Well, my life just got busy…

So, at Kingdom A&S, I picked up a research and writing project on a scroll for someone who had been announced for the Laurel.  I have done a little preliminary poking around, and will need to work on it this weekend.

Then they next weekend at Crown, my friends won. 

And suddenly, I am Head of Household (Retinue Scheduler).  And working on some pre-print text.

And, and….

The next 9 months are going to be very very busy.

The To-Do List

Now that I am through Kingdom A&S, I have a to do list about 60 miles long to get back, starting with cleaning and organizing the craft/hobby room so I can do the rest of it.

Other items include:

• Researching text for a friend’s peerage scroll.
• Finishing the Charles de Blois arming pourpoint I am sewing for my husband from Tasha Dandelion Kelly’s Pattern.
• Finishing the St. Louis Shirt for him I started as a stress reliever and which has some of the most beautiful gores I have ever set into a garment.
• Finishing the Greenland #63 tunic I am sewing my husband.
• Adjusting the sleeves and completing the finish work on my heraldic surcoat.
• Playing with preserved meat for camping season.
• Poking at faux ivory carving.
• OMG, shoes- Patterning with Her Excellency Countess Comyn this weekend.
• Undergarments for the husband and I.
• Finishing the coteharie of frustration for me and getting an Italian dagged one cut out.

Pictures from my Display at KA&S

 

 

 

 

Kingdom A&S

Overall, it went very well.  I didn’t score as highly as I expected to on one entry, but I feel like all the judges points were fair.  I did get a perfect score from a notoriously strict set of food judges on my course of Lenten dishes, and since that is my primary art, I was very pleased.

Copies of all my documentation is now up on the Documentation Tab on the Stillroom Book Homepage.

On a related note, I apologize to my fellow artisans.  I received awful news about dear friends right before things got started on Saturday morning, and while I held it together while being judged and judging, I couldn’t really get around to see a lot and talk to people during my free time like I had planned.  I am sorry, and I hope to do better at Queen’s Prize this coming year.

So….That Was Exciting…

So, we are coming into the home stretch for Kingdom A&S Tri-Levels and Championships 2014 here in Calontir.  The deadline to declare intent to enter is tomorrow, March 1st, and the event is March 22.

In the past, the deadline for intent to enter has also been the deadline for Research Paper Entries to be submitted, since they tend to be long and require a lot of forethought for someone to read in an hour. 

Apparently, this year, there was an announcement I missed that they were extending this requirement to the Poetry and Writing in Period Style Prose entries.  I caught on to this on Wednesday of this week.  One of my entries was the retelling of a great Calontiri event in the poetry style of Dante.  For those playing along, my remaining 3 weeks just shrank to 3 DAYS.  Yikes!

While I had started my documentation (about 40% done) I had barely rough sketched the poem. I panicked for just a minute, and spoke with the Kingdom Arts and Sciences Minister, who said I could get a small extension if I really needed to (since we weren’t talking about 40+ pages).

Then decided that since I have always thrived under pressure, I needed to, in the words of Tim Gunn, “Make it work”.  Two nights and two lunch hours work later, it’s done.  And I am actually pretty darn proud of it.  It does not suck.

If you would like to read it, the documentation and poem can be found here.

A Break from Kingdom A&S Projects

Every year, our local SCA Shire has a dirty Santa Christmas exchange.  The materials cost limit is $25, but what you do with those materials is up to you.  This year, to save money, I was digging in the already ridiculous craft supply horde we have, and found some leather I had bought for shoes (and bought A LOT of).  Since we have lots of new members at the moment, I figured doing a nice pouch was not beyond the pale.

I decided to go with a basic kidney shaped belt pouch, similar to those found in a lot of 14-15th century art.

To start the project, I created a pattern using a manilla file folder.

Once I had a nice, even pattern for the two body pieces, I used a flexible curve ruler to get a measurement and cut a 1.5″ wide gusset to run between them.

Once I had the main body components, I used an old fork that had been re-worked into a leather fork to create evenly spaced holes.  I would then go back and widen those with a nice sharp awl.

Once the holes were all punched in the body pieces and the gusset, I started sewing with a double running stitch, using waxed linen thread.

It took me about 3 hours to put the main body pieces together.  I then cut out and added a hanger piece along the back for belt attachment.

Next step was creating a pouch lid.  I went with a hard finished leather for this, which, after I cut out, I used a edge knife to round the edges, then used a straight knife and a leather stamp to carve designs into.  I then stained the heck out of it using black leather dye, and finished it with a sealant.

Once I had attached the lid, I added two straps for closures.

All told, the finished project took me about 8 hours.

