House Bayard Banner Project

The House Bayard Banner Project
by: Ursula von Bremen
Click on the images to see a bigger picture.

Valdemar's
I detailed the tigers with black acrylic fabric paint. Isaac helped design the tigers & the dragon. The detailing on the dragon was done with gold metallic thread.

http://www.housebayard.net/ursula_bannerH275.jpg (268694 bytes)

Ursula's
I found the arm and the rose in the Fox Davies heraldry book. All detailing was done with black & gold acrylic fabric paint. The ermine spots were done with homemade stencils.

http://www.housebayard.net/beacon_bannerH275.jpg (12851 bytes)

House Bayard
The beacon was painted with gold latex fabric paint with thin outlining black. Painting onto the light table instead of tracing first cut my work time by at least a quarter.

Martyn's
Lucy made this banner. The detailing on the compass star was hand - embroidered

Lucy's
Lucy also made this splendid banner. All detailing on the fish scales, feathers and roses were hand - embroidered.

http://www.housebayard.net/rohan_bannerH275.jpg (93337 bytes)

Rohan's
Rohan made her seawolf design from an amalgam of the sea dog and the wolf in the Fox Davies heraldry book. She painted the seawolf. I painted the paw prints and finished it off.

http://www.housebayard.net/alaric_bannerH275.jpg (105042 bytes)

Alaric's
The harp strings were machine-embroidered in gold metallic thread. The Claymore blade was made with a silver/grey satin ribbon, and the hilt was painted in brown, gold and black acrylic.

Dunstan's
The artwork was an amalgam of a herring from an online heraldic source, and Dunstan's own artwork. All machine appliqué. What a pain. But worth it.

Tangwystl's
The thistle was a modified version of the well-known Fox Davies thistle. The crescents were also from Fox Davies. This banner was time-consuming but fun. In a love-hate kind of way....

http://www.housebayard.net/solvarr_bannerH275.jpg (79614 bytes)

Solvarr's
I found the wolf and the anvils online using Google. Compared to the other banners, this was a piece of cake.

http://www.housebayard.net/aldwin_bannerH275.jpg (55347 bytes)

Aldwin's
I used Aldwin's old banner as a guide for the gore and the sun. The cross was a simple matter of geometry. I zigzagged the cross onto the gore and cut it out to reveal the black underneath.

Derdriu's
I found the moths on the web. The design printed out exactly the right size! The panther, however, was a nightmare to find. It ended up being a combination of 3 different panthers. The spots are plastic half-jewels attached with fabric glue.

The Gory Details

I made the banners shown above (except as noted). They're all 26" wide by 52" long, with some variation in the length of the tails, depending on the heraldic design. They are made from 60% cotton-40% polyester blend broadcloth, using machine-zigzag appliqué and detailing unless otherwise indicated. I discuss some of my work methods in the following article: Tips &Tricks for the Beginning & Intermediate Costumer.

When House Bayard began to get more active again in the Fall of 2000, (go House!)I decided to make it a mission to have a banner made for everyone in the Household (silly person). I didn't want to resort to using a heater shape. Everyone was using it, and I don't recall seeing many heater - shaped banners in period depictions. I decided that a swallowtail shape would set our banners apart, and that having them all in a uniform size and shape would identify them as House Bayard banners, though the designs would all be unique. The hard part was finding decent artwork on which to base the designs. I'm very picky. Valdemar and Derdriu's were particularly difficult in terms of the artwork.

Since Valdemar already had a banner (more than a bit faded, though), I made the first one with my newly passed arms in time to be flown at Kingdom Crusades. I rushed to finish one for Alaric, but I wasn't happy with the result and later made him another one. I completed Dunstan's banner shortly after his protége ceremony in November. Since most of us were planning on going to Twelfth Night, that seemed a good deadline to shoot for finishing the rest of them. Xav's and Aldwin's banners, being very simple were finished relatively quickly. I put the finishing touches on Valdemar's banner a bit after 2:00 AM on the morning of Twelfth Night in January 2001.

Tangwystl's came next. Difficult, but plenty of time to do it. Rohan helped out by painting the detailing on her seawolf. In the meantime I designed a badge for the Household, and made two beacon banners, which made their public debut with Tangwystl's and Rohan's at Pennsic XXX (2001). Lucy finished Martyn's banner in time for Pennsic XXXI. Efenwealt and Aénor let me borrow the artwork for their banners, and I should have artwork for Andela's design soon, so the project will eventually continue.