Greet's Middle Ages

A&S report, 1st quarter 2010

Caution: It's still long.  Most of this can be found in pictures and/or further discussion in previous blog posts; I'm too pressed for time today to link directly.

Since Gulf Wars:

Wove diamond twill yardage in imitation of the Birka type from Vinjum, Sogn, and Fjordane, Norway (fifth century).

Warped loom for similar diamond twill trim, in various widths, with "pull-through" beaming technique.

Attended Gulf Wars:  Actually wore Egtved Girl gravefind string skirt, even though all the loops on the bottom aren't bound yet.  Had nice discussion on Bronze Age textiles at RagnaRocks party.

Took bookbinding class: Limp bindings of the 16th c.

Painted watercolors of a bookbinder, and the dyeing setup.  Sketched a spinner.

Took a "Development of Mathematical Theory" class.

Continued discussion of cooking pots with Mistress Kiara, and her accomplice from Gode Erthe Pottes.

Tried cooking over fire: learned about distance, and how to lose seasoning on cast-iron pots, which probably aren't period anyway.  Checked out Gwenhwyfar's Roman cooking setup; also geeked with her and Kass McGann about Roman clothing.

Prepped for Gulf Wars:  Researched and helped design wooden Viking-type bed.  Worked on graphic design for decoration of bed stemming from Jelling carvings.

Sewed wool wadmal (Icelandic 2/2 twill) tunic for Randver, with "silk" (rayon) repp (warp-faced tabby) trim that looks like it's handmade, but it's not.

Sewed fighting tunic for Randver.  Most historical thing about it: it's thread-dyed plaid, and has Jelling-style trim.

Sewed two pieced hoods, embroidered one with chainstitched laurel leaves for a present.

Sewed an early Irish gown, fastened with Roadald's bone-carved buttons.

Took a class on the Bronze Age Bog Coat, and sewed and embellished one.  Tried out at Gulf Wars, worked well.

Trimmed a cloak with rigid heddle trim and clasp/hook, tried out at Gulf Wars.  Hook is undependable.

Sewed a 14thc short-sleeved kirtle for Her Highness.

Lined a Mongolian jacket.

Lined a Viking coat, and embroidered it.

Assembled an Early British warrior's jacket, but got hung up on the embroidery motifs.

Continued embroidering bedcover.

Drew illustration for cover of Gulf Wars A&S booklet.

Gulf Wars 2010 recap

So now I've been in the SCA three years.  Gulf Wars was my first event, so it's a great time to think about how my play has developed, see where I've grown, and set priorities for the next year.  Basic recap first:

We got in just at sunset Wednesday, and after setting up camp, got ourselves over (late) to the Meridian Social.  The theme this year was RagaROCKS, and since I have about as much memory of eighties' hair metal as I do blue hair, my impression may not be quite recognizable, but it was fun to pull together:

 

My idea was to rockify my Borum Eshoj stuff.  (Mom, the "nalbinded beret" is on its way to becoming a filk, and was very popular.  You were right, again.  Albeit roundaboutly.)  So we have here: Nalbinded beret, made by my mother with indigo yarn she dyed herself, vest and necklace from thrift stores, the infamous BE gravefind string skirt, miniskirt version of BE skirt, and new bog coat that I made at Convivium Collegialis.  Fishnets and tall boots were already a part of the Costume Box of Wonderfulness.

This year I camped again with Glynn Rhe, but now it is my home group, and felt nice to belong somewhere properly.  The wool tent did fine again, though I am now sure I want to put toggles on the door ties to make getting in and out faster.  I now have two wood benchboxes, and they are perfect for keeping camp and foodstuffs in.  The Viking's cooler was totally ample and very efficient (the ice we brought with us got to go home again).  I need to remember to pack a broom next time, and I am still playing around with lights - he's wanting a multi-wick oil lamp, like this.

