There’s More to Me than Writing

I’m an author. That is what I am at heart. It is what I tell people I am these days. It is, I claim, my profession. There is more to me than that though,��and one of those things is brought out, with a fiery determination, when I get to ‘playing’ in the SCA. I become a artist of a far more hands on sort. I created physical objects, not ones in the minds eye.

I document, researching extant pieces, and staring at paintings, before starting a project. I have to know intellectually, and feel in my bones, what is right for a piece. I may be using modern methods to recreate��works appropriate to the time period ( or interpret new ones) but I try to make something that is correct for a persona in all other ways.

I haven’t done this in fifteen years, but, like riding a bike…

I am trying right now to finish up a piece I started when we last lived the lives of Venetians��of the late sixteenth century. It is made of bronze, bone, and a composite that resembles��lapis lazuli. It still need pearls, ‘gems’, plus the little cherubs need further carving and bronze wings – in other words…it is still a work in progress.

It isn’t as pure to process as I would like, as I try to do, but the over all piece, style, and look is absolutely right. I just hate the fact that when I started it��a decade ago, I cheated and used epoxy (not that I can’t document glue). All the same I’m going to finish it up and move one to another piece I have already started – this toothpick pomander (yes, that is supposed to be a seahorse).

Filed under: SCA