Greet's Middle Ages

Red-tanned leather

Since I've started back to school, I've not been starting much new, though still keeping an eye on possibly useful items that come up on the lists.  From Norsetalk2:

Christopher wrote:

>What would be a period way to a veg tanned leather belt red?

There are a number of extant early and medieval recipes for dyeing leather 
red. The most common dyestuff I've seen referred to for that purpose was 
brazilwood, but madder was also used.

There is an extant Frankish belt in the Arnegunde grave; it's very 
elaborate, with cutwork and gilded parchment and a big gilt bronze 
buckle. It was dyed red with madder.

Here's an SCA-period recipe for dyeing leather red with madder (Rubia 
tinctorum). It's from The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont (1558).

"To Die Skinnes in chickweede, called in Latin Rubra Maiore, or Rubra 
Tinctorum, into a Redde Colour.

"Having annointed, washed, wronge and layed abroad the skin, as is 
aforesaied, wete it with water that white wine lees and baye salt hath ben 
boiled in, and than wring him. Take than creuiles or crabbe shelles (be
they of the sea or of the river) burned into ashes, the whiche yon
shall temper with the said water of the lees and salt, and rubbe well the 
skinne therwith, than washe him well with cleere water, and wringe 
hym. This done, take ruddle tempered in water of lees, and rubbe the 
skinne well over and over with it, and than with the foresayde ashes, 
wasshinge, and wringinge it thre times. Finallye, after you have wasshed 
him, and wringe him, if you thinke it not be well ynoughe, you shall geue 
him one dienge with brasyll. The paste or masse of Rubia Tinctorum, must 
be made with water that lees or tartre hath bene boiled
in, and the sayed water must be luke warme, and whan you make the paste of 
ruddle, than leave it fo the space of a night. After this, put upon the 
sayd Rubra Tinctorum, a lyttle alom, dragges,or lees, or Alome catinum, 
steped in water. You maye also adde to it the colour of the shearing of
scarlet, whiche hath been taken oute boylinge in lye, which is a goodly 
secrete."

I can't speak for the Chivalry, of course. But I would be impressed 
entirely to itty-bitty pieces if I had a squire who tried to dye his own 
belt red with a period recipe. Let me know if you decide to undertake it, 
or if you have questions.

Carolyn Priest-Dorman // Þóra Sharptooth
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html

 

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.

Sidelacing documentation for 12thc woman's garment

From 12thCgarb:

Greetings from Nadezhda Toranova,

I was looking at the pictures posted by Katherine, and noticed in one
of them, when I zoomed in closely and looked at the two women on the
bottom...

http://pics.livejournal.com/jillwheezul/pic/000sezrh/g34

Is that side lacing (or holes for side lacing) that I'm seeing? Her
dress is colourless, but the red ink picks out a series of holes on
either side of what looks like a slit.

It seems like such a strange detail for the artist to depict, when the
dresses are otherwise completely plain.

Garb kudos at feast idea

From A&S50Challenge:

We didn't have an actual meeting of the A&S 50 challengers at Lupercalia (held February 21 in Nicollet, Minnesota), but A&S Maven Kat did something that I thought was a great (and adaptable) idea for a smallish event.
As the day progressed, she went around and tagged people with a bit of ribbon with "A&S" on the front, and a number on the back. As she pinned on the ribbon, she commented on a particularly interesting or authentic bit of the recipient's garb, and asked that they briefly describe that item for the folks during feast.
Not everyone stayed, but at least half of the 30 people selected were able to say a few words about when and where they were from and a little about their garb.
I imagined being a newbie sitting feast, having all these people modeling good garb and placing it in context. (It made me wish I had several more personae -- almost.)
Kudrun Pilegrim

This is such a great idea for garb education!

More trim questions

Christina and Odette (or indeed anyone else who might know jewelry):

Does this trim remind you of any particular placetime?  I have four yards, which is enough to be a double-wrapped belt, if I back it with something so the threads holding the sequins (called spangles, right?) and beads don't get snagged.

