“A Morbid Nalbound Doll named Simon.
“He was shot down by a rogue arrow while delivering a message. He died. He is a companion for Cosmia’s other dead doll, named Herman.”
You can read more about the UFO Challenge and the entry categories here.
Southron Gaard has a long and excellent tradition of Arts and Sciences Challenges; we’re world famous in the Crescent Isles and throughout the known world for our challenges!
After a break in 2024-2025, your premiere challengers, who have brought you such previous challenges as the Baronial Heraldic Challenge, the Second Baronial Heraldic Challenge, the Persona Gubbins Challenge, and the Event Embellishment, Elaboration, and Edification Arts & Sciences Challenge, bring you: the UFO Challenge!
Our theme for this Challenge is to finish some of those projects that have been sitting in the naughty corner, or hiding in your stash, haunting and taunting you. We were much inspired by our discussions with you at Faire: you asked for it, and here it is!
This Challenge is brought to you by The Ladies of Hous Amberherthe (Baroness Christian Baier, Baronessa Isabel María del Aguila, and Baroness Joana de Bairros); with the gracious support of Their Excellencies, Angus and Joana, Baron and Baroness of Southron Gaard, and the Southron Gaard Arts and Sciences Officer The Honourable Lady Amabilia Thexton, and the Southron Gaard Baronial Council.
Challenges are not competitions; a challenge is intended to be fun, no pressure! The only person you are challenging is yourself; challenging yourself to set aside time to make and craft, and to follow your passions. And once completed, you can share the wonders with the Barony.
A UFO in SCA (and crafting) terms is an UnFinished Object: a project conceived or started but not yet completed or stalled for some reason.
You may enter the challenge by making or doing one (or more) items which fit any of the categories below, and telling us about it.
Submit the following information to aandschallenge@sg.sca.org.nz
As with previous Arts & Sciences Challenges in Southron Gaard, all entrants will be awarded a special token at the completion of the challenge
Check back regularly for further information and works in progress, which will also be shared on all the usual Southron Gaard socials!
Also check out Hous Amberherthe’s Arts & Sciences Challenges for a look back at previous A&S Challenges issued by the Ladies of Hous Amberherthe.
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.
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
EEEEC: Joana de Bairros’ “An Evening in Granada” Feast
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.
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 (made by Christian) 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.
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.
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
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)
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!
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!
