So, my programme at the Nelson-Atkins went phenomenally. I got to meet Dr. Khandekhar (and even got lunch with him and some of the other collaborators), and I got to geek out about the colour blue for a good hour and a half in the galleries. My beloved father-in-law even got photos of me presenting my work, and it was lovely having SCA friends, work friends, and my family there to support my very geeky hobby. I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to talk about something I’ve been working through for five years (has it really been five years? More? Really?!) and see people get similarly excited about it.

I do wish I had a bit more time to go wander around the other stations, but, alas, just not possible. But, the week after Color Code, I returned to the Nelson (and spent some time at UMKC) to attend a symposium on Mesoamerican pigments, co-organized between UMKC and the Nelson. Absolutely fascinating, and it definitely gave me a ton of more rabbit holes to go down.

My current project is also with UMKC, held in conjunction with the History and World Languages Departments. In October, I learned that a grant from the Being Human Festival that we had applied for, we won. I’ve been working through the last three months (in between my Medieval Civilization class, my paid job, and the other things that make life richer) on developing curriculum to teach high school students about pigments, how the Luis Quintanilla murals at UMKC tell so many layers of stories, and where the story of pigments throughout all of this are intertwined. I’m excited to work with my colleagues on this in continuing Luis Quintanilla’s work into the 21st century, but also the lessons from his work.

I also have a couple of SCA scrolls that I desperately need to write about, but my brain is soup. At some point, though, I will have breathing time, and I will have a chance to leap in and actually do what I want to do with laking period organic pigments and work through Mesoamerican pigments.

My next event is Calontir Queen’s Prize, and hopefully soon I’ll be able to do a bit of a deep dive on the last few scrolls I’ve done, and what sort of blank borders are next on my list. Another one of the professors (a medievalist herself!) at the university has issued a couple of learning challenges to me for my own edification and growth, and I may end up creating an actual book before too long.