When I moved from the East Kingdom to Drachenwald one of the things which changed was my purpose. In my home shire ofAr n-Eilean-ne and the Barony of Ruantallon one of the things I did a lot of was entertain, sing, tell stories etc... In Drachenwald I was told pretty clearly that this was a not how it worked, bardic circles and sessions didn't exist and the only real bardic stuff was done in a competition form, that one had to be a BARD and I wasn't end of discussion. The problem with being an artist is that you need to create, be creative and if I couldn't perform then I needed to find a different outlet so I turned to the Kingdom Signet clerk, Lady Signe, and asked if I could do some scrolls for her.
At the time I wasn't doing much calligraphy because it was something that didn't come easily to me, I struggled with it and I still do some days. She suggested to do a few blanks and send them her way. This, if I remember correctly was the first done sometime around 2002-2003.
I had the elements right but the execution was just off. I used watercolours on watercolour paper. Probably the pen work is done with a technical pen and regular black drawing ink.
Eventually this scroll was calligraphed and I think it was given to Robert of Canterbury, who at the time was just learning casting and wanted to say thank you with a signet ring of my device. This ring wasn't so much a ring as a big blob of pewter with something vaguely looked like a dog in the middle. Robert's skills have come a long way since then but I still have his gift and I cherish it. He said thank you and that doesn't happen very often.
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