We brought one too many tunics for him, but just the right amount of food - maybe the catfish was excessive, but I distributed it to people in an area of about 2 acres.  We had plenty of goodies; enough to be generous, and people are learning that I like to bake.  That Krispy Kreme bread pudding may not be period, but gosh darn is it tasty.

Camp cooking is a recent and mutual interest.  I want to be able to take care of me and mine, and have it all look nice, and work.  A friend focuses on things cooking+Roman, and she put together a beautiful Roman kitchen, winning the Period Life competition.  I'm so impressed with her setup:

 

But we used some of our heirloom castiron on Wendy's kitchen setup, which worked pretty darn well.  Modifications need to be made regarding being able to "turn down" the heat.  I'm not sure whether a setup where you are able to pull the fire out from under the pot, or install a trivet under the pot, or perhaps both is the best way to go.  More options to try!

Cooking pots are definitely catching on in the merchant area, with varying prices being quoted for various things.  Fire Horse Pottery had a collaborator in Gode Erthe Pottes, who'd brought all sorts of ceramic cooking things: a heat reflector, with notches for a spit, a drippings tray, a waffle iron, a chafing dish, and even a lobster trap! in addition to the bread ovens that I'd seen before.  Apparently the bread ovens work, though there's a learning curve (isn't there always?!) on how to use them.

We did most of our shopping on Thursday: I bought two wool shawls for $65, one heavier weight in iridescent twill green/red, so that I can wear each of our colors, and a wonderfully light one in charcoal and gold so I can quickly dress up for court.  The Viking says the shawls make enough of a difference that he had difficulty finding me in a crowd - I consider I've gotten a bargain, considering that's two more "clothes changes" for the price of yardage and zero sewing effort.  Plus they pack tighter.  We also bought a lot of music - 5 CDs.  Two are of Owain Phyfe, a wonderful guitarist.  Three are from Vince Conaway, who I had met at Pennsic with Heather Dale, and got to talk to both of them again here.  I was so pleased that the Viking got to meet them too - I've gushed about how impressed I was with them as people, not just as professional musicians.  He bought some elbow cops, and we got a packet of leather to use on various projects - we're thinking a bag for feastgear and a gorget for me.

Friday I hoped to get into a bookbinding workshop, but it had sold out the day before.  I did get to watch and take pictures, though.  They were making these:

 

I also got to do a little painting of one of the class participants:

 

And then I painted the dyeing setup, which is one of my favorite things about Gulf Wars though I never have the patience to hang out there and dye things:

 

Saturday we packed up, trying to beat a storm out.  I squeezed in one last sketching session (hopefully I'll get to watercolor that sketch soon), and a really intriguing math history class, from someone I want to find again - she seems incredibly knowledgeable, and very bright to make connections.

Gulf Wars prep summary

This is going to be a bit of a brag sheet (isn't the entire blog?) but I need to record what we've been up to for the A&S officer come next report:

The resident Viking has been making a new bed.  Roughly based on a bed found on the Oseberg ship, but with original art by yours truly.  I've been looking at Jelling images, trying to invent a scroll-y sort of ram, which is his badge animal.  My bee will show up on the headboard and footboard, whereas the rams will be the posts.  We aren't going to have the bed fully decorated for Gulf Wars, but it will be functional.  I like to do projects like this, where an object is done to "just usable" for one event, and then improved upon for later events.

He's also been working on camp cooking.  We got a cast iron tripod from a friend, and the Viking altered a commercial firepit to hang on the tripot.  We think the weight will stabilize the tripod, as well as allow the castiron kettle mom gave me from my great-grandparents' farm to hang above the farm and boil water for things like pasta.  I want to rest a grate across one side of the tripod for skillet cooking.

