The last thing I'd have expected
Feb. 1st, 2026 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baroque_mongooseLast night I got chatting on the scribal server with an artist. This is someone who knows absolutely everything there is to know about genuine mediaeval scribal techniques; I decided right from the start that I was not going to bother with any of those (it is a very expensive hassle, plus they used a lot of animal-derived ingredients, many of which are very difficult to substitute), but I still have huge respect for those who do. And this particular person isn't just a scribal expert, but also a more general artist; she's done things like covers for newsletters and what have you. And when she heard that I had based the four main characters in my book on my three best friends and myself, she decided she'd love to do an illustration of the four of us in those roles, because she thought that was totally sweet.
I protested that I couldn't afford to commission her; but she said, no, that was fine. There was only one thing she'd like in exchange, if I could manage it. She would like some local clay from this area that she can render into pigment. She's not fussy about the colour, which is just as well, given that most clays are somewhere in the brown part of the spectrum (occasionally brick-red or grey, but most usually somewhere in between). She is somewhere in the USA, so postage won't be cheap, but it'll still be a lot less than commissioning that kind of portrait.
Well, we do have clay soil round here, much to the chagrin of various friends who want to grow carrots in their allotments; I have no idea what kind to look for or what is suitable for pigment, but I do have a lead. Apparently someone in our (SCA) shire digs clay out of their back garden, presumably to use for pottery, and I should think if you can use it for that, you can use it to make pigments. I don't know a great deal about making pigments, but I do know you have to mull things, and by that I don't mean you boil them with spices. The technique is similar to grinding with a pestle and mortar, but it grinds much more finely (you generally use an etched or frosted glass muller on a flat surface made from a similar material), and it takes ages. I have a lot of patience, but probably not quite that much.
This really is one of the great joys of the SCA; you never do quite know who's suddenly going to do something unexpectedly lovely, or from what quarter. I do, it's true, dish out a fair bit of help on my own account, mostly online, and where I can't help someone myself I generally have a decent idea who can, so I'll put people in touch. But even so, this is something above and beyond.
And there are going to be people somewhere in the USA with Cambridgeshire clay contributing to the colours on their award scrolls... and that, too, makes me curiously happy.
I protested that I couldn't afford to commission her; but she said, no, that was fine. There was only one thing she'd like in exchange, if I could manage it. She would like some local clay from this area that she can render into pigment. She's not fussy about the colour, which is just as well, given that most clays are somewhere in the brown part of the spectrum (occasionally brick-red or grey, but most usually somewhere in between). She is somewhere in the USA, so postage won't be cheap, but it'll still be a lot less than commissioning that kind of portrait.
Well, we do have clay soil round here, much to the chagrin of various friends who want to grow carrots in their allotments; I have no idea what kind to look for or what is suitable for pigment, but I do have a lead. Apparently someone in our (SCA) shire digs clay out of their back garden, presumably to use for pottery, and I should think if you can use it for that, you can use it to make pigments. I don't know a great deal about making pigments, but I do know you have to mull things, and by that I don't mean you boil them with spices. The technique is similar to grinding with a pestle and mortar, but it grinds much more finely (you generally use an etched or frosted glass muller on a flat surface made from a similar material), and it takes ages. I have a lot of patience, but probably not quite that much.
This really is one of the great joys of the SCA; you never do quite know who's suddenly going to do something unexpectedly lovely, or from what quarter. I do, it's true, dish out a fair bit of help on my own account, mostly online, and where I can't help someone myself I generally have a decent idea who can, so I'll put people in touch. But even so, this is something above and beyond.
And there are going to be people somewhere in the USA with Cambridgeshire clay contributing to the colours on their award scrolls... and that, too, makes me curiously happy.