If I decide to do it again, I think I will alter the pattern to incorporate the belt attachments into the body of the pouch, and will go with one weight up in leather.  This is pretty, but a little stretchier than I had anticipated.

KAS Project 2: 14th Century Lenten Meal Boogaloo

Sorry, I really couldn’t help myself.

So, for project number two in our 14th century Italian odyssey, I will be doing a food entry, since cooking is my primary emphasis area.  Since it appear Kingdom A&S is going to stay on it’s current calendar date, and it falls in the middle of Lent, I am going to tackle a course for a lenten meal from 14th century Italian cooking texts.

There are currently two English language translations of works, here and here.  I am comparing both, and will be poking at the original Italian as well.

 

So far, I am looking at the following dishes:

A dish of chickpeas for lent.

Lasagne with Walnuts

Cisame, a sweet and sour fish dish

Leeks in Lent

Lenten Apple Fritters

I will be working on redactions in the next month or so, moving forward. 

 

Clothes fit for a Hound…

So project the first that I am working on for this coming 2014 Calontir Kingdom A&S competition is the burial garments of Cangrande I della Scala, the lord Imperial Vicar of Verona and much of the surrounding countryside.  Cangrande is an interesting figure for a number of reasons.

• His birth name was Francesco, but he became as Cangrande, or Big Dog, both in homage to his uncle who was known as Mastino, and due to his being a pretty serious badass.
  

  By WikiCommons user Eggbread.

• He is one of the few people in the Italian Middle Ages and Renaissance whose legends tell of their tragic deaths by poison to have actually, honest to Jesus been poisoned.  At the time, Cangrande had just finally captured the city of Treviso, long the hold out in his conquest of northern Italy.  It is reported that he had drunk from a polluted spring, and sickened on entering the city.  He died a few days later in July of 1328.  At the time, his successor, and nephew, Mastino II, had the physician who attended him hung, though out of actual suspicion of the physician’s guilt or from his own duplicity, no one knows.  What we do know is that upon an autopsy done in 2004 by Italian scientists, they found he suffered from mild psoriasis of the liver (common due to a high fat and wine based diet of that age), miner’s lung (common in a time before chimneys were common and charcoal was burned in braziers for heat and light) and a ridiculously large dose of belladonna, also known as digitalis, which would be indicative of nothing other than poisoning.
  

  Gino Fornaciari from WikiCommons.

• When he died, he was buried in a magnificent tomb, which in addition to being an architectural and artistic marvel, kept his body preserved in such a way that most of his grave garments survived.

Photo by Lo Scaligero from WikiCommons, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tomba_Cangrande_VR.jpg

So what I will be doing is his over tunic (and possibly an under tunic) and definitely his hat.  He also had an awesome mantle, but we are on a budget, so that will have to be a wait and see.

If you want to know more about Cangrande, wikipedia has a nice article on him here.

I also recommend the fiction series starting with The Master of Verona, by David Blixt.  Its well research, and well written, and weaves history and fiction gloriously.

Stay tuned for our next installment, when we will talk about patterns, and look at some period art that gives a visual to garments that appear to be similar in style to the patterns developed based on the existent pieces.

143 Days until Kingdom A&S

Ciao, Bellas!

Musing on Projects Ongoing

So, the things I am currently working on, and where I am at with them:

• Charles de Blois based pourpoint for my husband: I’ve been working on this for a month or two now, in my free moments.  I am using Tasha Dandelion Kelly of La Cotte Simple‘s pattern here: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/tasha-kelly/the-pourpoint-of-charles-de-blois/paperback/product-15326605.html  My version is an outer layer of Black Linen, cotton batting, and an inner layer of light blue linen.  So far, I am pretty happy with how it’s coming.  I am doing it all by hand, so it’s taking a while to quilt everything nicely together.
• Viking Garb for Countess Comyn, called Shadow: this is a longstanding project that I started a couple of years ago, which stalled for a happy reason- she lost a lot of weight as part of a healthy lifestyle change, and I had not gotten a chance to remeasure her.  The good news is, I can take the apron dress in pretty easily and can then work on the finishing work for it.  The bad news is, the gore placement I did on the under-dress is wrong, so I am going to have to rip out about three hours of quality hand-sewing and start again.  Sigh.  I did pickup some lovely silk to do trim work on the under dress with though.
• Kingdom A&S 2013- Originally, I was going to theme around 14th century French, and use the Charles de Blois as one piece.  However, its a well known garment in the SCA in general, and in Calontir in particular, and it kind of feels like I am cheating a little bit doing it.  Plus, this summer in Italy, I ran across a fascinating historical personage who has some very interesting existent garments, and I think I am going to theme around those.  To my knowledge, I have never seen them done, so it should be exciting.  I plan to start pattern drafting soon.  I will pair the garments with a cooking entry from the earliest known Italian cookbook, and either something in leather, something researchy, or an art/science to be named.  14th century Italia for the (hopefully) win.

