Answers Part I

I've been asked a few questions about silk banner making and heraldic display recently. First of all, I have to put my hand up and say that I am not the authority on either of these subjects, I am just interested in them.

For silk banner making, I learned everything I know from Ms Hunydd, for heraldic display, I have just picked up bits and pieces along the way, researched fragments and made some banners. There are some out there who are way better versed on the subject that I.

However, seeing as I've been asked, I'll attempt an answer.

Wishwords, over at the heraldicdisplay LJ community, asked "Could you do a post explaining how you decided on the various banner designs? What period guidelines influenced you? How do you decide which device goes where on mixed heraldry?"

In response to this, firstly I should say that my banners have mostly not been researched and I have used some creative licence at most. Mixed heraldry has provided some challenges, particularly with the baronial 'standards' project I recently worked on. There was a mixture of three heraldic devices, those being :

Lochac

Rowany

And all the past Baron and Baronesses of Rowany

So, as you might imagine, creating a look that is unifying yet unique provided some difficulties. To solve the problem, we decided to have the Lochac populace badge (Lochac device without laurel and crown) on the hoist. Then we decided that green and white are the predominant colours for Rowany and we should use them as well down the fly.

Now usually, it is period practice to have the main charge of the device over the background of the fly colours. However, in this instance, where we had issues with mixed heraldry, we often found that we had an argent charge that we wouldn't be able to separate from the field, making for less effective heraldry and display. To overcome that problem, we opted to put the main charge of the individuals' devices over one of the main colours from their device (except for Hrothgar, where we used vairy en point...which was hugely effective). From what I can tell, this is not period practice, however, for the purposes of this project, it seemed to be the best solution, given the time constraint that we had.

To keep with a Rowany theme, we found some pilgrim badges, which we adapted and used along the fly.

I cannot remember which website this picture came from. If you know, please tell me so I can attribute the right people.

So this is basically what we did. I will post again soon with some research, however, if you look at the links in my sidebar, you will find more answers there.

Hate that!

Heyyyyyy! Where has the 'Standards and Pincils and Pennons, oh my!' website by Mistress Elizabeth Braidwood gone? That was one of the best articles around! Used to send everybody to that one! Will have to see if I can track Mistress Elizabeth down...

So, what now?

Now that the baronial banners are out of the way, I have a couple of other banner projects. The first is to make Helene and Hrothgar's personal pennons, which I promised would be ready by Rowany25. They're late, but I do intend to honour my promissary. Both of these will be similar in style to my pennon, with differing design elements for extra funkiness. Again, I'm thinking silk, because it is just so darn effective!

The other project is some silk banners for Shadowfall, which Mog and I will work on over summer (I have neglected uni and need to knuckle down on that now).

There is also Kasiian's personal banner which I need to make.

And if you're wondering? No, I don't take orders.

Baronial Banners

A couple of years back, on learning that the 25th Anniversary of the Barony of Rowany was coming up, I had a vision:

'Wouldn't it be really cool if the Barony had a set of banners, one for each B&B past and present, for the event?'

And I figured it would be a really neat idea for Stowe, the Barony's only Canton, to give them as a birthday gift.

So I went off, had a bit of a think and came up with some ideas. Then I put a crew together, spoke to all the B&Bs involved and embarked upon the project.

The first incarnation consisted of handpainting and appliqueting 9 banners, but we quickly realised that this was going to be a very slow and costly venture and abandoned ship, putting the project on the shelf for a little while. In the meantime, the emergence of a silk banner making trend sparked off another idea. Hey! Maybe we could do them in silk! This time around there were another 2 banners added, but what the hey.

So silk banners it was to be.

Hunydd had a fair bit of experience with silk banner making and was happy to show us all how it was done. The banners were to be approx 50cmx2.5m and would be standards depicting the populace badge of Lochac with the main charge of the B&Bs devices, the colours of Rowany (green and white) and some funky Rs that we had found, which had also been used as Rowany livery badges, I believe. Plus mottos for each reign.

Rowan - Vom Anfang (of the beginning)

Torg & Lindoret - Lead With Honour

Richard & Alarice - Una Vera Baronia (A True Barony)

Corin & Keridwen - Build It And They Will Come

Hrothgar & Helene - Mit Begeisterung! (With Enthusiasm!)

Gui & Alefled - Senatus Populusque Roani (SPQR - Senate and Populus of Rowany).

We managed to get all the past B&Bs done, Gui and Aelfled will be something that can be done for them once they step down...or maybe sooner...

This was a huge learning curve as we discovered the joy and wonder of silk painting. It is so random! There are the odd skips and hops here and there and a lovely, slightly peppermint tinge to the white (and Rusty's shirt), but from a distance, they look really, really cool. Like. Really.

Hopefully there will be some photos of them at the feast...

Silk!

I've made a few personal banners. One is the Shadowfall pennon, the other is a large, triangular pennon that I've never hemmed (must fix that). The most recent is a long triangular silk pennon. It's painted and I just love it!

This is it in progress, notice that the paint, while lovely is kinda dull. This changes dramatically after the steaming process and really picks the whole thing out. The motto I have adopted is 'Res Crescunt Concordia' or 'Things grow from harmony'. The bees have not been filled in as they usually wind up looking like blowflies, but I'll fill them in once I work out how to make them look more like bees.

