Tag: Event Embellishment Elaboration and Edification A&S Challenge

EEEEC: Christian Baier’s Lucky Dress

EEEEC: Christian Baier’s Lucky Dress

A submission for the categories of personification and transformation. In Christian’s words:

“I had a small amount of black velvet left over from my M&M dress, and two different pieces of trim in stash that I had been gifted, and some little pearls… so the logical thing to do was transform the scraps and horde items into a gown. “I had a small amount of black velvet left over from my M&M dress, and two different pieces of trim in stash that I had been gifted, and some little pearls… so the logical thing to do was transform the scraps and horde items into a gown.

“The trim that is used for the wide guides on the bodice bore some resemblance to the 1539 portrait of Felicitas Von Wallbrunn by Hans Abel the Younger (below), so it seemed the ideal project.”

Portrait of Felicitas von Wallbrunn via wikimedia
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EEEEC: Astrid Sudreying’s Mini Mask-Making Workshop

EEEEC: Astrid Sudreying’s Mini-Mask-Making Workshop

A paper mache mini mask and it’s negative

Entered under education. Astrid says:

“For Canterbury Faire this year, I wanted to try to teach mask making again. Being that full sized masks take too long, I decided to teach the skills making mini masks, hoping to get through the basic skills within the week.

“The classes were set out in two sessions, that were two hours each. My hope was for the classes to follow the outlines of:

First class:

  • short history of the venetian mask & paper mache
  • sculpting in clay
  • making a negative mould in plaster.

Second class:

  • paper macheing the mask
  • painting techniques

“The first class went well and we finished with a little time to spare. The second class, did not go quite according to plan however. We only managed to finish our paper mache, and everyone agreed to finish a bit early as the heat was too much for us to continue. I gave a very quick painting explanation to those left before we all dispersed for cooler environs,”The first class went well and we finished with a little time to spare. The second class, did not go quite according to plan however. We only managed to finish our paper mache, and everyone agreed to finish a bit early as the heat was too much for us to continue. I gave a very quick painting explanation to those left before we all dispersed for cooler environs,

“Although I didn’t get to deliver all the information I was hoping to, I was happy with the turnout for both classes, and impressed with the perseverance of the second day class.”

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EEEEC: Frock Doctors’ Garb Class

EEEEC: Frock Doctors’

Falling under education and collaboration.

At Golden Flight (last November) the ladies of Hous Amberherthe (Christian, Isabel Maria, and Joana) collaborated as the “Frock Doctors” to teach a class on how to go about selecting clothing and accessories for your persona and interests.

Meistern Christian directed the enthusiastic discussion to cover everything from headwear to footwear, how to stay warm, how to carry things, layers to consider and more.

On top of sharing their experiences and showing a range of garments and accessories they had made for various periods and locations, they each brought along a selection of their favourite books relevant to the subject.

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EEEEC: Joana de Bairros’ Swabian Ensemble

EEEEC: Joana de Bairros’ Outfit in the Style of 1480-90s Swabia

Entry for Inspiration:

I was inspired by Meisterin Christian’s beautiful red and gold Swabian dress she made for Canterbury Faire 2023.  I particularly loved the elegance of this style and it looked cool and comfortable to wear.  I did some further research on Swabain dress from this period and fell particularly in love with this image: 5,1 The Babenberger Genealogie This panel painting, dated 1489-1492s,.jpg

I chose to use brocade rather than the velvet that the inspiration image seems to be made from.  There are however a number of Swabian dresses from a similar period, as well as some on the same panel as the inspiration image, made from brocade so it did not feel incongruous. I had lovely dark pink brocade in my stash which I thought would be perfect for this project.  As we cannot see the front of the bodice I chose to make it front lacing like Meisterin Christian’s as I felt that would work best for my shape and comfort.  The figure to the left of my inspiration image had the lacing across the bodice opening that I wanted to use so I went with that along with some hook and eyes at the bottom of the bodice for closure.

While I loved the pearled neckline of the inspiratiion dress I felt that I did not have the time for this.  I instead had found a beautiful gold and black trim on a trip to London and used that to trim the neckline.  I pearled the trim slightly to allude to the pearls on the inspiration image.  I found some narrow gimp trim in gold and the same pink of the fabric and used this to trim the sleeves like the inspiration image.

I chose to do slightly different ties on the sleeves as I wanted the dress to be easy to get in to and felt that having individual ties would help with this. I used velvet ribbon as ties as it stays tied better than satin ribbon.  I had some gold aglets in my stash I used to finish off the ties.  Another Babenburg dress had the three lacing rings with cross-lacing at the wrist so I chose to incorporate design into mine.  

I made a chemise with a 3/4 sleeve to go with the dress and a gefrens made from gold fringe to go with the outfit.

I absolutely love this style and feel it works well for my body shape. It is also far more comfortable than any fancy garb I have made in the past. I have plans to make several more! 

 

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EEEEC: Ginevra di Serafino Visconti’s Educational Efforts

EEEEC: Ginevra di Serafino Visconti’s Articles and Classes

Entered into the challenge in the category of education.