I have been sewing, of course.  In addition to the coats, I made the Viking a new wool dress tunic, out of the wadmal I bought last summer at Sir's, along with the tent fabric and the felt for my embroidered bedcover.  I also made him a new fighting tunic, from a tightly woven thread-dyed tabby plaid he had, and sewed his own polyester trim to it.  Since taking up fighting myself, I've relaxed my expectations considerably on fighting gear - it's a costume, not historic clothing, because it takes a huge beating, that I don't think historic clothes would actually get in warfare...not least because the owner would be dead, or upgrading courtesy of war spoils!

I made the teenager a new early period tunic too, for which a friend kindly carved bone toggles, but because she has mismanaged her grades, she won't be wearing it at Gulf Wars, because she isn't accompanying us.  But it looks nice, and she may get the chance to wear it again this spring.  I made her a pieced hood, but she won't need it.  I'm also bringing another pieced hood to bribe a favorite potter...

I took a class at Convivium Collegialis on the Bronze Age Bog Coat, and made one to wear.  It's a fantastically efficient construction - a rectangle approximately 55" high of a 60" wide fabric makes a boxy coat for me, at 5'7", and it's about shin length.  Apparently it's not a reconstruction of an actual gravefind, as the Borum Eshoj garments are, but a conjecture based on cut skins?  I'm still foggy on this.  But it's a lovely garment to have, and I shall enjoy wearing it with my other Bronze Age stuff.

Speaking of, I have worked a little more on my string skirt, and will take it with me to work on while I chat at the War.  I don't know how much sit-around time I'll have; I mean to attend the Women Fighters Symposium, and do an all-day bookbinding class, and we are likely to leave on Saturday afternoon.  We arrive Wednesday evening, attend the Meridian Social late that night, and Thursday will be a mix of shopping and classes for me.  The Viking wants to take classes with me, but he also has quite the schedule of fighting, and I want to watch a bit of that, too.

Back to the sewing:  I've nearly finished a fourteenth century kirtle for Her Highness - there was a last-minute plea for help, and I couldn't keep my hand out of the air.  So now I know I can crank out a kirtle from someone else's pattern in essentially two full days - I've only been working on it since Monday, and there's still the lacing holes to do tomorrow, but I did the Viking's new fighting tunic yesterday, and worked on my own fighting tunic today.

This monkey is focused on A&S...

...unlike me these days.  Then again, I've managed to avoid being the target of the atlatl field lately.

Right, so I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I've just been turning my life upside down, moving in the midst of the holidays, and I'll get back to my normal post format soon.  I hope.  (My bookmarks overfloweth!)

Recap, because A&S reports are due, and I shamelessly use this blog to keep track of what I do:

Since I last posted (gah! two whole months ago!), I've:

Practiced music (recorder and voice) with Oldenfeld's Ensemble (Trimaris), weekly.  Learned various Christmas pieces for playing at Yule, and worked on "Say Love", an Elizabethan piece we learned from its original entablature, which is funky stuff, yet fun.  I'm hoping for geeky music stuff at Gulf Wars.

Appeared at an elementary school demo where we performed many of these pieces, and danced some, largely the Maltese Bransle, since asking kids to dance like an elephant, or as if the ground is a thousand degrees hot, is very entertaining.  Weekly dance practice happened too, and most of the time I was there.

Sewed garb for my mother, particularly so she would have late-period garb for dance demos, and enough garb for a weekend without borrowing from me.  I did most of the construction on some 16th Florentine clothing for her, modeled after Drea Leed's 1515 Florentine gown.  I taught mom how to cardweave trim directly onto the cuffs of her detachable sleeves.  I also put together a 16thc Persian pirahan (that's the base layer), and did rough construction of a vest-caftan and a coat.  She is responsible for the finishing of said items - so she practiced rolling a hem on her neckline, etc.  And I threw together a standard unbleached linen gored t-tunic for her to use alone, or with some yet-to-be-woven peplos garment.  Of course I do not have pictures.

