SCA Experiments

Dear patient readers, 

I've been rather distracted this last month, between getting the fix for the ill health that was plaguing me for most of last year (for which I seem to now be on the mend), doing a little soul searching towards taking on commissions again (for which I've decided to go for it), and getting my event year off to a start by doing something scary (which is the topic of this post). 

Four years ago, I returned to the SCA events by attending Champions of the Court of Love. What better event then, to challenge myself to do something new and, for me, terribly scary: I volunteered to cook lunch. For all that I love baking, I do very little savoury cooking, and it mostly occupies the part of my mind dedicated to "things I have to do so I can craft". But last year, when a friend visited briefly on her way to the airport, I cooked a meal for her and she planted the seed of the idea, which I could not shake loose (I'm looking at you Chantelle). So with advice and help from many friends I planned the following menu: 

To start, stracciatella; an egg drop soup common in Italy, served with bread, though it seems to have analogues in nearly every country in Europe. Moving on to mushroom risotto, a dish common in Northern Italy, served with roast chicken and green salad, and hard white bisket to finish. 

For the stracciatella, I used a beef broth recipe from The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban & Silvano Serventi. A also made up a small portion of vegetable stock for the vegetarian attendees to the event. Using this as my base, I followed the directions in Martino's The Art of Cooking for a similar recipe, zanzarelli, for which I combined eggs, bread crumbs (I used gluten free bread on the day) and Parmesan cheese, which was beaten into the soup at the boil to create the whisps of egg that the recipe gets its name for. 

For the risotto, my preliminary research showed that not only was this dish common, but that nearly every town in Italy had it's own variant. The recipes of the Veneto region seemed to lean towards fish risottos, which not being terribly fond of myself, I decided to make up a mushroom version instead, by my own method. Several people have asked for the recipe for this, so here it is: 

Mushroom Risotto a Cassandra

Arborio risotto rice, rinsed with cold water

Shiitake mushrooms, sliced

Onion, chopped finely

Garlic, chopped finely

Vegetable stock, hot

Butter 

Egg yolks, beaten ( I use one per person in smaller batches)

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed I've not included quantities in my above ingredients list. I have made this dish for myself, for 10 and for 40 at the event just gone, and a lot comes down to personal preference in how much you want to include. I find it a forgiving dish if too much or too little of your flavour ingredients are added. 

Allow butter to melt in a hot. Add the garlic and onions and fry until softened. Add the mushrooms, and fry until beginning to soften and well coated in butter. Add the rice and continue to stir until the rice has begun to toast. This is often easier to determine if you have some experience in toasted risotto rice without anything else present. You should be able to hear little "pops" from the rice as it toasts. When the rice is toasted to your liking, usually this just needs 2-3 minutes, add enough stock so the rice is moving freely in the liquid and reduce the heat so the pot is at a gentle simmer. Stir gently and frequently, and add more stock as the liquid is absorbed. Adding the stock in stages like this is what allows the rice to develop a creamy and smooth consistency. The finished rice should have a slight al dente bite. The risotto can be served at this stage, but I am very fond of adding an egg yolk after it is taken off the heat, which increases the richness and creaminess of the dish. 

Because my risotto only called for egg yolk, to use up the remaining egg whites I decided to try my hand at hard white bisket, a recipe which appears in a book manuscript written by Lady Elinor Fettiplace in 1604. Alas, bisket's were neither hard nor white, but flavoured with just a touch of star anise, were very tasty none the less. My food was enjoyed, as I was treated to applause when I finally worked up the nerve to leave the kitchen, and there were very little leftovers. 

In all, I received several gifts and tokens for my meal.... roses from the Event Steward, a string of pearls from the head cook, a crocheted heart from one of my minions... even a proposal of marriage with a hand made ring! I think it all went very well indeed.

New Dress?

With the next event only 3 days away everything's a bit hectic in trying to make sure all my ducks are in a row. And yet I'm still trying to get the red dress that should have been done ages ago done for the weekend.

*sigh* I don't think I'll ever learn about last minute sewing.

Rest assured though, I am being supervised, and anything Suzie-supervised is bound to turn out well*. 










