Purple Fret Scroll for Lady Kat the Green

A few shots from a quick scroll for Lady Kat the Green of House Dark Horse. She received a Purple Fret last weekend at Fall Crown.

Not happy with the soldering. I've been spending some time doing drills of the basics (cutting, soldering), so focus on them. I think at times I get sloppy and need to slow down, focus, and don't forget the basics when I'm thinking about flashed glasses and silver stains and so on!

Calligraphy done by THL Justice McArtain, who was trying calligraphy on glass for the first time. He had positive things to say about it and has agreed to write another scroll I have in mind.

This is also my first pattern made using Pattern Wizard. Photoshop always gives me fuzzy lines which I'm realizing hurts the accuracy of my cutting, no matter how well I think I can "see" the line anyway. I also keep doing these on short notice... all of the soldering for this scroll was done in a few hours at night after site setup and immediately before going to bed (with "sleep" the reward for finishing it... that doesn't encourage careful work, and I need to stop doing it!)

I was initially unhappy to use "gold" glass but I didn't have enough of my "lemon yellow" sheet left. I used it for the last purple fret suncatcher I made as largesse. In hindsight I think this looks infinitely better than the lemon yellow, and I love that texture (believe this is spectrum waterglass).

At the urging of friends I won't sit and do a critique of my work and the spots where I'm unhappy with the rushed and in-the-dark soldering. If you don't see them, thank you :). If you do, know that I do too :)

I also learned that this reign Their Majesties Cadogan and AnnMarie "escrowed" a copy of their signatures with the Dragon Signet for those making alternative scrolls. I think this is AWESOME. I didn't directly trace the signatures because even enlarged they appeared to have been written with the World's Smallest Calligraphy Nib so I tried to paint them in a similar hand. Seriously, if I couldn't see the varying line widths I'd swear it was a ballpoint pen, I want to see the nib used!

Lessons Learned
Don't solder or generally work on a 48-hour deadline, dang it.
Have GOOD lighting while soldering. Don't solder while your crash space-ees are trying to sleep.