Hungarian National Museum

My parents have been always on the edge of accepting my interests and quirks. They were supportive (emotionally and financially) through two theatre degrees and while I think they might have been happier if I’d pursued other avenues of study, they’ve always been there for me. When I joined the SCA, I think they were resigned to the fact that I was starting in on yet another hobby where I could justify my ‘hoarding’ of crafting materials.

All of that being said: They recently took a trip to Hungary. They asked if I would be interested in anything ‘historical’ there and I immediately suggested a trip to the Hungarian National Museum to see the Dress of Queen Mary of Hapsburg. Mom thought this was a great idea, and Dad was kind enough to document it as much as he could! As such, I’d like to share some wonderful photos as provided by my patient and loving parents.

Click on the thumbnail and you should be taken to a larger image!

Needless to say I’m pretty psyched by all of this. The belt plaques I think are my favourite piece that Dad photographed, but everything is so amazing, I wish I could have been there to see it in person! I’m debating using something here as an idea to inspire me for one of my Pentathalon or QPT entries.

An Excuse for Peacocks

 

I like peacocks…like in an uncontrollable way. I -really- like peacocks, I love their haughty attitudes, their obnoxious crying noise, and their ugly women. I love the way they shake their tails, and the iridescence of their feathers. They are the most pimptastic of birds.

I have been looking for an excuse to make peacock-themed garb for quite some time. In fact, I’d been planning on making some for one of my medieval larp characters, but never got around to it.

Their Majesties recently announced that the ‘theme’ of their reign would be ‘historically accurate fairy tales and folklore’ which is super-exciting to me.It means that I’ll likely make an accurate disney princess, but it also opens up the avenues for other folklore exploration.

I might allow myself a ‘splurge’ and recreate a ‘Cranach Gown’ (debate on the historical accuracy of this dress to come later if I end up choosing to do one) as a version of Snow White.

However, in my initial research into Russian and Slavic legends (as inspired by her Majesty’s persona) I discovered: The Firebird. Prince Ivan usually ends up chasing the damn thing out of garden of golden apples owned by the Tsar but in most illustrations, the firebird is a Peacock.

I don’t know how I’m going to justify it, or what form it will take…but I WILL have peacock garb. Soon.

Post-dated Trillies (2016) Prep

(View from the ‘front gate’ of Camp Arrochar)

I took some progress shots of my ‘boyish clothes’ for War of the Trillium 2016 and never got around to writing about any of it on my blog. I figured it was probably time to attempt to show off some construction of my bocksten tunics. I made them a bit longer and more fitted than ‘normal’ in order to attempt a slightly more feminine figure. While I believe I’ve failed to actually take any pictures of me in the final result, I was pleased with how cool the linen was to wear, given the heat of Trillies.

Here’s one of them mostly put-together before I did significant ‘fitting’ but it’s a longish tunic that comes down almost to my knees. My braies were shorter than ‘usual’ so in some cases, if I didn’t belt my tunic to help it ride up a bit, it looked like I was scandalously going around without much on down below!

Gores and gussets are awful. I’m better with gussets than I am with gores, but the installation of such creatures will continue to plague and frustrate me. I attempted to show my progress and methods in a series of photographs, but I fear they do not do justice to my struggle for clean seams.

I also completed a gomlek, salwar, and an entari that I’d had ‘in progress’ since LAST (my first) Trillies! Since I was concerned about heat (I loved the pattern of the entari but it was a poly-beast fabric) I did not do a full lining, but wanted to stay true to the ‘flash of color’ that these garments are famous for, so I did a hand-stitched faux-lining at the edges of the sleeves, bottom hem, front opening, and collar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I shall endeavour to make a point of getting at least one decent full-body shot per event so I can start a better record of what these completed garments look like on a person!

Feast of the Bear 2016!

This past weekend was Feast of the Bear in the Barony of Septentria. This amazing event was held in downtown TORONTO, which, I’ll be honest, is an extremely big deal for me as for once I didn’t have to do insane amounts of transit and carpooling in order to get to the event. I was lucky to spend my time on Entourage for Their Majesties which gave me a great front-row seat to two very special elevation ceremonies, a Laureling and a Knighting.

As the end of the third reign of Nigel and Adrielle come to an end, I’ve realized that I haven’t really been contributing much to the Barony of Septentria so I made a few boxes for their Excellencies Septentria as Largess, which were, of course, bear-themed!

