Open shop Thursday

We start with a traditional Scottish dinner of roast lamb with caper gravy, turnips and carrots.  For dessert Wyllow made a delicious Saxon pot, which is a baked, sweetened fruit dish with oatmeal that resembles cobbler.

I had been working on converting Wyllow's small signboard into a tall, free-standing signboard/basket holder.  Wyllow rigged the baskets to hang the way she wants and then we dis-assembled the whole thing for transport to Gulf War.

Colin made a pair of leather half-gauntlets for combat archery.  He got them cut and shaped but he'll have to sew them together at the cuff and sew on straps across the palm later.  He also plans to dye them black to match the rest of his armour.

Khutulun chose patterns and cut out a pair of elbow cops and a pair of knee cops, with a little help.  I spent about 10-15 minutes getting the first elbow into rough shape.

Abby/ Annabelle needed a new rapier gorget, so we started from some existing patterns and cut, beveled, burnished, glue-soaked, shaped, and baked the four main pieces in one night.  Next it will need strapping.  When we are in less of a hurry we may have to go back and make a prettier one with tooling and dying and painting.

Note that the pointed front piece is slightly dished for the right fit.  I did this with finger pressure while the piece was wet from the glue soak.  The inward curve at the top of the back piece was also done by hand, but I used a mallet and the edge of a board to get the sharp flare of the neck pieces.

We also made some articulation lames to add to an old pair of hand-me-down vambraces for Abby.

Gunna worked on embroidery, helped test the Saxon dessert, and helped keep folks entertained.

Belle wood-burned some Bardic Circle signs to put up at Gulf War.

Wolf padded his elbow and knee cops and punched holes in the knee cop straps.  His new helm has not come in and he has not gotten authorized, so it looks like he will not be shooting people at Gulf War this year.  But next fall melee season, watch out!

Wyllow added some quick temporary felt thistles to her banner so that it would display her arms correctly.  When she finds time (ha!) she will go back and applique some better thistles on.

Test Camp for War

Two roman wall tents, both new this year, alike in dignity, in height, in width, but not in side wall height.  The yellow tent has taller 5' walls and split corners so that it can be used tourney-side or for an open sitting area in camp.  We used a 10' shade fly between the two tents for designated kitchen space.

 The white tent or master bedroom is 10x12 and can support our personal banners along the sides.

 It has cloth "rugs" for the floor space and room for a full-size rope bed with straw tick, represented here by our new duvet just to show the layout.  Camp-packing bins get covered and used as end tables while clothes-packing bins go under the bed in this arrangement.

The yellow tent has a curtain to separate Belle's bedroom from the public space.

The overall camp is looking good and this test run let us see what additional poles and ropes we  want to prepare before War.

It is a good day...to make armour!

Thursday, Feb. 23rd - My darling daughter's 22nd birthday, but we won't be celebrating together until Saturday.  So instead of lighting candles I managed to light my chain hauberk on fire.  Ok, it wasn't actually on fire...only the olive oil it was coated with was burning.  But once that fire was out...


Shiny blackened mail!

Notice the two "before" samples that used to be the end of the sleeves.

Then it was time to cook dinner (yes, I can document this dish to the Roman province of North Africa)

Then we got down to business...well, ok.  Then we goofed around a bit.  Here Nora demonstrates the versatility of a knee cop that also serves as a skull cap.

But then she got to work on a wood-burned knotwork dragon for the top of one of the dye-shop shelves.  This is knotwork both for the intertwined dragon body and for the use of a knot in the wood to form the dragon's eye.

 

 Wolf finished dishing his second knee cop and did an excellent job of making them match.  He later strapped both cops but I'm afraid I didn't get a picture of them at that point.

Coren and Steven worked with me for most of the evening on developing armour plans for their 1300s Italian man-at-arms armour, while their friend Patricia visited with Gunna, Belle and Nora.  I didn't see what Gunna was making but it seems to involve a great deal of embroidery thread.  The Italian-based kits will use sugarloaf helms, armoured surcoats, leather vambraces, rerbraces and shynbalds, simple wingless steel elbows and soupcan knees worn over gamboised cuises.  Here are some inspiration images:

Khutulun arrived late but we still managed to select a pattern, cut out the metal piece for the front of her gorget, file and sand the edges and drill the rivet holes.

You know you are doing something right when attendance at "Open shop night" includes 3 guys and 6 girls.  :)  See you there next week!

Getting ready for Gulf War

Just 3 people came to open shop this week.  Nora customized some artwork from the Book of Kells and started to wood-burn it onto one of the dye shelves that I have been working on.

Wolf arrived late but we still managed to cut out a pair of aluminum knees and get the first one dished.

Khutulun arived even later but we discussed her plans for a Mongol-inspired gorget and other pieces for her Theatrical Armour class.  After due consideration we agreed that making mountain-pattern Chinese scales fit on a gorget was probably a bit extreme for this project.  Concentric rows of staggered scales are a better choice.

Wyllow used fabric from our stockpile to make a duvet-cover for the new duvet that will go on our rope-bed with the straw tick at Gulf War.

Another Thursday, another Open Shop

I got an early start on dishing some leather so that it would be ready for dying later.

 

Note the high-tech method I used to curve out the tab on the top of the foot.  I also hit it with a hammer a few times.

 

 Wendy made some excellent Cornish game hens using a Roman recipe and modifying it a bit for the ingredients we had on hand.  The extra juice and roast garlic were both good on sourdough toast.

 Maggie started new vambraces and rerbraces.  She managed to customize the patterns, lay them out, cut them out, bevel and burnish the edges, and shape them with a little dishing.  Next they'll get a glue soak and baking.

We finished the baking on Friday, added an 18gauge stainless steel splint to each vambrace, added straps and assembled the arm armour by tying both pieces to a plastic elbow cop.  Done!

 Wolf baked his vambraces last week, so we marked and drilled holes for rivets and points, pointed on the elbow cops, and riveted on the straps and buckles.  Ready to pad and wear!

 I dyed the greaves with "Oxblood" dye from Fiebings, using a sponge-brush and latex gloves.

...and that was enough for one night!