A new shield for my husband for the Meridian Crown Tournament :)

I am so tremendously excited!
It took nearly a week but I finally managed to finish my husbands new shield for the Meridian Crown Tournament just in time.

You should have seen his face whenever he talked about his new shield – like a kid with an awesome new toy. But we have a rule here at home, however awesome any new gear is, it’s not allowed to be brought to bed… Yeah, there is no snuggling with new gauntlets or shields in the bed… 😉

And well, my sweethearts new shield and the awesome Crown Tournament event were not the only highlights this very recent weekend. Thursday night someone suddenly knocked at our door and you won’t believe who it was – it was my awesome sister Bella! 

As it turned out my husband, my beloved sister Bella, who lives in the kingdom of Atenveldt, and several of my friends conspired to surprise me with her visit. And damn, they all really got me! I would have never imagined an amazing surprise like that. First I couldn’t believe that she was really here and then I was struggling with catching my breath and not snuggling her all the time… And I am still amazed how they could pull it off without me getting even the smallest hint… *lol*

And all this happened just one week after my birthday! Therefore I count it as the most awesome birthday present ever! I am not sure if my sweetheart will ever be able to top this birthday! *giggle*

However, this weekend was simply awesome – I had my sister Bella at my side while my husband fought for my honor and the crown of Meridies. She held my hand while I was nervously watching his fights and never ceased to comfort me. And I am also very proud of my lord and husband as he fought bravely, with honor and made me proud. Though he didn’t make it far into the tourney, I could tell that he had some very intense and great fights and was happy to see him having a great time.

And it excited my heart to see how everyone welcomed my beloved sister like a long lost friend – the same way I was greeted when I came to this kingdom for the very first time. The Kingdom of Meridies and its people have for sure a huge and loving heart and are not afraid to show it! I really couldn’t wish for better company and friends!

Apropos friends – the finals of the Meridian Crown Tournament were tremendously interesting. I couldn’t help but to worry for both sides as I knew and love both ladies fought for and could see the tremendous tension in their face. It was a truly great final fight which finally decided about the new heirs to the throne of Meridies. And I hearty congratulate my dear friend Countess Rhiannon and Earl Bryce to their victory.
(You can find some awesome pictures taken by David Fricker during the event here: Meridian Crown Tournament)

Btw. Countess Rhiannon is a lovely and awesome lady who welcomed me into her camp at my very first Gulf Wars! At this point I would also like to send many thanks to my sister Kim (Geira) and the other awesome people from Dragons Or who all made my very first Gulf Wars so beautiful! And yeah, they have quite some funny stories to tell about my stay at the Dragons Or camp at Gulf Wars… 😉

…and I would also like to mention again how Countess Rhiannon and all the other people of her household opened up their camp and heart to strangers during the most recent Gulf Wars when the micro burst hit the site. And not only that, as soon as they were asked if they had some food to spare for the people who took shelter in one of the other buildings, Countess Rhiannon and all gave whatever they could spare to ease the misery of others… Yeah, one of the reasons why I love and adore my friends… 

But enough praise of my beloved friends for now – let’s take a look at my husband and his new shield:

This new shield replaces the other shield I painted for him some time ago as the old one started to fall apart at the sides due to a lot of fighting. This time I even painted the proper amount of 3 trees in the middle. *giggle*

And now some pictures of the painting progress – enjoy! 😀

Basing the painting for the shield on my husbands coat of arms (registered within the SCA) I didn’t need to think much about special embellishments this time. Therefore I started right away with the work at the middle middle section after priming the duck canvas surface with a primer.

After finishing the middle section I had the feeling that painting just the coat of arms with no further embellishment might give the design a too “hard” and industrial look. But there was a rather easy solution for this problem at hand as I recently acquired some new acrylic gold paint and was quite eager to use it. Therefore I decided to add a subtle gold border to the design:

Btw. as far as I know gold and yellow are quite interchangeable when it comes to heraldic designs. Therefore the addition of the gold didn’t really alter the device. Furthermore I used a simple yellow colored pencil for the outlines.

And at the picture underneath you can see how little the very first layer of yellow acrylic paint actually covers the black canvas:

It took about 4-5 layers of yellow acrylic paint to get a satisfying result:

…and then I simply added a little bit of black – to separate the gold border from the yellow sections and to also take care of some small mistakes. Last but not least we sealed the surface with several thin layers of sealer and voila:

In case you are interested in how we make our wooden shields – I will try to take step by step pictures of the process as soon as we start working at my new shield which will hopefully happen soon… 😀