Month: March 2024

Report from Provincial Court at Bear’s Tavern

On the ninth day of March, Anno Societatis 58, their Excellencies of Østgarðr, the Viceréinas Angelica di Nova Lipa and Sofya Gianetta di Trieste, did venture to the northern woods of their domain to mingle with the commonfolk at Bear’s Tavern. 

Seeing it well fit and felicitous to bring certain business before the populace, they did determine to hold court in that rustic setting, the proceedings of which I am by my avocation bound to record herein.

Continue reading “Report from Provincial Court at Bear’s Tavern”

Machine-Printed “Silk Banners”

Colorful pennants and long standards fluttering in the breeze significantly enhance the ambiance of outdoor historical recreation events — but hand-painting silk can be a daunting project, and requires skills that I have not mastered.

To approximate the impression while leveraging my collection of digital images, I turned to a custom fabric printing service from Spoonflower. The results were satisfactory, so I’ve written up the process I used in case others would like to follow it.

Continue reading “Machine-Printed “Silk Banners””

Proposed Navigation Changes for the CoA Website

The SCA’s heraldry website is a critical resource for the armorists, onomasticians, and administrators that staff the College, and for the members of the populace who want to develop names and armory for their own personae.

However, the site’s organization and navigation haven’t been substantially updated in more than a decade, and a number of weaknesses have become apparent in the course of the site’s heavy usage:

Continue reading “Proposed Navigation Changes for the CoA Website”

Thoughts on Updating the CoA Website

I’ve been thinking about potential improvements that could be made to the heraldry.sca.org website so that it’s more useful to heralds and the populace. 

Here are some notes about this effort based on what I’ve learned so far.

Top-Line Objectives

There are three main avenues for improvement, as discussed further below.

  • Appearance
    • Improve the site’s readability on modern mobile and desktop devices.
    • Refresh the site’s appearance and give it a more “contemporary” feel.
  • Organization
    • Make it easier for non-heralds and new heralds to find key information.
    • Reduce effort for experienced heralds to reach key “hot-spot” resources.
  • Education
    • Link to more Internet reference material frequently used by heralds.
    • Clarify whether articles are authoritative, incomplete, or out of date.
Continue reading “Thoughts on Updating the CoA Website”