There were quite a few awards given out at court, and I continue to be impressed with the artistic skills of our wonderful kingdom, the scrolls were all works of art!!! I think I’m going to have to get back on track for making some worthy blanks for somebody else to fill out with text since uhh…yeah, me with a calligraphy hand? That’s simply not going to happen.

A friend from Lost Hemisphere snapped this photo of me while I was waiting to go in to speak with AElfwyn on her vigil.

 

Since it was technically the Emprise at Feast of the Bear as well, I wore my heraldic cote, but with the humidity and heat of the day, I was seriously regretting my veil decisions. I think a new head-covering will be on the priority list.  (As seen below, I have an alternative..but despite my self-depreciating smile, I hate the way I look in it.)

I made a stained-glass boar box as a little elevation gift. It’s based off of a boar on stained glass in the Church of St. Mary and All Saints, Fotheringhay.

The two elevations I witnessed were breath-taking and incredibly emotional, but both were so different from one-another. What I love about the SCA is the diversity that can be found in historical and regional traditions, and the creative ways that our talented word-smiths can create such varied ceremonies that are so well tailored to the recipient.

The first was the Laurel which ended up as a japanese ceremony granting the vigilant the title of Master Artisan, releasing her from the bonds of her apprenticeship in amazing Japanese pageantry and costume. While much of what we see is western, it’s neat to see other cultures researched and explored in depth!

The second as an Anglo-saxon knighting for Ealdormere’s (as a kingdom) first female Knight. While we had other female knights made while Ealdormere was as a principality, and some Masters of Arms, (Sir) AElfwyn is our first to be elevated and it was a good and proper thing to do. The cheering from the audience was deafening. The ceremony itself was incredibly moving and highly emotional. It was so incredibly serious, and yet, I want to describe the moment as elating and almost energizing even if I was only watching, peeking from behind His Highness’ throne as I was standing up with Her Majesty for court. I am almost always moved to tears by Elevation ceremonies (I’m a sap) but there was just something so….alive and real about this one, it’s practically impossible to describe. A photo can say one-thousand words, so perhaps it’s best to simply show you this, an amazing ‘in the moment’ shot by Eirik Andersen of Two Ravens Photography.

Feast afterwards was incredibly filling, I seriously thought they were done when a young server came out of the kitchen and reminded us we had 3 removes still left to go. Insanity, but delicious. The cheese course (goat with fruit) and the beef were phenomenal.

I regretted not bringing a change of clothes to get out of following the event so that I might have been more helpful for clean-up and packing, but….I was just so happy to be close to home that I hadn’t bothered to bring one. I shall remember that for next time.

Overall? Wonderful event and I’m so happy for those who received their due recognition!

12th Night 2016 – Board-Game Themed!

So 12th night this year was Board-game themed! I LOVE the idea of mixing historical stuff with a more modern or fun ‘twist’ influence so I very quickly jumped on the bandwagon.

I’m in the process of making my own settlers of Catan board game (customized on two different sides for two differed themes because I’m a huge nerd) but I figured that everyone would be picking that since it’s a classic ‘obvious choice’.

I didn’t want to replicate anyone else’s idea, and I also wanted to make a piece of garb that I could somehow use again with little modification. I’ve wanted to make a Warhammer inspired costume for awhile and when I was discussing thematic options with a friend I casually joked: “Warhammer’s a board game, right? You play it on a ‘board’….” and then I sat back and thought about it and immediately, the decision was made.

I began searching around for inspirational pictures for an outfit that wouldn’t require too much ‘costuming’ and that could be mostly garb-based to help me to fill out my rather empty SCA wardrobe.

And there she is….I needed to get a veil anyway…it was after Xmas so plastic round xmas balls would be in ‘season’ for the incense dispensory, and the color-palate was in kingdom colors (red)…so with the addition of a crotch-flap, a wicked mantle with Warhammer insignia, and some craft foam and canvas purity seals (REALLY FUN TO MAKE), something came together over top of a traditional 14th century cotehardie.

 

Ended up winning one of the costume-competitions with it, and quite a few people recognized the ‘source material’ and yelled ‘Death to Heretics’ and other assorted loyalty pledges in my general direction.

12th Night was a BLAST. The King and Queen of Misrule were a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the various activities and the hilarious ‘mock’ awards that were given out!

Queen’s Prize Tournament 2015

Wow… talk about post-dated blog updates!

I entered Queen’s Prize Tournament last year in November! Since I totally forgot to blog about it then, I’m going to cheat now by including some of the information from my completed documentation package and then toss some photos at you! (All photo-credits go to Kyle.

