It is definitely getting to be spring, and that can only mean one thing... it's dyeing time!

I have some commissions I really need to get off my plate, but after that, I have a few experiments that I would like to run, not the least of which is with woad. I will be ordering some woad from abroad in the next few days. If you would like some, please let me know and I will add your order to mine to save on the shipping. I'm going to get some woad balls (semi-processed woad leaves) from one company - they seem to be about $8 for about 100 grams. I am also going to order some woad powder (more completely processed) from another provider at $15 for 25 grams (they also have 10 gram packs for $8). I also may be ordering some weld (500grams for about $15) and madder extract ($9 for 25 grams). I'm not sure what the shipping will be, but I suspect it won't be too bad - it's coming from overseas, but they should be small packages.

If anyone is interested, please let me know by noon on Wednesday so I can place the order.

Oh! And for those of you wishing you had Jenny Dean's Wild Color, this is not an adequate substitute, but it is a lot of fun to see what she's up to these days and she does seem to give new recipes pretty regularly!   http://www.jennydean.co.uk/wordpress/

Remember the psalter they pulled out of the bog a few years ago?

The Museum of Ireland has some info up about it here if you want to take a look-see.

It's been a good week for digitized books. This time we have the Islamic manuscript collections from Princeton.

I've not posted for awhile, and so there are a few quotes, exciting websites, and other tidbits I've stored up to share... just thinks I like or find interesting - read, skim, or skip. :)

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Print on demand rare books!

Thanks to Cornell University, Google books, and Amazon.com, many books that are rare and out of print are now available as print-on-demand documents. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept - books are digitized, then printed and bound only when a copy is requested. It is more expensive than printing and binding thousands at a go, but more cost effective than storing thousands of copies of a book that will only sell a few copies a year. This particular program has the dual purpose of recording old books before they crumble and making those books available to interested readers. I saw little for the SCA period, but it is a cool book geek thing!

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb09/AmazonPOD.ws.html
http://bookstore.library.cornell.edu/project.html

*****

This is one of those words that people often confuse and/or misuse or simply misunderstand (as in the example context) and then miss part of the meaning of the scene. 

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gwyneth1362

Apparently, the post office attempted a delivery on Saturday, but no-one answered the door, so I had to wait in the agony if anticipation until this morning to go pick up the parcel. As I suspected, it was the Janet Arnold books! The box looked like it had been kicked repeatedly and dropped down a long flight of stairs, but the books are fine. They are now patiently awaiting their owners in my trunk. (OK, so one is on my desk here at work. :P) I snuck a peek, and it is soooo tasty! :) I'm trying to not let it distract me until lunch... Or maybe my morning break...

If you ordered one, I'll have them at the Stock Pavilion or at Boar's Head. :)

Patterns of Fashion 4: The cut and construction of linen shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear and accessories for men and women c. 1540 - 1660: 4

I'll be placing an order in the next few days. Let me know if you want in to save on shipping... It is usually 30 pounds but it is on sale at amazon.co.uk for 15 pounds - even after shipping, that is the cheapest I have found. I think it will be about $35 after tax, shipping, et al and we should have them by Boar's Head.

Nom nom nom... Tasty linen...

While it contained any amount of serious material, Portmahomack's author, Professor Carver, has a wicked sense of humor that pokes out now and again. Of his various wisecracks, behold my favorite:

"The early monks of Britain and Europe were intrepid and hardy, not so much the contemplative recluse, more the soldier of Christ. Like soldiers, they expected to suffer and took pride in resisting pain, staying alive and winning. In this context, one can perhaps better understand why these groups contained few women, relying as they did on that peculiar form of inebriated obstinacy that is reinforced by male bonding."

