Category: Blog Post

EEEEC: Challenge Wrap Up

EEEEC: Challenge Wrap Up

Following on from our previous Arts and Sciences challenge, the Persona Gubbins Challenge, where we explored projects to enhance our persona, the Ladies of Amberherthe, with the gracious support of Their Excellencies, Grim and Alexandra, Baron and Baroness of Southron Gaard, and Lady Adelsea Gladwyne, then Southron Gaard Arts and Sciences Officer, having been inspired by our own post-Faire to-do list, but more especially by the enthusiasm and excitement of many newcomers as they thought upon what they had beheld and experienced at Faire last year, and planned for this year, devised the Event Embellishment, Elaboration, and Edification Challenge and invited the populace to make or practice arts and sciences with a focus on use at events.

Some statistics about the EEEE Challenge entries

  • Number of individual entrants:                                     14
  • Number of entries:                                                        47
  • Largest number of entries from one individual:          6
  • Most popular categories (in this order):                       Collaboration, Preparation, Inspiration, Personification
  • Most popular types of entry (in this order):                Clothing, and Food

Each entrant has earned a token to commemorate their efforts in meeting this challenge. The token is a wooden game board (with Hare and Hounds on one side, and either Terni Lapilli or 3 Men’s Morris on the other), six game tokens, a die, and a booklet that explains the rules for all three games.

Thank you to everyone who joined us in accepting this challenge to develop skills and items to enhance our experiences at SCA events.

A special mention is due to the members of Gildenwick, who embraced this challenge and furnished many inspiring entries across a swathe of categories.

We hope you will enjoy playing these games at events, and that this challenge inspired you to try something new!

In service to Arts, Sciences, and better events
Baroness Christian Baier
Baronessa Isabel María del Aguila
The Honourable Lady Joana de Bairros

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EEEEC: Joana de Bairros’ Portuguese Feast

EEEEC: Joana de Bairros’ “An Evening in Granada” Feast

Figs in the French manner

Entered under the category of degustation

“This was an event born out of my desire to cook Iberian food.  I have been translating and redacting some recipes from the Portuguese Livro de Cozinha da Infanta D. Maria, and wanted to incorporate these into a feast…”

“…Normally I would look at the concept of an event and plan the feast based on that.  This event was however entirely about the food and the dining experience and I had convinced my husband that he wanted to steward it so we could make the event as Iberian as we wanted to!…”

To read more about this sumptuous and delectable feast, visit this google doc.

Queso Asado – Roasted Cheese

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EEEEC: Isabel Maria’s Transformational Soteltie Tower

EEEEC: Isabel Maria’s Tower Soteltie

This tower falls into the categories of collaboration, luxuriation, and transformation

Constructed from a base of popcorn pottles, plant pot-trays, and paper bowls, the basic shape was transformed by overlayed with plaster wraps by Julia Fortunata and Christian Baier. This not only concealed the popcorn motif, but added a textured layer that could be painted.

For its first outing, the tower was lit internally and rigged with two furry rats that scurried up the walls towards the Pied Piper when a cord was pulled. This was to complement the “Pied Piper of Hamlin” theme. (I am reliably informed that His Majesty and Their Excellencies tested this mechanism thoroughly during the feast.)

For its second outing, the tower was de-ratted and lushly decorated with pomegranates, red carnations, red roses, and gold leaves to enhance the “Evening in Granada” theme.

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EEEEC: Magdalena de Narbonne’s Red Bycocket

EEEEC: Magdalena’s Red bycocket for use in Courts etc

Entered in Luxuriating and Personification (if technically less likely due to historic gender norms)

A fancy red bycocket/chapeau a Bec to finish off my late 14th/early 15th century outfits for occasions such as court or formal feasts. No outfit is complete without appropriate headwear, and while a bycocket is more of a masculine hunting hat, there’s some art of feminine figures wearing them and looking splendid while doing so that I took that as an excuse to run with it! A luxurious fur trim and rich bold red colour gives it that extra “oomph” to suit the more formal outfits I pair it with. 