Attended Oldenfeld's Yule, where I performed twice with the Ensemble, danced one dance in a class as a plant, and got to be HRH's herald in court...fortunately they had no business, I just did the flowery/funny intro.  People laughed when I wanted them to - that was good.  I put an extra syllable in Her Highness' name - eh, not so good.  I should have asked for clarification.

I knit Elizabeth Zimmerman's Maltese Fisherman's Hat for my new shire's gift swap, which proved popular enough that I'm knitting a couple more.  I have no idea how historical this pattern is...it's one of those "traditional" forms that might be ancient, or might be Victorian.  Most probably the latter, but it's cute and practical, with ear flaps.  When I finish another one, I'll post its picture.

I attended Rising Stone's Menhir, mostly to support a friend teaching for the first time, but it was good to attend an A&S event - I haven't in some time, and people had missed me.  I got to use an atalatl, which is a lever that propels a spear farther than one could throw it alone.  (I am so bad at this, that apparently "throwing a spear alone" for me would be most effective if the target just ran up onto it.)  But it was cool to watch other people.  Appropriately for someone who has always walked on her toes, even my spear throwing is "lofty".  I'd like to play with this more - I hope Ianka brings her stuff to Gulf Wars.

 

Ullrich and Finna.  See how Finna is actually holding the stick, not the dart?  I think she's holding it better (with more power) than I did...must try that way.  The hollow dart end rests in a notch on the atlatl (the stick)...I wonder how to calculate the extra force on the dart?  Would the force be increased by increasing the length of the atlatl?  Ianka had two shapes of atlatl, one was straight and the other a gentle arc.  I found the arched one to be much more comfortable and dependable to use, but I only threw four darts.

Dart launched from atlatl.

 

Illariia's classes were about Early Rus.  Back at Pennsic, I attended a Rus clothing class, in order to gather data for Maudey and Mordan, and I'd shared my notes with Illariia.  I now realize I didn't bring anything new back to her- she is incredibly knowledgeable.  I attended a general history class, and a two-parter on clothing. I now feel much more grounded in that culture, and that I could totally create that costume if I needed to.

A teenager in my life has led me to start poking around in places I haven't yet: she's talking about wanting an Irish persona, and I suspect she means later period.  And one of the prom dresses she admired recently is an Elizabethan court gown, made over in lace.  "See, I could wear something like this later, for SCA!"  Fortunately, I have the book for such things, Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion, but I'd foolishly said once upon a time, "oh sure, I could make that, but I don't want to wear it, so I'm not really interested..."  Murphy strikes again.  It would be nice to check the square though, as a personal challenge.

Plans for future play:  My local group's event, Convivium Collegialis, is happening at the end of February, and I'm looking forward to a bog coat class and the camp cooking workshop.  And then Gulf Wars is coming up fast - I'm planning on attending the later half of that, and showing the teenager around, since she's never been before.

Stirring the pot at Panhandle Skirmishes

(Chivalry in Pursuit of Leftovers - we're putting away the chili, and this was the most efficient way, not just the most photogenic.  :D)

Had a great day at Panhandle Skirmishes yesterday despite the plunge into cold weather – now I understand why Oldenfeld is called the Land of Big Fun!  I did taste Ceddie’s pepper vodka…WOW.  I’m glad I didn’t meet that unawares!

I got to hang out more with various people that I’ve always liked, but hadn’t yet gotten concentrated time with.  This was really good.  I got also to help – Athelina needed a chili stirrer/server for the fundraiser lunch, so I had possibly the best seat on site…the red chair not withstanding, I was parked over a propane burner, and it was warm!  Also it was lovely to talk to everybody as they came by for lunch.  Iseult took a lovely picture of me ‘stirring the pot’, and I’m impressed by both her very nice camera and her obvious skill with it.

There does seem to be rather a lack of cultural reference for a woman stirring a large pot - Macbeth was the unanimous favorite quote, so nearly every wit struggled with the visual dissonance.  I shall have to paint myself green and wear black.

