[EKStationers] Quarterly Report: Worshipful Company of Stationers (fwd)

[Lyle H. Gray]

Greetings to the List!

I sent our first quarterly report to the Minister of Arts &
Sciences of the East Kingdom, and I was reminded that I had said
that I would also post that quarterly report here.

The report is appended after this message.

Regards,
M. Lyle FitzWilliam

-- 
Lyle H. Gray
gray at cs.umass.edu -- text only, please
http://members.verizon.net/~vze3wwx7
 --
Shared knowledge is preserved knowledge.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 09:03:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: Lyle H. Gray <gray at cs.umass.edu>
To: moas at eastkingdom.org
Subject: Quarterly Report:  Worshipful Company of Stationers

Unto Mistress Danabren Madadh-Mara, Mistress of Arts & Sciences
of the East Kingdom,
>From Master Lyle FitzWilliam, Master of the Worshipful Company of
Stationers of the East Kingdom,
Greetings!

Good Mistress,

First, I apologize for this report being late.  I can but plead
that yesterday was a more hectic day than I had anticipated.

The Worshipful Company of Stationers of the East Kingdom was
recognized as a Royal Guild at the Coronation of Brion and Anna
on 2 April A.S. XL, A.D. 2006.  The Charter for the Company was
signed by Their Majesties and several members of the Company,
including the Master of the Company and 4 of the 5 Wardens of the
Company.

The Wardens of the Company act as deputies to the Master of the
Company, and as advocates for particular areas of interest within
the Company (calligraphy and illumination, bookbinding,
papermaking, printing, and other book arts).

At the time that the Company was recognized as a Royal Guild,
gifts of blank books and a woodcut print were given to Their
Majesties, representing some of the areas that the Company
promotes, to be used by Them or re-gifted as They saw fit.

A Schola was held on Saturday, March 18, at the home of Master
Iheronimus Bruckner and Mistress Caitlyn FitzHenry. The topic of
discussion was Pendant Document Seals and Gilding.  This schola
was reported to me by Lady Ding Li Ying, Schola Deputy of the
Signet Office, as a crossover between the Signet Office and the
Company of Stationers (Master Iheronimus and Mistress Caitlyn are
both Wardens of the Company) in the area of Calligraphy and
Illumination:

    Mistress Caitlyn began with a discussion on the basic
    materials and equipment needed for gilding.  Then she went
    into the techniques that she uses and saw a comparison of
    gesso sottile next to acrylic gesso sottile and garlic juice.
    Mistress Caitlyn allowed the class to make these sample
    handouts for ourselves as well as provided recipes for the
    various gesso sottile recipes she discussed.

    Mistress Caitlyn then discussed the dangers of lead and its
    use in gilding.  She discussed her lead-free methods and
    encouraged everyone that they needed to try gilding for
    themselves and if they should use hazardous materials to keep
    them separate for all your other tools and away from prying
    hands and mouths that might try to consume it.  Mistress
    Caitlyn also discussed the differences between flat and
    raised gilding and some of her techniques for tooled gold.
    We looked at the differences between real gold and composite
    gold, as well as the look and ease of gilding with each.

    Mistress Caitlyn also provided everyone with a basic
    materials list for scribes and calligraphers that might to
    useful for all;  the newcomers who have no experience and
    seasoned artists that learned about new tools that could be
    useful to them.

    Master Iheronimus gave a lovely demonstration of pendant
    document seals.  He discussed their use and history, and
    provided a handout with pictures of various styles of seals
    (shapes, colors, attachment methods).  He went on to
    demonstrate how to create our own and we all prepared
    "documents" for adhesion via paper and braided cord (see
    pictures below).  I was lucky enough to be able to create a
    seal using the left over wax from Master Iheronimus'
    demonstration.  It is a seal of the East Kingdom (see close
    up below).

    There was a large turnout for this workshop that included
    newcomers, scribes and seasoned veterans.  It was a great
    success and it was discussed that come spring/fall, we wanted
    to come back to Mistress Caitlyn and hear her discussion on
    how to make our own gesso sottile (by slaking plaster).

I have full copies of Lady Li's report, should you care to have
it.

On June 24th, 2006, there is scheduled to be a "Papermaking Day"
at the home of Lady Laurensa de Chambord in Owlshurst (York, PA),
to experiment with making paper using a variety of materials. The
results of the day should be included in the next report for the
Company.

As this is the first report that I have written for the Ministry
of Arts & Sciences, I am not sure what needs to be included.  If
I have omitted anything, or included too much information, please
let me know.

Regards,
M. Lyle FitzWilliam

-- 
Lyle H. Gray
gray at cs.umass.edu -- text only, please
http://members.verizon.net/~vze3wwx7
 --
Shared knowledge is preserved knowledge.