*sigh*

I'm so homesick for a place I've never lived... Who knew that in picking my persona I would develop such a strong attraction to the land and history of my chosen ancestors? And yet, it is somehow so. For a few years, I was a regular visitor in Scotland and got to know well its feel, its sound, its smell. There is a place there where I feel at  home in my soul, where I stand on a peaty hill breathing in deeply the smell of smoke, looking across fields of deep heather to the crashing, singing sea, tasting its salty spray on the wind... and knowing a deep stillness called peace. It has been some years since I've been there, and I miss it. It feels as if some corner of my life is missing, like a favorite book from one's childhood, remembered fondly but misplaced. Gone, but retrievable if only I look hard enough...

I'm missing it keenly tonight, having just finished Portmahomack: Monastery of the Picts by Martin Carver. It was a difficult book to obtain but I finally got my filthy hands on it yesterday and between last night and now, I devoured it. It is the initial report of the excavations at St Coleman's Church in Portmahomack - the first discovered Pictish monastery. That alone would make it worth reading, but I actually got to take part in some of the dig (as well as assisting with some work at Fearn Abbey)... and, unless someone else had a bright blue sports car at the site during the excavation of the vellum-making workshop, my rental car is in at least one of the published photos. :) In the book's pages, I recognize places dear to my heart - The Castle Inn in Portmahomack, Hilton of Cadboll, Nigg, Fearn, Shandwick, Tain, and more - and faces of acquaintances and friends made in my travels - Cecily Spall and Barry Grove, most notably. Old friends are found among the authors cited too - the Hendersons, Adomnan, Allen and Anderson, Anna Richie, Rosemary Cramp, Bede, Stuart - familiar names from history - Aud the Deep-Minded, Ketil Flat-nose, Mac Beth, and so on - and historical names that are writ large in my consciousness, if invisible to many - Nechtan, Eoganan, Oengus, and more...

It's a good book, with important content, but tonight it's value is mostly emotional, with memories and dreams of Pictland calling me home...

Usually, I very much enjoy reading Real Simple - a home-and-garden type magazine, "Martha Stewart for people who don't have that kind of time or money," as I like to joke.

However, this month they had some bookcase decorating tips that are seriously out-of-whack with my aesthetic sense and just plain availability of space. Even in the "lots of books" category their expert says "I'd never place more than 30 or so books vertically without breaking the line with a pretty object" and "leave at least one quarter of each shelf empty to give a sense of airiness." Eeep? I like to put something at the end of a shelf, provided there is a space, but to follow this "rule" I'd need a lot more bookcases... and I already have 14 in the house, not counting those owned by roommates or the ones holding non-book items!

However, I suspect my book-related reality is not in line with the rest of the country... :P  It's just my dorky friends that make me feel normal. (Thanks zandoria!) 

While in Boston, I absolutely fell in love with a portrait in the Isabella Stuart Gardner Gallery. We had seen any number of really beautiful items, but this one simple blew me away. I stopped dead and stared at it, I lusted after the gown and cursed that the museum did not allow photography. Once we got the to gift shop, I further cursed that there was not a single good picture of the painting in any of the guidebooks or postcards. Tragedy!

They did, however, have pictures of one of my other favorite pieces of the collection, Juana of Austria with a young girl by Sofonisba Anguissola.



I had seen Sofonisba's work before and had been interested to learn more about her.

I got a little derailed reading A Perfect Red and Moda a Firenze, but before long had several books on Sofonisba from the library. Ironically, reading Moda and Red first were helpful, as they helped me understand and appreciate some of the details in Sofonisba's work and understand the general time and place where she grew up.

Sofonisba was born in Cremona around 1532. As the daughter of a nobleman, being allowed to be educated as and work as a professional painter were somewhat unusual. However, she was quite talented, so these studies paid off and she was able to study under Campi, Gatti, and even (to some small extent) Michaelangelo. She came to specialize in detailed, intimate portraits, including self portraits and many of her immediate family.


The Chess Game (Check out those dresses! See why I love her?)

