July In Review

I'm skipping May and June, because I did absolutely nothing SCA-related in those two months.  I took a much-needed break from SCAdian life, and focused on working on my house - gardening, painting ceilings, rearranging furniture, cleaning out the garage.

I didn't get much SCA stuff done in July, either, but I did manage to:

• finish a hat I started long ago, and I love it
• fix up an old wooden box, and paint pretty pictures on it 

The first event of the Fall 2013 season (for me) is War of Ages, on September 7th...and I have a loooooot of things to get done in August to get ready. Let the projects - and the blogging - commence! 

 

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The Little Black Box

Well, my phone ate the before picture.  :-/  

So, this is an 8x10" wooden box from the craft store, with a sliding top, about 6" deep.

This is kind of a "before" - it started out life with a sheer black stain on the wood, and the inside painted a deep wine color.

In re-doing it this time around, I painted a black border around each side, outlined with a thin gold line (extra-fine point gold paint pen), and accented it with plain ol' brass thumbtacks.  

 This is the sliding box top. Originally, it was just stained black, like the sides.  Recently I had painted the whole top blue, and stenciled a vine-y, botanical design all over it in gold paint...that I ended up hating.

So I sanded it smooth to get rid of the stencil lines, painted the whole thing black, and then painted this little scene, with the same gold paint pen outline, to match the sides.

It's not a copy of any extant scene, just inspired-by.  I absolutely adore forest scenes in medieval paintings.

This one, for example, which, unfortunately, I found via a google search and a "print vintage art for free" website which listed NO source. There were a series of these, with different animals in them. I loved the greens and blues - and the acanthus leaves in the sky!

Obviously my box top isn't nearly so detailed, but it's my first.  Give me time. :)

My pronouncement on the finished product:  doesn't suck.  

And as a rough draft/trial project for a much larger version of this, it went pretty well.

Yes, there's something much larger, and cooler, on the way.
Soon.






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How Much Do I Love Pie?

You know, for a woman who once *hated* the idea of covering my hair for the sake of periodicity (1), I sure do love my veils and hoods these days.  And now I have made my first second hat!  I've been wanting a "pie-crust hat" for some time now, like this:

Oh, wait, no, that's Adrian Paul.  This: 

hat on the left (image from the Manesse Codex)

My previous hat had one problem:  it got smashed flat in a box somewhere on the way to its first event, and I never even got to wear it.  Sadface!  A good friend of mine, H.L. Catherine de Harewell, suggested this alteration to the next design:

Yup, it's flat.  

 It pins together in the back (or the side, whatever).  This way I can pack it flat without worrying about it getting crushed!  Is that not an awesome idea?

The hat is plain white linen, all hand-stitched (I made 90% of it in the car on the way to an event), and stiffened with heavy cardstock paper.  If I end up loving this as I wear it around this fall, I'll open it up and replace the paper with something more durable; but for the time being I just want to make sure the hat wears well.  No harm wasting paper for a trial run or three.

And here it is with my uber-period cow-print cotton bandana, and v-neck tshirt.  Oh, and also my roots showing.  I should probably do something about that.

SUCCESS!  I can't wait to wear it.  I can't wait to show you the dress I'm making to go with it!  I can't wait to show you ALL KINDS of things I'm working on right now, beginning with painting my sewing room - I've already done the closet.  Busy busy!

P.S.:  a lot.  Like, a LOT a lot.  I'm famous for it.

(1) "Periodicity", coined by Lady Harewell, and used with assumed permission.  ;) 



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Ah, Ah, Ah, Ah, Stayin' Alive

Just a note to say that I'm sorry I haven't been blogging this month.  I've been:

• extremely busy out of the house
• not feeling well, physically or emotionally
• spending a lot of my free time sleeping, and trying to heal

Back soon as I can.

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It's That Time of Year Again

Boo!  Welcome back, me.  

Well, it's nearing the end of June.  This is the time of year when I always say, "I should really get x, y, and z finished this Summer at a nice, leisurely pace, so that it's all ready for event season this fall," but then I don't do a damned thing until two weeks before Fall Baronial.  Where did you say that path paved with good intentions was headed?  Oh, right. 

