Adelheid in the SCA

This is the second time I've been part of a retinue. The first was for the amazing Viscount Saif and Viscountess Alessandra. I was simply an attendant for them, mostly Viscount Alessandra, as Viscount Saif would take off with his long legs and I'd promptly lose him in the crowd. But it was a great learning experience about the amount of work, organization, outreach, communication, and heart that goes into nine months of a reign.  This time I am much more involved in the lead up to Investiture. And despite presenting my Pelican with a "scroll" of stick figures and a poem about "How I'll Never Be A Scribe", apparently I am. It took her 10 years but she caught me using copy calligraphy and wordsmithing. I was asked to do another couple of assignments for copy, which worked out pretty well in terms of confidence boosting. Is it perfect? No. Do I have a lot to learn? Yes. However about part way through my last draft, I had the feeling that I could in fact do ...

I was asked to do some copy Calligraphy for the upcoming reign of F&E. It was very flattering to be asked and I jumped on the task right away!  I pulled out my scribal stuff, which is a bit rudimentary at best, and realized that I had no ink and my nibs were a bit dodgy. Any scribal I had done to this point was done with the borrowed tools of my Pelican. But a bit of practice, playing with nibs, and some determination (and an amazon order) I was ready to tackle the assignment. HAVOC:  Doing the Havoc was a lot of fun, and I felt pretty successful. The font was quite large and bold, so it was easy to get the thick/thin line effect that I really enjoy in calligraphy. However, this was not without issue.  I did my first “final copy”, and noticed there was a missing letter. I did another “final copy” and left the word blank until I could circle back to it and add the “w”. I was sure to practice and practice, wrote the word a number of times, and then was feeling confident...