Quick recap and other assorted goodness!

Good Morning Everone! So yeah, it's been nearly a month since the start of Pennsic 42. I taught two sessions of my Intro to Cloisonne' Class at pennsic U this year, both went very well! Great results from both classes, and i oversold both classes... whoops. Need to restock on my heraldic colors and go with the pre-stamped medalions from Thompson, which i used for the second class and which worked VERY well. Note to self. In other News, I've been preparing for my Aprenti-sister's Wedding on Sept 7th, making my bridesmaid's dress, my wee-one's flower girl dress, then Dante's Cote will be done, and maybe some hosen for him as well, and theres a secret squirrel project in there now too.. oh, and flower circlets for bridesmaids and flower girls, Oh, and maybe henna for the bride the night before, depending on the availablity of the amazaballs Ms Sra to do henna instead, (when all else fails, i order the henna anyway, and just plop it on my own head, even though i did my hair again AT war) Pennsic also saw the debut of my Sari at an event : ) The MOST COMFORTABLE THING I HAVE EVER WORN AT PENNSIC.. EVER. EVAH! i don't usually repeat garb at war, because i just have that much garb : P but i wore my sari at least 3x... yeah. 'bout that. I'm even considering a dual persona, doing one in NW india, 15th cen. we shall see... I'll throw together a post on the Choli process maybe later this weekend, but there are pleanty of things to accomplish before then! -YIS

Not Dead Yet!

The Great Cotehardie Project (holy applique, Batman!)

So I've been Playing in the SCA for about.. 6+ years now. I've had time to build a fairly respectable wardrobe in those years. However, since my Lord, Dante (he JUST got his AoA this past weekend, SO proud!) has not been in as long, there was some garb envy going on.. hehe.. So we had to fix that. He's got a few nice things, but he wants to focus on 15th-16th ce. Italian, and thats just too fussy for me, thanks. So i offered to make him a men's Cotehardie.
i originally sketched out long sleaves. then there was the discussion of NO sleeves, so we compromised on short, lol. (we're good at that, i have hope for us!)

Having recently lead a class on Heraldic Clothing at the Middle Kingdom Heraldic and Scribal Symposium, it only made sense to make this a heraldic cote for him, with a charge on either parti-colored side. We chose to split his arms into the Vert (green) on his left, the argent (white : ) on his right, so this lead the charges placement as well.
Also at MKHSS, my apprentice brother Godfrey taught an applique class. This was something i understood in theory, but had yet to experiment with much, so why not now?

I took measurements and drafted the pattern, fitting both sides in one color (since both sides would be similar, this not being a FITTED garment as much as my own cotes, and since the opposite side could be used as the lining anywho : ) (sorry, i did not photo-document this process, i will next time!)

***DISCLAIMER*** I'm an apprentice but My art is ENAMELING (disregard the fact that my laurel is a cook and potter..) most of this whole process is period-esque. you want accuracy? go contact my friend Cerridwyn. I did look at period illuminations and even tryied to hunt down some existant pieces, but when it comes down to it? i Care, just not THAT much : )
*end disclaimer*

I then drew his charges onto cardstock to then be traced onto the fabric!
Charges were then cutout with about 1/4" spare around the outside edges.

As i stiched around with a matching thread, i turned under this 'seam allowance', creating a clean edge : )

All tacked down!
At this point, i began to do the detail stitching that make it look more like a fox, and less like a fox shaped blob : P

Instead of making his paws and the end of his tail a solid white, i outlined those areas in a white floss. i THINK this is me just being lazy, or simplifying things.. im undecided on that. but it looks awesome, so whatevs.

The completed Foxy fox : D

So somehow i was magically NOT tired of Applique yet, so i began the next charge, the Harp. Same process for this guy as well.

This one started with me trying to prove to the fox that i had his charge facing the right direction...

Same process of Pinning the piece and stitching with matching thread, in this case a 100% Bamboo i got from a Crown Tourney/A&S back a few years ago.. i LOVE this color..

Gold contrast edging on the harb, this one didn't have defining stitching like the fox, but it Does have embroidered strings, which given enough hard cider, someone likes to pretend to play ^_^

The completed Harp!!

All the applique was done before construction, this keeps all the threads incased between the outside and the lining material.

Construction Starts:

Pre-Sleeves, but outside and lining are all pieced together. i then stitch the lined sleaves to the outside, turn over the sleeve lining, stitch it just to the inside of the seam, and everything is closed up : D

I even Hand bound all the button holes, eesh, you'd think i like'd him or something.. clockwise from top: completed, whipstitched, and only marked, Combo-shot!!

At this point the only compleyed shot i have of the Cote is this picture of him getting his AoA /facepalm

i'll fix that later, i promise.. BUT He did get many compliments, including from His Highness, so i call this a win : D



Ketubah FInal

Alright, so i made you all wait long enough (sorry! end of the semester of my hardest accounting class yet : (

The Ketubah was a HUGE hit! I was even complimented by the Rabbi for having made one of the most beautiful he's ever seen. (I've been told he was hard to impress and it truly meant a lot to me!)