The new icon (see above) is also of Sofonisba, in one of my favorite of her self-portraits. I really am tempted to make her outfit... Also, I recently discovered that my hair is finally long enough to wear in such a style again (braided, then looped up around the top of the head). Happiness. :)

In 1559, Sofonisba was invited to come to Spain to be one of the court painters. There she befriended the newly arrived queen, Elizabeth of Valois and eventually the Infantas Isabella Clara Eugenia and Catalina Micaela.


Portrait of Queen Elizabeth by Sofonisba


Portrait of the Infantas by Sofonisba

Sadly, the Queen died young. Sofonisba stayed in the Spanish Court for some time, as painter and governess to the girls, but eventually the King of Spain arranged a marriage for her to a son of the Prince of Paterno. She was 38 or so at the time of this first marriage, quite old for a first time bride! While it seemed to be a reasonably happy marriage, she outlived him to marry again (at the age of 47!) to Orazio, who was to be the love of her life. They settled together back in Italy where, against all the odds, she happily painted and lived with her husband for nearly another fifty years.

Toward the end of her life (1623), she was visited by the young artist Van Dyke, who drew and painted her on several occasions and took notes on her recommendations for said works. Having recently been in contact with the Archduchess of Austria, he could have been bringing her letters and greetings on his visit as well, but that information is not actually recorded anywhere. Sofonisba died in 1625, aged 93 years.


Self portrait from 1610, about 80 years old

On the 100th anniversary of her birth, her husband placed an her tomb a commemorative stone that reads, in part:

"To Sofonisba, my wife...who is recorded among the illustrious women of the world, outstanding in portraying the images of man... Orazio Lomellino, in sorrow for the loss of his great love, in 1632, dedicated this little tribute to such a great woman."





Oh, and the name of that Archduchess of Austria? Isabella Clara Eugenia, the little Infanta Sofonisba knew as a child and the beautiful lady whose portrait so enchanted me at the Isabella Stuart Gardner Gallery in Boston.



Isabella Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria (1566-1633), c.1598
Frans Pourbus II
Oil on canvas, 134.9 x 98.2 cm 
© Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

My thanks to the wonderful folks at the museum who were so kind as to send me a *huge* scan of the beautiful portrait, so that I may study it in greater detail.

Please bear with me, this is a longish post... It has been a busy and difficult week with no posts, so now I have a bucket of little tidbits saved up that have been simmering for a few days - some brain stew, if you will. I likely will have one or two significant posts on specific topics in the coming days, but to get the little stuff out:


Linen
The first batch of linen came in. The good news? It will be $4/yard. The bad news? It is significantly lighter weight than the previous batches from this seller. I have some linen from other sources just arrived or enroute (from jtdiii and other dealers) so I should be able to fill all the orders for light-medium weight black linen, but I now have some excess 55" wide black handkerchief weight (~3.5 oz) linen for sale. I have about 60 yards, $4 a yard while it lasts - comment or email.  The gold linen is also in and cut, so orders for white, black, gold, and brocade linens will all be available for pickup at Coronation.


Birdies
Tweet and Derelei have pretty obviously decided to be a bonded pair and she has been making nesting-type gestures for a bit now, so I bought her a nesting box. However, this as brought issues with Astrid to a head - the boys were willing to accept the box as Tweet's and only Tweet's. They quickly clued in that they should not mess with it beyond the occasional nibble on a corner. Astrid is naughtier though. She was all interested in the box and, even after some pretty solid smack downs, insisted on messing with it. Nevermind that before this time she showed no interest in nesting and, even if she were interested, her potential partner options are... erm... poor. I lurves the boys, but they are somewhat lovably defective. I'm not even sure that they are clear that she's a girl. I eventually had to separate them so poor Astrid is spending some time in "birdie jail" - a smaller cage I keep for such eventualities. I'll give them a few days to cool down and then see if giving Astrid a box too will solve the problem. Keep your fingers crossed for me...


