorts, wherein the winning fighter's "owner" would receive a prize. The caveat was that in addition to buying fighters, you could purchase tarot cards that did specific things to affect the fights. For example, if you purchased the "Death" card, your fighter would be replaced by the well-renowned fighter, and King at the time, Sean Kirkpatrick Tarragon for that fight. You could choose when to play your card. Each card had a different function. If I remember correctly, the "Fool" Card replaced the opposing fighter's great-sword with a half-length great-sword.

These are the four cards that Bethany designed and painted. Those who purchased the cards got to keep them as keepsakes - they were on canvas board, and these images do not do them justice. They are published here with her permission.

The Sun. A tribute to Aldwin "Scruffy" Longwalker, and a tip of the hat to our former parent Kingdom, Atendveldt. There is a Grant level award named the Golden Sun in Splendour, in honor of Scruffy, may he rest in peace.

The Empress. Her ever graceful and inspiring Caryn von Katzenberg; who was Queen at the time of this event. There is very little that can be said about Her Grace; she is legend.

Death. If you are at all familiar with Duke Sean's device, you will recognize the tabard on the card. Sean Kirkpatrick Tarragon was King at the time of this event, and has always been deadly on the field.

The Fool. This card is inspired by Maestro Don Niccolo Gianfigliazzi Genovese, who single-handedly inspired the interest in period gaming (including French Tarots), to Artemisia. He has since left us for Caid, and is greatly missed.

Shibori

Shibori is a Japanese term for a method used to dye fabric - to tie dye fabric. Shibori is an ancient technique used as early as the Nara period (710-785 AD), which is rumored to have come from India, and then to Japan through China. The basic idea was to create a design that resists dye by tying, folding, sewing, wrapping, etc.

There were many ways to accomplish this, and my purpose of writing about Shibori is not to give a history lesson or a tutorial on how this was done, as there are plenty of books on the subject and dying is not a skill I intend to delve into. My purpose today is simply to share the eye candy that this traditional technique can create.

It is interesting to note, however, that one technique of shibori was banned during the Edo period as being immorally wasteful, for a tier of spending about 30 years tying one garment.

After dying, threads used to tie the garments are carefully removed. This is obviously a delicate process as even a tiny tear could ruin months of work and the entire 12.5 yard bolt of fabric.

The below images were taken from a company that made shibori in a traditional manner, back when I was researching Japanese textiles and clothing about seven years ago. I believe this company was based out of California, but being terrible about such things, I didn't save their information, and can no longer find their website. If you know who they are, I'd love to be re-educated so I could credit them with their gorgeous work. Until then, enjoy the eye candy.