This is a collection of articles and documentation on some of my SCA projects. You will notice that there a number of articles here dealing with Medieval paint pigments - so now I must make the usual sort of disclaimer, that regardless of what I write and post on the web, what you do at home with your own choice of pigments and poisons is your own responsibility. Unless you have sufficient means to prevent skin absorption, fume inhalation and dust ingestion, and have had the training to keep yourself safe, please don't play with medieval chemicals at home.
Unfamiliar with the SCA? The Society for Creative Anachronism is an organization which investigates the culture of chivalry in the Middle Ages by holding armoured combat tournaments, creating Medieval feasts, making Medieval crafts and otherwise investigating Medieval and Renaissance culture through hands-on participation. It is the largest of all the Middle Ages living history groups, perhaps because the SCA focuses on more than just one small time slice of history. The SCA started as a going-away party in 1966 for the now well-known historical fantasy writer Diana Paxton, who at the time was going off to the Peace Corps. At the end of the party, the party-goers marched up Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in their Medieval clothes with protest signs to publicly protest the 20th Century. The folks at the party had so much fun that they decided to do it again. The late great Marion Zimmer Bradley made up the group's name on the spot while reserving a City of Berkeley park for the group to hold another medieval tournament at. More and more people started showing up for these events, and soon the idea caught on all over. The SCA today has over 20000 members on 5 continents - which is quite a ways from a little backyard party! For more info on the SCA, click here, which takes you to the home page of the SCA Inc. (To be honest, however, the description of the SCA that I like the best can be found on the site of commercial artist Randy Asplund, in his bio section, which can be found click here.)
Click here to see images of the Twelfth Night Roll used in 1968 (AS 2) to create the chivalry as an order, create the order of the laurel plus create the first dukes. The image files for this page are large, so it will take its time to load if you don't have a fast net connection. The West Kingdom History Project (the link is off the www.westkingdom.org page) has the same images but chopped up into smaller bites, which is kinder to machines with smaller.
Click here to see my documentation on my silver project, which I wrote up for the Artemisia Arts and Sciences Competition, AS 36.
Click here to see my documentation on vermilion.
Click here to see my documentation on azurite.
Click here to see my documentation on yellow ochre.
Click here to see the documentation on my illuminated letter "O".
Click here to see my handout for the medieval inorganic poisons class I taught at Uprising XV, which includes a slightly revised and updated version of my 1997 article on how to kill yourself with vermilion in three or four different and creative ways.
Click here to see my 1996 Tournaments Illuminated article on massicot/gallerino. And watch this space since I'm currently working on webbing on my 2002 TI article on SCA scrolls. But while you're waiting for that, you can read my 1987 TI article on Jewish Heraldry of the Middle Ages.
Click here to see my documentation on making vitriol.
Click here to see my handout from my Medieval glue class that I taught at Estrella in 2007.
The next two links, here and here, are the miniscule and majuscule exemplars for my most current redaction of Anglo-Norman Secretary Hand. The file size on these guys is really gross, so please be patient while they download. You will notice that there is water damage on these, which I've done a little cleaning up on using Adobe Photoshop - the cause of the damage is simple: like many others who are deep into the scribal arts, I too am cursed with cats.
Click here to see an example of one of my "done in under 4 hours" calligraphy works where I've gone a little cadel-goofy.Click here to see my handout on SCA Arts and Sciences Competitions, and how I like to document for them.
Click here to see my handout for my 2013/2014 voice heraldry classes in the East Kingdom, based on my two Known World Heraldic Symposium articles/classes (Berkeley, 1987; St. Louis, 2003) on the subject. Trust me, it's not your usual voice heraldry blah blah blah.
On the lighter side, click here to see my documentation for my entry into the "Garb from a Portrait" contest held at the Artemisian Collegium in November, 2002. Go here to see my thoughts as to why the judges blew it when they judged my entry.
You can also click here to see my April 1st, 2006 report to the corporate chirurgeon.
Click here to see the SCA event announcement from the Planet Gor.
click here to see an SCA event report complete with flaming ducks, wild dogs and animal rights activists.
For those who don't know this already, I was on the Grand Council from 2006 through 2012, and was its chair from June 2011 thru May 2012. During that time, I posted some April Fool's posts to the Grand Council mailing list. The trick to writing these is to craft something that sounds like it really is part of the real world and yet contains enough hints and absurdities for the astute to discern that their collective legss are being pulled. Enjoy the ones linked below and decide for yourself how well I managed to fool people.
April 2012I'm not a total Arts and Sciences dweeb. Really, this is all just what I do in my spare time while I'm not working on my life-long ambition to become a a great medieval sword and shield fighter. It's not the current version of the armour, but it's close. Click here to see my armour with the OLD fighting coat... (The new fighting coat is red, and it has embroidery, not that I'm vain or anything like that.) Since this was a Boar Hunt in Bay Area brush, I wore my boots and not my sabotans and full-greaves. Armour fops, eat your hearts out... Yeah, those ARE smiley faces on my war-pants...
This site went on line February 9, 2001. This page was last modified on 5 Nov, 2012. No ads. No cookies. No marketroids. No Spam. No junk email. No hassle. I spell badly and sometimes links die. Send comments about this site to: no1home@onewest.net. Thanks for stopping by.