Last year’s A&S Champion, Lissa Underhill, commissioned Annys and me to produce a scroll which would go to her successor at Yule. This one also eluded us for a long time, artisticly, until the details finally fell into place the week before the event. In a funny twist of fate, the person who most wanted to own this scroll ended up winning (for her second time) – Alesone displayed a range of different sugar works and methods, including an example of how bad sugar can go if there’s too much moisture in the air.

We ended up with a scroll text written between the two of us, which happily included an intial “A” which I could illuminate into a salamander enjoying proximity to a candle, the symbol of Arts & Sciences in the Society. The decorative borders are pulled from the Book of Hours for the Use of Paris, an example of which I found here. I haven’t gotten to working with raised gilding, otherwise I would have employed that method here. Annys had, by this time, truly begun to own the gothic hand she was working in, and the text really sells this piece. As pictured, it still has the lines we left for the name of the winner and the signatures of the Baron and Baroness.

Unfortunately for those who love a good piling-on of process shots… I don’t have too many, since this piece came together so quickly. I ‘ll see what I can find and put some up if they’re worth the trouble. 🙂

Red pencil, gouache, and Higgins Eternal ink on pergamenata. Roughly 4″ x 6.5″