late 12th century french style scroll

When a friend was scheduled to receive an award, I asked to create her scroll. Her persona is a late 12th, early 13th century English woman living on the continent. The text was written by another friend based on a grant of lands by Countess Adela of Blois, c. 1101. The inspiration piece I finally decided to use is a French Bible, 1185-1195, approximately 525 x 360 cm (Bibliothèque St. Geneviève ms 0010, f.77v and f.1).

I tried to keep the layout as close to the inspiration manuscript as possible, scaling down from the original size to fit on an 11" x 14" piece of pergamenata, keeping the same number of lines on the page and the same line height for the illuminated capitals. The original manuscript marks the start of new sections of the text with illuminated capital letters, often preceded by red and blue capitals that introduce the following section. The words and phrases that I wanted to emphasize in the award text were not actually the beginning of sections, but were spaced in a way that I could achieve a similar feel to the page.

I also tried to keep the same relative proportions for calligraphy as the inspiration manuscript; proportional to row height, body height = 5/11, elevated 1/11 over bottom line, ascender & descender = 3/11. Letter forms and punctuation and from the original (period, comma/colon, hyphen) and abbreviations and ligatures are inspired by both the original and a similar manuscript (British Library Arundel 490).

Christmas baking leftover bars

It's been a while so I have a backlog of things to post. I'm going to try for something like chronological order in catching up, though.

After making the various baked goods my mother requested at Christmas time, there were small amounts of various ingredients leftover. Since the alternative was letting them sit around for another year until I came back, these were going to be used up. Give me chocolate chips, macadamia nuts, coconut, and powdered sugar, katakuriko, and a few standard items, I give you some rather decadent bar cookies.

As with the sweet potato bars, it's written for an odd sized pan but could easily be scaled up for a standard size. The katakuriko (potato starch) and powdered sugar result in a nicely textured shortbread that you could eat alone (if for some reason you were against the topping). You could probably substitute cornstarch for the potato starch, or maybe even rice flour, if that's what you've got.

Leftover Bar Cookies
Crust:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup katakuriko (potato starch)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts or pecans (optional)

Topping:
1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup flaked coconut
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 10" x 6" pan.

Make crust: In a bowl, combine flour, katakuriko, powdered sugar, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture is sandy, with the largest butter chunks the size of peas. Mix in nuts. Press mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan. Dock (poke holes in) crust with a fork. Bake until very lightly golden at the edges, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven.

Make filling: While crust is baking, beat together egg and sugar. Stir in flour, followed by coconut, chocolate chips, and nuts. Spread over baked crust. Return to oven and continue baking 20 minutes longer. Allow to cool somewhat before cutting and serving.