 

Stay tuned for pictures of these projects. And for more travelogs (really…promise).

Roma Amora, Day Three

Our third day started with another fantastic pastry breakfast, this time raspberry.  After quick showers, we dressed and headed out for a day of walking around the neighborhoods bordering the Tibur in central Rome.  We caught the bus to the train station at Laurentina, and from there took the line Northwest to Piramide.

The first things one sees exiting the stop are the Piramide itself, and the Museo delle via Ostiense.  Piramide  The Piramide is actually a real Pyramid, built between 18 and 12 BCE for Gauis Cestius, an important Roman magistrate.  Currently, its got a lot of scaffolding up as efforts go on to preserve it.

The Museo is housed in the Porta San Paulo, one of the major gates in the Aurelian era walls of the city, which guarded the road to the Ancient port of Ostia.  Museo de Ostiense  It wasn’t open when we got there (this becomes an unfortunate theme with Italian fortifications).  From there, we walked West toward the Tibur, then followed it’s Eastern bank North into the historic heart of the city.  After a few blocks, be came to the bridge that connected to the Isola Tiberina.  Occupied since Roman times, the Island features a very small neighborhood, a hotel, and the Basilica di San Bartolomeo all’Isola.  San Bartolomeo all’Isola  Founded in the 10th century and containing the relics of the Apostle Bartholomew, it was given a new consecration by John Paul II in 2000, recognizing 20th and 21st century Martyrs.  It’s interesting, as a non-catholic, to see that the practice of non-corporeal relics is still very common.  The various alters featured clothing, shoes, personal bibles, rosaries, and other possessions of the recognized martyrs.  The Basilica also has a very lovely, if very baroque, interior.  Basillica Interior

From the Island, we crossed the the West bank of the Tibur, and into Trestevere.  Just South of Vatican City, Tresteverre features a lot of lovely, and very unchained, Medieval and Renaissance architecture, like this Palazzo.  You also see many more private homes with old papal and cardinal heraldry in this sector of the city.  When my sister lived in Rome for a semester in college, she lived in this area.  We grabbed lunch at a little Bistro a few streets back from the river, and then wandered through the various shops around the area, trying to find a leather shop for my husband to look at wallets (never did find it…maybe next trip).  We strolled up past the Palazzo Farnese (sadly, not open that day…a theme for our trip, unfortunately).  We did, however, see the local Office of the Communist Party, which was a small culture shock for two people who live in what is essentially, still, a two party system.  We also saw the exterior of Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte, Saint Mary of the Prayer and Death.  This church was built and supported by a confraternity society in Rome who took responsibility for the burial of the abandoned dead, and features a very macabre exterior.  Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte

Tibur Bridge

Crossing back over to the East Bank, we wandered into the Campo di Fiore (field of flowers), which rose up as a neighborhood in the Middle Ages in a previously agricultural part of the city.   The area is known for it’s famous market.  It also has lovely architecture and some gorgeous Frescos. From there, we wandered through the city up to the Palazzo de Cancellaria, to check out an exhibition on Leonardo DaVinci’s machines.  They had actually taken his sketches and worked up life sized models of his various designs.  DaVinci’s flight suit.  While many people know DaVinci for either the Mona Lisa or the Vetruvian Man anatomy model, many don’t realize he was also a military engineer, employed by the likes of Cesare Borgia.  This is one of his tank designs.

After that, we snagged drinks at Primo (2) a bar my sister was a huge fan of when she lived there (though she drank at their original location). Primo!  From there, we headed back down through the Jewish Ghetto, past the theater of Marcellus and the Temple of Vesta.  From there, we headed up the Aventine Hill.  One of the ancient Hills of Rome, it is now surmounted by the 19th century Monastery of San Anselmo, a Benedictine foundation.  Oddly, Anselmo gave me one of the most Medieval Feelings of any of the churches we saw in Rome.  This is likely due to it’s simplicity and beautiful mosaic work.  Mosaic above the alter of San Anselmo.   The Aventine also has a number of public green spaces with gorgeous vista views.

From there, we headed back to catch the subway home, and then joined our hosts, Sonia and Gabri for authentic, Neapolitan style pizza.  It was absolutely fantastic.  And thinking about it now, I want zucchini flower pizza.  Here’s a photo of the four of us at the restaurant.

Stay tuned for Day 4 of Rome, and to check out more photos, visit my Flickr Photo Set Roma.