Differencing Arms: 1

As King of Arms for the Far Isles Medieval Society, I was asked to produce arms for the newly created Marquisate of Endor’s Keep.

This honour was to be bestowed on the Prince and Princess of Dracenwald , a SCA principality.

Endor had been a sub-group in the Far Isles. Some years before,however, all its members had departed, but its arms remained on the Far Isles Roll.

These were :

Azure above a chalice or two sword in saltire argent hilted of the second hilts in chief debrused by a ram’s head couped proper.

This looked like this:

Obviously, Endor’s Keep could not have the same arms as Endor.

Their arms must, however, be related. Thus, Endor’s arms must be differenced.

As the Marquisate was a gift from the Crown of the Far Isles to another Monarch, I decided it was appropriate to allow the use of  the enbowed oak and apple branches from the Far Isles Arms ( shown below).

These charges were usually restricted to the Crown and to arms of Guilds and Kingdom Officers.

In order to maintain the symmetry of the original achievement, I removed the chalice and replaced it with an annulet made up oak and apple branches.

The new blazon would, therefore, be:

Azure above an oak branch slipped and fruited argent and an apple branch slipped and fruited or conjoined palewise in annulet two swords in saltire of the second hilted of the third hilts in chief debrused by a ram’s head couped proper.

And it looked like this

This picture was taken from the Grant of Title, which I produced both as King of Arms and Guildmaster of the Calligraphers and Illuminators. The original size of this shield was about three cm square.

Until next time

Adieu

To The Globe Theatre in Costume

Recently, my fiance ,Teddy, and  I went to a performance of ‘As You Like It’ at the rebuilt Globe Theatre with our friend Clare.

The tickets were a gift from another friend, Louise.

The last time we visited Louise in Bristol, Teddy had made some clothes for doll she owned and I had painted some small murals of butterflies for her in her bedroom. 

Teddy had come up with the idea of going to the Globe in Elizabethan costume and Louise insisted on paying for the tickets. 

Unfortunately, a sudden work commitment meant that she was unable to come with us, as planned.

Teddy had done a few Elizabethan events at Kentwell Hall and I had made a suit for going to a Renaissance Fayre in America ( of which I my write at a later date). I also had made a shirt with added blackwork panels( made by Black Swan)

Clare borrowed a dress that Teddy had made previously.

I also decided to take  a stout cloak (my knight’s mantle), as I thought it might rain. My best beloved and our guest poo-pooed this notion.

We went up to Waterloo Station  on the mainline and, as we were slightly pressed for time, took a taxi to the theatre.

So, in style, we arrived at the Globe:

Our form of dress caused some comment from the other theatre-goers, but, as Teddy said, didn’t everyone dress up to go to the theatre?

(It still felt a little odd to be not wearing a sword...)

Here is a picture a kindly fellow took of us in our seats:

I am also sure that some of the people nearest to us thought we were some sort of plant in the audience and would do something connected to the play. They must have been disappointed when this didn’t happen.

I also took a few pictures(I usually do medieval re-enactment, so , for me, Elizabethan male clothing is wonderful- both trunkhose and venetians have pockets and are baggy enough to hide a camera!).

After the play we decided to walk back along the South Bank to Waterloo and stop somewhere to have a bite to eat.

We soon discovered that we had indeed been wise to get to the theatre by taxi, for we were stopped for photos every three or four minutes and were even interviewed by a lady doing Facebook project called Humans of Greater London.

Thus we did not progress fast.

(I've had a look at the Facebook project page and there's apicture of us by Blackfriars Bridge. The text is a good distillation of what we talked about.)

After stopping at a cafe for food , it started to rain and I was glad of my nice wool cloak (Ha! To their prior poo-pooing!). Luckily for my companions, we were not far from Waterloo at that point .

It was still raining when we arrived back a Wimbledon, so, by general consent, we took a taxi back to the house.

The play was excellent, very funny and only briefly marred by an overly persistent helicopter, which one performer managed to reference(with a glance to heaven) during a speech.

All in all, it was a lovely day out.

Until next time

Adieu

Steampunk Machine

I have been collecting various bits and pieces for some time with view to creating machines to break the laws of God and Man.

Here is my first CREATION (bwahahahahah!)

Behold the AETHERIC DISSONATOR!

Front View of Emitter Assembley( above)

Occulus Sancti Array (below)

Trigger and base view ( with Occulus Sancti array disengaged)

The basic weapon concept was , obviously,based on a heavy crossbow, or arbalest

It is constructed from brass and painted wood, with blessed steel for the Occulus Sancti Array.

The device emits sanctified aetheric energy derived from the eyeball of a saint housed in the Occulus Sancti Array.This is designed to disrupt the motive power of revenants, zombies and other forms of the reanimate departed.

Until next time

Adieu

Butterfly painting-update five

I spent some time looking at the painting to see if I needed to do any more work to the under painting.

In the end the painting decided that it didn’t want to be tweaked. Sometimes it is better to just carry on.

The next stage is to add a green glaze over the Indian Red under painting. For this I used Sap Green, Viridian Green, Lemon Yellow and Coeruleum Blue and Titanium White.

The foreground needs to have ‘warmer’ colour, so I mixed Lemon Yellow with Sap Green to achieve this. I had, of course to work around any flower heads and butterflies.

Viridian Green is a bluer colour and works well in the mid-distance.

Adding Coeruleum Blue and Titanium white to Viridian increases the sense of distance and is used closer to the skyline.

The picture now looks like this

Once it is dry, I will add further detail glazes to the landscape and further detail to some of the flower heads and butterflies.

For now

Adieu

Unusual Heraldic Charges- 1

The Heraldic Aardvark

When I was serving a Falcon King of Arms for the Far Isles Medieval Society, I was sometimes asked for unusual charges to be passed for achievements of arms.

One such was requested for a character called Christopher of Kent.

 He asked for an aardvark.

As this creature was unknown to English Heraldry, I used the principle of the heraldic Giraffe.

This is known as a Cameleopard, as it had clearly once been described to a herald as ‘a bit like q camel, but with a longer neck and spots like a leopard’.

Consequently, I spoke to Christopher ‘in persona’ and had him describe the creature.

This is what he got:

“An Hardivark:

This is like a brock , but grey all over, save for the sable mask. It is armed with long claws and teeth, has the ears of a cony and the tail of a squirrel.”

(A brock is a badger and a cony is a rabbit.)

Here is a depiction of the creature in question:

From that point on, anyone wanting an aardvark would get an hardivark.

Until next time

Adieu