But first: The finished pieces!

Heraldic Belt Fittings

Entry For: Queen’s Prize Tournament 2015, Kingdom of Ealdormere

Type of item: Velvet Belt with Heraldic Roundel Plaques.

Area of Origin: Europe (France?)

Period of origin: 14^th century

Intent: To aesthetically recreate a sample of 14^th century heraldic roundels from extant examples found on the British Museum website to the best of my ability as well as to use my own heraldic design to make a belt. It is not my intent to use entirely period methods in this project as my aim is to come as close as possible to the ‘look’ of the original.

Why this piece: I have been fascinated by heraldry since before I joined the SCA and it has been one of the most inspiring components of my recent experiences. The sights of bright banners floating on the breeze, shields propped up with their painted colors showing, and helms proudly on display all help represent the SCA experience I intend to cultivate for myself. Within two months of purchasing my membership I had submitted my heraldry (and after some edits have since re-submitted it for hopeful approval soon) and I’ve made a 14^th century cotehardie with my colors and device appliquéd on it. I wanted to challenge myself to do something that did not fall in line with my previous crafting experience, so instead of working with textiles, it seemed natural to progress into the other area where heraldry seems to be found in abundance, which was on metal belt and weapon accessories.

Above are the extant examples I was trying to replicate!

My Process:

ISSUES ENCOUNTERED:

At the time of this project’s creation, it was winter in Canada. It was not possible to perform acid-etching outside on my balcony where the temperature was too low for the chemical reactions to take place. The ‘well ventilated’ balcony had to be substituted for the not-so-well ventilated bathroom where I could run the Tupperware container of acid and brass under a continual flow of hot-water in the sink.

Figuring out the exact amount of ‘time’ to leave the brass in the acid  and checking progress  of the etch was incredibly difficult when one was holding one’s breath and terrified to go into their bathroom for fear of breathing in the potent vapors (I lacked a proper respirator)

Also, leaving the etch in the acid for too long allows copper particles to re-plate back onto the brass. Good thing was it hit the deepest etched part the worst which was going to be covered with enameling and some REALLY hard-core scrubbing seemed to polish the worst of it off.

 

Metal: Brass sheet

Acid: 2:1 ratio of H2O2 (Hydrogen peroxide) and MCl (Hydrochloric acid which is historically known as Muriatic Acid).

Time: 3 hours

Resist: Photocopier ‘toner’, Red permanent marker, vinyl stickers

Learnings: The ‘photocopy your image onto acetate’ and then iron the toner onto your brass is the BEST modern-cheat in the world. The level of detail is phenomenal and then reinforcing the resist by hand with a pen gives it that more ‘done by hand’ aesthetic of individuality.

Also: Muriatic acid is dangerous.  I should buy proper safety gear!

Here’s a picture of me being judged at QPT!

And of my display! I did coil-ring bound documentation for each of the judges.

The ‘belt’ in the front is the velvet belt I made with the plaques with my heraldry on it. Discovered: It makes me look fat. So I shan’t be wearing it.

 

Despite seeing hundreds of AMAZING and inspirational works of Art and Science, honestly, the most exciting part of the day was witnessing the amazing elevation ceremony to the Order of the Laurel (for which I had a prime viewing spot while ‘working’ entourage). She was SO beautiful and it was incredibly emotional!

I have a slightly soft-spot for this outfit because we have similar motifs in our heraldry!!! ❤

Wassail!

