Adventures in creating and exploration
19 Jan 2016 Leave a comment
in Updates
A scroll blank for Caera Fitzpatrick, calligraphy and words by Nest. Based on __ To be filled in later…
And then we have an AoA that I did all by myself. The calligraphy looks kinda awful, but it looks exactly like the source. Source :http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8423829s/f13.item.zoom It’s a weird transitional hand.
31 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in Updates
Crafting/Art – Continue doing something creative every day. Learn a new thing each month. Update the blog regularly!!
SCA – Teach more classes on different subjects. Get one period competency with Athena’s Thimble. Enter at least 2 A&S competitions. Do a high merit award scroll.
Social – Step away from internet arguments instead of continuing them. Continue to invite people over the house once a month. Hangout with someone new at least quarterly. Consciously practice deliberate speaking and writing. Ask more questions about what other people are doing and listen to their answers. Don’t give unsolicited advice.
Cooking – Have at least 1 fruit every day. Have at least 2 veggies every day. Eat at least one meal every day that could be claimed as home cooked (toast does not count).
Cleaning – Get my room to a manageable amount of stuff
Fitness – Endurance: be able to run a mile without stopping in 10 minutes. Strength: get upper and lower body to 150 lb weight resistance. (Currently I’m at about 70) Go to gym 12+ times a month, ideally get 250 minutes of cardio a week.
Health – Weight – I suppose a better goal would be shape based, apparently hip to waist ratios for women should be lower than .85, and ideally around .7 (I am currently .9) I would also like a bust measurement of less than 44 inches.
29 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
in Updates
Crafting/Art – Document all projects as I start them. Try to do something creative at least 250 minutes a week. Draw something every day. Also write every day, preferably in a journal. Post to my blog at least once a week with my updates.
Well, I have documented more projects this year than usual? That’s got to count for something. And I think I’ve been pretty good at the do something creative every day/draw every day. Writing has fallen down a long dark hole, I’m not sure if I even care that I failed at that one though. My blog really ought to get posted to more often though, particularly given how many projects I have completed lately. Which brings us to:
SCA – Have “respectable” feast gear. Have at least 1 outfit to wear in court that I am not ashamed of. Make a scribal portfolio. Enter at least 1 A&S competition. Teach 3 classes at various locations. Learn more metal working skills. Document what I make on my blog. Get to Craftsman status with Athena’s Thimble, try to become a senior member. Perhaps become an apprentice?
This one I nailed. Though it did take me basically all year. I have respectable feast gear. I have 1 outfit, and soon a few more (they just need some handwork) that I feel comfortable wearing to court. I not only made a scribal portfolio, I am a real scribe now, doing live scrolls, finally. I entered 1 A&S competition, which was pretty fun/miserable, I still am somewhat on the fence about K&Q in a month, but if I can manage to scrape together a portfolio of viking spoons.. I’ve taught at least three classes at various locations, some even weren’t intro to embroidery! I’m still working on remembering to blog about the projects though, but I’m working on it. I did finally attain Craftsman status with Athena’s Thimble at yule. I need a few more Ps&Qs before I get to try to be a senior member. AND, best of all, I did apprentice myself to Rozi. Hopefully next year I’ll have some time for more metal working.
Cooking – Have fruit every day. Have veggies every day. Bring my lunch to work at least 4 days a week. Eat out no more than twice a week during normal situations.
Ha ha.. nope. I think I might have even gotten worse about this this year than last. Though I have at least been eating at restaurants less, but I’ve mostly done that through intelligent snacking.
Gardening/Farming – Harvest foods before they go to seed. Dry herbs for the winter. Can food for the winter. Keep the weeds down around the garden. Compost the chicken litter.
Nope. I planted two planters, nearly everything died. There was nothing to can. I gave up on the garden because I was too busy in the spring.
Building – Organize all the tools and put up a peg board system.
Well, I did at least get the work bench out into the garage and now there’s a place to work on projects. No peg board system though. But we do have drawers…
Cleaning – Re-organize the pantry twice a year (once already done today), get my room to a manageable amount of stuff.