*Where "well" may mean covered in cat hair.

Italian Quiver

Towards the end of last year, Dun in Mara hosted a leather working weekend, with Master Pol attending as the teacher. I attended with a specific project in mind, and I was quite pleased that I actually got further along with it than I’d hoped. 

I bought myself some leather earlier this year with the hope of turning it into an Italian style quiver. Thankfully, not only is there a perfect image where the painted archer is twisting himself into knots to make sure we get a full front image of his quiver (though granted, you do need to zoom in), wiser heads than mine have gone before me, so I even had a pattern to work with. 

I started by sizing up the pattern, and made up a cardboard mock-up to check the size against my arrows and to make sure it wouldn't just plain too long or awkward for me to wear. With this confirmed, I transferred the pattern to the leather and cut it out. 

Now, to be honest, this was as far as I expected to get this weekend. I'd planned to draw my heraldry on the quiver, but as I hadn't drawn it out before hand, and didn't initially trust myself to free hand it, but as time marched on, I felt there were worse things I could do than attempt to draw it out. Lo and behold, I had a heraldry! Now I could move onto the problem of being stuck with what to fill into the rest of the blank space. Several minutes browsing through Pinterest later, I fell across this image of a red velvet hood embroidered with gold thread (as per the description, I've never actually seen the colour image), but I've always adored the scroll work of this hood, so I decided to use it as inspiration for completing the design for the quiver. That was actually the easy part. 

With the design completed, I had to transfer it to the leather. I taped the leather quiver cut out to a convenient flat surface, then taped the paper pattern over it, matching the outer lines. I used a leather stitch marker to transfer the shape through the hide, which took forever, or what very much felt like it, but I was afraid to stop halfway through in case the paper shifted, or I lost track of where I was. A brief chocolate break later, shapes all transferred, I went over the lines with a swivel knife to finish the transfer of the design. 

I have plans to gilt parts of this design, and Lady Órlaith is currently doing some research into period leather dyes for me, but first, I wanted to do some stamping to bring out texture in the pattern. Typically, the two stamps I decided on, a simple beveller and a drop shaped texture stamp, were two of the smallest in my collection. But I really like the effect they gave.  

This is as far as I got before I had to call it for the weekend. I'd promised myself the quiver would be the Saturday job, and I'd work on something else on the Sunday of the workshop. *sigh* I shall be at this a while before it's done. 

The Period Little Black Dress

Due to play related nerves, I didn't get a whole lot of crafting done at Raglan. What I wasn't expecting was the heat wave we got, so if I didn't get the newly re-cut linen dress sewn up, having only my linen linen wool gown to wear, something was going to give.

I'd had the fine black linen dress made up previously and had worn it for Medieval Dead last year, but I wasn't entirely happy with how it had turned out, so I put off the finishing of it. But then in June of this year I met the Honourable Lady Christine Bess Duvant, who introduced me to the pattern she had developed for making the magical gravity-defying shoulder style dress of the Italian reaissance. We completed the mock up at the Dun in Mara garb workshop weekend, and having gotten the new pattern cut just before the event, there was so much frantic sewing that some of my friends commented on the fact that they didn't really see any other pictures of me from Raglan.

But thanks to the generosity and permission of Lord Rashid al-Jallab, I have a few pictures which he took at the Friday evening court session that show off the dress well. So yes, the sleeves still need to be completed, and I need to add trim, which I'm hoping to get done before an upcoming demo (and most definitely has to be done before Coronet in November), but it's swiftly become my new favourite dress.

The original pattern, as Lady Christine focuses mainly on the late 15th and early 16th centuries, had quite a high waistline, so I dropped the waistline to my natural waist to reflect the style of the later half of the 16th century. The skirt is just a single layer of linen, gathered at the waist, with a strip of wool fabric in the hem to maintain the body. The bodice is interlined with wool and lined with purple linen. The bodice was side laced, and after this court I added a few more lacing holes in the side split of the skirt, as due to my hourglass figure, this was lying open more than I would have liked. But it looks sexy and it feels oh so comfortable (and sexy). I just don't enjoy the feel of mundane clothing half as much after wearing this dress. I can't really justify any more dresses in my wardrobe at the moment; most events just don't require that many costume changes, but damn I want more of these.

