Phoenix Feathers

So, I thought it might be time to publicly reflect on two issues that happen in Arts and Science projects that cause them to not go quiiiite the way you had planned them.  While this is obviously part of my projects analysis and reflection as well, I think it's important that people understand that even working on high level entries stuff goes wrong. All. The. Time. First, the more innocent.  We do not live in Italy. Well, I don't - maybe you do - and we are not in the middle of a global temperature freeze nor is the humidity level and temperature level of Florida like anything anywhere. We have days where gilding is easy peasy and other days where we laugh and won't touch the stuff because its just not going to stick - or it will stick to EVERYTHING including the cats, yourself, the floor, your table. Not that I've had to take gold leaf off the cats or am still trying to buff it out of the dining room table or anything. The point is, our weather - or your weather -

I spent a great deal of time pondering this concept of expectations on my drive home last night. We had a lovely event and saw some much beloved friends and James was utterly passed out from lack of sleep this week.  I spent a lot of time yesterday listening. This wasn't really my initial goal for the day but I ended up in a position that landed me in several moments of individuals dealing with various topics and situations that I was only peripherally part of or that I wasn't entirely fully informed enough to make my own commentary.  It left me as a sideline viewer of these moments and I try to use those times to learn and absorb.  These situations were all by and large pleasant or were neatly handled and resolved quickly and so none of this was negative in the extreme. No drama or fights or anything of the sort. I noticed, however, many of these moments began not with positive expectations but with negative ones. Not even strongly negative ones - I would say they were absol

A recent discussion on the Ask a Laurel Facebook reminded me that I don't post here often enough. Fortunately I keep galleries of all my scribal work here:  https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112735004436194670657/albums/5647757165271617473 The most recent "big" endeavors have been continuing scribing but also last year's Visconti Tarot project (a snippet here from the scribal gallery.) Twelve cards all completely reproduced with period methods and materials, including my own handmade cardboard.  Needless to say the house was covered in gold leaf for months! I am currently working on period style banners (pictures coming soon) and period masks, all of which ended up as odd extensions of scribal work because it seems almost everything I'm directly interested in is an extension of that. The below shows a sketch of the French royal arms a la Charlemagne that is being completed with period materials and process. The cartoon was done in charcoal, traced onto the silk

And now for something non art related ;) Since I like a good thought question - and one of my favorite things in the SCA is the sheer number of peers that I get the privilege of hanging out with and listening to (they're cool people with neat outlooks!) - my Baroness and good friend - and a Pelican, asked today on her blog that people consider what they thought was a good peer and a good peer/associate relationship. Like Christoff, I feel rather compelled to answer this as part of my apprenticeship to Mistress Gwen is considering those very concepts. A peer/apprentice relationship needs to be tailored to the pair of individuals. What works for Gwen and I, for example, is a fairly hands off relationship where I approach when I have questions. This typically turns into me having more like five laurels due to the way Feilicean works, which is juuust fine by me.  My role with her is far more about discussion, partnership, and shared interest and less about her being a "teach