Yay it’s time for the annual pantry cleaning! Which means, yeah, no, I didn’t do it twice a year, though I did a quick sort sometime in the summer.
Fitness – Endurance: be able to run a mile without stopping in 10 minutes. Strength: get upper and lower body to 150 lb weight resistance. (Currently I’m at about 70) Go to gym 12+ times a month, ideally get 250 minutes of cardio a week.
I have managed to go to the gym about twice since 2014. That said, I don’t think I’m in considerably worse shape, but I certainly did not meet these goals and will probably use them again.
Health – Weight – I suppose a better goal would be shape based, apparently hip to waist ratios for women should be lower than .85, and ideally around .7 (I am currently .9) I would also like a bust measurement of less than 44 inches.
I am the same size and shape I was in 2014. Which while better than being worse, is still not reaching the goal. Goal will remain the same. Priority will be on me in 2016, not everyone else.
29 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
This AoA was for Kathryn Tighe’s son, Clark wrote the words. This is my first live scroll assignment.
The source is here:
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8530185k/f11.item
I am most proud that I managed to not have to do the scroll twice as I didn’t screw it up. My goals are small. Only having to do the scroll once is a big deal 🙂
Windsor Newton cake watercolors on Fluid 100 hot press watercolor paper. Sumi green bottle ink.
I chose this source due to the information I had on the persona, I had asked around about him but my usual sources didn’t know who he was. So I picked an awesome manuscript page that had calligraphy that I liked the look of and decided to copy that. I particularly like the drawn capitals. I didn’t mean to make it yule themed (red and green) and didn’t pick up on that until the day of the Yule event. But regardless, it was how the original was done and I really like the simplistic design.
Takeaway – I need to make myself use vertical guidelines, even if it doesn’t seem worth it, it totally is.
29 Dec 2015 Leave a comment
So despite being woefully unprepared before the event, I managed to come up with a reasonable display and documentation on a subject that I could talk to intelligently.
05 Nov 2015 Leave a comment
Firstly, a scroll for Donovan’s Provost’s Company, words by Alys. (Oh god, why is my first court presented calligraphy, a calligraphy only scroll, what was I thinking?!)
Then we have a backlog AOA, that I did twice. Once big, (on the right), and then a second time smaller, but with better calligraphy and fewer spelling errors. They both have redeeming features, which is why I’m posting both. I’ve thankfully learned a lot since then.
05 Sep 2015 Leave a comment
in Usables Tags: box, joinery, maple, wood
So we were brainstorming things for a viking persona award, since paper scrolls don’t really fit well, and I had been contemplating making a little box using viking era techniques and suddenly it all fit nicely together…
Maple craft board, made using finger joints and a tongue and groove lid. Glue used to hold it in place.
Man, having a band saw in my garage is awesome! But I couldn’t have done the groove without Troy and Lisa’s help. They had a router and the ability to control it.
I’m planning on making a box for myself next, this time using poplar and doing all the joining by hand. I’ve learned my lesson about carving maple craft board, it’s harder than it looks. This box was a fun little proof of concept piece that gets to live an adventurous life. I’m a little sad it’s getting painted as the maple is so pretty to scrape to a mirror finish and then oil, but I have more maple for later.
26 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
Check back to the previous post for the underlayers.
Here’s the main garment, with the two different over-layer options.
And here are two more things I’m contemplating making to go with this project:
I have some pretty purple wool that might be fun to make a coat like that, also some dark blue, though I think they might both be too heavy for something with sleeves.
The gray lacing overdress is an interesting experiment that will dress up the reversible dress, and can be decorated with trim. I’ll also need an apron. Or two.
Here is the reversible dress I already have made (for the consideration of color matching) and one that I plan to make as I have the fabric for it. It has a neat twill pattern in the cloth, I tried to draw that into the sketch, but it’s not as hideous as my sketch makes it look.
21 Aug 2015 1 Comment
in Wearables
*Where in queen just means gets to dictate what project the sewing room will work on, as much as anyone can steer the sewing room, which is essentially a loose affiliation of various cats using a large bathtub as a boat in the middle of the ocean.
