Sometimes a casual conversation can start an idea that can take years to come to fruition.
Those of you who know my husband and I know that each of our symbol in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) group is that of a peacock. When you place our symbols together they form a heart.
Since the peacock is our symbol we have it on almost all of our items flags, weapons, clothing etc.It even influenced the name of this website.
While at an event and sporting all of our peacock items we met members of a group whose name is a One Thousand Eyes and whose symbol is (you guessed it) a Peacock. The conversation turned to Peacocks and the number of strange, weird, and just plain ugly peacocks that were drawn in the European middle ages and Renaissance. The conversation ended in those Peacocks inviting us Peacocks to visit someday. Their group is about an 8 hour drive from our home, but we decided one day we would visit.
Fast forward several years containing a pandemic and numerous other life changes and it was announced that one of our friends would be granted entrance into the Order of Defense. This is a big deal, and we asked when this would be happening so we could come and support him. Well, it was going to happen at an event called uprising in the Barony of One Thousand Eyes.
One tradition in the SCA is the giving of largess to welcome new comers and thank those who help put on the activities (I have posted more on this practice here). My husband and I like to bring gifts to groups we are visiting the first time as a thank you for having us gift (think bringing a drink to a party). Like and good guest we try to think on an item that would be unique or apricated most by the host. That long ago conversation came back to me, and I knew it had to be centered around Peacocks.
For my part of the gift I found various peacocks ranging from the strange to beautiful in medieval marginalia and painted them on small taster cups which the group could give out as thank you. The event is next week, and I will updated this post once I know how they are received, but I hope you like looking as some of the cups as much as I liked painting them.
