Valance

With the completion of the estoile and the hoop casings, the third - outer - layer of the roofline structure looms - the valance. The flat valance seeming more typical of the period than dagged ones, I decided upon painting a foliate decoration on a flat valance from the gold tent in Jean Froissart's Chronicles, which is from 15th century Bruges - my time and place. Robert observed that many of those flat valances seem to reflect motifs from illuminations, and I had noticed this also. The issue is whether the illuminations reflect actual practice, or artistic convention. Being unable to resolve this question with the available resources, I went ahead and drafted the pattern for the illumination.

Another issue is that I have fundamentally changed the color scheme of the Northstar. With the change of the estoile from blue to red, we now have a tent with two distinctive parts. The valance is an opportunity to create some unity if we use both blue and red for the design. Thus the leafy bits are red, and the vine is blue.

I'm using acrylic artist's paint for the blue - it's what I had on hand. The red is the same latex exterior used on the estoile. The 1" nylon/polyester brush that I used on the estoile works well on the leafy parts, although the vine is too narrow for that brush. I'm using a smaller white bristle brush which is working tolerably well. I got the red done on almost half the valance Sunday night, which is somewhat behind the project plan - we had wanted to raise the tent today. Perhaps Wednesday? Monday night will have to be spent finishing the painting, Tuesday is sewing and running ropes. Wednesday will hopefully be The Big Day.