And now for the part *I* really want to blather about - MY team's entry!



We did Pictish, of course. My team this year was the apprenti (HRM Elizabeth, AEthelwahl, and Katlyn) and my Mama. This is sort of cheating, since my Mama is pretty much a human sewing machine and we were in the Pyxis division and were not supposed to be using anything mechanical. ;)

The Inventory:
Pre-made or purchased:
Bronze Mirror and Bone Comb - gifts, not made on site, but critical to the image of a Pictish Woman
Large brooch - St Ninian's Isle Treasure reproduction from Raymond's Quiet Press
Small duck-headed brooch - from The Crafty Celts - ducks like Pictish Brooch in the Met
Belt Buckle - also from Raymond's Quiet Press - Anglo-Saxon design with a pelta on the end, a motif common in Pictish art
One shoe - premade by AEthelwahl
Lampworked beads on necklace - by Moira nic Connell the Strongbow
Hairpin - purchased bead epoxy'd to a pin by Mr. S

Made or Assembled on site:
Coat - green and white handwoven wool tabby - wool trim cardwoven on site - handsewn and seams finished
Gown - brown wool twill - wool trim cardwoven on site - neckline embroidered with linen - handsewn and seams finished
Undergown - yellow linen twill - seam embellishment in blue linen - handsewn (seams not finished yet)
Belt - wool, cardwoven on site - assembled with purchsed belt buckle
One shoe and embroidery on both shoes' openings
Amber and Jet necklace

I was pretty happy with the outcome. I would like to have done more embroidery and maybe some more accessories. I did not account for how long it was going to take to do the cardweaving with the wool. It kept wanting to felt to itself and tangle and...ugh! PITA! But, this was my very first and second cardweaving projects (coat trim and belt), so I'll tak it as a win that I powered through it and got enough of it done for this project. Maybe next time I will try waxing the wool first...

We did get a few comments about no head covering, so I guess I need to revise my documentation to be clearer - There are examples of Pictish headcoverings, but they are only hooded short capes on crossbow hunters and hooded long tunics on monks - no individual hats or veils or hoods on women. (The only maybe veils appear on three women at the bottom of a crucifix - probably the three Marys, so probably not more widely applicable.) 

And then there was that big fat meanie judge - cassbunny ! She gave me negative wow! points because I would not let her keep my bling. *pout* ;P

All in all, a good time. There was that 6am "what insane sadistic bastard thought this was a good plan?... Oh. Yeah." but it is cool to look at the final product and see that wow, we did this really awesome thing. :)

This weekend we held the Griffin Needle Challenge in Jararvellir and, now that I have slept a bit, I would like to offer a report and thanks. Apologies for any inaccuracies or omissions – some details doubtless have escaped me from tiredness…

 

We had nine teams compete in the Challenge. In the Intermediate category, we had the Handmaidens (and Huscarl) of Doom created a reproduction of the Skjoldeham find,the Flying Monkeys created an Italian gown, and the Byzantine Bobbins created their interpretation of Theodora’s outfit from the mosaic at Ravenna. In the Advanced category, Their Royal Highnesses’ Pleasure took on TWO outfits, making a gown and sideless surcoat for Her Highness and matching outfit for His Highness, and the House of Thornes sewed a German woman’s outfit. Lastly, in the Pyxis Division, Oni-Saru made a man’s Japanese outfit, G Force: Death, Dark, Blood made outfit including a coat and jupon _also_ for His Highness, Equestrians and Company created a Middle Eastern woman’s outfit, and Rusty Nails and Regular Beatings created a Pictish woman’s outfit.

 

There are already pictures up on Facebook and I am sure Shava will have hers up shortly.

