About A Bag

The Hedeby Bag that I made for the A&S table at the Quest for Valhalla event last weekend:

with documentation, whipcord spool, and sewing/embroidery samples

It went over pretty well.  And I REALLY love it, and can't wait to start using it. (We'll get to that in a minute).

The bag started with two ideas: (a) more embroidery practice, and (b) I wanted to try out a period seaming technique.  The embroidery is very simple, and uses only three stitches - chain, stem, and blanket (for the teeth on the green guy).

close up of the embroidery

The embroidery motif is an amalgam of time periods:  the stuff-inside-circles was inspired by an embroidered fragment from Oseberg (9th-10th century), but the faces inside my circles are from the Isle of Lewis Chessmen (12th century). Meanwhile, the bag itself, based on handles found at Hedeby and at Birka, is 11th century.  There's a little more leeway for "artistic license" and whimsy in some areas, and this was one of those; so this project is a bit all over the place, but the end result is still a Really Cool Thing. :)

The seam technique is one detailed by Mytte Fentz in her analysis of the shirt found at Viborg.  I really want to make a Viborg shirt for one of my clients (as soon as I can afford to buy the right fabric for it), but looking at the construction and piecing of the shirt, and at several recreations of it, I realize that although I could probably whomp out at least 60% of the shirt on the machine, it will be a much better piece if I sew it entirely by hand - and I've never made a garment entirely by hand.  There are three kinds of seams in the Viborg shirt.  Two of them are easy, but one I'd never seen before, and wanted to try out on something small, so I chose this bag.  I'm seriously impressed with the seam - it's really strong and flexible, which is exactly what you want in a garment that's going to see serious and regular wear.  (It's almost like the Vikings knew what they were doing, eh?)

Fentz's diagram of this particular type of seam.
Lining and outside, front and back, are all stitched
together at once, and the raw fabric edges are auto-
matically concealed between the lining and outside.

The seam edges are decorated by a "Viking whipcord" which I wove, and stitched on.  The documentability of whipcord is sketchy at best.  We have ample evidence of four-strand braids identical to what's produced by the SCA whipcording method, and several warp-weighted looms for weaving cloth, so we know they had the technology - but we've found no actual bobbins we can tie directly into the process of weaving whipcord.  So it's one of those "SCA-isms" that we accept because it's fun and also hey, maybe, right?  The strap of the bag is also a whipcord. 

Whipcording is meant to be a two-person activity; I usually
do it alone, with my cord suspended from a curtain rod in
a hallway doorway. 

Like.

The handles were pretty tricky, and nearly gave me a heart attack at one point.  I need glasses pretty badly, you guys - little details are starting to get away from me.  Little details like, oh, say, "Hey, this isn't solid wood, it's very thin plywood!"  which nearly cost me this entire project (mostly because I was so frustrated that at several points I nearly burned the entire thing and mailed the ashes to Sweden).

L-R:  tracing the design on my wood;  design cut out;  drilling holes for the slots where the bag would be attached

L-R:  shattered the wood while making the first slot, which is how I realized I had PLYWOOD. Argh.
Glueing the wood back together;  sanding it VERY VERY CAREFULLY.

Fortunately, it all worked out okay.  Once the handles were stained and then sewn to the bag, you couldn't even see where the break had occurred.

Yay!

I love the way this thing works.

Unfortunately, Friday night at the event (the competition was Saturday), I snapped one of the handles in half, right in the center.  I made a note on my documentation, and entered the bag anyway.  I'd already resigned myself to replacing the handles with thicker ones made of, you know, actual wood; but several people came to me at the event very excited about this opportunity to do some period, Viking-style repairs on the wood - because you wouldn't have simply thrown something away and replaced it back then, you'd fix it!  I'm kind of excited about the ideas I got; but I'm also on the fence about it.  The fact is, the wood is too thin for this application, and it's very flimsy.  I think I'll probably just replace them. I'm hoping I can scare up some nice pieces to use next week after payday.

