ANST - Re: Period Insignia - Historical Notes on the Iris

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

Ritter Dieterich made an excellent suggestion about varying styles of awards to perfectly suit
personae.

I have a large scarf-style woven Iris that is beautiful, and also much more period-looking for an
early Norse woman, and best of all is large enough not to be lost in the welter of jewellry that I
wear.

Mistress Eimile also has a woven scarf-style Iris, hers actually has a plaid effect, though  the
rainbow stripes are clearly visible.

Those are two ideas for getting away from the generic inkle-woven bands, and I'd love to see more of
these available (hint, they can be done on a backstrap loom or a small table loom).

I'd also like to remind people that there is supposed to be a narrow strip of metallic gold between
each color in the Iris ribbon.  When the award was originally conceived, one could obtain a
commercial rainbow ribbon that had the gold between the stripes -- that was in the Days When Rocks
Were Soft andDinosaurs Walked the Earth -- there weren't many folks with inkle looms and I can only
think of one or two card weavers at the time -- and the commercial ribbon was always used to create
the awards at first.  The ribbon was formed into a cockade below a ring brooch (another aspect of
the award that is lost - one rarely sees the cockade anymore).

The original symbolism that was assigned to the award was thus:

The many colors represent the many areas of art that the new Companion of the Iris has mastered -
the Iris is traditionally given to a person who has achieved a journeyman level skill in at least
one art, and proficiency in at least a few others (though occasionally the Iris is given to someone
who shows extreme depth in a much narrower field).  The gold in between the colors represented the
talent, skill, heart, and service of the artisan, which bind their various arts together into a
harmonious whole.

So, add my voice in as another vote for more varied styles of award insignia.

Wæs Þu Hæl (Waes Thu Hael)

::GUNNORA::

Baroness Gunnora Hallakarva, OL

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Ek eigi visa þik hversu oðlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Aðal
(Ek eigi thik hversu odhlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Adhal)

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