Tablet-woven neckline on blue woolly

One side of the front opening is done.  I love how it looks.  Here's a progress shot:

That band is actually rolled around the cut edge of the wool - which wasn't my intention, but as I was only weaving from right to left, stitching at the end of the pick, then passing the weft across the back to enclose the cut edge, the whole thing naturally rolled.  I've decided I like it anyway.  For future reference, if one really wanted a flat band, it'd be best to weave in both directions.

Where you can see the purple showing through the gold warp, that's where the cards changed direction.  I tried to keep this consistent - here, at the beginning of the work, you can find a couple places where I miscounted (eggnog), but by the time this half was done (~36"), I'd gotten the feel of the right spacing without counting.

The rest of the handwork on this gown is long-short running stitch on all the seam allowances and the hem, done in that royal purple yarn.  I'm thinking about some embroidery using the gold on the sleeve cuff also, which I've left long and open, but I haven't decided what yet.  Both yarns are stranded cotton.

I don't have a picture of the whole thing yet - but it's your standard t-tunic with 2-piece gores on four sides.  The neckline is one of those vertical slit sorts, and it extends 4" down my back in order to part widely enough.  The slit extends another 4" into the center front gore, which is about crotch level - I have gotten tired of having to struggle out of clothes at the end of a long day. 

The blue color resulted from washing a light camel coating fabric with a full bottle of Rit in Royal Blue.  Some people think the blue is actually green.  It matches my veins rather well, whatever color it is.

Here are the brooches I'm going to use to close the dress.  I ordered 3 today from Raymond's Quiet Press:

 

Technically I'm going to need another pair of brooches to close the cuffs, but I haven't settled on those yet.

There's still another side of the neck to go, and the fringes of the band to ply, but then it's wearable, and just in time...I haven't quite started swearing at this one yet, so perhaps I'll use this technique again someday.

--------------

Background:

Based on Saxon 6thC finds at Mill Hill, as described in Owen-Crocker.

Fancy jeweled trim

Okay, this trim is fit for royalty...but what culture and placetime?  I've asked a bead person to give me suggestions, but I'd like to hear from anybody.  (And no, I didn't buy this for $20 - we tried to sell it, and it didn't go.  My grandmother wore this dress to my parent's wedding.)

Here's a closeup (a bit fuzzy, but I hope you can see that it's gold braid with faceted glass stones):

 

Flower barrettes for ATF bellydance outfit

Definitely going in an Alfons Mucha sort of direction...

Collecting fusion bellydance clothes...

I have had a Very Girly last couple of days.  Here is a Pile O'Stuff that I can all wear at once for some sort of bellydance attire, inspired by the fusion look of Bodhicitta:

From left to right:

Cowrie shell necklace with turquoise Navajo brooch, tied round head.  White roses and red magnolias, pinned either side of head.  Yellow and bronzey chandelier earrings.  Vintage aqua silk pegnoir.  Faceted glass necklace, looped around neck.  Velvet top.  Saffron striped scarf, tied round hips.  Ginger-rose iridescent stripe wrap pants.  Suede slippers.  (I'd like a triangle fringed scarf, also for hips, though under saffron one, in black.)

I don't have the wacky shrug shown here - it and the pegnoir don't happen at the same time.  See it here.

I assembled most of this in the last 36 hours, and mocked it all up with makeup last night, which was way too much fun.  (Makeup - another tale: I haven't done serious anything with makeup in the last 5+ years, since I quit theatrical dance work.  All my stuff is ancient and needs updating.  I had great fun poking around the makeup aisles in Target last night.  When I have a paycheck again, I will make a serious run.)

The pants are Not Done - I hope to get them finished this weekend, play with my hair some more, make the shortening of the velvet cami permanent, and then I will posts pics of the stuff actually on me, with makeup, etc.  At which point I want tips and suggestions!

Roller printing on paper or fabric

Original tutorial link

I still haven't gotten enough evidence of block printing on clothing for any of my placetimes to actually plan a project, but should I get there, this is a neato cool way to make one's own roller.