At the Known World Heralds and Scribes Symposium this year, I got to see the Polaris Herald’s crown, which we were not allowed to touch. It was an amazing piece of art and looked supremely uncomfortable to wear despite the padding.

More importantly, I also attended a class on micography, which is the art of making art with very tiny text.

So, of course my next two scrolls needed to put that new skill to use. And, since I’d also recently purchased black scroll paper and archival gel pens, that needed to happen as well. And then I realized that the paper was so black and thick that light table tracing was not an option. So, old school tracing it had to be.

I thought the tricky bit would be figuring out the proper length of text to get perfectly all the way around the design, but it turned out to be the discovery that this paper is very unforgiving of mistakes and the pen nibs were thicker than I’d wanted. Takeway: next time use micron pens on perg for smaller nibs and better mistake recovery.

Materials: Printer, pencil, eraser, 6″x8″ Fabriano Black Black paper, Brusarth Fine Point Metallic and White Gel Pens 0.8mm