Anyway, I freaking LOVE this bag, you guys.  And I'm really proud of it, warts and all. :)

Seriously. How can you not adore these
little guys?  <3

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Event: Quest For Valhalla

The event in Bjornsborg this past weekend was *FANTASTIC*, as Bborg events usually are.  Really great (and sometimes hilarious) fighting scenarios, nifty arts & crafts activities, spectacular persona play within the theme of the event - and as always, good friends, great food, and wall-to-wall fun. Actually, make that AMAZING food.  That was seriously one of the best feasts I've ever had.

Even though we were supposed to get a good drop in temperature, it was still too warm to wear half the Viking stuff I've been making all year.  But I did manage to get a couple of pics of me in some of it:

Simona & me

I also finally managed to get a pic of Donnchad in the yellow Viking tunic I made for him last Fall, with the red embroidery on the front placket:

Tom Hiddleston made an appearance...well, sort of:

Since this is the near-Halloween event in Bjornsborg, they held another skull-bedazzling.  I won one of the judges' favorites spots again this year, with my Frida Khalo calavera:

For a little while, I was Odin:

Odin has a migraine. Leave Odin alone.

And finally, my A&S entry, a Hedeby-style bag, about which I'll say more later this week.  Suffice to say, for now, that I love it, everyone else loved it, I broke it Friday night before I had even entered it, but now it has a story and begins to take on a life of its own, so I'm cool with it.  For now, here's a shot of it on the A&S table:

(the pretty blue beads I'm wearing in the preceding
picture were given to me by the baroness as
largesse on my A&S entry )

Make All the Things!!! (v. billionty-one)

Pics from the weekend's event are forthcoming; for now I have just a couple of recent things to share, and in no particular order:

First, a serious one.  This is a bliaut that I made for a friend, of russet-red silk with black linen lining, and trim by Calontir Trim.

I'll have pics of her in it soon, as well as some other things I've made for her.

I've finally started the process of creating some false hairpieces for the SCA out of my own hair that was removed in March of this year.  Braided tightly and unevently, they don't look like much here, but the total hair is nearly two feet long!

I've combined this pair of braids into a single hank of hair, and washed and conditioned it.  Next I'll be separating it back into a pair of even braids, and working them into a shape that I can use with my cauls, or as templar braids to be worn with my circlet.  Soon. I hope.

At the Bjornsborg Tournament of the Smitten Heart three weeks ago, I made this little guy. Since it was a pre-Halloween event, they held a "skull bedazzling contest." - and I have to say, I wasn't going to join in, but when I saw the plain plastic skulls on the table, I HAD to grab one and make a little calavera.

Lo and behold, it was one of two "judges' favorites" winners!  Squee!  My prize was a lovely stoneware goblet and a string of emerald chips...and a trip up in front of court to be recognized, so, you know: fear.  Hee.

Firstly, I love funny, mistranslated labels like this. "Preventing finger"??  LOL.

FYI, my new cot, which I purchased because I was sick to death of waking up on a flat air mattress,  also prevents the following:

• sleep
• comfort
• blankets staying on the bed
• unbruised ankles

AND this past weekend at the baronial event, I'm fairly certain that this bastard was at least half responsible for the TWO partially dislocated shoulders that I am now rocking.  OWWW.  

So yeah: fuck cots. 

More soon! 

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The Case of the Red Satin Pomegranate

I'm so excited about this I don't even know where to start.

I MADE A POMEGRANATE.  This purse was inspired first by this modern pomegranate-shaped box, made by  Michael Michaud ("I could make myself a pomegranate to wear and keep things in", I thought), and later by this gorgeous petal pouch made by Janet Granger, after an example in the book Elizabethan Needlework Accessories  Sheila Marshall ("OOH!!!")

pattern shaping and some of the embroidery

 All the of the embroidery, and most of the sewing, was done by hand.  It went fairly quickly - about four days from start to finish - since I did most of the embroidery on the red pieces during my day at the event in the Shadowlands last weekend.

