Post event ... reds?

Festival of Fools III is long over, and I think I'm just about recovered.

The food for the event was exceptional, even if the feastocrat of Saturday's feast insisted on sharing with us the flavour of her farts....

As with each year, new games were held, such as the Tower, where the poor shire Duck sat on a pile of boxes to be mercilessly batted across the field.. and the armoured fighters swear they were aiming for the tower...

The archery tournament, a clout shoot named "Shooting Fish in a Barrel" which proved that come the apocalypse, we're all going to starve...

The equestrian tournament was run by Don Juan, though I can't summon enough flem or roll my "r"'s enough to do his name justice. Black Numpty, a traditionally skittish horse, topped the field!

The thrown weapons tourney diced with the offspring of the elder gods, but eventually the target was hit and octopus tentacles were added to the menu that night.

And Sharks!, a timed survival fencing tournament that was over rather quickly, though the sharks ate well that night.

We also experimented with the format of the event, with Sunday feast being served at lunchtime, to be followed by the casino, and having a game themed feast board was a beautiful flavour of introduction to the  games night, where escudos flowed eagerly across the boards.

The event in all had a slowish, easy pace. Nothing was rushed, there was plenty of time between each tournament for gentles to get in some practice or sparring or relax as they wished. I generally don't like to timetable things against each other, such as running a tournament and a class at the same time, as I do like watching everything that's going on, but there probably would be space to fit in a class or two if the same timetable format was repeated.

And how did it go for me? I had time to sew! An autocrat with a reputation for angsting and worring over every little thing, fretting even when nothing goes wrong because a part of me kinda enjoys it... I had time to relax, though that was likely in no small part due to the presence of my co-autocrat and my Governor of Games (delegation for the win). 

So I relaxed, and by relaxed I mean sewing. I decided to try out pleating on my red dress instead of the gathers of my black dress, and will have more details on those in a separate post. And as I mentioned in my last post, did I get the dress finished? Well, yes, kind of. It was wearable, but it wasn't finished. And I had promised myself I wouldn't rush these projects any more, so I decided not to wear it at all. It will be finished in plenty of time for Raglan though.

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.