Here it is in action at the Gods and Monsters Tournament at Rowany 25. That would be it next to the Lochac banner and above the Rowany one (same pole, I was running out...).

And here it is at my pelican ceremony, between Hrothgar and MoG.

These aren't the best examples to notice the difference pre and post steaming, but you do get to see them in action...

Not just banners.

Just so you can see that banners aren't the be all, end all, there's the rest of it...
These were taken at the Heraldic Tournament in Stowe that Kasiian and I ran. Here you can See Master Baron Kasiian with his herald, Llewen the Unruly and his Lady, me.

I made the tabbards, the roll (I am stuck for the word for it at the moment, will edit it in later) around Kasiian's helm and my sideless surcoat (with some help from Hunydd). Those are supposed to be Maltese crosses on my dress (which are painted on), not stars (oh, if only I knew then what I know now) and painted Kasiian's shield for him. It's pretty basic, but it does the trick. Don't we look triffic?

And here is El Barone again...cute, inne?

Gonfalons

These are the big rectangular banners. The first one here is the Stowe war banner, usually carried by the Stowe Champion. It was a joint project with MoG and I (all I will say is, "sodding laurels"). Here it is being carried by Master Baron Kasiian at Spring War, some time ago...

The next is a different Gonfalon. When Helene and Hrothgar were stepping up, they asked for a banner from each Peer, Household and sub-group. I decided Stowe should have a display banner. This one is quartered featuring design elements of both Stowe and Rowany devices and on the reverse is a large Stowe device.

It's not the best photo and I didn't get one of the reverse side. But you get the general idea. This one was researched (and I will have to go and dig it up now). It was designed by me and Ladies Hunydd and Kaedhlin assisted with the making of it. Both this one and the one above are machine appliqued and made using drill, except for the tree trunks which are something funky Hunydd found and give nice texture to the trees.

This one remains my favourite.

Amicitia & Hospitalitas

Friendship and Hospitality, sums up Stowe quite well. The banner you see with the heading of this page (accompanied with the rather dashing Wod & Sihtric) is the standard I made for Stowe in time for the first Stowe Faire. This one I put a least some research into and while it's not perfect, it is possibly more period than the other pennons I made. This one was made from an old linen bedsheet from Kasiian's grandmother and fabric paint with plain, white bias binding around the edges, instead of fringing or the stripey edge usually seen.





The division through the centre of the standard is embattled. I can't say I have seen many examples of a treated division in my research, but as the embattlements are part of the Stowe device, I decided to go with it, purely because it would look cool. The sun in splendour isn't a part of the Stowe device. Usually, she peeps up from behind the embattlements, so in this instance, I decided that we would see the rest of the sun and use it as a badge instead.





This standard gets out and about, usually on the warfield at Festival. I am still quite happy with it...

There it is, above the fort at Festival with Harry...

Build It And They Will Come

When Corin and Keridwen stepped down as B&B of Rowany, Stowe put together a box of personal gifts and presented it to them. I had intended to make a pennon each for both Corin and Keridwen, however Corin's had a watery mishap before it was presented and I've never gotten around to replacing it.





So this is Keridwen's...

With the Baron's Bodacious Bottles o Beautiful Bock (Kasiian's gift) and the MoG box in the background (MoG's gift).

Again, this pennant isn't researched, it was made from the same materials and paint used for the Shadowfall pennants. For the mottos, I used Adobe Illustrator to blow up the motto and mouse, using a 'gothic' font for the motto, which is 'Build It And They Will Come', something Mouse said frequently during their reign, but highly apt when you consider that she said it to us and this is a gift from Stowe.

I was really pleased with this banner and I think Viscountess Mistress Keridwen thought it was alright, too.

'Vom Anfang'

'Of the beginning' which is also the motto I chose from a selection that Mistress Rowan Perigrynne offered for her baronial banner.

Indulge me for a moment, while I drag out some photos of my earliest banners. My earlier again stuff included a panel of devices, which I painstakingly handpainted. It was destroyed by an idiot, who no doubt thought he was being clever. Oh well, it wasn't my best work, so at least I can't look at it and cringe now.

These are some pennants I made for House Shadowfall (of which I am a member). They are hand-painted using fabric paint, the material is some kind of cotton, possibly a mix with something 'fake', but it was lovely to paint on and easy to use. My mum helped me sew them up, so they are squared on the bottom instead of rounded or pointed. I have used everyone's devices and colours from the Shadowfall badge. The motto is 'Noli Pati Injusticium', which translates to 'Suffer Not Injustice'.

And yes, they are hanging from a clothesline in my Mum's backyard...

These are not researched and were a quick solution to spiffing up the Shadowfall enacampment at Festival. I am happy with them as they all look quite effective, I guess I should get around to making the others sooner or later...

Prima Postum

Having made a bunch of lovely standards (with lots of help) recently for the Barony of Rowany's 25th Anniversary celebrations, and having had an interest in heraldic display for a few years now, I've decided that I'd like to pursue this interest a little more closely.

So this is a spot where I can keep everything together. Photos, research, links etc. If anyone else finds this a helpful resource, then awesome.