Within the SCA, it is traditional to give titles and regalia to people when they are recognized for their skills and service.  Those who are very skilled in fighting become Knights and receive a chain of fealty, a white belt and a set of spurs.  Those who are skilled in the arts, become Laurels and recive a cloak, a laurel medallion and often a hat or laurel wreath. Those who have given a great service to the Society are recognized as Pelicans and receive a cloak with a pelican on it, a pelican medallion, and often receive a cap of maintenance.  All three receive a scroll.

Within the East Kingdom we are known for going a little overboard with both scrolls and regalia. My students and I have a bit of a reputation for going a bit more overboard than most.

Pelican cloak: Caitlin

This pelican cloak is a commision from Master Oohashi Katsutoshi who wished to have me make a red cloak for his lady’s Pelican ceremony.

The cloak is a 3/4 circle cloak with a series of pelicans and laurel wreathes framed with gold cord and decorated with 4 small pearls at the join of each hexagon. Due to time contraints, the embroidery was done using my new embroidery machine.

The laurel wreath embroidery design was provided by Sarfina, a wonderful Ansteorran who has been quite helpful in my efforts to mastering my embroidery machine.   The pelican was my first attempt at digitizing an embroidery design and while I am still not completely satisfied with it, it was fairly successful.

Pelican Cloak: Mistress Catrin o’r Rhyd For

I have been involved with a number of productions with Mistress Catrin o’r Rhyd For over the years and thus it was quite natural for the production of her Pelican cloak to be given to me by her husband, The Sir Michael of York. 

My constraints were that it should be a 14th century style half circle cloak, incorporate Catrin’s arms and colors and to keep it somewhat understated. With this in mind I found a wonderful blue melton wool and lined it with a white silk satin.

The embroidery was done in DMC floss (alas my supplier of silk floss went out of business.) on a silk background. The finished pieces were then machine appliqued onto the wool cloak.

I was assisted in the production of this cloak by Maistresse Nicolette Bonhomme and my journeyman Gisela Lisabetta Venier, both of whom hand embroidered one of the large dolphins for the cloak.

Laurel Robe: Mistress Morwenna Westerne

When Mistress Morwenna Westerne was to be raised to the Laurellate, she let it be known that she dearly desired a robe, based on one in Janet Arnold’s Pattern’s of Fashion.  Her lord turned to me to see if it could be accomplished. The following is the result:

It is a silk velvet gown decorated with silk satin and gold cording, and a line of gold cord frogs.  Finding the silk velvet for this gown was difficult, as my usual Pakistani source shipped me a silk velvet that was not up to his usual quality.  So at the last minute, Master Yevsha ordered white silk velvet, which Lakshmi who dyed the silk velvet this lovely green at the last minute.  Mistress Rose Otter helped with the applique of the pale green silk as well as the gold cording, while my journeyman, Giselle Vanier tied many, many frogs.

Laurel hat: Mistress Cynthia du Pre Argent

Upon learning that Cynthia du pre Argent was receiving a Laurel, Catrin O rhy For contacted me to make a hat for her.  Now making a hat for someone whose unofficial title is “Minister of Silly Hats” is not an easy task, however after perusing The Mode of Hats and Headresses, I came across a lovely 15th century escoffian that fit the bill. Below are photos of the hat being modelled by a friend and the picture that inspired it.

The hat is built up on a framework of caning held together with Brass wire, and is covered in silk velvet and gold braid with a pearl sewn at each intersection. The leaves were prepared by Mistress Rose Otter who was kind enough to embroider all of them with Green silk and trim them with pearls.

Cynthia’s Laurelling is documented on her web site.