 

First, I would like to thank my staff. Thanks to Shava and her staff who manned the gate and to the gate staff, Greta, Josceline and the others who acted as chatelaines as our presence garnered attention from all the hotel guests who came to Madison for the Badger’s Homecoming game and were surprised to find a sewing competition. Greatest thanks to Iohanna and her food-prep helpers - we were well fed all night and all day with tasty, nutritious, low-stain potential options and lots of munchies. Special thanks to the Judges – Ivan Matfeevich Rezansky, Robert the Stout, Roxelana Bramante, Cassandra of the Western Green, Marwen, and Niccolo Falconetto. In many ways, I think your jobs were the hardest! Lastly, thank you to all the competitors! This event, by definition, cannot happen without you. It was an exhausting, insane, AMAZING time and I hope you all had as good a time as I did!  

 

Oh, and while winning is not the point of the Challenge, the winner in each division is listed last in the above list. There were small prizes for the winners, but the real prize is the bragging rights, so congrats to Byzantine Bobbins, House of Thornes, and Rusty Nails and Regular Beatings!

 

For those of you who were unable to make it, you missed a wonderful event and a great display of the talents we have among us. Take a look at the pictures, talk to the folks who competed, and consider joining us next year!

 

Once again, thank you all… Now I’m off to sleep…

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There really is just too much over Pennsic to do more than summarize the best parts of it.

We arrived very late on Friday night. It was dark and cold and wet. I made the executive decision that I would rather pay for a hotel room than try to set up in that. Hurray for one last night in a real bed!

I took two classes from Ragnveig Snorradottir - Viking Domestic Architecture and Denmark before Jellinge - they were both wonderful and I can highly recommend her as a teacher if you ever get out to Pennsic.

My classes were a smashing success! I had about 35-40 in my Pictish World class. The real winner was the Beautiful Rolled Hems class, though! I literally had eighty or more people show up! When I did the "magic" part of the stitch, the class went wild. The last row actually stood up and applauded... and the class next door came over to find out what the hell was going on. *grin* Since it was such a fast class, though, I snuck in a second class on whipcording for those that wanted to stay. (Spread the disease, spread the disease!) Even better, for the rest of the event,  I had random people scurry up to me to show me their just-completed projects. :) Happiness.

Revelation: People are willing to pay a reasonable amount for extensive handouts, provided they are quality handouts. Resolution: Must revise handouts so the Pictish World can have a freebie basic handout and an optional for-sale nice, fat illustrated packet . Nummy.

I finally got to meet judithsewstoo  in person. We geeked, the apprenti and I took her class, she gave me some tasty silk string and I gave her some feedback on her class.

Tuesday rocked. Waterbearing, classes, hanging out with the apprenti, fun in camp, the Northshield party, and a tipsy stumble home under starry skies. Splendid.

Apparently, I can corrupt people by osmosis - I got one of the Greyfox boys to start handsewing a linen tunic in camp. :) For some crazy reason, he wanted more than 3 shirts and asked for help picking out fabric, which I did... He looked disappointed that he would need to wash and dry it before he could do anything with it, but I then helpfully offered that I could show him how to cut it out of a piece of washed and dried linen that I just happened to have on site... I explained the stitches and the construction steps and offered to help him sew it, but by then he wanted to do it all himself. Hurray!

Further geeky fun - Bardic Bread around the fire and the "Greyfox A&S Pavilion" on our porch. :) It was too cold Wednesday night toget the bread to rise, but I baked over the fire on Thursday and Friday nights. Friday night I even got to try out a new yeast starter that was sent to me by one of the mercenary households. I only used about half, so now I have a little zoo on my countertop at home.

I took a very interesting and useful class about working on parchment and bought some calligraphy toys. I must talk to Gustov about some of what I learned/remembered.

The courts were full of twelve kinds of goodness. Congrats to everyone, especially our Draco Incarnates Leif and Astrid and to the geek-boys Duncan and Svein! :)

We made good time on the road home, got only moderately lost in Chicago, stayed mostly awake on I-90 (hurray for paying missed tolls online), and my traveling companion and I still liked each other when we got home. :)

Cool purchases: forged nails, pumice stones, soapstone for a viking lamp, jet beads, bone dice with ring-and-dot pips, and a giant silver button.

Best thing I learned: a completely stoopidly easy way of making circle/dot marks like are seen on so many early period artifacts. I can't believe it didn't ever occur to me, it was so obvious... Sometimes it's the simple things...

