Tag: laurel

bookmark_borderBanner for Owen Tegg

Posted on by Elliott Evans

Here’s a project that barely has any wood in it at all! It’s another silk banner for a friend who was being elevated to the peerage in the SCA. Owen’s arms has one of those repeating patterns that make it an awful lot of work for a vertical banner like this, but the rams at the top are interesting.

I laid out the repeating pattern in chalk, then suspended the silk in my pvc-pipe painting frame and used black gutta resist to make the lines for the pattern. Then it was a simple if maddening chore to color in every other rhomboid with paint. Once that was dry I treated the upper portion with sizing, then traced and painted the rams.

I’m always a little paranoid about the paint, so even though I used the air-set additive in the paint I also did a bunch of ironing to heat-set the paint. I have to wash the silk to get all the chalk off, so I need to be sure the paint is well and truly set.

Anyway, this banner was done in plenty of time before Pennsic, and we used it at Owen’s vigil and his procession into court. Always happy to help out, and be able to contribute a gift that somebody can actually use.

bookmark_borderLaurel Hangesa

Posted on by Elliott Evans

A kesa is a monk’s garment in the Japanese Buddhist tradition. It is the pieced-quilt kinda thing that hangs from the shoulder on a strap. Certain disciplines make this the only thing a monk wears, but most often it is seen as a kind of devotional garment or vestment. I don’t want to get too far into it, because you could spend many pages discussing the tradition and its changes over time. In modern times, there is a kind partial kesa called a hangesa which is essentially just the strap, worn as a collar. This is normally worn by lay members of an order to show their affiliation without implying that they are officially a monk.

In the SCA, we tend to wear medallions or belt favors to show our affiliations, but neither of these is really appropriate for Japanese persona. They may not be completely appropriate for SCA use, but I don’t think they are offensive at the level that, say, a full kesa would be.

Anyway, here’s a hangesa I made for myself to show affiliation with the Order of the Laurel.

I used some left-over black silk brocade from my elevation garb, machine embroidered some Laurel wreaths near the ends, and attached some red and white (Kingdom colors) silk braids to act as himo. I actually made this at least a year ago, but I have gotten quite a bit behind on posting projects here.