[liff, sca] A Brief Taste of a Road Trip

1407. We just got back from an heraldic road trip. I have the pictures. Here's the merest taste:

 

Mount Shasta in northern California is one of the two most southerly Cascade volcanoes, anchoring the south end of the range alont with Lassen. The summit altitude is over 14,000 feet ... but the peak itself is only about 10,000 feet high, due to the elevation of the base in the area where the Siskiyous and the southern Cascades merge.

Our trip involved attenting the West Coast Voice Heraldry Collegium (which my colleagues insist on calling Wack Vack) in the Province of Golden Rivers, Principality of Cynagua, Kingdom of the West. We carpooled. Just for the sake of information, if you shotgun it, it's about 10 hours. If you have to stop in a couple of places, it can get to be 12 hours quite quickly. At least it's all by freeway.

Another bit of info for you; Shasta rises from a relatively flat plateau and is in an isolated position, so the freeway comes almost right up to the base of the peak, affording viewpoints you can't get from any other western volcano.

The above photo is how it looked on the way back. This photo:

Is how it looked on the way down. It is quite a beautiful mountain.

[art, SCA] Creating The Roll: A Side Pursuit

1264. We here at The ZehnKatzen Times media conglomerate are pleased to announce the growth of another salient in the ZKT quest for graphic world domination.

For many years now I've been associated with the Society for Creative Anachronism – the preeminent medieval recreationist organzation in the world today. In that group (which I call our local Shire of Dragons Mist home) I have excelled, some people feel, in creating art – specifically Heraldry, which concerns coats of arms (of which mine is pictured here).

My good friend and teacher Ciaran Cluana Ferta has inveigled me to restart a longstanding quest to recreate a roll of arms of the Battle of Barnet, which occurred on 14 April 1471, and was a notable battle in the English Civil War – what we 'merkuns call the Wars of the Roses.

This is an open-ended project with the goal of creating this Roll of Arms with as much realistic style and materials as practical ... for example, I will be creating the egg tempera I will use, though I will certainly not be making the vellum (which, unlike today's paper product was rendered from animal skins). I will, however, be researching and documenting how those materials came about.

Misson Control for all this merry madness will be the blog Creating The Roll, which I have staked out at http://thebarnetroll.blogspot.com. I hope that those of you who read who are interested in such things will follow along with me. I'm truly excited about this.

Also located there will be links to my SCA pals and SCAdian activities, including links to the branches local to the Portland Metropolitan Area, in case you've been looking to get on board with the SCA but have never been able to find an entry point.

Tags: ZehnKatzen, Sebastian zem Sterne, SCA, Society for Creative Anachonism, Kingdom of An Tir, SCA College of Heraldry

Powered by Qumana