I have written articles for FTT on ‘How to make a Roman tunica‘, ‘Handsewing‘ (previously entered), ‘Media recommendations’ and taught classes at Gildenwick collegium on various subjects, including goldwork and black work, (which made it to the timetable, and thus are memorable) a class on knitting (same event), a class on Candlemaking at Fiery Knights and.. assorted other subjects, including handsewing and drawn thread work at Fibre guild.

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EEEEC: Christian Baier’s Apple & Raisin Pies

EEEEC: Chrstian Baier’s Apple and Raisin Pies

Entered under degustation and personification: apple and raisin pies for Fiery Knights.

Snacks for events are always a good idea.  I looked through my German cookbooks and settled first on making some cherry pies.  And then I decided the cherry filling / garb stain potential was a little too high at an outdoor event, and I had some apples that were at the ready for pie-making stage.

To make them a little more interesting, I chose a recipe that included apples, raisins, and spices.  I made these for a tourney that was then sadly rained out, so decided to experiment with freezing these for a later event.  If they defrosted and remained whole, tasty and crispy without any further heating, I could stash away a supply of snack pies in the freezer for future events when I had time for baking, without adding extra stress to event preparation.  

They were perfect in texture and were delicious.  

I later realised I’d made the same pies for a previous challenge, which is not surprising given they are made using staple pantry items: PGC A&S Challenge

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EEEEC: Ginevra di Serafino Visconti’s Food

EEEEC: Ginevra di Serafino Visconti’s Food

Entered under degustation (and possibly also collaboration), Ginevra describes her entries:

“I made lunch at Goldenflight (with others, but so maybe this is Collaboration as well- though I did the testing myself) We had – Norse handpies (Recipie from:  http://www.godecookery.com/friends/frec129.html) bread rolls and butter, Castlevero’s green salad (-onions, because of allergies), carrot sticks, and oranges sprinkled with rosewater.  Sadly, I did not take photos at the event, so this entry looks very boring.

“For Day of Dance I made 3 dishes 2 of which can be found in La Singolare dottrina di M. Domenico Romoli.(though I personally found the recipes in ‘A Spring Feast’ by Shannon Wanty).  The dishes were Pollastri al Catelana (below) and Zuccarini (above).  I had made neither of these before, and was mostly happy with how they turned out, but more practice was required to make the zuccarini regularly shaped.

“I also made Shrewsbury cakes, (http://www.godecookery.com/alabama/alabam01.html#shrews) which I haven’t made since I moved to this house, but recalled liking.”

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EEEEC: Emrys Grenelef’s Knife Sheath

EEEEC: Emrys Grenelef’s Knife Sheath

This is an entry for exploration and luxuriation.

I have had a knife sheath made from leather and had been meaning to fit some brass embellishments to it.

While working on another project, I came across a sheet of brass and decided that this would be suitable.

I got a picture of some viking knife sheaths from my wife and used this as a guide.

The brass was very tarnished so I buffed it before use.

I made some templates from paper and once satisfied I made the brass fittings.

I used a brass wire for the pins to hold the fittings on the leather sheath.

I gained some insight into working the brass and the next knife sheath that I have waiting shall look even better.

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EEEEC: Ailith Ward’s Collapsible Message Board

EEEEC: Ailith Ward’s Canterbury Faire Message Board

Entered in the category of inspiration.

This is a message board for our encampment I’ve been working on since CF23, inspired by the one at the bottom of the stairs. I still have some improvements to make, but I’m very pleased that it was ready to be used this CF.

This is made mostly out of materials saved from the skips at my husband and my work places, and has been pegged together, rather than screwed or nailed, allowing it to partially flat pack for easier transport.

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EEEEC: Emrys Grenelef’s Arrows and Quiver

EEEEC: Emrys Grenelef’s Arrows and Quiver

This is an entry for Exploration and Preparation.

I had a dozen arrow shafts and a dozen combat blunt tips that I wanted to make into combat archery arrows but the arrows shafts were 11/32″ rather than 5/16″ and I was unable to use them for that purpose.

I then talked to some friends and acquired all the bits and pieces I needed to make 12 x 4-fletch combat arrows and 9 x 3-fletch target arrows, including the use of a fletching jig along with a couple of instructions on how to do so.

After attaching all the knocks to the arrow shafts, I then tweaked the fletching jig until it was set-up correctly and spent a couple of nights attaching 48 fletches in between doing other things. Next was taping the shafts with filament-tape attaching the blunt tips and taping the tips and flights. 

Just like that, I now had a set of combat arrows.

I then repeated the process minus all the taping for my nine target arrows.

Now that I had made my first set of arrows, I decided that I would like a new quiver for them. I had picked up a nice looking quiver at the market made by Sir Callum and I used this design as the basis for my quiver.

I grabbed some leather and cut it into the desired shapes then stitched it together using saddle stitch, whip stitch and cross stitch.

I now have a new quiver and set of target arrows and an old quiver for my new combat arrows.

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