So I've thought up a way to scale back my idea...

I was thinking about the sheer scope of doing woodcuts to illustrate the first part of the story of Saint Ursul, and from the beginning, I knew it was a bit ridiculous.  I don't have the skills, the time or really the patience to do such a large scale project.  But I've come up with a moderately sized project that could be interesting.  In the random internet searching I've done recently on woodcuts and saints, I ran across the theory that in period small woodcut prints of saints were sold as tokens for a pilgrimage, as good luck charms, and were then pasted into books of hours, sewn into garments, or pasted into various boxes to bring safety and good luck via the particular saint to the person or item.  I kind of like the idea of doing a couple different sized icons of "Saint Ursul" and trying to sell them along with documenting the process.  I think it would be something different even if it wasn't a prize winner, and would bring a little more medieval feel to the event.

The trouble being, I'm not the greatest artist when it comes to drawing, and the subject is a made up character so I don't know all the details such as his heraldry, or hairstyle or if he had facial hair.  I'll try to ask someone responsible for the competition if they know what the heraldry is supposed to look like, and I can pick a culture to imitate for the woodcut style, and mimic their hair.

I've got some ideas, it's probably time to start sketching.  Or maybe bed.

Or maybe sketching?

So I'm inspired for a new A&S project...

I was looking into future events for the area, and there's a huge event that's well known around An Tir that the boy and I are interested in attending, called Ursulmas up near Seattle.  There's an A&S competition based around the fictional patron Saint of Aquaterera and I was reading the legends about St. Ursul, and thought that woodcuts depicting Part I would be a really cool idea.

Of course all the knowledge I have about woodcuts I learned in a single class taught by a friend at an event years ago.  And I haven't really tried carving anything, aside from a couple things on a lathe, since that class.  And I don't own any of the materials or supplies necessary to undertake such a project.

But boy, do I want to try it.

Aside from the lack of materials, tools and knowledge, the event is in January.  At the same time I'm supposed to be competing in the local A&S championship for Adiantum.  To compete in this championship, I'll need two entries, one of which I've decided to base around the iconic hairstyle of Empress Livia and an article written by hairstyle archaeologist Janet Stephens .  I'm not sure what I want to do for the second entry, but it's supposed to be on something completely different, and if possible, one art and one science, if the entrant can differentiate the two.

I'm tempted to visit the local Michael's tomorrow and see what it would cost to start off with basic woodcut supplies.

But for tonight, I should get off the computer and let The Boy get some sleep.

Been a heck of a while...

The new job has taken a lot out of me.  Long, ridiculous hours meant most of August and September I was either working or sleeping.  There was a little time spent eating and eventing, but very little in comparison.

I know I promised a tutorial on Livia's hairstyle, but there are computery issues preventing that for right now.  But it is not forgotten, that particular hairstyle has been on my mind for quite a while.  The Boy and I entered the Summits' Coronet Lysts last month, and I wore that particular hairstyle to show off.  I looked fantastically Roman, enough that the Prince (a Roman Persona himself) gave The Boy approval for having a Roman lady on his arm.

I'm also turning that recreation into a full on A&S entry for the Baronial Championship in January.  I'm going to try to keep the cloak in the family so to speak.  I'm getting started on documentation now, partially because I want to do it right, and mostly because I'm currently motivated.

Also in the time that I've failed to post I was given two awards at the Barony's fall event.  The Baronial Brownie, Adiantum's first tier service award, a recognition of attendance, support, and promotion of the Barony.  Kind of like a Baronial AoA.  I was also given the Fern and Quill, the Barony's arts award, specifically for skill and generosity with hairdressing.  The current B&B will be stepping down in a few months, and I believe that Morrghan, the Baroness, wanted to be the one who gave me this award.  There was mention of how recently we'd moved into the barony, and if we were to move she'd steal the alternator from the car.  It's wonderful to be recognized for the hair styling up here.  I hadn't done much research into authentic styles back in Ansteorra, but was mostly a "get it off my neck" hairdresser.

We (The Boy, a few friends and I) went up to Honor Feast last weekend, hosted by the Portland group.  The event was fun, if a bit common as far as events go.  The "ball" was more of a class, but fun despite it's short time frame. The Boy and I made contacts with the Dance Master/Mistresses from up northerly way, and got to help with their issues with Parson's Farewell.  They were trying to reconstruct it and were getting caught in a couple sections, so we taught it the way we'd learned it in Ansteorra.  They seemed giddy to discover we knew the dance, and we kind of blew apart the ball right there in order to teach it to them.  We're now plotting to start up a dance night in the Salem group, so that the dancers from Eugene and Portland can descend upon a central area and take over.  I also got my hairdressing name out there further, hopefully people will recognize me in the future.  I chose to wear the 1515 Florentine for the day, not something I usually wear, but I looked damn good that day.

Hope to have more to say in the coming months, and more time to say it.

An attempt at a Roman hairstyle is forthcoming...