And one final picture in which I'm handed my Lindquistringes, because I just love it so.

Medieval Italian Costume

In these modern times, when everything from 50 years old and older is referred to as "costume", it can be awfully difficult to figure out what it was our predecessors wore when they went out partying. As it were. But Medieval Dead III was coming, and I refused to be undone!

Starting with Italian fairy tales, I finally came across a two line reference to creatures called Longana, faun like water spirits, not a million miles away from the Irish legend of Selkies. I could find no more (interwebs, why do you hate me so). I was saved however by Aodh who found further references under the alternate name of the Anguana. It confirmed the half woman-half goat legend and had a further reference to a harvest association, giving me enough to work with.

I ordered a bundle of rye straw from bamboosuppliers.ie, which was almost as tall as I am! Cute kitty doorstop added for scale.

I had plans to teach myself straw braiding and do something very elaborate with the straw, but I ran out of time, so mocked up a simple pair of rams horn and a small sheaf to carry around as part of my costume. On the day, my make up, which really added the finished touches, was done by Fianna, and simple though it was, I thoroughly enjoyed this costume.

Voting was by popular choice, with each person entering in the costume competition having to give a little speech on their entry. Have I mentioned that public speaking terrifies me? In the words of Nessa, I'm getting plenty of practice this year, whether I want it or not! I forgot half of what I'd read up on, but I'm told I communicated enough to show I had researched my topic so yay. One more step towards being brave enough to actually recite something. And last, the winning costume entry. Granted you can't see the make up very well in these pictures, but trust me, it was fabulous. 

 

Getting back to it

Sometimes, you just need to give yourself a mental kick to get things going again. Sometimes, that even works. Thankfully, tonight was one of those sometimes.

I've had trouble getting my discipline on the last week or so, so today, I re-jigged my schedule and set my determination to be sure I'd get things done this evening. So far this has included putting my hair into one of my favourite hair masks (pampering is important too) taking pictures of some recently finished items, and even better, starting on the next project!

Firstly, I got my first Victorian hat finished. I became very happy with the glue gun on this one, so there's very little sewing involved. I used a single layer of buckram and just one round of millinary wire, which I think may have been too light for the velvet I used, so the edges don't curl up quite as much as I'd like. 

The trims I'm not entirely happy with either. There's just something missing, but I don't know what. I figure when I see the trim in a shop, I'll know. But until then, this is my first Victorian style hat, and I shall wear it with pride. Though given I missed the Victorian Field day (stupid sinuses), I'm not yet sure when that will be.



But while I wasn't doing much, I wasn't completely idle. My hands are allergic to idleness I believe. So I knit. Something easy, fast, with a simple pattern. And that was Clapotis from knitty.com. And given the sudden, yet seasonally appropriate change in the weather, as well as the corresponding seasonal breakage of the workplace air conditioning, I'm glad to have it done.

And last, but very much not the least; the most important project on my list.

You see, the green fabric I used in my recently completed Florentine dress didn't come from a shop. It was given to me by a friend looking for an exchange, and became the incentive I needed to enter the Realm of Venus costume competition. In exchange, this friend asked for a Tudor style shirt. She picked out a cotton voile for it to be made up in, and I'm planning a little surprise in the making of it that I hope she'll be happy with. Ok, sure, there's nothing much to show yet, but at least I have something to work on for A&S tomorrow.              

The confering of my Award of Arms

At the weekend, there was an event called Flaming Arrow. While there wasn't much in the way of flames, there was a lot of archery. And debauchery for that matter - (anyone who's attended a Dun in Mara archery practice will know what I'm refering to). The archery I mostly sucked at, but it was good to get in the practice. However, the highlight of the weekend was the first court of the weekend of Prince Vitus and Princess Isabel, in which I was gifted my Award of Arms.

For those outside the SCA, the award of arms is usually the first award received. On the surface, it allows me to title myself "Lady Cassandra", and yes, I'm still getting a lot of giggles from that, and allows me to display my arms at events when I have them decided. Under the surface though, no award is given unless you have been nominated for it. Unless people have seen you, your contribution to the dream and have recommended you. Eventually, the recommendations are totaled and the powers-that-be decide you're worthy to receive the award and rewards that go with it.