*Where in a month is a non-specific time frame, thus far a month has taken approximately 4 months and we haven’t really started yet, and that’s ok.
So after a long and arduous year of making things for other people, we (the people of the sewing room) decided that we needed new garb, and wouldn’t it be fun if we could get our friends to help us make things that we wouldn’t be able to do without help.
The first up on our list is Andi, which we are finally getting started working on – and I’m second, but since Andi and I’s projects are vaguely similar (both late period English(ish)) we are somewhat starting on mine now too. I realized that I haven’t posted my sketches for this project when I was trying to explain it yesterday on google+. So this post is to share the sketches and the evolution of what I’m doing for this outfit.
Step 1) An underdress that actually fits me. I found out last week that one should make the shoulders the size of your shoulders! (yes, I know that’s really basic, but most tutorials take your largest measurement and make a tube which you then add sleeves and gores on to, this does not work if you have small shoulders.
Step 2) So I’ve seen partlets done a number of ways, I particularly like this option, which is over the underdress, but under the bodice. One of the major benefits as far as I can tell is that you can tie it under the bust so it doesn’t move when you fidget. We’ll see if this actually works in practice, but it seems worth trying at least. This is also where the collar comes in, which is handy in some ways as you can then change out collars depending on the outfit and or where you spilled your ice cream.
Step 3) A reversible kirtle, we still deciding where it laces, probably on the sides, maybe in a V on the sides, depending on which works the best for my un-medieval body shape. The front garment construction in general may well also be more \_/ than | _ | because of the difference in circumference at my shoulders and my bust. It’s going to be purple on one side and dark green on the other. (I also have fabric to make one in a neat teal twill that will also be reversible as the fabric is reversible and I have one already in a different teal and brown)
Step 4) Sleeves! Doubletly thing! No idea what is going on with that belt, or where the partlet went to, or precisely what that hat is, but it’s based on the coif/forehead cloth thingy.
Step 5) A wool jacket thing! This is based off a brown wool one that I got from one of my grandmother’s reenactor friends
(I think Phyllis McCluskey? Or possibly Marnie Sumner?) when I was a teen. I wore it for many years until I got too big for it, and I have always wanted 
to make another as it’s so pretty. I bought some gorgeous grey wool in Toronto this spring which should work nicely.
Step 6) Probably not part of the initial project, but! I want to make an over dress out of some russet brown linen that I have, it would be open in the front (which this picture is not showing) and would lace over the bottom kirtle. This is a much more continental look, but given that there was a great deal of trade, intellectual and physical between Amsterdam and the eastern part of England, this makes sense. I also haven’t really decided if I want this persona to be Dutch or English, but at the economic standing I’m building (middle to lower middle class merchant/tradesman) there’s very little difference in the structure of the clothing. The New Englander in me is drawn to East Anglia, as that’s where most of the stylistic things that we take for granted in New England (houses, food, speech, morals, and so on) come from. (See Albion’s Seed)
12 Aug 2015 Leave a comment
in Wearables
We had a bit of a problem back home while we were at Pennsic, and Lynne (and Lackey) helped us out. Since She wasn’t at pennsic, but had gone many times in the past, I wanted to get her something that would be special but that she wouldn’t have already. Wandering off on my own on Wednesday night I spotted some yarn that jumped out at me and said, this is what you are looking for!
So I decided to make her a belt on one of my hand made looms. I used a belt buckle that I had picked up at Gulf that was hand cast.
The yarn is cotton Dragon Tale Yarn. 4/2 2ply 1600yds/lb Crystal Couc? – 2 ounces from my favorite vendor at Pennsic: http://www.brushcreekwoolworks.com/ As I said to them this year, if I were to merchant, this would be my shop as it has nearly everything I love.
Total time to make the belt – well I bought the yarn on Wednesday night, didn’t start working on the belt until after teaching my class and hanging out with Beth, so Thursday evening until I ran out of light and then Friday when we weren’t disassembling the camp, I was working on this. I finished weaving it when we ran out of light on Friday. I sewed on the metal bit when I got home.
Caitrin
Stephanie (Curiositykt)
dharvill
Painted wings and giant rings 
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