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.
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.
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!
EEEEC: Ginevra di Serafino Visconti’s Scented Soap, Perfume, and Lotion
Ginevra describes her entry into the luxuriation category:
“One of my more luxurious experiences at Faire was a cool shower after a long, hot day, and then going cleanly and quietly to rest. However, I thought it would be still better if I had deliciously scented soap and care products rather than the guaranteed non-reactive stuff I had packed, so when I came home, I tried to make some – it was painful to move, and I was overtired, so these experiments are all really easy, require no special equipment, and only used things I had in the house already.”One of my more luxurious experiences at Faire was a cool shower after a long, hot day, and then going cleanly and quietly to rest. However, I thought it would be still better if I had deliciously scented soap and care products rather than the guaranteed non-reactive stuff I had packed, so when I came home, I tried to make some – it was painful to move, and I was overtired, so these experiments are all really easy, require no special equipment, and only used things I had in the house already.
Perfume
“I love freshening up with rosewater, and when I found this recipe, I thought it would be an interesting variant because I also like the smell of cloves. https://segretipavone.wordpress.com/2014/07/17/two-rosewater-perfumes-1559/. I used rosewater from the Middle Eastern shop on Colombo St rather than making my own because I already had it, and while making rosewater is fairly easy, taking the lid off a bottle already in the house is even easier. I used cloves from the supermarket.
“Using an empty glass jar with a lid I soaked about 20 cloves in about 1/2 a bottle of rosewater and left the sealed jar near a window to soak up the sun for a couple of days to get the 25 hours of sunlight recommended. At the end of this time, I noticed that the colour had changed to a soft yellow, and that I was very happy with the resulting scent.
“Then I poured some of the mix into a small bottle from the craft store to be used to freshen up, and poured the rest into a pyrex jug for part 2…”
Soap
“For an earlier challenge, I tried a recipe from 1559 at https://segretipavone.wordpress.com/2014/03/14/sapone-con-rosa-or-soap-with-roses-circa-1555/ which was easy enough to follow, and which had mostly worked well for me, but.. I wanted something new if I was going to enter it in this challenge, and I thought trying the perfume from part 1 instead of plain rosewater would be interesting. I decided to leave out the rose petals, because in my previous experiment the gorgeous ribena-red colour I had gained from the turned to a golden beige brown as soon as they came into contact with the soap, and I still haven’t found out why. In addition to this I had no rose petals in my house, and wanted to start the experiment.
“I had some pre-grated Castile soap among my craft supplies, which I chose to use in place of cutting soap into chunks as the recipe says to, as it was easier on my wrists and the result would be fairly similar. Although soap type is not mentioned in the original recipe, I thought Castile soap would be good for this experiment, because it was considered a luxury soap for rich humans at the time, and the recipe is mostly unchanged today. I poured some of the grated soap into the pyrex jug mentioned above, and left and stirred them round a few times before leaving them to soak for an hour or so. Because the rose scent had faded quickly in the last experiment, I further deviated from the instructions and added some rose oil designed for adding to soaps at this stage.
“After that, it was a simple matter of scooping out approximately equal amounts, moulding them into balls (if you use wet hands, the soap will not stick to you), and putting them on a plate, again in the sun, to dry out a little.
“The soap does not lather very much, or smell very strongly, but I’m still happy with the experiment, and would do it again.
“I chose to use commercial almond oil because I had some in my fridge, and I did not have almonds, or the wrists to extract oil from them even if I had some. I put 5 cloves and some almond oil in a small clear glass bottle with a cork lid, and left them on the windowsill for a week.
“At the end of the experiment the oil smells slightly of cloves, works really well, and absorbs quickly. (Cloves have not yet been removed from oil in the photo)”
Isabel Maria shares her entry for the categories of luxuriation, degustation, and exploration. As she says:
“There was an upcoming event called An Evening in Granada, and the promotional material read “It is 1526 and we invite you to join us in Granada, to celebrate the glad tidings of the nuptials of Carlos of Spain and Isabella of Portugal in an evening of fine food, fine company, and fine entertainment. Rumour has it that this is where the happy couple will be spending their honeymoon!”. As I had offered to make some sotelties to complement the feast and theme, it became obvious that I needed to learn some new skills in order to make the envisaged items; red sugarpaste carnations and a pomegranate decorated with gold leaf.
“Having never gilded anything, nor created anything so fine as carnation petals in the medium of sugarpaste before, I embarked on a journey of research, shopping, bodging equipment to approximate the ‘proper’ tools, and a testing amount of testing to see what worked for me. This was the exploration part of the project.
“Somewhere along this process, the pomegranate became a box to hold actual pomegranate arils and I decided to gild the carnation calyxes. (I’m not entirely sure how that happened.)
The pomegranate was made by forming the shapes over a suitable shape and allowing them to dry for several days before being removed and allowed to dry further. Once I was comfortable with their structural stability, I added the red ‘skin’ layer, and added the sculpted flower to the top. The gilding was added after further drying, and the application of a little sugar glue.
In contrast, the carnations were much more intensive in their construction and were completed over many evenings. Each layer of petals had to be cut out of the paste, then thinned and the edges thinned further until they ruffled. This delicate layer was then added to the wire and allowed to dry overnight before another layer was created and added. The calyx was cut from paste and moulded around the base of the petals when the petals looked sufficiently full and carnation like.
As these sotelties were edible they meet the definition of degustation even though they didn’t really feed anyone (Her Excellency excepted), and were created simply to add glamour and luxury to the event, it is clear they fall into the luxuriation category for this challenge. Which is not to say they didn’t generate a lot of enjoyment in their creation and display.”
Ailith Ward presents this entry of a cashmere tunic in the category of Luxuriation
Ailith describes the entry:
“This luxurious blue tunic is made from cashmere wool and is very cosy and fun to touch! Trimmed and trimmed some more, it is bound to become my new bling shirt for every important occasion! Inspired by the Yule event, where I wanted to be able to look nice as well as be practical, I realised quickly that a new tunic was required when I found all my other practical cool weather garb was just a bit meh. Unfortunately, my sewing machine had just recently stopped working correctly, so I undertook to sew this tunic by hand, and now it is my second ever piece of garb to be entirely stitched by hand.”