It was difficult to get some good pictures of it finished, but it was loved by everyone and im very proud of it. I look forward to visiting it when i go to my friends' house (you guys better already have that on the wall, i even framed it for you! : P

This is another in progress shot: 

And the finished Piece, Ta-daah!

-i will take close ups maybe next time i visit. This was my first forray into hebrew caligraphy, and apparently it's even legible!! WOOT!





 The Whole piece ended up trimmed to fit exactly into a 14 x 16 frame. Painted with modern watercolors and guache on a vegitable perg : )

Teaser!

Full write up regarding the Ketubah will come AFTER the wedding this weekend, but to hopefully tide you all over, heres' a teaser of the top and largest section of the Illumination, because i like you all at least that much : P

Modern gouache on Vegitable perg, plus a bit of my old watercolors from oh, 1997 (they still work!) and some ink pen for the fine lines because it works great ^_^

The plan is to take it to Kinko's after all the calig is done to have a copy made, and get it into a .jpg or even a .pdf for my own records. The english caligraphy is done, tonight i tackle the hebrew!

Site Token Extravaganza!!!

So, my local group puts on a small event every spring, some of you may have heard of it: Baron Wars : P
This year is our 16th year, and after gate crashing for 3 years+ before i actually JOINED the SCA, im now one of 3 autocrats for this year's event.
Last night we has the group project of making our site tokens. We have a very reliant assembly line system for this, and it goes fairly quickly (i believe we made appox. 800 or so tokens in the span of 2 hours.. yeah, we've got this down)

The process starts by us forgetting to order the clay and glaze, so we send Helewyse up to Ann Arbor to purchase said materials (whoops! but thanks again Weezy!)

The Design is drawn, and Sharpie'd onto wooden dowels (we use 4 stamps, this helps the process go faster)

After the design is drawn, I then go over said design with a woodburning tool to make the marks in the clay (and to make my kitchen smell like burning wood.. mmmm...) - please ignore the fact that the center front stamp design looks like it's flipping the bird.. (We giggled about this for a few moments, but i think i avoided burning the design in that way.. )

At which point, it was time to feed the wee'un, and then return her to her father's, and be on our way to meeting : )

Arriving fashonably late and with great fanfair (i want to be cheered every time i walk into the room!) we got down to work!

The process then starts at the line, where the large block of clay is kneeded and conditioned, then made into logs, which are then cut into coins. They are a bit wobbly at this point, so we gather a few minions and have them flatten/squish/round them as needed.

After they've been made in to tasty looking cookies (i was hungry, ok?) They are then Stamped with the aformentioned dowels: Soda being an important tool as well : P

Once Stamped, they get a hole though which to thread them. We use straws for this, as it cuts a neat hole, which is big enough to survive the firing process and still be easy to thread with yarn/string/whatever we have on hand that year...

Glaze is then applied with a soft Brush (the above is between cutting holes and starting to glaze : )

AFter they've been glazed, the edges need to be wiped clean so that they do not stick to each other, or to the kiln at firing. (otherwise they get pried appart with a screwdriver later). we then stack them as close together as possible on trays to dry completely before they are fired.

TA DAHH! I'll post pics later of them after the firing process : )

oh, and also? these were on my kitchen table when i got home last night...

I beleive the shiny bits were ordered from Windrose, but i'll have to confirm.. please excuse the pile of inventory, and scribal supplies in the background ^_^



SO! Here's my not so recent list of projects that i keep near me.

there's actually a lot of things missing from the list, now that i look at it again. I use Astrid Tasks on my Galazy SIII also, so i need to compile that list again -_-

BUT TONIGHT!! SITE TOKENS FOR BARON WARS!

-need to carve in the designs to our stamps to make them tonight... don't worry, i'll have it done.. i may not be sane, but they'll be done : P (who's to say i was sane to begin with?)

Projects:                                                               

o      Bea & Ari’s Ketubah

o      Kingdom A&S

o      Coronets

o      Dante’s Cote & Pants

o      BM Dress for Vashty/Lurch wedding

o      Rabbit Circlet

o      Afghan

o      Dante’s Persian coat

Intro or something.

So in talking with my Laurel, (for non SCA, thats my 'teacher' or person who makes me do stuff when im feeling lazy and makes me teach others') who has recently removed herself from my general area... (at least she's still in the same Kingdom!) we discussed the need for her local aprenti-pods to keep her informed of our progress. Then it was mentioned that my apprentice-brother Godfrey needed to update his BLOG... and wouldn't it be nice if i made one too? wouldn't that be fine and convenient to keep track of my progress and document crap and blah blah blah..... right. so Here we are. ^_^ The Hare (myself), and the poor Fox that lives with me. (the Man-friend, Dante')

I'll get around to posting current projects lists n such as time permits.

YIS - Gwenllian