It was a wonderful Abbey Medieval Festival at the Rosalie's Medieval Woman tent! I had a very special visit from Heraldic Illuminator, Tania Crossingham who did the cover artwork for my book, The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women.
Tania is Australian born but had made a wonderful life in Finland and flew in especially for the festival and some workshops on illumination for the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology.
Pictured here, are myself, Tania and the original artwork she created for me.
I'm looking forward to this workshop so much! I've done one before, and have enrolled in the Master Class. I'm hoping this will improve my skills since I haven't really studied fabric draping since high school.
Tania Crossingham is the artist who provided the artwork for my book based on the Manesse Codex and I've known her for many years now. She's flown in from Finland for the Abbey Medieval Festival and these workshops and it really is an opportunity too great to pass up.
I give you another one of the props for the Medieval Festival Opening Ceremony- a medieval flower crown, the Crown of Chivalry. This is to be presented to the Knight along with the Shield of Valour and the Mantle of Temperance.
It was made by me along the same lines as the last two- with the additions and decorative features added on pins with flat heads to secure them. here's a close up look at the tiny silver flowers and freshwater pearls in between the large silver roses.
I was particularly excited to source the flowers, and anyone who makes beaded jewellery may notice that they are, actually, bead caps. The brass pins and the pearls make the flower centres.
I was exceptionally lucky to get the silver flowers for a bargain price as the owner of the bead store could find them listed in the inventory and wasn't planning on getting more, so they just made me an offer which was so good that I bought every last one they had in the shop.
The roses themselves look a little large, but they need to be seen from further afield, quite literally, than others. I considered that in some medieval artworks, these might be quite large anyway, so I felt that after the ceremonies are over, I can wear the circlet for myself on other occasions.
Another job ticked off my list for the Abbey Medieval Festival.
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