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SCA

Field Only Armoury Project 2025 Update

The last number of years I’ve tried to publish my annual update mid-year, May/June, but this has been an extraordinarily busy year, especially this summer, hence the delay until the very end of September in updating my Field Only Armoury Project.

Seven new items this year as well as a number of changes of ownership, reblazons, and other updates. We have a new badge right at the start of the Sigbjorg Kaladóttir in fróða’s Argent mailly purpure, ending 277 entries later with Emrys the Wanderer’s Wolves-cut palewise inverted sable and Or.

This project was explicitly cited by at least two of this year’s new registries as inspiring them to go looking for FO armoury for themselves, so the FOAP feedback loop continues!

If you just want the new stuff, there’s a PDF for that this year.

The entire collection, all 11 pages of it, sized at 11×17 (Ledger) pages, is here. As always, it scales nicely so you should get nice legible printouts on Letter or A4 if you want physical copies!

Finally, as I’ve done for the last few years, here’s a ZIP file with my Excel working file, the working SVG file, and a short README text file.

The 2024 FOAP update ended on a sombre note, dedicated to our late great Siamese who passed in May 2024 while I was finishing that update. Happily, in August we became a properly supervised household again when we brought Sophie La Floof (aka Sophie Floofenkatzen) home from a local cat rescue. She’s a fluffy delight and will be compromising my computer desk ergonomics for many years to come.

Also, in November 2024 my wife and I stepped up as Baron & Baroness of our local group, the Barony of Seagirt, which is part of why our summer was so very busy! It’s been a fantastic first ten months and we’re looking forward to the next few years as Landed.

In Service to the Dream,
Baron Vémundr Syvursson
Barony of Seagirt, Principality of Tir Righ, Kingdom of An Tir
Pily barry argent and azure

Sophie, looking maximally floofy in mid-winter, earlier in 2025.
Categories
SCA

Field Only Armoury Project 2024 Update

UPDATE: The most recent version of my Field Only Armoury Project is now the September 2025 version.

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.

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.

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

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.
Categories
SCA

Field Only Armoury Update, July 2023

UPDATE: The most recent version of my Field Only Armoury Project is now the September 2025 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:

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

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.

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.

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.