Work
Gods, work is eating my brainz. It is public enough now I can explain. Care Wisconsin is part of the Wisconsin Partnership Program (WPP) that serves at-risk populations of special needs patients. Care Wisconsin's population is almost 700 frail elderly patients. One of our sister WPP organizations, Community Living Alliance (CLA), serves Developmentally Disabled (DD) and Physically Disabled (PD)  populations. For a variety of reasons, they will be transferring all their Partnership patients to us as of May 1. That is nearly 400 extremely complicated patients suddenly joining our plan all at once, for a total census of 1,100 patients for whom I am responsible. Yoiks. This also means that since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services won't let the get rolled into our existing formulary, I have to maintain and report on two separate programs through the end of the year (read: gigantic headache). Plus, the Nurse Practitioners at CLA are not used to our model of practice, so there will be a huge amount of adjustment and hand-holding in the coming months as the new staff and patients are integrated. I will have some pharmacy help for the month of May and we are looking to hire someone ASAP, but with the pharmacist market being what it is, I'm not very hopeful. We have a great work environment, great benefits, and we are doing good work. However, it is hard work and the compensation is below average, even for Madison, so it is hard to attract people away from the "big guys" like the UW and Walgreens. Throw in the added fun of developing the 2009 formulary and my days are packed and often long.


Sewing
I am so inspired by the books I have been reading, the files I have been obtaining from museums, and the lectures I went to in Milwaukee. Now I just need 20 yards of a scrumptious white and gold brocade, 100 yards of matching narrow trim, 40 yards of matching wide trim, 15 yards of a scrumptious velvet, 50 yards of compatible trim, 500 pearls, 1000 free hours to work on it and a budget of $4000 to appropriately accessorize. :P The late period stuff is so pretty, but SO expensive. (Note to all y'all beginning sewers - more expensive to do it right, not actually and harder, however.) At least I have a giant stash of pearls... Anyway, dread_ex, ladyroisin, relativelylucid, casslee, corvusjoyous and likely others will hopefully benefit from my recent studies as they have clarified how to correct some issues I've seen in dresses and how to go about correctly drafting others... Now just to find at least some of that time and motivation...


Library Woes
Some of you heard me complaining last week that I needed to return one of the books in my "permanent collection" - books hardly anyone else ever needs or uses and so live on my bookshelf where I can refer to them at my leisure, as I use them regularly. (whymc refers to his as his "remote library storage facility" so I'm not the only one...) However, I have not been good about checking my UW email this semester and, to my horror, I discovered last week that not only did some wretched little undergrad RECALL my book, but I was a miserable library patron and it was now overdue. Now this did not present a financial problem - the UW does not charge overdue fines - it DID however pose a problem for using ILL (Inter Library Loan) services, which were the reason I was logging in at all. Blast and Damn. So, I swiftly returned the book so I could have my ILL rights reinstated.

Tonight, I discovered that the wretched little undergrad who recalled the book was none other than
jinglymushroom... who was recalling it forilaifire. ;P At least I know the boy is using good sources.


May Day/Jararvellir's 35th Anniversary
Jara's Anniversary event (May 3) is coming up quite rapidly. The theme this year is an educational symposium. While there are a fair number of classes already on the schedule, we could use more. Please contact me if you would be willing to teach! My "One Kingdom" track only has one opening left, but there are many throughout the day. Also, Jara folk in particular - get in your Baronial and AoA recommendations ASAP so I can start plotting to give people what they des... errr... to reward people appropriately. ;)