To me, this means that people believe I am making a positive contribution to my own corner of the SCA. It's a vote of confidence and encouragement. It's a vote of support. It's incentive to keep working, to work even harder, to bring this joy to others.

So my thanks to Prince Vitus and Princess Isabel - it was an honour to recieve the award from your hands.

My thanks to the calligrapher Arianrhod o Gymru and the illuminator Pól Ó Briain for your beautiful work.

And my thanks to all of you who sent in your recommendations for me - I hope I do you all proud.

"Blackwork" embroidery

The victorian bodice is... continuing. There's a lot more hand sewing than I had accounted for, mostly thanks to my own choice of lace adornment, and it may yet come down to the wire whether I'll have a finished gown to wear on saturday. It'll be wearbale yes. Finished, perhaps not. 

 

In the mean time, have some other pretties.

One thing my feast gear is lacking, given how much medieval food encourages me to eat with my hands, is a place mat and napkin. I want something pretty to mark out my place at the table and something equally pretty to wipe my fingers with.

I designed the blackwork pattern on the right some months ago. It started in the best way of these designs, with random scribbling on some graph paper. So using this pattern, it was the perfect excuse to buy some of the yummy black linen from Ikea that I've covetted since a friend bought some for her own dress.

And this is how far I've gotten so far! I'm using the same gold thread that was used to embroider the cutwork sleeves of my court gown, and am working in the corner of the entire 1 metre piece, as I haven't decided just how large I want my place setting to be yet. For the napkin, I think I might just embroider selected pieces in the corners, so they tie together but I don't have to do quite so much repeat embroidery.

I had originally planned to do this in holbein stitch, a form of blackwork embroidery that looks identical from both sides of the fabric. But given that this isn't an evenweave fabric and requires a lightbox (or my phone) for every stitch, holbein would have been a madness too far.

The Festival of Fools was a fantastic event, if I do say so myself. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and there have already been one or two suggestions that it should run next year. That's quite enough encouragement for me!

The above picture is that of the finished marbles! I wasn't able to say while I was working on them for fear of giving the game away, but they had been planned all along to be the prizes for the event. Unfortunately, one or two people mentioned that they looked more like candies than marbles, and looking at them in the picture above, maybe I should have thought to put warning label with them.

But I'm not too unhappy with how they turned out. I used charcoal for the black, chalk for the white and paprika for the red, all mixed in with shellac and painted on in three layers to build up colour. I then finished each marble with two more layers of shellac. Unfortunately, the surface I dried them on wasn't the best, so a close up peek at the marbles will show spots where the paint has peeled. Next attempt will be better.

Being able to sit down during the day is a sign of a well run event I'm told. So I used my "relaxing" time to finish off a beginners goldwork kit I got at Yuletide University just gone. The teacher, one of the most accomplished embroiderers I know, encouraged a freestyle approach, so I tried a slightly different technique with each "rose". The one of the left, the last I did typically enough, turned out to be my favourite, but I am happy overall with how the whole piece turned out. Now I just have to decide how to mount the finished item. 

And finally...

Don't I look fabulous! Never before had I realised just how damn good I could look in a low backed dress. Yes, yes, lets just ignore the fact that I'm being a hussy by wandering around in just my camica...
This picture serves an entirely different purpose though, and that is just how low the back of my camica is. Granted, it's exagerated for the purpose of this picture, but after it was taken I went back and examined the back of my court gown and yep, there's an area that is starting to get damaged by sweat and oils from my skin. I'm glad I've realised this now, as its put a new camica and finally getting around to making a partlet or three that much higher on my to-do list.

In a little over a week's time, I'll be running my first SCA event. Production has been in full swing, and I've just gotten started on something that I've wanted to do for a while.

When I attended an event last year, perhaps my second event since my return to the SCA, I was struck that my own shire, that of Dun in Mara, was the only one of those gathered not represented by banners and hanging. And that made me sad. So I was determined to do something about it.