 

~~~~~~~~~

So….at Spring Coronation for Queen Adrielle and King Nigel, there was a ‘first attempts’ A+S tournament which was to be a project you have ‘just learned’ to do within the last year. This project qualified so I entered it and Won! 🙂 Yay!

The Coronation of Nigel and Adrielle

The Coronation of Prince Nigel and Princess Adrielle was an amazing event!!!

 

Nigel and Adrielle are the cutest couple (both in and out of the society) and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity over the last year to become close to them! Look at this stunning garb!!! Photo by Two Ravens.

The Stepping-Down/Stepping-Up ceremony was really lovely! An absolute feast for the eyes and ears as the ceremony was well-rehearsed and beautifully presented. A special touch was that the new King and Queen were anointed with imported water from a real lake in Scotland where His Majesty’s persona namesake would have lived.

There was an A+S tournament (more on this in a combined post later), Axe Throwing, Archery (I wish I’d known so I could have brought my bow!), Fencing and Armored Combat! It was a beautiful day (if not a bit chilly for the observers) and I got to see a few of the fights while running (literally) around on entourage with Her Majesty. One must be sprite-of-step and very alert to sudden movements to keep up with Queen Adrielle!!!

Lunch was excellent, so after I managed to get some food into me, Lucia and I grabbed seats for second-court in the front-row and she began to teach me how to Lucet. I was using 6 strand embroidery floss (not recommended) and despite her excellent teaching, my project got repeatedly tangled and honestly, my two or three inches of cord is probably unusable.

I was enjoying court, delighted with the number of female champions being called up and swearing fealty to the Royals, and was a bit distracted, concentrating on my crappy lucet attempts when I heard my name being called. Whoops. I dropped my lucet and sort of stumbled in a daze to kneel before the thrones. Photo by Lost Hemisphere.

I’m not entirely sure what was said to be perfectly honest, but both the King and Queen spoke about me as I knelt there, trying (and failing) not to cry, and I remember it being all good things. Adrielle held my hand as the beautiful 14th century scroll was read aloud and I received my Award of Arms.

(Illumination and Calligraphy by Jocelyn Cranewall, wording by Queen Adrielle)

It was an incredibly memorable experience, and really special coming from the two people I mildly idol-worship in the SCA. I’m very glad that my AoA was delayed until they could give it to me themselves! It was definitely a surprise as it is well-known that their Majesties don’t like to give out anything to people they know really ‘personally’ since they don’t want it to be seen as favoritism. I’m also glad they waited as it meant I had time to actually get my heraldry/name made official via registration!

Anyway…after the rush of Court, we prepared for FEAST! I have yet to attend an Ealdormere feast where I have not walked away stuffed and raving about the excellent quantity and quality of food presented to us.

The Incipient Canton of Northgeatham made beautiful table center-pieces, including hand-made candles! They really lit up the room and added wonderful atmosphere to a great evening filled with song, recitation, amazing food and of course, lovely company.

Happy but Exhausted, my new friend and travelling companion Sa’ad  and I head back home on the long 3.5 hour drive to Toronto in his wicked Mad Max inspired Jeep!

Wool Hoods! So do ya like ‘dags’?

I was given some beautiful dark blue wool (and a pattern) to make a hood! I was initially  vehemently determined to have nothing to do with liripipes as I was convinced the tail end would get caught in something or used as a leash. I chose instead to taper the blue wool hood into a gradual ‘point’ and just be ‘done with it’. That being said, the project was set aside (after being worked on at Kingdom A+S 2016 as my ‘handwork’ piece) temporarily for…something, I get very ‘oo shiny’ with my projects, and the last gusset was never installed. (Convenient as it is much easier to replicate for a pattern when not fully assembled)

The tragedy of Jo-Ann Fabrics is that they’re not in Canada, but it certainly makes the trip to visit my Snowbird parents in Florida that much more exciting! I managed to acquire some gorgeous deep burgundy (it photographs REALLY badly) wool there that was on clearance and my only regret is not finishing off the bolt. (I’m trying REALLY hard to not be a hoarder – Or rather, any more of a hoarder than I already am) Either way, I brought it home with the intention of making another hood (as if I’d finished the first one) in an alternate color, and when I started doing some research into photo inspiration on the internet, I discovered something. I  think I actually like Liripipes. Not ridiculously long ones….but some sort of tail-end to the hood that makes you look more like a medieval pimp.

Also: Dags. I’ve seen Dags I like, Dags I love, and Dags that made me question what the person who was making it/is wearing it was thinking. Dags need to suit the wearer in size, style, placement, etc, and I guess that while beauty is in the eye-of-the-beholder…you just can’t teach good taste. Tragic. While the ‘oak leaves’ seems an incredibly popular choice for highly decorated hoods, the fact that I’ve never sewn a blanket stitch in my life made me nervous about all those curves, and since I come originally from a ‘medieval FANTASY’ background in costuming, all I can think of is: Only ELVES would wear Oak leaves…. so, I went with a different shape.

