Author: Brian Burger

Started this site way, way back in November 1998, when the web was young. It's still here, and so am I.

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SCA

Field Only Armoury Project 2024 Update

The 2024 update to my Field Only Armoury Project is done! This update incorporates everything up to the April 2024 LoAR.

We’re up to 270 registrations of devices & badges, starting with Fridha av Bergen’s Argent masoned azure and ending with Emrys the Wanderer’s Wolves-cut palewise inverted sable and Or, a new entry for this year as a result of being re-classified.

For those of you new to the FOAP, this started back in 2017 with me wanting to get better at both blazon (the language used to describe herald things) and emblazon (the art of depicting heraldic things) and as this is now the sixth annual update of the project, it’s fair to say the Project is firmly a thing in it’s own right. I get contacted by people from around the SCA about it fairly regularly, and it’s inspired some very cool heraldry… which then gets documented in the FOAP, so it’s a nice feedback loop!

Here’s the 11 page PDF, laid out on 11″x17″ pages (North American Ledger size paper). It scales down nicely to print on Letter or A4, though.

Field-Only-Armory 2024 PDFDownload

I don’t have a “just this year’s updates” PDF for you this year, I’m afraid. I do have the usual sources ZIP file, though, including the Excel working file, the SVG working file, and a short readme Text file.

FOAP-Sources-2024 ZIPDownload

Thanks as always to the folks who provide feedback and encouragement for this project, and extra shoutout to Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin of East Kingdom, host of the essential HeraldicArt.org site, not only for his amazing website but for his continuing personal interest in this weird heraldic project of mine.

In Heraldic Service,
Vémundr Syvursson
Barony of Seagirt, Principality of Tir Righ, Kingdom of An Tir
Pily barry argent and azure

This edition of the Field Only Armoury Project goes out dedicated to our late, great Siamese, Evil Kitteh, who finally passed at the grand old age of “somewhere around 19” a few weeks ago while I was beginning the 2024 update, after many years of being an entire ergonomic disaster while I was on the computer and otherwise ruling our house with an iron paw.

Evil Kitteh, contributing to this project and my continuing posture problems. c.2005 – June 2024. Rest in catnip-soaked power, our much-missed furry terror.
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SCA

Field Only Armoury Update, July 2023

UPDATE: The most recent version of my Field Only Armoury Project is now the June 2024 version.

The 2023 update to my ongoing Field Only Armoury Project is finally done! This project started way back in the fall of 2017 as a way to explore SCA armoury and get better at blazon and emblazon, and then it became it’s own thing and has gotten annual updates since 2019.

This year includes six new entries and at least that many updates to existing entries, with some FO entries changing hands, some name changes, and some re-emblazons for various reasons. This fifth annual update is up to 264 items, still sorted alphabetically by blazon so similar designs appear next to each other.

If you want the 11 page 11×17 ledger sized PDF to download or view, here you go:

Field-Only-Armory-Project-Everything-11×17-Poster-2023Download

If you just want the single page PDF of this year’s six new entries, that’s here:

Field-Only-Armory-Project-Just-New-2023-11×17-PosterDownload

Finally, for the completists amongst us, as I’ve done for the past couple of years, here’s a ZIP file with the Excel file I use to organize the project, a copy of this year’s working SVG file (I do all my emblazon work in Inkscape), and a short README file.

2023-Field-Only-Armoury-Files ZIPDownload

As always, corrections, comments, or other feedback is encouraged! You can drop a comment here or send me an email at wirelizard@gmail.com.

In heraldic service,
Vémundr Syvursson
Pily barry argent and azure
Principality of Tir Righ
Kingdom of An Tir

Categories
SCA

A Straightforward Dayshade

At our first local event post-COVID-restrictions in August of 2021, the absurd winds at the event well and truly wrecked our 10×10 modern popup dayshade. We’d been talking about doing something more period anyway, and I’d already been making sketches and gathering resources, but the popup-eating wind meant we actually had to get something done, for real.

The dayshade at it’s very first event.

We’ve gotten a lot of interest in the dayshade since building it, so I’ve finally gotten around to writing up the design and building process in a PDF handout, which you can read or download below.

I make a few assumptions about sewing and carpentry skills in the handout, in the interests of keeping it short, but if you need more details please feel free to contact me by email or by leaving a comment below.

A-Straightforward-Dayshade-v1-1-June-2023Download

If you wind up making a dayshade inspired by ours, please share photos and feedback on the process, I’d love to hear from you.

Categories
SCA

Field Only Armoury Update, May 2022

UPDATE: The most recent version of my Field Only Armoury Project is now the June 2024 version.

This update of the Field Only Armoury Project updates us as far as the March 2022 Letters of Acceptances and Returns and adds fifteen new registrations to the collection.

For those unfamiliar with this project, it started back in the fall of 2017 because I wanted to get better at interpreting blazon (the language used to describe heraldic devices) and doing digital emblazons. I looked through the Ordinary & Armorial, the SCA’s massive online database of every name, device, badge, and other thing ever registered in the fifty plus years the Society for Creative Anachronism has been in operation, and eventually picked the Field Only registrations because they interested me, and because the size (about 200 registrations at that point) was ambitious but not wildly out of reach.

Over the course of a few months I published one page at a time of that first draft, nine devices at a time. Finally, in April 2018 I published The Whole Thing, 202 devices and badges.

Since then I’ve done annual updates to the project; this is the fourth such update.

The 2022 update brings us up to 258 devices and badges on 11 pages. It’s designed to print on 11×17 (Ledger size, in North America) paper, but scales down nicely to smaller paper, even Letter or A4 sizes. The whole thing is sorted alphabetically by blazon, starting with Fridha av Bergen’s Argent masoned azure and ending with Deykin ap Gwion’s Vert scaly Or.

Field-Only-Project-May-2022-Full PDFDownload

If you just want the newest additions to the project on their own, possibly because you’ve already got a full printout of an earlier version of the Project, here’s the May 2022 new registrations only PDF.

Field-Only-May-2022-Update.pdfDownload

Finally, if you want to dive into the working end of the Project, I’ve stuck my Excel sheet and the working SVG file into a ZIP file with a short README.

FOAP-Sources-May-2022 ZIPDownload

For a list of sources, please see my April 2018 post The Whole Thing, as it is still complete and accurate. Thanks again to all the people who’ve helped out and inspired this project over the years. I never expected it to become a regular part of my SCA routine, but here we are five years later and it very clearly is!

As always, comments, suggestions, or corrections can be done in comments here or by email; my email is on every single page of the PDFs. I really do like hearing from folks how they use this work, whether it’s to inspire and find potential conflicts for new registrations, for heraldic education, or other uses!

In Heraldic Service,
Vémundr Syvursson
Paly barry argent and azure
23 May, 2022 CE, A.S. 57.