First things first. My drawing skills, they are not great. So I printed off the arms and photocopied the image, increasing the size until I got something that would be a decent banner size.I taped the sections of the copy together, then secured it to my drawing board. Next, the issue of lifting the silk I was using from the paper so the outliner or paint wouldn't bleed.

This I solved with the use of corkboard inserts that I bought from my local DIY store. They're usually used for filling in the gaps at the edges of wooden flooring, but they're just high enough to make a frame for a silk banner. I secured these with more tape so make sure they wouldn't move about on me after I'd started.


To fix the silk, I very gently pulled the fabric taut and secured it with drawing pins, starting with the top and bottom edges. Before I started applying gutta outliner, I thought that the number of pins I had on the right was sufficent. In reality, it wasn't nearly enough. Lesson: if you think you have enough pins, apply some more, just to be on the safe side.

And there we have it. The gutta has a two hour recommened drying time, so I think that's all I'll get done for this evening. So yes, it's messy and no, it's not perfect. But it is recognisable the arms of Dun in Mara, and will be more so when the colours are completed.

Oh dear. That is a much longer gap than I like to leave in my updates. So what have I been up to in all that time? Mostly I have been crippled by indecision. I have choices, and I am, as usual, over thinking them. 

Firstly, I finished off my working apron. I trimmed the cloth so it's ended up as just knee length, forgetting that most aprons of the day were almost as long as the full length skirt it went over. But it's gotten Suzie's sit of approval, so I think it'll be fine just the way it is.

My serving apron I have decided to embellish with embroidery as my lace making skills aren't yet up to par (to be honest, I still have to start lesson two). But I can't decide on the embroidery. I know I want to do an assissi embroidered border, but I want that border to have personal meaning, and inspiration is so far lacking.



Next, a marble update! I've been continuing with the layers of shellac, and the picture to the left shows a naked marble at top left and, moving clockwise, each marble has an additional layer of shellac. I had originally planned to do 4-5 layers, but at layer three there's already a nice gloss building up, so I think it's time to start applying pigment. My shellac, due to the dye in the methylated spirits I've used, has a reddish tone, so I'm concerned my white marbles won't come out as clean in colour as I'd like, but there's only one way I'm going to find out that for sure!

In addition to SCA and Victorian tea parties, I have a LARP system that won't take care of itself. Big things are afoot for my character this year, not least of which involves her marriage. And as a larp wedding is really just an excuse for a pretty new dress, I've fallen in love with this beauty from the interwebs and have decided to recreate it. I have a burgundy taffeta already in hand that would be quite nice, though I'm concerned about how well that would work given that the original dress appears to be made with velvet. The only velvet in my stash big enough for this project is black, and yes, it's only a larp wedding, but you know, black just doesn't strike me as appropriate. I still retain the right to eat my words in a couple of months time when the taffeta doesn't work of course.





I'm not entirely in the mood to draft this pattern from scratch though, so I've dug out some old Simplicity and Butterick patterns which I can modify heavily to get my desired shape.

To make up for an illness earlier in the year, I decided to take this week off from work to catch up on a few things. Mostly this has involved catching up on sleep so far, but today I got re-started on my day garb. 

I say restarted because I'd already gotten my sleeve cut and the sewing on them started. It's slower, but I'd decided to do this day garb outfit completely handsewn, just to set myself the challenge.

The sleeve are cut from a small piece of red wool I had in my stash, and are lined with a red taffeta to enhance the colour. This wool will also form the trim on the bodice of the dress, and I'm hoping I'll just have enough for that purpose.


For the main dress, I have a beautiful, soft, steel grey wool I purchased from a friend in the SCA. The picture on the right shows front and back bodice pieces cutout, with their linen lining. I don't want to make this bodice as stiff as my court gown bodice, but I'm unsure yet how I'll give it a little more body. Another layer of linen perhaps?


The design itself is based on a number of working women portraits from Italy in the late 16th century. In these portraits, the ladder laced front was still popular, though the bodice was squared rather than pointed.

Even when I'm feeling down, it's good to keep going on something, no matter how little I get done.

For the past week I've been working on a cross-stitch called Barnyard Kitties, a kit I've started well over a year ago, then put down because working with a brown palette on a black fabric wasn't as interesting as I thought it might have been....

