- Name: Lady Margarette la Gantière
- Project Title: Dyeing Pergamenata to Emulate Dyed Parchment Manuscripts
- Location: Barony of Bhakail
- Wiki link: https://wiki.eastkingdom.org/wiki/Margarette_la_Ganti%C3%A8re
- Blog with article: https://mlagantiere.wordpress.com/
One of the challenges faced by scribes in the SCA is the affordability of the materials used to make the scrolls for presentation in Court. History has provided us with a number of stunning manuscripts created on parchment that has been dyed; most typically black, indigo or violet. Unfortunately, parchment is expensive and dyed parchment when available is even more so. This places dyed parchment out of reach for many scribes. Pergamenata and Bristol paper are perhaps the two most commonly used papers for the creation of scrolls in lieu of parchment. Pergamenata is favored by many scribes due to both its ability to replicate the look of parchment, but also for the ability to be scraped for correction. Unfortunately, Pergamenata buckles and wrinkles badly when it becomes wet. This has made it challenging to emulate dyed parchment on Pergamenata. This project sought, and found an accessible, safe and affordable means of dyeing Pergamenata while avoiding the problems that occur when it gets wet.
Full Documentation including videos are on the blog site: https://mlagantiere.wordpress.com/2025/03/02/making-dyed-parchment-affordable/ In addition a google document documenting the project is available.
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