My first scroll
Nov. 13th, 2025 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baroque_mongooseThings are, as you'll have noticed, pretty stressful at the moment for a number of reasons; but the calligraphy does help with that, and I'm happy to be able to report that last night I was assigned my very first scroll.
I say "scroll", but it isn't really. A scroll, technically, should be a thing you roll up; but in the SCA, when anyone says "scroll", everyone understands that what is meant is a beautifully calligraphed and illuminated award certificate which can be framed, should the recipient so desire. They're usually A4 size, at any rate in this country, but I've seen them other sizes, and even with somewhat unusual shapes (one of the scrolls handed out at the Crown Tourney was a parallelogram). I'm quite used to referring to that as a "scroll", but it's as well to make it absolutely clear what is meant, for the benefit of those not in the SCA.
I think I've mentioned this before, but, as a reminder, in the SCA people get awards for all sorts of things; and this particular scroll that I am doing is what is called an Award of Arms. This is something everyone gets after a while, usually after being in the SCA for about a year. I didn't get one when I was a member previously, but then I'm not sure many other members even knew I existed, because circumstances were very different at that point; now that I'm much more able to get involved, I can reasonably expect to get one after a while. This award is basically saying "yay for you, you're doing great, keep it up", and it gives you the right to the title of Lord/Lady/Noble, whichever one works for you.
I'm not illuminating this one myself because there isn't really time; the scroll is needed for the Yule Ball, which is only just over three weeks away. So our signet has sent me a couple of scroll blanks, which means pre-illuminated sheets of pergamenata (an excellent, 100% vegan, and eye-wateringly expensive parchment substitute; I have just bought some myself). I was also expecting to be sent the wording to use, but no, apparently that's not how it works. They send you the name of the recipient, some information about what they've been doing in the SCA, the nature and date of the award, and who exactly is doing the awarding (not a given - we are a principality which is part of a larger realm, so in this case it is the Prince and Princess who are awarding, but it may be the King and Queen). You then come up with your own appropriately fancy mediaeval wording. Since it's my first scroll, I ran said wording by our signet just to check; he's very happy with it, so I'll be starting shortly.
I will not, of course, start by writing straight on the scroll blank. There will be a lot of pre-testing involved to make sure I have the lettering the right size (which may mean fiddling about with different nibs, but in any case I'll be doing pencil samples to start with). Once I'm completely happy with it, then I copy it over to the blank, adding colour as required (possibly red for initial capitals, and gold for the recipient's name). And, once it's done, I can get on with creating more scroll blanks at my leisure. It's a bit like priming the scribal pump, really.
I do many crafts (too many, if I'm honest); but calligraphy is the one that requires by far the most intense concentration, and therefore it's the best stress reliever. I can just zone out doing calligraphy. I can knit, sew, or do almost anything else with my mind at least partly on other things, but calligraphy? You focus. You have to. If you don't, you are going to make a mistake, and we don't want that on someone's lovely piece of illumination.
Hopefully by the time it's been presented, I'll have found somewhere I can upload a photo to show you. I'm obviously not showing anyone till then!
I say "scroll", but it isn't really. A scroll, technically, should be a thing you roll up; but in the SCA, when anyone says "scroll", everyone understands that what is meant is a beautifully calligraphed and illuminated award certificate which can be framed, should the recipient so desire. They're usually A4 size, at any rate in this country, but I've seen them other sizes, and even with somewhat unusual shapes (one of the scrolls handed out at the Crown Tourney was a parallelogram). I'm quite used to referring to that as a "scroll", but it's as well to make it absolutely clear what is meant, for the benefit of those not in the SCA.
I think I've mentioned this before, but, as a reminder, in the SCA people get awards for all sorts of things; and this particular scroll that I am doing is what is called an Award of Arms. This is something everyone gets after a while, usually after being in the SCA for about a year. I didn't get one when I was a member previously, but then I'm not sure many other members even knew I existed, because circumstances were very different at that point; now that I'm much more able to get involved, I can reasonably expect to get one after a while. This award is basically saying "yay for you, you're doing great, keep it up", and it gives you the right to the title of Lord/Lady/Noble, whichever one works for you.
I'm not illuminating this one myself because there isn't really time; the scroll is needed for the Yule Ball, which is only just over three weeks away. So our signet has sent me a couple of scroll blanks, which means pre-illuminated sheets of pergamenata (an excellent, 100% vegan, and eye-wateringly expensive parchment substitute; I have just bought some myself). I was also expecting to be sent the wording to use, but no, apparently that's not how it works. They send you the name of the recipient, some information about what they've been doing in the SCA, the nature and date of the award, and who exactly is doing the awarding (not a given - we are a principality which is part of a larger realm, so in this case it is the Prince and Princess who are awarding, but it may be the King and Queen). You then come up with your own appropriately fancy mediaeval wording. Since it's my first scroll, I ran said wording by our signet just to check; he's very happy with it, so I'll be starting shortly.
I will not, of course, start by writing straight on the scroll blank. There will be a lot of pre-testing involved to make sure I have the lettering the right size (which may mean fiddling about with different nibs, but in any case I'll be doing pencil samples to start with). Once I'm completely happy with it, then I copy it over to the blank, adding colour as required (possibly red for initial capitals, and gold for the recipient's name). And, once it's done, I can get on with creating more scroll blanks at my leisure. It's a bit like priming the scribal pump, really.
I do many crafts (too many, if I'm honest); but calligraphy is the one that requires by far the most intense concentration, and therefore it's the best stress reliever. I can just zone out doing calligraphy. I can knit, sew, or do almost anything else with my mind at least partly on other things, but calligraphy? You focus. You have to. If you don't, you are going to make a mistake, and we don't want that on someone's lovely piece of illumination.
Hopefully by the time it's been presented, I'll have found somewhere I can upload a photo to show you. I'm obviously not showing anyone till then!
