Arms Copes

Baron Dorian of Lewes and Baroness Eloise of Coulter stepped down from being baron and baroness of the Barony Beyond the Mountain last weekend. This is the story of their 14th c arms copes and the barony that made them.

I am a bit of a regalia hound. So when Baroness Eloise of Coulter mentioned at archery practice last summer that she didn’t have a laurel cloak, my ears perked up. I am one of those strange souls who likes making regalia, and she is a dear woman who I have had the privilege to call my baroness for the last three and a half years.

So, slightly later last summer, I asked her husband if this was true, that she didn’t have a laurel cloak. This is correct, he said, it had become lost over the years, and just not been replaced.

And thus, the plotting commenced.

You see, when I mentioned that I was thinking of working on something for their excellencies to mark their return to “normal” life, would you like to help? the response was overwhelming. So I sketched out a plan and budget and started soliciting specific help, for the embroidery, for the designs, for the construction.

We planned a pair of 14th c blue wool arms copes, after the basic pattern of Opus Anglicanum clerical copes at the Victoria and Albert Museum. They would be lined in linen and be suitable as cloaks for SCA wear without being so warm that Eloise (who is always too warm) would refuse to wear it. The embroidery would be done by a dozen different people and the whole project would be a group effort.

Mistress Elizabeth Vynehorn found us the blue wool twill that we used, and Lady Johanna di Glastonburi provided the red wool of the stole. We brainstormed what images were iconic of their lives in the SCA, and came up with 6 concepts that Mistress Daryl of Avallon, Eloise’s Laurel, turned into images for our embroiderers, while I sketched out the award medallions.

Monthly Sewing and Throwing became the steering committee for this project, and we crowdsourced the embroidery thread from all of our silk collections. Lady Mariot Carllein provided the perfect linen ground for the images and Lady Kira the gold silk for the peerages and we all went to town.

I was privileged to see these fabulous women take this concept and run with it, and to watch them all paint with needle and silk as the images came to life. Each of us has a very different style of embroidery with which we are most comfortable, and we also used the excuse to try new techniques. Because we were all spread out, we made the decision that we would not mandate any specific stitches or force people into a mould, but let everyone pick what they could do quickly and neatly, and what they thought would look good. I was not going to dictate to artists.

As a result, we received back a dozen different styles of embroidery, but all in the same colors, to make a cohesive whole.

Starting on one end and working to the other on Eloise’s cloak:

Order of the Holly – Mistress Randall vihar Farkas

Eloise at her loom – Lady Johanna di Glastonburi

Eloise at her hearth – Mistress Ana Illevna

Eloise at her desk – Mistress Randall vihar Farkas

Order of the Laurel – Mistress Anarra Karlsdottir

Order of the Maunche – Mistress Elizabeth Vynehorn

Order of the Silver Crescent – Mistress Ciara MacRobbie & Lady Johanna di Glastonburi

Order of the Pelican – Mistress Aelfgefu of the Hazel Thicket

Family Portrait – Lady Kira

Scroll Fairy – Lady Mariot Carllein

Order of the White Oak – Lady Sisuile Butler

Order of the Sun and Soil  – Mistress Ciara MacRobbie

Cords by Lady Sisuile Butler

Leatherwork by Mistress Camma Andarach and Charlotte of Lewes

 

And the team for Dorian’s cloak:

Dorian the Archer – Baroness Aurelia di Stellari

Family Portrait – Lady Kira

Badges by Lady Sisuile Butler and Mistress Anarra Karlsdottir

Cords by Lord Rumhann mac Duib Sidhe

Leatherwork by Mistress Camma and Charlotte of Lewes

Everyone worked on the applique and pearls and sewing as time and availability allowed, but especially significant contributions were made by Baroness Gwenllian ferch Llewellyn with the pearls and applique, and as dog wrangler. She did much of the pearling work on all the finished rondels, and distracted the animals who just wanted to Help the People (this is one of the more important jobs in a house with a dog and two cats)

I cannot emphasize enough how blessed I was to be able to work with these amazing people. All y’all rock.

A special thanks to our families, who have been tolerant of how involved we all were with Stitch All The Things and sacrificed considerable time and attention to this project. My dear husband has tolerated people invading our house every weekend for the last month as we made the final push. And especially the Steering Committee of Anarra, Ana Illevna, Carllein, Gwenllian, Kira, and Johanna, who did not think my idea was beyond possible and helped me refine the concept until it was actually doable and were the best people I could have asked for in implementation of this scheme.