Quest
I am planning on attending Quest this year and just bought the airline ticket, so I am pretty firmly committed. (It falls in May when I will be having back-up at work, so by god I'm going...) Since I don't get out to that end of the Kingdom terribly often, I am thinking about offering a class or two. Last time I was out there (Crown Tourney, Fall 2007) I offered both Research and the Pictish Tunic classes. Both of those classes had only about a half dozen students each, so it probably would be OK to do either or both of them again, but I have many others in the repertoir, including Pictish history, Whipcording, 10 sewing tips in 5 minutes or less apiece, dyeing, misc sewing and embroidery techniques, autocratting, waterbearing,  rapier armor/garb, beginning illumination, surviving War, building a period/periodiod kit, etc. plus others that could be developed based on interests/needs. The dyeing and C&I ones would be harder to transport materials for and/or teach in uncertain outdoors conditions, but the rest are do-able. Any of you folks with more of a grasp on the interests and needs of the West end of the Kingdom want to chime in on what I should offer to teach (either from the list or as a wish-list?)? Conversely, anyone who has been to Quest, could you tell me what you most recommend about the event?


Yay! That's all for now! Watch tomorrow for either a report on inspirational research or a session on pharmaceutical education, depending on time and my whim. Maybe you'll be "lucky" and get both.

...for geek supplies, at least...


Books:
As previously noted, I have purchased a lot of books in the last week and just in time. I've been sort of sedentary the last few days, but that means that I have devoured four tasty books and my backlog of Newsweek and Discover magazines. My head is full and happy.  As a bonus, The Benedictional of St AEthlwold finally appeared today, so I have some quality geeking for tomorrow, since I am not able to make SUN.

Fabric:
I have 50 yards of lovely black cotton twill and 50 more of soft white linen-cotton in my living room. Mean ol' mightyjesse is coming to take half of it away tomorrow, but happily jtdiii may be sending me more goodies soon. ;) I probably will also place an order for a few yards of that linen brocade in the next week - if anyone else wanted some, please contact me with the quantity by Sunday. (Again - white linen brocade, 58" width, about $10/yard, 6.5 oz, acanthus leaf type pattern, delivery at Coronation or Jara Practice.)

Dyeing supplies:
Likewise, next week Earthguild is having a sale for their regular customers- 15% off! I am planning on ordering a fair bit of Retayne since I am almost out again. For those of you not familiar with it, Retayne is a color-locking substance that you use in the first wash of a fiber to reduce fading and crocking. I have been pretty pleased with the results, as far as I can tell, since I have not run any side-by-side trials, but it does seem to reduce bleeding. Generally I tell people to get it from Merlion's Tail, but I have now tried to get it from them three times without success at events, so I'm just going to order it in bulk. :P Let me know if you want a bottle (about $6.50, depending on shipping, etc) but only if you can pick it up at the UW Stock Pavilion or Coronation. Anybody else, just order it individually from either Merlion's Tail or Earthguild. It will be a little more pricey, but it's good stuff.

Toys:
I may have not one, but two good options for site tokens for the Griffin's Needle Challenge - period thimbles or bone stilettos for making eyelets. I still need to see examples of the objects and bulk prices before I commit, but it is nice to have options this early in the game. I also procured a lovely Roman thimble as part of the prize for the Pyxis' Pleasure division - I hope to put together a little basket of authentic sewing supplies and some related period artifacts and/or reproductions. Geeky goodness! Now I just need to figure out what I am doing for my token for Bardic... I have some ideas, but none that have really come together yet - I still have a month, however.

OK, back to book consumption...

I have had a few very successful days of second hand book shopping.

Inspired by Toshikage's quest for cheap copies of the Book of the Courtier, I went to the local Half Price Books. Sadly, no copies in Madison, either. I DID however, make some nice finds, including A Perfect Red (on cochineal), The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death, and Unconquored Knight (the contemporary biography of a 15th c Spanish Count), amongst others. Yum.

Today was one of the red letter days for Madison bibliophiles though - the Friends of the Library Booksale at Memorial Union. They are open until Saturday (when books are $3/bag), so if you did not get a chance to go today, all is not lost...

I found many books with good illustrations of late period garb, a gorgeous reproduction of a German missal, books on both the Sutton Hoo Ship Burial and the Mildenhall Treasure, and...



A copy of the OED. Geekgasm.