Still, hope is never a bad thing to have.  I don't actually have a whole lot on my plate this summer; it's just that all the projects I have are BIG ones.  The SCA projects, the home/DIY projects, landscaping projects, even a bunch of mundane sewing that I really should get to.  For the purposes of this blog, however, here's a short list of some of the stuff I'm actually excited about getting done this summer: 

• a 6-panel wooden chest.  Two, actually: one I'd like to build from scratch, and one is a wooden toy box makeover that I'm actually halfway through.  Well begun is half done! 
• a sun shade from a pretty tablecloth and some salvaged bunk leg legs 
• a medieval market stall to replace my EZ-Up pavilion.  Remember all that work I did making a canvas cover for it?  The second time I set it up after that, one of the metal struts broke, and I can't get a replacement part for it - I would have to buy a new one.  So why bother, when I can just build a period one?  
• A small leather-seated tripod stool, like this one, because I like it. 
• A new, wooden bed for my tent, made out of the old wooden bed that I built for my bedroom at home several years ago
• Some upgrades for my modern-almost-period pointy tent:  new guide ropes, mosquito netting for the inside, a curtain/drape to cover up the zippered door, and possibly 
• A new cooler cover for a cube cooler 
• A beautiful new 12th-century outfit for a couple of very cool, early medieval-themed events coming up in October and December

Not, mind you, that a thing being ON this list means that it's going to get done.  These are just things that have been on my mind since last year, mostly geared towards having a more period-feeling presence at events.  

I've got a list about this same size for the house - painting walls, repairing flooring joints, hanging light fixtures, etc. -  as well as a mundane mending pile as high as my hip, a roommate moving out, a 10-year checkup and repair list on my home...yeesh.  Suffice to say, it will either be a very busy summer for me, or a summer in which I say F* it to everything and just play video games for three months. 

See you soon...

OHAI LOOK I...never mind.

So, I ordered this fabric a few weeks ago.  It was a rayon challis jacquard, and while I knew the design had paisleys in it, from the pic on the website, they looked pretty hidden in the design.  In fact, the design looked so subtle, I didn't think you'd notice there WAS a design until you got right up close.

But then this (finally) came in the mail today:

Don't get me wrong, it's GORGEOUS.  But the fabric is insanely shiny, and both the paisleys and the giant roses that I somehow had either not noticed or forgotten were there catch the like like crazy and it's basically all you can see.

Soooo not SCA-able.  Into the stash of "WTF do I make with this?" it goes.  My roommate suggested a cocktail dress, but, when the heck do I ever need anything like that?  I don't go anywhere I'd need a cocktail dress.  But I have no clue what else I'd do with it.  I'll figure it out someday.


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Oops...again.

I am *terrible* at keeping up with my Month In Review posts, you guys.  They're mostly just for record-keeping purposes, anyway - makes it easier to find things six months from now, you know?  So anyway, here's 2013 so far:

January: 

• couple of plastic masks for a masked ball that I ended up not attending, lol
• was on a cruise, so not much else happened :) 

February: 

• made some stamps!
• learned to crochet snoods
• made over an old Burgundian into my new red velvet Italian 
• hanging candle plate
• painted a blue wooden box (ended up keeping my sewing/embroidery/art supplies in it)
• embroidered (badly) little red needle case
• altered my red linen dress
• more period underwear
• another purse
• Made a cover for my metal EZ-Up canopy (the frame broke in April, by the way)
• finished my blue belt
• 
  

March: 

• another mask  - once again, I ended up not going to the ball, lol
• "period cigarette case" (and I quit smoking in May, lol)
• two embroidered purses finished
• GULF WAR! 

April: 

• started work on my first silk banner for me
• another snood
• brown linen Italian
• paper fan

So far, for the month of May, I've been working solely on projects for my house, which you can see over on that blog.  I haven't been eventing, and I probably won't be eventing throughout the coming summer, or working on much, SCA-wise, as I'm about to be astounding low on funds until this coming fall when my financial situation will right itself again (long story, though not a huge deal in the long run).  

I will, however, be working on a new bliaut for myself, for the Fall Baronial event in October;  and I'll likely be crocheting more stuff, making more jewelry, and doing other small accessory-type projects with materials I already have on hand.  So, while posting may be sporadic, and likely not all that impressive, I'll be *here*.  See you all soon. :) 

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Silk Banner 1.0, Part 2

The banner is finished!  Okay, well, more of a flag...and there's actually a proper, period term for this kind of flag, but I can't remember it for the life of me. But HERE IT IS:

That's:

• one yard of 45" white silk charmeuse
• Dye-na-flow paints
• black Pebeo gutta (resist)                              ...all from Dharma Trading Co. 
• a tapestry hanger that I think is actually Balinese; I've had it forever
• a scrap length of gold trim that I just pinned in place on the hanger

The finished flag is 20"x25";  you can see in the picture above that I set it up in the corner of the fabric.  The extra space around it got painted, too:  I'm not ready to show it off yet, but I painted part of the extra silk red, and other parts black, and made both a small pennant to fly from the top of my tent, and a long, thin, silk belt to wear with my leather ones.  :)  More on those later. 

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