A Gilded Piggy (hopefully!) fit for a King

I was recently honoured to attend a Royal Event to watch the elevation of a friend to the Order of the Laurel. As part of the festivities, I created a marzipan pig gilded in 23k gold and surrounded with marzipan fruits.

I've been quite unwell in the last couple of weeks leading up to the event, so I used commercially produced marzipan rather than making my own from scratch. The gold was food grade edible gilt, which comes in sheets and is challenging to work with.

Piggy started off looking reasonably realistic:

This ear was too big and started to bend, so I made the ears smaller

Castor sugar is under the head to prevent the marzipan from sticking to the platter. Water with a small amount of rosewater added is used as a bonding agent to encourage the pieces to stick together. (Don't use too much or you will get a slimy mess that won't hold shapes and will crack when drying.)

The images I used for inspiration:

Bee Gonfalon #1

In 2015 I made a couple of banners for a friend who was being Laurelled. I had never made a banner before, so it was all a steep learning curve. The banners were going to be carried in a procession at body height.

I made the body of the banner out of strips of silk and satin. They were machine sewn together and pressed. When the shield shape was cut out, I appliqued it to the figured background fabric and couched black cord around the edge of the shield. The background fabric was quite flimsy, so I interlined it with calico for strength and to stop it warping.

Then I embroidered the bees of the Lady's device. The bodies of the bees were appliqued onto calico, and the black bars and eyes were embroidered. Gold thread was couched down to highlight the wings.

I cut the bees out individually and used needle-applique to sew them to the base fabric.

When the bees were all couched down and complete, I added some iron-on gold embroidered highlights around the shield shape. I used commercially produced motifs because it was only a few days before the event and I was running out of time (and I still had a second banner to make.)

Next I machine sewed the front, interlining and lining pieces together and hand bound the edges with black bias binding. A rod pocket was hand sewn on, and the final thing to do was to make a bag to store and transport the banner safely.

The recipient was pleased and the event was really lovely; I felt very privileged to witness it.

Event venue with hand painted banners made by Mistress Sir Eva von Danzig and Viscountess Mistress Ingerith Ryzka