Dagger Dags! The template seen here is NOT actually going to be this badly arranged when I trace and cut it out, it’s just an idea of the shape. The green is painter’s tape that I was using to check the hanging length on myself (again, thinking about proportions and shapes in reference with who is going to be WEARING it being essential). I want to leave the front open so I can put buttons up the front…which is kind of terrifying as I LOATHE button-holes and the idea of doing them by hand is already making me hate my life.

Daggery-dags cut out! I apologize for the coloration as seen in this photo, I swear it’s actually a really lovely reddish burgundy color, not this…sheep-butt brown. And there WILL be a short-medium length liripipe on this bad boy…just haven’t patterned it yet!

Anyhoo….I was intending to get this done for Coronation, but then I realized the burgundy clashes with the bright Ealdormere red of the cotehardie I want to wear at Court so….I have some black cashmere-poly blend stuff from Fabricland that I might make into a hood instead. It won’t ‘not fray’ as much as this stuff…so while it may have dags still, I’ll have to be very careful with my seam-treatment choices, and line it. I have this BEAUTIFUL silk blend fabric which has on side which is a bright gold with darker spots, and the reverse is a dark gold with brighter spots and I think I’ll be using this to line both the Black hood and this Burgundy one. The bright gold side will be used with the Burgundy one and the Darker side with the black one!

It’s all pinned and awaiting top-stitching!

Gold (fake gold) buttons, hand-stitched button-holes, and a basic blanket-stitch around the edge of the hood opening COMPLETE!

I need to figure out if I’m going to do blanket or chain-stitch around the dag edges, but this will be problematic to finish in time for coronation!

Regarding ‘Ersebet’ – Persona Reflection

As it has been some-time since my previous posts on the topic, I realize that a few changes occurred over the last year that would be relevant to discuss publicly as a matter of recording my experiences within the SCA.

Initially, I was determining an ‘era’ for my persona based on some documentation for a surname (that subsequently got rejected when I submitted it) and a style of garb. Since that time, it has come to my attention that there are plenty of other types of garb that look good, fit the figure and are more ‘stereotypically medieval’ which appeals to me aesthetically.

To put it bluntly: I drank of the 14th century goblet.

As such, I shifted my priorities.

Ersebet of Târgoviște has been registered as of January 2016 along with my heraldry: Per bend purpure and sable, a stag saliant contourny argent attired, collared and chained, a bordure Or.

Really quite glad the heraldry got accepted because I already made a dress…..

Pictured along with the heraldic cotehardie is a friend who has been in the SCA forever but who I knew at university (undergrad) in Nova Scotia.

While my heraldry is registered as ‘purpure’ (purple) I intend to continue to use it in other forms as a pink/plum/magenta color.

The “of Târgoviște” bit of the persona arrived for a few different reasons. I wanted to maintain the ‘region of origin’ being around Hungary and Romania so that I could still justify wearing a bunch of the ottoman/turkish garb that I’ve made/purchased fabric for, in addition to the more ‘western’ styles that I’ve made and LOVE. Targoviste was chosen as it was settled in the late 1300’s by Saxons, and the city (Targ means marketplace I think?) became a huge trading hub for the region, leading to fashion-influences from all over the known world! Garb-hoarder’s paradise.

So, Ersebet is a late 1300’s mid 1400’s persona from Saxon-settled Wallachia.

I’m Official.

Discovering the 1380’s Cotehardie Part 1

My partner has arrived from Atlantia! I had wanted to surprise him by offering to make him some heraldic garb with the trim I’d purchased from http://www.calontirtrim.com/ . What’d I’d bought specifically was the black and yellow ermine pattern to go with his heraldry (pending approval). What I had thought to make would be a simple, early-period tunic sort of ‘saxon style’ that would not require too much effort or fabric on my part, since I’d purchased 3 yards of black linen and 1 yard of mustard linen as accents which, for a t-tunic, would have been sufficient.

My dear Atlantian, however, had drastically different ideas. He’s early to mid 1400’s germanic, and was quite determined NOT to ever wear ‘saxon’ garb and abhorred t-tunics. In fact, none of the outfits that work well with trim such as I’d purchased, was at all interesting to him. Instead, he ended up finding after much google-searching, that if he were given the choice, he would like as a new piece of garb: A houppelande.

 While I can perhaps see the appeal of dressing like a one of these regal men at the bottom right hand corner (not really) I did not want to deal with the fabric requirements of making one as linen is prohibitively expensive in those quantities in Canada if we’re buying pure retail price.

I said “find something else!” rather vehemently, and he came up with something I feared more than costs: Buttons, and thereby, Button-holes. When he saw the parti-colored cotehardie, and became enamoured with it, he suggested we make it in yellow and black, so off we go to get some additional yellow fabric for it as well as to source appropriate buttons.

Wish me luck.