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EEEEC: Astrid Sudreying’s Courier Satchel Collaboration

EEEEC: Astrid Sudreying’s Courier Satchel Collaboration

Entered under Inspiration, Collaboration, Preparation

At Canterbury Faire ’23 there was a discussion about the couriers needing proper sashes so that people could easily see who was actively being a courier. In consultation with the post master Lord Zoltan, we hatched a plan for satchels. They needed to be green with yellow trim, and adjustable so that many different sized children could wear them.

We started out making a pattern for the bags. This was a little different, as the straps were to be unattached at the top. The fabric we found was a bit floppy. We couldn’t get a decent canvas in the right green, but we made the bags more structurally sound by having double layers. In all we managed to make 8 bags total. Bennet being a speed weaver of kumihimo cords, managed to get one bag completely decorated by Canterbury Faire this year, but finished the rest after.

Outcome: The original idea was to fit the bag straps to each child and stitch them down, but the children quickly nixed this idea by tying the ends in a knot. A practical and speedy solution. We also received feedback that we were thinking about the decoration too much like adults, and they would like more ribbons and tassels for next year please. The sashes, being made out of too floppy a material, tended to fold over rather than sit flat. If more are made in future, it might be better if they are made in a sturdy canvas.

Ailith Ward, Astrid Sudreying, Bennet Vernon, Zoltan di Magnifico

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EEEEC: Ginevra di Serafino Visconti’s Heraldic Standards

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EEEEC: Ginevra’s Heraldic Standards

An entry for collaboration.

Now that Crown is over, I can reveal that Master Richard and I collaborated to make a pair of Heraldic standards. We discussed design ideas, but mostly each designed our own, and devised our own mottos (though Richard helped with the final wording in English of mine), I then translated the mottos into Latin and determined an appropriate font, size and line breaks while Richard made a stretching frame for the fabric and full scale mock ups, then traced, outlined and painted everything for both banners before giving them to me to cut out, whip stitch around the edges to prevent fraying, and arrange a way of attaching them to the banner poles (bought from Baroness katherine, and taped in blue and white – our shared heraldic colours by me.)

(no pictures, yet)

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EEEEC: Magdalena de Narbonne’s Narrow Bands

EEEEC: Narrow bands for Viking summer and winter garb:

Entered in Exploration

Two separate lengths of narrow-band weaving done via a rigid heddle in the back strap style, in wool made to trim both summer weight and winter weight “Viking-ish” tunics.

I wanted to make them both just a little bit fancier, even though they are what I consider my more casual or easygoing garb option -I joke that I don’t have a persona characterised by time or place, but that I am simply “high maintenance” so even my casual clothing has to be a touch swish!

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EEEEC: Astrid Sudreying’s Treasure Necklace

EEEEC: Astrid Sudreying’s Bead Necklace

Entered in Luxuriation and Personification

My persona Astrid Sudreying is based on a trader’s child from the late Viking period, who grows up moving. Beginning in Denmark and eventually settling in Sudrland (at the top of Scotland). I have ended up with a Welsh husband who is still figuring out much of his persona, so until he does, I guess I’ll just have to keep running the shop.

I have had the beads I first put together for between my brooches for a while and have had pieces sitting about that I have wanted to add to my strands. When I was told it’s acceptable to add your awards to them it gave me the inspiration to not lose those tiny precious items, by putting them on my beads. In keeping with my trading history, some of the beads have clearly arrived via the silk road. Especially some of the hollow metal beads, the blue eye protection beads and the third bead from the right, which was (IRL) bought in a market in Kathmandu by my father’s friend.

I have also added the top strand of beads, made by Queen Ginevra, that my lord Emrys won at the Fighter Auction Tourney. Thank you to the ladies of The Abbey for that generous donation!

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EEEEC: Christian Baier’s Swabian Gown

EEEEC: Christian Baier’s Swabian Tourney Gown

Categories: inspiration, preparation

Having made an orange brocade Swabian gown for the CF feast last year, I was inspired to make a similar gown for wearing about on the tourney field.


I’m very fond of Roman clothing to cope with the warm summer weather at CF, but I am ever in search of late period clothing that can be worn on hot days. The Swabian gowns with the wide neck line, and shorter cut away sleeves are definitely a good solution. And the gefrens (the fringe at the back of the head) provides some useful protection from the sun. This gown was inspired by a similar coloured dress in ‘The Dance of Salome” by the Master of the Carnation, c 1490.

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