Waiting for court was funny – I had my blanket embroidery project with me, and despite a belief by some that ‘the Meridian side’ was on the other side, I snagged some buddies who wanted to snuggle under wool!  “Greet’s got blankets!”

Today, the weather is one of those clear and beautiful season shift days…blue skies and cool, and perhaps the high atmospheric pressure system helps my motivation.  Laundry and unpacking the car, ironing and vacuuming and dusting(!), and mending things.  Apparently I want to meet the new season with all cylinders firing cleanly.

Oldenfeld Demo at FSU

(Mom and I in respective early period wear - I've got on new amber/jet/silver necklace, new Kentish brooches from Raymond's Quiet Press, and my new standard brooch-closed tunic that I finished for Pennsic.  A full-length pic will be in the Current Garb Photo Album soon, and I'll discuss the gown more later.)

The demo yesterday went really well, I thought.  It was funny to see Oldenfeldians in garb, since I see them so much outside of events.  (Entirely my own fault, since their events always seem to be scheduled opposite Meridian events that I am going to.  That's happening AGAIN for MGT.  Maddening.)

It was on Landis Green, which is FSU's version of the classic university quadrangle, framed by (mostly) Collegiate Gothic Revival brick buildings, 5-7 stories high.  Other student groups were doing things like giving away free ice cream and proselytizing, or offering games, etc.  Lots of cute freshman kids, many of whom seemed to have gotten a memo about sundresses.

We presented lots of rapier - I had no idea the local swishy folks were so strong here - and plenty of heavy.  Enough of the Ensemble showed up to do four part harmony on most things, and surprisingly I ended up running the group when Master Octavio had to step away and do Baron-type talking.  Gabrielle threw a couple of "well, I always liked this song" at me, and I did okay with the sight reading - fortunately you have to be fairly close to a recorder consort to hear it when it's outside.  We also sang - and nobody looked like they regretted leaving their rotten tomatoes in the car.  I got a couple of 'very nice's about my soprano parts...though I was quite hoarse by the end of the evening.  Stamina, probably.  Not enough lifetimes!

I did some chatting up of adorable freshmen, and there was a teeny bit of dancing to Tourdion - Eoin danced with Mairie Ceilidh while we sang it.  It felt very weird to be doing a demo without a loom.  But...

Grainne and I have made nefarious plans to attack her virgin warp-weighted loom with some string, now that I've played with one under Thora Sharptooth's care, and I'm really excited about that.  We fooled around with my string skirt, too, since it rides around in my basket, so I was able to show her the basic warp structure that we're working towards.

Today I go back up to Bainbridge to continue woodworking projects, staying overnight (since some laminating has to dry).  I did finish cutting out the six tunics yesterday.  Two of which used the Early Rus pattern I was shown at Pennsic.  I really like the potential of that fit for big guys - the Bocksten tunic shape that I use for me doesn't really do well for chest and tummy girths that are so much bigger than shoulders.  A bit of machine sewing for the rough assembly, and it's back to handsewing.

More pictures from Pennsic

Here's some topics of pictures from Pennsic:

Early Russian Costuming (in sidebar).  These are images from the class taught at Pennsic.  In discussion with Maudey, we were complaining about the lack of original artifacts shown typically in these classes (we're such snobs) and I have since seen a whole bunch of wonderful stuff, including from Kiev, in a museum catalog about the Vikings.  So that's where to look.

Tentmaking.  Again, images from a class.  I'll be blogging detailed notes about this class, since I have fabric for a tent of my own, and will be working on that soon.

Wadmal (2/2 twill on warp-weighted loom).  Still processing.

The genius at work - Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk

I don't think of myself as an artist.

A creative person, sure.  I have creative skills, and I solve problems with creative thinking.  I think of myself on the craft side of the craft vs. art continuum, and that's okay.  My work doesn't make any sweeping statements about the human condition in this place and time, it just tries to bring useful and attractive objects and places into being, that weren't there before.  I draw and paint and weave and embroider and sew and knit and write and calculate and imagine...and all these skills come together into objects that are sometimes clothing, and sometimes buildings, and sometimes dinner.

