sealing the deal

One of the cool things about scrolls is sometimes getting to add seals to them. As signet Clerk I get to use one of the Kingdom seals for this purpose.Here are two examples of scrolls which were designed to have a seal attached. The first one if a Court Barony for Gottfried Killianus the scroll is done by Lady Arianhrod.

The second piece is work by Mistress Genevieve for Marcus von Stormarn and it is a Grant of Arms.

The seals were done in steps. First I make a beeswax cup using an old glass jar lid as a mould. Once the wax has hardened and is removed from the mould it is a nice smooth disc. I then use a potter's tool to carve away the wax from the center out to form a cup. The next step is to cut away the wax to make a small channel for the strip or the small weave that will hold the seal to the scroll.  Once this is done I can then melt more bees wax, add a tiny amount of dry red pigment to the mix. I then pour this into the cup and wait until the wax forms a skin, once it is semi hardened I then use the seal and apply a light pressure as too much will make wax squirt out and / or break the whole thing. Then I let everything dry and harden in a cool place away from the sunlight.