[Artemisia] dyed silk pennants

[Bartholomew Hightower]

[img]http://chrysostom-family.com/hc/images/pennant.jpg[/img]

I've posted this to Artemisia militaris, but I thought it might be 
apropos here as well.

I got interested in pennants a couple of years back, when His Grace 
Rienmar required them at his crown tourney. I have a very nice one that 
Baroness Catherine sewed for me.  I even got her to sew the checky 
background, though she almost strangled me for that later.  I was a 
little taken aback at how difficult it was to sew a good pennant.  We 
had to carefully plan where to put each element, keeping the heavy stuff 
near the pole, and adding lots of light fabric at the end to "fly" the 
whole thing -- like a kite.  The results were visually stunning, but 
nothing like what you see in many heraldic texts like Foster's 
"Dictionary of Heraldry".

I saw several examples of dyed silk pennants at the past Estrella.  With 
Baron Ulrich's prodding, I took the time to examine some of them, and 
did a little reading after I got back.

I've recently finished my first banner, and I feel like I have the 
process down pretty well.  My household (Argos)seems pretty hyped about 
the prospect of making banners for it members, and I wanted to share 
what I have learned with the rest of the kingdom as well.

I think more pennants is a Good Thing, so I've written up an article 
that you can find at:

http://chrysostom-family.com/hc/pennanthowto.htm

It's on my crossbow website, so you'll have to get past the shameless 
self-plugs, but i think you'll find it worth the read.

Enjoy,

-bart

-- 
THL Bartholomew Hightower of Canterbury
(Dan Watson)
bartholomew at coteduciel.org
http://www.cs.usu.edu/~watson/bartholomew