Reimagining medieval Badges in Modern Materials

Recently joining our team as a researcher-maker for the new project, “Reimagining Badges in Modern Materials,” is Ellen Siebel-Achenbach.  Ellen is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Medieval Studies, Visual Culture, Fine Arts Studio, and Church Worship and Music at the University of Waterloo. She is also an undergraduate intern at the DRAGEN Lab, our collaborator for this project.  

Conceptually, “Reimagining Medieval Badges in Modern Materials” interrogates the difference between replicating and reimagining medieval badges. In the Middle Ages, badge-like objects sharing similar iconographies were crafted in a wide variety of materials from precious to perishable. As a researcher-maker, Ellen will similarly engage with a wide variety of materials in order to learn about them, their affordances and constraints, and reflect on the ways in which they might be used to reimagine badges, to explore badge-like qualities, and to engage modern audiences in discovery about the Middle Ages.

To offer our community a sense of the project, we asked Ellen to share some of her initial experimental makings and discoveries, which we will continue to share periodically on this blog. 

Medieval Badges: Could you tell us a bit about your first encounters with badges? 

Ellen Siebel-Achenbach: Although I had previously encountered medieval badges in museums, I only began to engage with them while on an experiential learning research trip to England in 2019 with Dr. Rasmussen. Our group visited museums, churches, and workshops, and I became increasingly interested in medieval craft more generally and in understanding that badges served a variety of functions. Like most people, I had associated badges with religious pilgrimage alone – especially in the case of the popular badges featuring Saint Thomas Becket of Canterbury.

MB: What is guiding your process of making for this project? 

ESA: For the first few badge experiments, I was interested in the ways delicate details of badge figures could be captured in such a small scale.  To start, I chose three badges with a high level of detail: a badge of the holy communion wafers of Wilsnack, a badge of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Christ Child from Rocamadour, and the badge of a king and bishop holding a tower in a round frame from Yper. I decided to make the badges using a clear polystyrene plastic that shrinks when heated (i.e., baked!). I drew the designs with oil-based markers and embellished them with oil-based metallic paints. I coloured the Yper badge with several shades of grey, yellow, and green and attempted to reproduce a degree of depth within the Yper badge through the application of a glued layer of ‘gems.’ The translucent material has allowed me to include colour in the badges in a manner resembling medieval stained glass and enamel miniatures.

MB: How have your experimental makings influenced your understanding of medieval badges?

ESA: I found it difficult to capture the original details even prior to the baking process, in which the original design shrinks by about two-thirds. I have very different materials at my disposal, of course, but I have nevertheless tried to make crafting choices that come closer to medieval crafters, such as doing sketches by hand rather than digitally. Right now, I’m trying to minimize the digital component of my making. I’m also working by hand in natural light, a commodity in as short supply in November in northerly regions as it was six hundred years ago.

MB: What is one challenging aspect about reimagining these badges materially?

ESA: On top of difficulties capturing details, I have had challenges with the fragility of the plastic material I am currently using. It often cracks during the cutting (note the right cross of the Wilsnack badge) and baking processes. The material also occasionally bakes into a curved shape (as occurred in the Rocamadour badge). The imperfections of my own badge creations may in some way emulate imperfections present in many badges. One example of this is the centre of the original Rocamadour badge I am using, where there is what looks like a nail hole in the centre of the Virgin Mary.  

MB: What are you planning on experimenting with over the coming months? 

ESA: My next experiments will utilize a similar material to the one I’ve been using, but with a white base to allow for more vibrancy of colour. I’m looking forward to working with this opaque polystrene plastic because it offers the potential for creating even more detail alongside a more subtle colouring. I may also combine the clear and white plastic in some future re-imagined badges.  

I’m also planning on creating a series of lino-prints for the Christmas season, featuring badges of the Nativity and Epiphany scenes. These prints will use both black oil-based paint and gouache. I am also starting work on a series of shadow boxes in which I divide enlarged medieval badges into different layers of depth.

Ellen Siebel-Achenbach is a research intern and badge maker for “Reimagining Badges in Modern Materials.” She is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Medieval Studies, Visual Culture, Fine Arts Studio, and Church Worship and Music at the University of Waterloo. She has been a member of the DRAGEN Lab since 2019.

Send Ellen your questions via the Medieval Badges website or comment below.

Edited by Hannah Gardiner and Dr. Ann Marie Rasmussen.