From: owner-scribes@castle.org (scribes digest) To: scribes-digest@castle.org Subject: scribes digest V3 #28 Reply-To: Sender: owner-scribes@castle.org Errors-To: owner-scribes@castle.org Precedence: bulk scribes digest Monday, October 9 2000 Volume 03 : Number 028 ======================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with unsubscribe scribes-digets in the body of the message. Leave the subject line blank. Do not include any additional text. [scribes]: Some post-demo thoughts [scribes]: Re: post-demo thoughts ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 21:58:40 -0400 From: "Sally Burnell" Subject: [scribes]: Some post-demo thoughts My group just did two full days of a demo at a large craft fair that we do every year at this time, at a place called Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, OH, a Tudor revival manor house once belonging to the Seiberling family, who founded Goodyear Rubber (http://www.stanhywet.org for more information). We also just recently did another two day demo at a craft fair here in Kent, called "Art in the Park", which is part of our local Parks and Recreation programming. Anyway, I am always interested in the kinds of questions that I get sitting at the scribal arts table: Do you sell these? (No, I give them away to my friends!) How much would you charge if you sold them? (No idea whatsoever!) Did you go to art school? You taught yourself? How did you learn to do this, then? Do you give lessons? What books can you learn this out of? How long does it take to do one of these pages? Do you use real gold? People are always amazed when I tell them that we give our work away, and when I tell them how long an average scroll takes to complete (for me, it averages out to about 20-30 hours for an average award scroll), they are positively amazed as well. And I think they are a bit confused when I cannot put a dollar amount on something when they ask how much I would sell something if I did sell my work, because quite honestly, I have no idea. These past few days, I was in a large demo pavilion that included the scribal arts, heraldry, fibre arts and costuming. People seemed more interested in the garb than the scribal arts. I gave more speeches about costuming, even though it is not my field of specialty, than I did in the scribal arts. I had to wonder why this was, and found myself briefly contemplating the notion that perhaps the illuminated pages seemed a bit....................intimidating to folks? I don't know. We did get a lot of people looking at them and asking questions, but perhaps the fact that the garb was arrayed against the back wall of the pavilion and was more readily obvious and could draw the eye to passers-by, maybe that was why so many wanted to know about them. The biggest concern, especially today, was the very wet cold weather and its effect on the books and scrolls that I had for display, even though we were under a pavilion with walls and a roof. It really cut down on the amount of good stuff I could display this weekend. Yesterday wasn't so bad, but today the precipitation really affected my choices of what to display, and I had to leave out the books that I brought and instead kept them safe inside a Rubbermaid tote under a table so they could stay dry. I have some laminated illumination pages that I bought from someone years ago that I put out because they are totally impervious to wet and cold. I also displayed some pieces that I bought at the Museum Store at the Cleveland Museum of Art that are resistant to wet and cold as well. It's unfortunate that Mother Nature couldn't have been more in our corner for this weekend long demo, as it is typically one of our biggest all year. But oh, well, what do you want for autumn in Northeast Ohio? This demo is rarely ever a warm weekend. It's usually the weekend where the first real chill of autumn rears its ugly head to remind us of the proximity of winter, but this, of all the years we've done this demo, has got to be the coldest one I can ever remember doing, bar none! I'm just grateful to be home now and in my toasty warm apartment! Saradwen Midrealm =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 00:49:12 -0400 (EDT) From: mthom100@altavista.net Subject: [scribes]: Re: post-demo thoughts M'lady Saradwen: I am surprized that with the heralds so near by that you got a word in edgewise at all *g* - as for displaying scribal artwork may I suggest that you go to a large building materials supply house and look for 4 ft by 4 ft squares of clear plastic. These generally will fit a large card table which is what I use at my pavillion when I have works to display. Putting the works underneath them also prevents in advertent food drippings, etc. from ruining a lot of hard work while still allowing perfect visibility. You may have to buy a full 4 ft by 8 ft sheet, but then have them (at the store) cut it for you to your table size. At HomeDepot out here in sunny (misting heavily right now as I speak) California, it costs about $2.00 to get it cut into two or three pieces. If you can't afford the big rigid plastic sheets, you might also look for the clear plastic "rubber" like sheets that are 6 mil thick or more, often used as heavy duty drop sheets for expensive homes painting where it's necessary to ensure that such paint is not falling on furniture. These may be obtained in large paint stores (such as Dunn Edwards, or sometimes Sherwyn Williams). You can buy these by the running foot and they are usually 3 or 4 feet wide. Alt Andreas von Sohren, PCS Baron Jaegersberg - ---------------------------------------------------------------- Get your free email from AltaVista at http://altavista.iname.com =================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list, send email to with a blank Subject: line and unsubscribe scribes in the body of the message. Do not include any additional text in the body. ------------------------------ End of scribes digest V3 #28 ****************************