So I'm planning an A&S project for February-ish, which is recreating a Roman hairstyle without Janet Stephens having done it first!  I'm working on my recreation right now, and photographing the steps in perhaps more detail than is really necessary.  I'm hoping to get a basic write up done either tonight (yeah right!) or in the next couple days.  It's not exactly easy, because it is hard to juggle the hair and the camera in the tiny overheated bathroom, but I'm trying.  I can see why Janet Stephens uses a cosmetology head and video camera for her demos, once it's set up on the stand and tripod, you don't have to move them so much.

I wish I could just ask The Boy, but he found out earlier that the paper he thought was due on Monday, is in fact due tomorrow morning.  But this is my last guaranteed free night for a while, so I thought'd I'd get some use out of it.  Tomorrow, I go sign the paperwork for my NEW JOB!

That's right, new job.  It's not an amazing job, in fact I wouldn't have considered it back in January, but being without work for seven months has done a number on my self worth, and having any job has made me feel validated.  The hours aren't great, lots of extremely early mornings, late nights and weekends, but the paycheck will help us out so much.  And that's really all I feel I can say.  There's some strict policies about mentioning the company online, and I don't want a stray post to come back to bite me.

A little more water and back to the heat of the bathroom.

In Service to the Hair,

P

Works in Progress...

In the last couple days, I've been sort of motivated to sew.  Of course, not on any projects that are already in progress.

Yesterday I started the fuzzy hat that I promised The Boy long ago when we first started dating.  Once upon a time, I purchased an electric blue silk dupioni pencil skirt that would in no way ever fit me.  I had always intended for it to be made into a hat for The Boy.  I have a Tried and True (TnT) six panel hat pattern that I love.  I cut out the silk, and flat lined them in some thick brown wool for extra warmth.  After assembling the panels, I dithered a bit about whether to embroider along the seams or to do something more complicated like a Norse animal or something.  I realized that the largest part of the panel would be folded up behind the fur band, and went ahead with a seam embellishment.  I used the last of my card of yellow silk from The Overly Ambitious Embroidery of Doom! to do a closed feather stitch.  It kind of looks like steel girders over each seam.

This afternoon I put together the lining.  I always line my hats in silver silk, because I like the little bit of amusement I get from having a silver lining.  The TnT pattern has a fold line on it where I trace out the lining that accommodates the band of fur.  I'm so proud of this fur.  I was determined to make a hat a few years ago, and to save myself some cash, I decided to purchase a fur coat at the thrift store.  I wanted black fur, but couldn't find anything I liked that didn't look cheap.  So I switched my desire to white fur.  I found a gorgeous coat for $25 that fit my needs.  It turned out to be more than I'd asked for.  The coat was Blue Fox fur, cut into thin strips, about a 1/4 inch wide.  These were separated by strips of soft leather about an inch wide.  I allow three strips of fur, and cut down the center of the leather strip to give myself a nice fur band.  The bands of fur around the head fold down for extra warmth.  This means that I'm making headway on Cold Weather gear for The Boy.

Eventually I'll get the lining attached to the shell, and I need to purchase more thread to make a tassel for the top.

Today, The Boy was working really late, so I decided to try out draping hose.  I love the way sewn hose look, and believe that I should have them, but I've never had much luck with the ankle part of the hose.  I've decided to just suck it up and try them in some crappy cotton broadcloth scraps I've had for years.  I pinned the seam, the pulled it off and did a quick running stitch down the seam to keep from stabbing myself with the pins.  I then futzed with the foot slit on either side.  I finally had to draw it on and hope.  I've got the patterns drawn out now on paper, and perhaps some day I'll actually make up the next mock up.

New Office...

I was voted in as the Baronial Chamberlain last night.  I get to be the keeper of the stuff!  I even have a fancy keyring with keys and everything!  Owning keys is how you know that you're a real adult, because real adults have responsibilities that come with keys.

When The Boy and I were moving up to Oregon, I had to turn over the key to my apartment, and the key to my car, and for a week, I had no keys to anything.  I felt extremely displaced then, and not tied to anything, but certainly not in a good way.  I found myself not attached to things, sort of drifting, and I found I didn't have a place to call mine.  Once we moved, I had the key to The Boy's van, and now have the key to the apartment, the garage and the mailbox.  I've come to belong someplace again.

And back to the Chamberlain.  I now have keys to the storage unit.  My first goal is to take an inventory of all the items owned by the Barony, and check it against the items on the previous inventory.  I'd like to be able to weigh the items we own, since the weight our trailer can hold is rather small, I'd like to know whether or not we can pack things in the trailer.

I'm looking forward to serving our group, and becoming more involved with the running of things locally.

Dance Practice!

I get to lead tomorrow night's Dance Practice, so I thought I'd squee a little over how much I enjoy dance practice, and post the list of dances that we'll be working on.

Nika Nika Bransle
Half Hannikin
Petit Riens
Black Nag
Heart's Ease
Rufty Tufty
Parson's Farewell

This is pretty much just what we did last month, but some of it is new to this group, so we should go through it again, especially since we only met once a month.

I'm willing to take requests, should they arise, and I've promised Idonia, that should we have an inordinately large number of people, we will do Trenchmore.