Best acquisition: A very nice mirror from Northstar Armories. I've wanted a period mirror for a long time but the ones I found were either ugly or not up to my standards in some way. This one is delicious in all ways and has a really spectacularly clear reflective side - most ot the metal mirors are a little on the fun-house mirror side. The mirror is modeled on the Trelan Bahow mirror, which is early even for me, but is essentially the same as those seen on the Pictish Symbol Stones. I found it after I spent my war budget, though, so I was foolishly waffling about it... but then Mr. Svein bought it for me as a War Prezzie. The first thing I did that night was sew a linen baggie to protect it. :)



See info on the mirror here and on general bronze age mirrors here.

Yay, War! Its good to be home, but I already miss it...

Links mostly for my own use...
( links )

I am often cold and so have long lusted after goldfrog’s tasty wool Viking coat. I finally had a chance to make one of my own. I used my standard Pictish gown pattern, with a few little modifications: additional ease, a v-neckline, and a front split.

 

The wool is a gorgeous red-purple I have had on hand for some time and just never got around to using. When washed, it only shrunk a little, but fulled up nicely. I am not certain, but based on the descriptions I’ve read, I think it may be close to the highly-prized Irish red-purple. The black is remnants off a project so old I don’t remember what it was (maybe a cloak for corvusjoyous? whymc?). The whole garment is hand-sewn with silk thread in the construction and linen embroidery floss for the accent embroidery.

 

The front-fastening pin is purchased and modern-ish, but in a Viking design. I’ll look into upgrading at War. ;)

 

While I hate back-documenting, I realized partway through the project that there IS evidence that the Picts wore outerwear similar to Viking coats, a seen on this Pictish stone at the Meffan Institute.

 

 

My coat is lengthened from a man's short jacket to a woman's full coat, of course, and this is clearly still not great documentation, it's just that, while I am generally pretty comfortable with stealing from neighbor-cultures due to the limited information on Pictish clothing, this makes me feel somewhat better about the whole thing... Besides, while it will generally be worn with my Pictish finery, I think it completes the Viking look quite nicely. :)

Warning - apprentic brag - Of course, what REALLY completes the look are my sexy, sexy Coppergate socks that were a birthday present from the lovely and talented mightyjesse :

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...

I'm a bit belated in making introductions, but I would like to introduce all of you on my friends list to my very first student of Pictish Studies! Welcome to judithsewstoo! She is a lady out of the Shire of Dernehealde in the Middle Kingdom, where she goes by  Fionnseach de Lochielle. She is interested in Pictish culture, in particular weaving and other arts associated with clothing.

Squee! I have a Pictish student! *happydance*   Don't worry, ilaifire, mightyjesse, and K, I still love all of you as well... I just am thrilled to actually have a student in my specific period and culture of interest.  (Even better, she follows what appears to be my "rule" for apprenti/fosters/students - they have to be bulletproof and willing to be fed rusty nails. I am not a gentle Mistress as far as feedback is concerned. ;P)

Anyway, since she lives on the other side of Oooooohhhhhhiiiiiioooooo, we will be mostly communicating electronically, so you may not see her at events, but I suspect you'll run into her commenting here on my journal. :) Welcome, Finch!

I'm sitting here putting the finishing polish on the paper I presented at Kalamazoo's International Congess of Medieval Studies last year for submission in the Proceedings volume...

Or at least I was. 

I just got a call that the Proceedings will include only the papers from the Leeds portion of the conference, plus only two from the US portion. Unhappiness. I'm appealing the decision, but I suspect I'll need to submit the paper for publication elsewhere if I want to get it published....

Yippee!

I just heard that we have found and confirmed a publisher for the papers presented at this past year's Pictish sessions at Kalamazoo. It had been some time since I heard from the coordinator, so I was starting to fear that it would not actually happen. (Now I really do need to do the final polish on that blasted paper. :P)

*bounce*

I might get to be a published Pictish scholar!!!