Maunche for Carmelina Vaccari

Vivat to Carmelina, who creates some of the most inspirational and beautiful art I’ve seen, in both scribal and embroidery! I was really excited to receive this Maunche assignment and I wanted to give her something memorable. I don’t know her super well but I’ve seen her work first hand at scribal meet-ups and she is incredibly kind and talented. To be more thorough though, I asked for some advice on what she would like from someone closer to her. I was told that she dresses in the period of Eleanor of Toledo (born in Spain but lived and died in Florence, 16th century) and she embroiders, illuminates, and book binds. The piece I chose as inspiration is the Almugavar Hours which is a 16th century book created in Spain.

I did try to stay more accurate to the original manuscript than I normally would, focusing on accuracy above customizing to the recipient (because I thought that is what she would want.) The goal was to make it look like pages from a book her persona may have had. I did have to increase the size of the piece from the original book for logistical reasons.

The not-so-good: I wish I had made the maunche award symbol and her arms look like it fit more into the piece.Someone brought it up to me when I was about to bring the scroll to the herald. Now, I can’t unsee it! I could have shaded it better so it at least looked 3-dimensional.

The good: This is one of my favorite pieces that I’ve ever done. I used advice I had gathered from many talented artists to try to get the pearls, shading, and gold background just right. I am happy with the way it turned out and I enjoyed making the piece. I hope to do more of these in the future.