Of course, I do have access to the online edition, but I've always wanted a hardcopy for mine very own. I still want a copy of the full-sized edition sometime, but this will sate my lexicological lust for now...

Last night ego_id_non_feci came over after work. I knew she was going to have a stressful day, so I had prepared some de-stressing materials for her. First, I have been educating her about Scotch, so we each had a Scotch monkey of Glenlivet 12. Yum! Then I also had a tasty, tasty new book to share - Moda a Firenze. I splurged and bought it and cannot say I regret it in the least. All y'all late period folks need to appreciate how lucky you are to have such wonderful portraits and freaking EXTANT GARMENTS to work from when doing research. It is so easy it is almost cheating. Fun cheating, pretty cheating, but cheating. :P

Speaking of  ego_id_non_feci , last night she had pictures for me of my last torturing the kids day. I went and taught them about microorganisms. Many of them have been sick, so they were interested in germs and such. We talked about bad germs and good bacteria, and yeast-y beasites and then made bread. For the explosion part of the experiments, we had a yeast volcano. *grin* D, my little buddy, just could not contain himself - he had to be touching my table, the experiments or me, pretty much all afternoon.


Showing the yeast bubbles in bread, with D sticking his head into the photo. :)


Kids consuming their little loaves.

Heh. After the little monsters made the bread I had SO many little floury handprints on my pants from around-the-knees hugs. Happily, the little loaves apparently turned out OK, even with the rough and probable over-kneading they received.

Now... just to come up with not-too-dangerous things to do with fire, the next topic that has been requested...

I'm usually not much of one for anime, but corvusjoyous had some friends over tonight for a geekfest. They played a board game and then came downstairs to watch a movie. I was going to flee and get out of their way, but I was perusing Oxbow's most recent sale catalog and so stayed attached to my square-headed boyfriend. (Yum! I want a spare $15,000 so I can get all the books I want, including the facsimile editions of the Luttrell Psalter and the Lindesfarne Gospels. ilaifire, I really wish I had the cash sitting around to have this magically appear at your door...)

But I digress (and drool)... The geeks watched Howl's moving Castle and I was enchanted with a little fire demon creature named Calcifer. He was just an adorable hungry little blob, so I decided to make him.



A quick and silly project, but a lot of fun! 

So, it has been a busy couple days to weeks and I have a number of things I have been wanting to blog, so here comes a brain dump. Heavily cut for those who don't care or only want to read a topic or two...

I have gotten three things I have very much wanted tonight -

1) I have a front closet! It is now just for coats and outerwear, complete with gorgeous cherry wood and black metal hangers. Larger parties will still need to resort to coat piles, but there are now two dozen hangers just awaiting guests' coats to hold. The baronial banners have gone upstairs to live in the guest room...

2) I have a guest room/library! Granted, ideally, I would like to have both a library and a guest room, but for now the combination will do. ;) I am just so pleased that, once offered welcome and guest-right, I have a snug little place to put my guests. I can now house two in reasonable luxury on feather beds covered in down comforters, around four before we need to begin filling couches, at least eight before anyone hits the floor. Half the guest room closet is reserved for guests' effects and extra bedding, the other half for the Barony's more fragile fiber-related items.

3) My house was full of love and laughter, even if it did not belong to me... There is a joy and deep contentment in my soul to see happiness and love shared between those who so richly deserve it. A much less intangible and much more valuable thing than either of the other above sources of happiness.

...Or what many of you would mundanely call “libraries.”

A few years ago, it became my habit to, when visiting large or historical cities, to attempt to visit their central library branch. Often, these buildings are large, beautiful structures and contain untold treasures in their holdings. Boston and New York are certainly no exceptions and in both cases, I was most pleased to be able to visit the premises and some small part of the collections.

In a review of "The King of Elfland's Daughter":

"...it assumes that events have consequences, and that dreams and the moon matter (but cannot be trusted or relied upon)..." - Neil Gaiman