I'm really familiar with "artistic success", since my skills are taught by artistic types.  I know what it feels like to sit down to work and remind myself that my work doesn't have to "mean" anything, it's okay as it is, solving someone's problem.

Today I found Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk, and she's brilliantly confronting the myth of artistic success.  I'd want all my friends to watch this, even if you don't think of yourself as a creative type.  I found it via a favorite blog, "this artist's life".

She recaps the Renaissance idea as: "let's put the individual human being at the center of the universe, above all gods and mysteries, and there's no more room for mystical creatures who take dictation from the divine."

(Those mystical creatures would have been the Roman "genius" or Greek "daemon", sprites that live in the walls of a creative person's room, and who whisper ideas to them.)

"For the first time in history, you find people referring to someone as BEING a genius, rather than HAVING a genius.  And I gotta tell you....I think that was a huge error."

"Allowing one mere person, to believe that he or she is the vessel, the font, the essence or the source, of all divine, creative, unknowable eternal mystery is just a smidge too much responsibility to put on one fragile human psyche.  It's like asking somebody to swallow the sun."

"What now - can we go back to some more ancient understanding of the relationship between humans and the creative mystery...?"  She makes the compelling argument, via her own experience and that of other bona fide artists, poet Ruth Stone and musician Tom Waits, that one can separate oneself from the power of the creative idea, the genius, so as to be kind to oneself, the mere and very frail human being.

I might watch this everyday for a while.

 

Refocusing persona development - 6thc Kent

I haven't really done any persona development since getting my name (15thc Flemish, Margareta Gijsberts, called Greet, which is a 15thc pet name).  The last two years, my first two years, I've been following advice to play around...try things...and I've gotten sucked into Major Funness that required Themed Clothes.

But now I think it's time to settle down and focus on one placetime for a while, and that's going to be 6thc Kent.  Southeastern England, influenced by the Anglo-Saxon, the Jutes, and some highborn Frankish marriages, after the pullout of the Romans, but before the Holy Roman Empire swells back again.  Don't worry, the Coptic project is still going ahead, but there's something about the Dissolution of the Roman Empire - North that speaks strongly to me.  I like the tents, the graphic arts, the runes, the brooch bling, the textiles, the Kentish garb cuts.  I spent quality time in the longhall this GW, such great singing that happening there!  (Also the bacon at midnight rocked.  And snuggling with one's peeps in the firelight.)

I'll still have some resources here for other places and times...I can't stop being a costumer-type, and I will be sewing for my pals which requires Research.  And...well, you know how it is in the SCA...if I'm doing Early Period, then I need a Bronze Bog dress, and some Empire stuff, and some Anglo-Saxon pre-Viking, and don't forget the Celtic woad face-painting...

GW2009 Pic Link Summary

http://picasaweb.google.com/Teranina/GulfWars2009#

http://picasaweb.google.com/dmfricker/GulfWarsXVIIITheDeed

http://picasaweb.google.com/dmfricker/GulfWarsXVIIIOpeningCeremonies

http://picasaweb.google.com/dmfricker/GulfWarsXVIIIMeridianSocial

http://picasaweb.google.com/dmfricker/GulfWarsXVIIIMadachSKnighting

http://picasaweb.google.com/dmfricker/GulfWarsXVIIIMeridianCourt

http://picasaweb.google.com/dmfricker/GulfWarsXVIII

(A quick explanation of the Meridian Social:  The theme was "Goth Night": Ostragoth, Visigoth...steampunk goth.  Obviously the fun of converting one's favorite costume period to black vinyl had some appeal.  Gwen, Maudey and I are all 14thc, Khalil is 15thc Landsknecht, there were several Viking hangeroks...but unfortunately I don't recall any vinyl hennins.  Pity.  :P)