The green lining and red satin outside are married with a
satin stich all the way around the top.  It took. Forever.

The green cord that laces the bag was made by me and my
friend Simona at the Shadowlands event, at a Viking whip-
cording workshop, which was REALLY fun.  The cord was
fast and easy to make, and both Simona and I plan to
continue doing this craft. 

Possibly the nicest buttonhole I've ever made by hand.
Which means it's a good example of how badly I suck
at making buttonholes by hand.  I'm getting better. 

"Leaves"

To compare to the first picture, in which the bag was
stuffed with paper towels to fill it out for the photos,
this is the bag completely empty.

And this is my very favorite thing about the bag:  the six-
rayed star on the bottom.  So pretty!  

Madylyne Does A&S (3)

I really don't.  I don't like being involved in competition or judgment of any kind, hehe.  But a friend convinced me to display my needlework bags at the display-only portion of the A&S thing at Candlemas, and so I did:

You've seen [nearly] all of these pieces before: 

• Teal satin pouch
• Linen pomegranate pouch
• Blue velvet pouch
• Red velvet (machine embroidered) bag
• Red velvet needle case
• Satin pomegranate
• Black velvet pouch 

The final two projects are new:  the satin pomegranate I just finished last week before the event; and the black velvet I've only just started.  More on those this week! 

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VIKING EPICSAUCE

Post written August 15th, 2012

Several months ago, I joined a group on Facebook called "Noblesse Largesse,"  which is an inter-kingdom A&S swap.  You fill out a survey and send it in to the coordinator (she's a great lady, and the process is very safe).  All the surveys are mixed up somehow and re-assigned:  you receive someone's survey, and based on the information about their persona that they provided, you create a gift for them of some kind and mail it to them.  Meanwhile, someone out there is making something for you, too.

[Note:  there was a bit of a mix-up with shipping, and it was a long, long time before I received word that my craft had been received on the other end.   I didn't want to post this here until she'd seen it; it didn't seem right.  Plus, on the off-chance she came across this blog? Yeah.]

The person who was assigned to me was a woman in the Outlands with a 10th century Danish Viking persona, and whose personal heraldic colors are purple and silver.  Now, I know nothing about Viking stuff, aside from the fact that they seem to like wearing lots of bling on their apron dresses.  No, seriously, that was the sum total of my knowledge.

But I knew I liked to paint boxes (as you may recall).  Along the way in my initial research, I came across these beauties:

The Bamberg Casket, 11thC Denmark/Norway
walrus ivory and gilt bronze, carved in the Mammen style

The Cammin Casket, 11thC Denmark
elk ivory and gilt bronze, Mammen style carvings

Two beautiful pieces - to which I could never do justice.  But I decided to try my hand at a sort-of facsimile with modern hobby-store materials  (the swap craft must cost you no more than $25).  Here's my version:

I don't think that sucks at all.  :) 

It's wood, hand-carved, and then treated  to resemble/feel like carved ivory or bone.

The inside is purple, for my swap recipient! 

A little purple cushion, and some trinkets to go inside:

Angels, because that's part of her heraldic device

An M, for her first name

A key, which is a symbol of a Viking woman's rule over her home, 

and a couple of veil pins, because I have like a frillion of them.  

Tomorrow I'll show you how I did it.  :)
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Yay!!!

Last Saturday I and two other members of the local Clothiers' Guild entered a competition - "outfit a new person for $30 or less", at the Stargate-Loch Sollier co-baronial event.  There were three grand prizes: one for each barony, and an overall winner - and we WON one of the baronial titles!  Hooray!

Shortly before the contest was announced, a person very kindly donated a HUGE pile of stuff to the guild - fabric, trim, buttons, lacings, yarn, and all sorts of other stuff.

