Food!

Open shop on 6/7/2012 started off delicious and just got better from there.

Wyllow made beef rolls and a special Roman juniper pepper sauce with de frutum.  She made two varieties:  with and without mustard.  Deidre also brought a middle-eastern chick-pea dish to share.

I made savory Roman turnips with fish sauce and hing.

Willow also made  African honey apples from another Apicius recipe.

 Gunna made savory toasted cheese (Cheese Goo!) to serve in bread bowls.

 Grain'e made some delicious beer bread.

 Link and Josh worked on knee cops and half gauntlets, while their friend (name forgotten, sorry!) fixed up some old armour pieces.

 Julia consulted with Wyllow on personna development and seems to be headed in a Varangian/Rus/Byzantine direction.  Here are some useful links for would-be Varangians:

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=46922

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisandpeter/limb_defences/limb_defences.htm 

 Deidra showed us her new underdress and made progress on her helm.

 Evie and Gunna relaxed after much cheese-gooing.

 Wolf finished lacing his body armour.  Now he just needs straps.

And Abby made progress on her gorget!

6/14/2012 Open shop without me!

Last Thursday I found out just how important I am to a good open shop night...I was out of town and everyone had a great time without me!

 Frosti burnished some leather.

 Julia burnished the edges of her rerebrace while Wolf petted the cat. Someone had to do it!

 Nora was sewing...

 Gunna was patterning..

 Jackie was carding wool...

and Belle moved too fast to see.  Actually Gunna was helping Belle with a dress pattern.

 Artorius helped with other people's projects.

 Link started to dish some knee cops.

And Josh made progress on both half-gauntlets and knee cops.

Open Shop 5-31-2012

 Nora sews her new dress

 Wyllow helps Julia select a time and place for which to dress.

 Abby lays out her gorget plates, marks and punches holes in the leather, and rivets the plates in.

 Frosti cuts out a leather half-gauntlet using my one-piece pattern.

 Link and Josh and Daniel and Frosti all finished their armour plans, so they can start marking out elbow and knee cops on sheet aluminum 5052 alloy pieces.  This stuff is dirt cheap at $1/pound at Metals4U in Pflugerville.  All of the aluminum will be hidden under sleeves or pants when the armour is complete.

 Ben lays out the fabric for his coat of plates while Toner supervises.

 Daniel learns to cut aluminum on a throatless shear.  (Not a Beverley shear but a cheap Chinese imitation.)

 Gunna and Evie practice period cooking.  Come over to Open Shop night...we have cookies!

Link, Daniel, Josh, Ben and Frosti show how much they got cut out tonight.  Wolf has been busily lacing his lamellar.

 Then everyone else gets into the picture too.  At this point Belle had left to take Nora home and Julia had left also.  Counting them and counting the guy (me) taking the picture we had 15 people at Open Shop night.  A new record!

I even found a few minutes to work on the cheek-plate hinges for my helm.  My son took the picture and my wife is "helping" behind me.  Isn't it great to have a supportive family who takes you seriously?  :)

Open Shop 5-24-2012

 

Abby got off to a good start by smoothing the edges of the aluminum plates for her gorget using a belt sander.  Later on she curved and slightly dished the plates using a stump and a hammer.

 

 Diedre has finished the top of her helm and is starting on the back slats.

 

Ben re-strapped his shield and did some planning work for his coat of plates.

 

 Evie and Gunna looked through reference materials and planned Evie's next new outfit.

 Helen is such a pro, she can do applique with her eyes closed!  Not really.  Later she worked on some embroidery why loaning her sewing machine to Jovian...

 ...who sewed some leather pouches.

 Wolf kept after his lamellar lacing project.
 

 Nora helped Belle dye the ends of her hair blue.  We are not sure why and we are afraid to ask.

 Diedre also helped Wyllow with fitting the corset layer of a new Elizabethian outfit.  Sometimes fittings can tickle.  Wyllow very consistently says "Elizabethian" rather than "Elizabethan" while I do the opposite, yet somehow we manage to co-exist.

Artorius looks suave and debonair after a hard evening of helping other people with their projects, while still not getting his own shield re-strapped.

Thursday, May 17

I got so busy I forgot to take pictures again.  But we started with my Barley Porridge and Diedre's Beefy Cabbage.

Sage fleshed out his armour plan for a 15th century Italian boffer kit with upgrade to adult armour potential.  It will include a lot of King-Renee-inspired hardened leather.

Ben worked on a 1200 Hospitaler armour plan.  He really likes the look of the flat-top helms but will probably use one of our baronial loaner sugarloaf helms for a while.

 Here is what he wants: 


Belle and Josh and Nora re-painted some miniatures that had been banged up the recent  Rube Goldberg project.  I'll try to provide a link to the video.  (Yes.  There is video.)  Nora also drew up a lovely knotwork piece for Wyllow...involving a willow tree of course.

Wyllow sewed a hammock cover that she plans to use on a Girl Scout campout this weekend.

Gunna worked on projects and visited with folks but I never actually saw what she was working on.  Maybe it is a secret present for me!  Or maybe not...   :(

Wolf laced together more lamellar scales and figured out how many he will need for each row, so he took some more plastic with him to cut out the remaining scales on his bandsaw.  Working at home between open shop days=armour done sooner!

Diedre finish the last of the rivets for the skull of her Valsgarde 6 helm.  It looks great!  Now to rivet on the cheek plates, back slats, nasal, and face-protecting bars. She is on track to finish her kit in time for War of Ages this fall.

Crisdean dyed his leather vambraces and rerbraces black with iron-based "vinegaroon" dye and dished the vambraces for that sexy tulip shape.  Next week he'll be ready for glue-soaking and baking!

William/Artorius helped with several projects and worked with Aaron and I on where to re-locate the grip and strap on his shield.  Maybe this week he will drill the holes and move them?  It could happen...

Aaron repaired the articulation on a knee cop and did some quick preliminary padding for his new helm to see where the chin strap needs to go.  We had a wee bit of trouble drilling the holes for the chinstrap because his aventail seems to be designed not to be removable, but we managed to get it done.  We also worked out a pattern for a linen liner for this helm.

Period food night

 Wyllow prepared 4 game hens using/adapting a Roman recipe for roast hens in "green sauce".  She told me many more details about ingredients and methods and adaptations for missing ingredients like green nard, but what I remember is that they tasted exotic and delicious.

And Wyllow served up the hens elegantly on a platter.

 Deidre brought a middle-eastern dish of rice and lentils and...other things.  What things?  You'll have to ask her.

Belle and her friend Josh worked on a Rube Goldberg device for physics class, resulting in intermittent crashing sounds and exclamations throughout the evening.

In other news, Wolf finished shaping his lamellar scales so we worked out a lacing pattern/plan and he is busily assembling them.  Abby rounded the corners of all the metal bits for her brigandine gorget and we discussed design ideas for the remaining parts.  Gunna warped her loom with blue thread for a new project. Khutulun brought her stage-armour elbows and knees over and we worked together to dish the last elbow, planish all of them and drill holes for strapping/attaching them.  Deidre peened more rivits in her Valsgarde 6 helm.

Sage came over with his dad and little brother.  All seemed fascinated with what we do so we will see how many of his family decide to get involved.  Sage seems inclined towards 15th cent. Italian renaisance for clothing and armour.  It would be great to see someone do boffer in a hardened leather King Renee suit...and then he could easily upgrade it for adult combat in about 3 years.

And that was enough for one night!