The scroll was based on some illuminations that I found in a Sotheby's catalog that I own, from a sale on December 3, 2002.  It was from a Book of Hours, Use of Paris, and was from northern France (probably Paris) circa 1480.  The illumination is described as "A fine example of a mainstream Parisian manuscript in the style of the celebrated illuminator Matre Francois."  The main illuminations, including this one, are described as follows: "PANEL BORDERS THROUGHOUT on all pages with 2-line initials with blue and gold acanthus leaves, coloured flowers and burnished gold rinceaux on black hairline stems.  TWELVE LARGE MINIATURES in arched compartments above 3 to 4 lines of text, with full borders on parti-coloured liquid gold ground with birds, acanthus leaves, flowers and rinceaux, etc."  The rather muted appearance of the colors was caused by my scanner - the photos in the catalog are actually much brighter and closer to the results I achieved with the paints I used.

 

Pigments used were dry pigments, bound with gum arabic and glair.  The pigments are mostly period and include lead white, vermillion, ultramarine (synthetic), chrome green (not period, but real pretty), yellow ochre, naples yellow, lamp black, and of course a LOT of shell gold.  All of the gold background is done in shell gold as this was how the exemplar was illuminated, and shell gold was also used to add highlights to the foliage.

 

Besides putting the arms of Medb Renata in the place where the original had a miniature of King David kneeling in prayer, I also deleted the snail that was crawling up the stem at the bottom of the border illumination, and replaced the bird in the upper right corner with a wreath of laurel (I hate painting birds).  The calligraphy was lined out in red (same as the exemplar's text).

 

This is a close up shot of the capital initial, a letter D. The original exemplar also had a D as the starting letter (for Domine).  I liked this capital because it seemed rather unusual, being done in what appears to be in a shaded style with some sort of red or vermillion, with a leafed background in the center but not around it which would be more typical of the French style from this period.  It was hard to make out the proper colors in some areas since the exemplar in the catalog is only about 3"x4" (the original manuscript is 77mm by 53 mm).  I'd blown the picture in the catalog up so I could see more detail, but unfortunately even the best photography won't capture everything.

 

The heraldry is Medb Renata's approved arms in the SCA.  It's actually quite simple.  Medb was being elevated to the Order of the Laurel primarily for her naalbinding and knitting talents, but she's also an extremely skilled juggler so when I asked her roommate what she thought Medb would like as supporters (i.e. the animals usually found "holding" the shield) we thought a raven would be good (for House Corvus, which Medb is a member of), and a dancing bear just because it seemed like a good idea.  I added the ruff with the red piping on it just to emphasize that it's a circus bear.  Medb had told another friend that for the crest on top of the helmet she'd like a hand holding 3 juggling balls, but I couldn't figure out how to draw that so I had the hand holding a naalbinding needle with yarn trailing from it instead (I modeled the hand off my own left hand).