This weekend, I allowed the annoyance of not having an A&S entry for the SCA event next weekend bubble over and I finally thought of something I could get done in time.As part of the Realm of Venus competition, I made myself a flag fan. But I still coveted a feather fan. Something big and fluffy that I could sit proudly in court with and fan gently to catch peoples attention or tickle their noses with...

There are many Italian portraits with flat fan, but few of them show details of the handles. So I turned to this portrait of dear Queen Lizzie from 1590 to base my design on. 

The top of the fan, where the feathers emerge, looks to be gilt, embellished with a large ruby, pearls and diamonds. This, I thought to myself, is doable. Especially as it's an idea that's been percolating in my head for quite some time now.





To start with, I purchased a set of wooden utensils from Ikea for less than €2 to make my base with. I selected the wooden fork from this set as the handle shape appealed to me the most, sawed off the tines and rounded off the top.

 Before the cutting started, I traced around the fork onto paper, and used this as a guide for the fan shape based on the above portrait. Unfortunately, the shape I made here was a little too wide for the piece of wood I had, so I had to redraw it with the side swirls just a little tighter to the body. And forgot to snap it. D'oh! Thus started an evening of forgetting to take most of the pictures as I went, so at this point you'll have to engage imagination mode. 

Tip: when you're not confident of drawing the complete fan design, then just draw half. The design above is literally all I drew. For the next step I used my light box to flip the image so I could be sure that both sides of the fan would match. This image I traced onto a 10mm piece of balsa wood twice and cut it out. I swear, next time I have to work with wood, I'm investing in a fret saw.

With the balsa cut, I then hollowed out a section in each piece to fit the wooden fork core, to add strength to the piece. So far, so good. Though balsa has a nasty habit of pretty much dissolving in wet conditions, or absorbing vanish like a sponge, so I needed to add another finish. This is where my previous playing with mask making comes in.

I decided the perfect finish would be to cover the pieces with a Papier-mâché layer, and finish it with a tissue paper layer. When this dries, I'll give it a coat or two of shellac, and when that dries I'll be left with a surface hard enough to sand, which should provide a lot of resilience too.

To finish it off, I'll be drilling the top of the fan handle to insert the ostrich feathers I have on stand by, paint it with gilt and decorate with glass gems (much as I'd love to be able to use the real materials all round, glass it is). I'm concerned that I won't have enough feathers to make it look truly extravagant, but that's always something I can fluff out in the future.

Another busy week so again, not much done.

Went to a household day yesterday where I was mostly teaching, so didn't get much done myself. I did however get started on a pattern for my partlet which was so successful I've decided I need to drape it instead, and I started sewing a saccoccia, an Italian pocket, for an SCA friend. The picture to the right is of the lining, the outer fabric is the same as that used for my court gown, a burgundy taffeta. I'm hoping the lady in question appreciates the lining I picked out for her.



 

But in good news, my niddy noddy finally tuned up!

For the uninitiated, a niddy noddy is tool used to wind skeins of yarn from bobbins after spinning. I've been looking for it for a while, not being an organised person, as it was the reason I originally bought the wood stain I used to dye my wooden buttons a few posts back.

 

The stain mixture has a shelf life of 4-6 months, so I broke it out again and the above pictures show the noddy before staining and with one coat of stain. Like the buttons, it's likely going to need 2 or 3 coats to bring up the colour nicely, but it'll be very worth it to have a personalised spinning tool.

Nargh. 

I'm about ready to eat this project.

It's not that it's difficult. And it's not that I dislike it particularly. But it's at that arkward stage that every project reaches, where no matter how much work you do on it, it seems to be going nowhere. 

This, in case anyone is wondering, is the second cutwork sleeve from my SCA Italian court gown. I didn't get the embroidery completed for the competition, but I've been slowly working away on it since then, so get it completed for mid-November.

I've tried counting the number of shapes left to finish, but when that number went
over 30 it ceased to be an exercise in
encouragement.

*deep breath*
Time to pick up the needle again.

The rest of the weekend passed and I did indeed manage to start on my A&S project. A leather plague doctor mask.

