The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

Working on the headdress. Note malachite boxes at left, used as model for malachite patterns and to check colors.

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

Finishing Touches

"The lady's malachite robe has been completed with a red (Spectrum Red) lining, and her boots have been painted. Here I'm working on the finishing touches to the headdress (based on the single horned kokoshnik of the Kostroma region). The pearl netting ("podniz") has been painted over the povoynik, details added to the temple rings ("kolt") on their pearl chains dangling from the bottom edge of the headdress, and the kokoshnik was painted with the same malachite pattern as the over robe. I decided that this was too plain and the kokoshnik needed to be more ornate, so a very Slavic geometrical 8 point star was laid down in gold leaf. This was over painted a bit to give the impression of gold thread embroidery, a malachite cabochon was painted in the middle of it, and some lines of shell gold were laid down and then a line of pearls painted over that. A few more dabs of shell gold here and there with a "pearl" painted on each one (first put down a large dot of light gray, paint a curved line of darker gray along one edge, then put a dot of plain white towards the opposite edge to make a pearl) and the headdress looked much better.

"The lady's turned toe boots were painted with a warm green to contrast with the cool greens used throughout and to help bring up the warm red lining of her over robe. More pearls were painted to edge the gold leaf on the boots. Malachite cabochons were painted on the boots and highlights were made on the large roundels at the hem of the robe (don't try affixing huge plaques or roundels like these to an actual robe, as it would make the hem much too heavy and the garment certainly wouldn't hang the way it's depicted here!).

"Note the malachite boxes at the left, which I used to reproduce the malachite patterns and check the colors. I also used them to get the right look to the malachite casket which the lady is holding. This was tricky because the box showed a tendency to fade right back into the dress behind it. It took several tries before I achieved the right "shiny" look to the box, which was made of polished stone and therefore had a different look than the malachite patterned fabric of the dress. Darkening up that pattern on the dress underneath the bottom edge of the box made the shape come forward, as did darkening up the shadowed side of the box itself. A last dab of gold leaf was affixed to the casket and painted to look like a locking latch.

"Last came the veil ("ubrus") whose folds had been painted earlier with white. That was over painted with a warm violet. I had once seen a painting of the Mistress of Copper Mountain all robed in green with a purple veil, and liked the color combination. It also made the red lining of the over robe a little less startling. Just putting color on the folds and letting the black background show through elsewhere gave the veil a lovely transparent look." -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).