MENU
Silk Window Panels
One day a group of Brymmies was hanging out at an event, sizing up the site as Chocolate Revel would be held at this same site in a few months. As we tend to do at such times, and since we didn't have a project already on the drawing board, we got to discussing possibilities for a new project to add to that year's Chocolate Revel. One of the ladies looked at the sun streaming through the large windows along the back wall and made the offhand comment "Wouldn't a stained glass window look great there...?"
The panels are actually painted silk, which is much more portable, cost effective, and lighter than real stained glass windows would be! The site has four large windows, so we originally had plans to make "stained-glass" out of silk for all four. We were only able to get two done in time for the 2008 Revel. We finished the other two in time for Chocolate Revel 2009. In order to make the panels stand out, we made inserts for each of the surrounding smaller windows by covering cardboard with a stone look plastic covering. It makes for a great back wall of ambience for our event.
As much as we wanted to, we were not able to make true stained glass windows. We decided that while the materials may not be authentic, the designs would be. Many of our members jumped into researching the designs, styles and themes of period stained glass windows. There are quite a few styles of stained glass, however we chose to make two panels in the "round rose" window style, and two panels with human depictions. Many of these styles were themed, so we narrowed each design to a specific theme.
Astrological and Science
As a college group, we felt it was only fitting to have a window in tribute to the erudite classes of our time frame. In period, there was much interest in the stars, nature, the learning of how things worked. While these people may not have enjoyed the wealth of knowledge that we do today, there is a rich source of material and imagery explaining and supporting how these people saw the world. This window draws heavily from those images. The overall outline design was inspired by various rose windows, although we had to simplify the design to accommodate our materials and skills.
The centermost circle is a depiction of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Galileo was an Italian considered by many to be the father of modern astronomy. The picture above his head and the lady to the left were inspired by sketches done by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Also from Italy, da Vinci is considered by many to be the archetype of a renaissance man.
The remaining six pictures surrounding Galileo are depictions of different chemical and alchemical representations. Most people were unable to read during the SCA time frame, so symbols and pictures were widely used. The circles at the end of each ray leading out from the centermost circle contain some of these symbols. Those at the top, left, right and bottom are symbols of the four principle elements: Air, Fire, Earth and Water. The trees to the side of each of the elements depict the different seasons of the year.
Each of the twelve months of the year had pictorial representations as well. We chose one month from each of the seasons: the bathing lady for the summer, the harvester for the autumn months, the person sitting at the fire for the winter and the planter for the spring.
Astrology also enjoyed a wide influence during these times, with multiple zodiac systems spread throughout various cultures. The Greek Zodiac is depicted, in sets of 3 panels between the trees and months, in order starting from the upper right. The first is Aries, which constellation is at longitude 0 during the vernal equinox. The symbol above each depiction is the symbol representing each corresponding zodiac sign. The symbols in the small yellow circles in the border represent the planetary symbols, with Mars at the very top. These symbols go in order from the Sun to Pluto, at the bottom. While many of the planetary and astrological symbols are more modern, we felt that they fit into the overall design and added to the theme of this window.
Atenveldt
With our first silk panel, we pay tribute to the history from which our modern society has arisen. With the second, we decided to pay tribute to what we have become as part of the SCA. So we drew from the rich variety of symbols that have meaning to those of us in or from Atenveldt.
The overall outline design was again inspired by the round rose style. The centermost circle is the Atenveldt sun which shines over our lands. The large circles in the middle of each ray leading out from the center are the arms for all of the official groups in Atenveldt at the time the panel was designed. We were one device shy of our tally, so we used the Kingdom populace device registered at that time.
The circles at the end of each of the rays are a combination of devices. Starting with the Seneschal at the center-left, these circles contain the devices of the different kingdom offices in place at the time, ending with the now-defunct Waterbearer device. After the offices are the symbols for the three peerages, with the remaining 15 circles containing the symbols representing Kingdom-level awards given for various services performed for the kingdom. We finished the corners with the device of the College of Brymstonne, as we wanted no doubt as to who had designed and created this silk panel.