Behold my elite leather working set up with high tech binder clips.

I used a cream leather from my stash and an imitation sinew that I've been looking to use for a while which goes beautifully well with the tone of the leather. I pre-pierced the sewing holes with an awl and have been sewing the seams in what I could best describe as a variation of a butt seam.

The first part of the nose seam was hard going, but after a completely necessary ice-cream break, my hands remembered what they were doing and got properly into the swing of the stitch. I should be able to complete the lower part of the nose and hopefully the glass circles I've ordered for the eye pieces won't be too much longer about arriving.




This mask may well end up being a prototype so I can learn the method before I remake it, this time paying proper attention to the historical methods.

Today was a day of taking a slow tour of some of Dublin's bookshops. In the manner of all crafters I intended spending nothing, but came home with two bags of books. My haul included gems such as Punto Tagliato Lace by Nenia Lovesey, which calls into question what I've learned about 16th century lace making techniques thus far, and Pillow Lace by Elizabeth Mincoff and Margaret S. Marriage, a find which delights me not least because with a publishing date of 1907 the book is over 100 years old! Later on, thanks to the eagle eyes of my companions, The Great Italian Painters From the Gothic to the Renaissance from SCALA and a beautiful hardback of The Black Death by Philip Ziegler became mine. I forsee many happy nights of research ahead of me.
 

And now for a little bit of eye candy. I made up some felt a few weeks ago, attempting to make a pouch. It didn't quite work out, but I ended up with two A5 sized sheets of lovely soft felt. I finished sewing this up last night, finishing the edges with 4 strands of embroidery cotton and plaiting 9 stands to make a closure with a couple of pearlesent buttons. I'm not sure yet if I'll add any more embellishments to this, but it should at least serve its primary purpose, and stop the camera from turning itself on while in my bag.

Lo, the cufflinks arrived and the buttons were created. I admit, I did give in and added even more red dye to my solution and gave the buttons one more coat of stain. I'm much more pleased with the result now.

I used a coat of liquid wax to help seal the buttons then fixed the wooden disks using hot glue, applied carefully to the wood, not the heat-sucking-metal cufflink. Honest.



I'm very happy with the finished shrug. I put in on after taking this picture, and I'm still wearing it. It's so warm and cosy.

 
While the shrug project was in stasis for want of a postal delivery, it was time to move on with other projects. One of the next events I'm looking forward to is Mediveal Dead II, hosted by the SCA Shire of Eplaheimr, an SCA event that combines the best of historical feasting and battles with ghouls and zombies. I knew instantly what I wanted to make for my Arts and Sciences entry, and when a friend suggested I attend the Feast of the Dead as a plague victim, I thought it would round out my project nicely.

Using a tutorial online I made up some latex prosthetic boils and sores, which, combined with some more grease paint on the day, should help me look suitably disguisting on the night. The A&S project I'm hoping to make a start on this weekend.






At the Dun In Mara Shire A&S practice last night, I made progress on my needlelace.The lace is destined to become a lavender pillow for my garb box and I have some fine cotton gauze to back the linen with. The outline of the shape is completed now, which means I need to finalise my design ideas for this piece.

Hello and welcome to my new blog!

I recently took part in the Second Annual Italian Renaissance Costuming Challenge on the Realm of Venus site, and it inspired me to start a diary of my crafty pursuits.

Though I had my gown completed for the competition deadline, there are many items still left to be completed; sleeve embroidery, stockings, lace making.. the list could be endless if I let it!

 

But one thing I wasn't completely happy with was my first 

attempt at Reticella lace. I chose the pattern from Renaissance Patterns for Lace and Embroidery by Federico Vinciolo, and though I try not to let a pattern intimidate me with its complexity, I think I took the wrong approach with this piece. So it's back to basics. 

The first step was to take a small piece of pure linen from my stash and create a drawn thread grid. The grid to the right is quite small, maybe 3 inches across at most. Each of the gaps are 10 thread wide and the bars between are just 3 threads wide. I've already started binding the edges of this piece in buttonhold stitch in silk thread, which should give me plenty of time to think about the design I'm going to create.