SCA armory
This year, 2011, the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) celebrates its 45 years jubilee. From a modest Berkeley (CA) garden party in May 1966 the society has grown into an almost global institute with tens of thousands of members. They have been playing in the Middle Ages "as they ought to have been", choosing to "selectively recreate the culture, choosing elements of the culture that interest and attract us" (the history of the SCA)
Members are asked to choose a name for a medieval or 16th century person and, if possible, write a biography for that person. They are supposed to dress and accessorize according to the chosen period and fighting men and women are expected to wear the (usually adapted) armour of the period. An important part their recreating medieval or renaissance (up to 1600) personas is the choosing and use of heraldic arms. For this the SCA has a complete College of Arms, which is represented in all of the nineteen kingdoms by its heralds and kingdom colleges.
It is a very daunting task to provide unique arms for so many people. And we should not forget that there have been many arms granted to ex-members so the complete list may well be close to a hundred thousand, if not more. During the first decades the heraldry of the SCA was a bit shaky and acquired typical characteristics like the use of the colour ‘purpure’ (purple) or the far greater use of green than has ever existed in real heraldry. The amount of thickly charged ordinaries like chiefs, chevrons and fesses and the preponderance of divided shields as well as the overwhelming abundance of fabulous beasts is very SCA-ish. As is the widespread use of the counterchanged fields and charges to make a difference, or the additions of bordures or orles, with or without line variations. A more questionable trend is (or was?) the use of contourny charges, which, frankly, is not good heraldry and should not be a mark of difference from a similar coat of arms with the charges looking to the proper dexter side.
Nowadays new arms are more based in real heraldic history, helped along by special heraldic colleges, like f.i. the Academy of St Gabriel, which provide knowledge and advice about choosing names and arms for members. There is still, however, not much work done on making the style of the arms look like the art of the period. Usually animals and fabulous beasts are taken from 19th century heraldic pattern books. Shield shapes are indiscriminately used, so it’s not rare to see these Victorian charges on gothic shields or medieval designs on baroque accolade shields, etcetera. De Raaf could help with that. I design arms in all medieval and early modern styles with the correct shapes of the charges so the whole composition fits snugly in a given period. Above are the late 15th century versions of Colin de Bray and Ceridwen MacAoudhegain's SCA arms.
What I propose is that members could send me their coat of arms or heraldic shield in its present form, tell me when their persona lives/lived and I can make a digital design of the said arms in the style of the period they want to portray. This they can then use themselves in all sorts of applications, from dress to battle gear, from scrolls to tent decoration. I can even suggest how they could apply their heraldry in this way and do designs for them, but that's not obligatory. Same goes for flags, but see the special page for that. My fees are extremely low for this and cannot be compared to hand painted artwork. See the prices pages.