The guild decided to use the donated materials to put together an outfit for this A&S competition - and since most of the fabric pieces were too small to get a whole adult piece out of, we decided to put our $30 to use making a complete kid's outfit instead: an Italian Ren for a young girl.

Franchesca did the dress and chemise (there's a removable forepart in the front that matches the sleeves which isn't visible in this picture, because someone had closed the skirt after looking at it), I did the cape and the documentation, and Simona did the little doll, which itself is handmade (and a period doll design), and which is dressed to match the girl's outfit, out of the same fabric.  How neat is that?  :)

We got a really nifty prize basket too, full of fabric, yarn, a lucet loom, some enameled wooden pendants, ribbon in kingdom colors, a fantastic art analysis book, a vial of lavender flowers, a crocquil...and other stuff!  I can't even remember everything, hehe.

Go, us!  Hee.

The entire girl's outfit will be donated to our B&B this week, to use however they see fit (loaner clothing, gift to a new member, largesse to be given in court, whatever they decide).

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A&S Sneak Preview

A bit of a thing I made over the past weekend, for an A&S competition coming up.  Some friends of mine and I are entering together, each of us working on part of the entry.  I'll post details and pics next week after the competition;  in the meantime, here's a little peek at my portion of the entry:

Rabi approves of this fabric. 

Stuff and Things

Current Projects: 

(i.e. stuff I should be blogging about in-depth, but am not, currently)

 Another wooden box! 

 Lots more charters to paint!

 Pants, pants, and more pants. 

Shirts - ditto

 Chemises - ditto! 

 WAR IS IN ONE MONTH AND I MAY DIE. 

 Pretty little silver trinket box from the thrift store. 

A&S Gift Swap

And tons, tons more. Also more Candlemas pictures to post, when I can get them sorted out.  Busy! GACK!  

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They See Me Scrollin' (Part II)

o, 'm still absolutely in love with painting scrolls (as I believe I mentioned), and I've been enjoying the heck out of learning about the art of illumination.   I'm picking up some more blank charters next Tuesday from one of our scribes, to paint and turn back in.  Medieval coloring for grownups.  Love it.  :)

Meanwhile, the original scroll competition that I mentioned is...tomorrow!  Eek!  I've been done with mine for about a week; and the longer I wait and think about it, the more nervous I am.  I don't know why I should be - I'm a beginner, and it's not like people won't understand that.  

My calligraphy basically sucks - but I've only been doing this a month, so, I'll get better.  Theoretically. (Honestly, I had no idea calligraphy involved quite so much cussing and ripping up pages and throwing pencils).   But in the meantime, I really love drawing these designs - I've been sketching out a bunch this week for practice, and to get ideas flowing.  

Here's the actual contest entry, uncolored so that it can be copied if it's one of the ones chosen to be used, as requested.  (The line and weird smushing effect in the center is because the page was too large for my scanner, and I had to scan each half and then put them together on the computer; sorry about that).

Tada.

And here's a colored example - on which the calligraphy is out of alignment, misspelled in a couple of places, and outside the text box in places.  Fail!  But I'm including as an example of the coloring, which is suggested though not mandatory for the entry.  And because I think it's pretty all colored in. :)

Inspiration piece.  I heart this.  And I got to learn quite a bit about Uttrecht illumination in the process, which is, I think, probably the thing that interests me the most about all of this.  (Not this specific style, but the "art history" aspect).











I have no illusions about even placing in this contest - I know I won't - but I'm excited at the prospect of entering anyway, just for the fun of it, the experience, the travel opportunity (the event is 2.5 hours away), and the chance to see some folks from the area who I haven't seen in months.  And the fact that I'm travelling with a good friend of mine, who's also been working on a scroll for this competition - I've had so much fun talking with her about all of it (and, as usual, she has some books on the subject I envy so much!  Hee).

Anyway, I'm off to go make a couple corrections to my documentation page and get it printed up for the trip tomorrow.

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