[Scriptoris] commissions??

[Diane Rudin]

Darius, as Star Signet, wrote:

> Personally I have no problem with a peer or noble finding a particular
> artist or group of artist to do a scroll for them. I would find such a
> restriction of making commissions only through the kingdom office cumbersome
> at best and almost completely unenforceable. I arranged my Laurel Scroll
> with the Abby without ever consulting with Mistress Sara who was Star Signet
> at that time.

As long as they understand the standards so that their work is not for nothing,
I see no problem with recommending this as the preferred way of getting
documents done.  (I'm talking achievement documents here, which are signed by
the Star Principal Herald; charters/letters patent are signed by the Crown, and
they wouldn't care if it was written on a napkin with crayons.  Except Sara.)

> However not every one who wants original scrolls knows who does them.
> Likewise many Artist who want to do these projects don't know which peers
> and nobles want or need these done. 

BINGO!  Give the man a Gold Star!  Exactly the cause of the backlog!

> I have no wish to be a clearing house of
> assignments for this type of work 

Too Bad, So Sad, but that's your job now.  The biggest part of the job of Star
Signet, and the one that's gone undone for over fifteen years now.

> ...but I do need to know who is willing to do
> it, and is not overbooked, so if peers and nobles contact me I _can_ tell
> them who can do the job for them.

Please, please, people, volunteer some time to work on pieces for those who
have given so much of their time and energy to the society to earn recognition
through the awards structure.  If you can only do part of the work, find people
with whom to collaborate.  As for the heraldic art needed for achievement
documents, there are many copyright-free resources available now through the
internet, and although a great majority of it is Victorian style (the use of
which is strongly discouraged), most of that can be adapted to medieval and
Renaissance styles with a little thought.

> The question becomes How?

Hmmm, doing away with ever-more-elaborate prize commemoratives leaps to mind. 
More on that later.

> I can keep a list of who wants to do scrolls and what styles they do however
> this has a few holes in it.
> 
> Example: Where I _can_ do Calig and Painting My preferred art is drawing so
> I would need a Calligrapher and a Scrivener to work with me.
> 
> Fly in the pigment:  Artists are fussy critters. I don't wish to arbitrarily
> assign 2 or 3 to work together only to find out they cant stand working
> together.

Don't assign.  Let people know "hey, Duke Lotsastuff has just asked for an
achievement document.  Serena has whomped up an appropriate text.  Any takers?"
 Then someone will say, "I'd do it, but I only do calligraphy", and someone
else jumps in and says, "I'd be happy to do the heraldic art but only the
drawing", and another person says, "I'll do the painting", and *poof* there's a
team.

Unless everyone is scared off by the sentence, "Serena has whomped up an
appropriate text."  :^)

No one volunteers to work with someone they know they can't stand working with.
 
> For a start I will do this. If any one has the interest and the time to do
> originals Please send me your name and contact info as well as what styles
> you are proficient in working with. I also recommend sending in an image of
> your work for the Originals Gallery on the Scribes Web page so People may
> see samples of your work. I will then refer any nobles/peers/etc who come to
> me to artists who work in the styles they desire and let them contact the
> artist they choose to negotiate whatever terms needed to make every one
> happy (I will _not_ negotiate terms of commissions). This will need allot of
> refining and will be very chunky to start out (looks like another topic of
> discussion for the meeting at crown tourney.)

Yes, I would very much like to see this discussed, and we don't need to wait
until Crown.  We do need to wait until Crown to take action, but the
recommendations should start flying fast and furious.  For my part, I believe
that the obstacles are as follows:

(1)  Ansteorrans are spoiled rotten as far as visual quality of final product
is concerned.  In kingdoms where all documents are originals, people accept
that calligraphy/drawing/painting will be sparse/sloppy/crooked/uneven; what
matters is that it is theirs alone.  (I'm told they all have terrible backlogs
too.)  Our Crowns are, shall we say, very generous in the awards department. 
The ratio of scribes/illuminators to awards given is not as it is in other
kingdoms.  But most of all, by emphasizing quality painting in our pre-printed
documents, we have set a level of visual quality that is difficult for
less-experienced scribes/illuminators to achieve.  It is worth pointing out
that we probably spend more time painting a "charter" for the lower-level
awards than most people in other kingdoms spend doing the entire original
document for their comparable awards.

How much time do you spend painting a single "charter"?  I've heard people
quote eight, ten, twelve or more hours.  When I was still capable of doing
calligraphy, in four hours I could do a single calligraphy-only Barony in Fief
document of a few hundred words with a single penwork initial.  I probably
could have churned out an AoA in 30 minutes.  All very authentic--and most very
unappreciated.

Because what most Ansteorrans want more than original documents are pretty
pictures to hang on their walls.  They want lots of paint, lots of color, and
most of all, they want it NOW!

(2)  Not enough *scribes* (e.g., calligraphers).  We've got lots of people who
want to paint, and draw, but there seems to be a dearth of people who want to
write.  How do we recruit more people who want to write?

(3)  Talent drain.  People are spending an obscene amount of time on prize
commemoratives for local competitions.  It's become a competition itself:  who
can create the most out-the-wazoo prize "scroll" this year?  And then there's
painting minor prize "scrolls" because we couldn't possibly give largesse
instead because no-one keeps diaries anymore so how would they remember winning
if we didn't provide them with a piece of paper?  I know some people like to
wallpaper their houses with prize "scrolls", and more power to them, but in the
meantime our peers and nobles, not to mention all of the Grant-level orders,
have little to nothing.  *NOTHING!*  

I have a Laurel letters patent that's so beautiful, so marvelous, so incredible
that I cried when I finally was permitted to look at it--because my friends are
scribes.  Qadi Mahdi was told by more than one knight that they were all
insanely envious that he got an incredible "scroll" when he was knighted--and
the only reason he did is because he had friends who were scribes.  I have been
seriously contemplating picking up my pen again and going through sheer h*ll
retraining myself for the sole purpose of starting to mow through the backlog. 
And because I'm Stellar Scroll now, in charge of achievement registration in
Ansteorra, it's become even more tempting.  Between that, and my years as
Zodiacus, I'm all too aware just how many peers, nobles, and
Grant-terminal-award-bearers have few, if any, documents.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's resentment building.  I cannot imagine that
someone hasn't thought, "Look at that fancy Warlord/Champion/Bard/Archer/
Eqestrian prize scroll.  They get that for winning a tournament and I've been a
peer for five/ten/fifteen/twenty/twenty-five/thirty years and I don't have a
[whatever] scroll!"  I know for a fact that people envy peers who have scribe
friends who do original documents for them.

I guess my question is, why would scribes rather throw all of their effort into
an original work that the recipient/victor might not appreciate very much, when
they could throw all of their effort into an original work that the recipient
desperately wants?

Creating a system that brings "buyer" and "seller" together so that both get
what they want is a good idea.  The internet has made this far easier than it
has ever been before:  Amazon, ebay, abe Books, etc.  Let's give it a whirl,
but let's also do what we can to recruit more calligraphers.

--Serena, washed-up scribe dreaming of better days

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