Imitating · Life · through · Art · (or · vice · versa)

However, still working on stuff for St. Luke's!

Tonight I am working on the rosemary/thyme syrup. It's from the Good Housewife's Jewel (insert creative spelling but it's in the other room and I am too lazy to go check). It doesn't include measurements for water, sugar, or herbs; says to add enough sugar to make it sweet and enough herbs to make it taste strongly of them. It does, however, say to boil down to half its original volume (although in different words).

My redaction so far:

Take a quart of water and a cup of sugar. Add a generous handful each of fresh rosemary and thyme. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Turn down to medium-low. Cook until reduced to half its original volume (stir now and then), let cool, then strain. Don't know how long it will take to cook, since it's still cooking.

Not sure how I will like the proportions, if I will want to muck with it or leave it as is. The smell is very herbal, and not in a good way - but it's supposed to be medicinal, after all. (I like both rosemary and thyme, but rosemary + thyme + sweet just isn't pleasant.)

Also grinding down more and more rosemary-wood ash; I now have a bit more than a half cupful. And it took a LOT of rosemary to get there! I'm done, though. That's quite enough to play with, display, and have extra left in case I drop the first display on the floor and have to sweep it up....

Off to stir my syrup!

So I went online and ordered some copper. It was more expensive than the lead, which isn't too surprising. I ordered a 12 x 12 square of moderately heavy foil; I have a hard time conceptualizing just how thick it is so we will see when it arrives. (It's shipping by UPS ground, so I'm not holding my breath; it'll probably arrive sometime late this week or next week.)

In the meantime, I'm thinking I may buy a medium-sized metal wastecan to burn down the rest of the rosemary. Doing it a potful at a time would take forever, and I'm feeling impatient. I know I've said it before, but that stuff burns down to almost nothing….I've burned two pots-full and I have maybe a scant 2 tbsp. ground ashes to show for it. Even knowing that would be the case, it's startling to see.

Finishing up the coif I started while on the plane to Vegas. It's pretty basic, and not bad considering I'd never made one before. If I were to start it over, I might do a slightly different style - but this was mostly to use up scraps, give me something to sew on the plane, and get an idea of how much cloth I need to make a coif that fits me. It's plain white linen and undecorated; right now I just have to finish one edge, the ties, and some topstitching. I love sewing linen, by the way. It's so much nicer to the needle than silk is.

There's more, but I'm rambling and I need to get back to work….

Anyhow: my planned projects for the Artisans' Fair are starting to come together (in my mind if not in real life) and I'm optimistic. Still working on the herbal challenge, with a focus on rosemary, and the "disgusting" challenge (including making a couple pigments, a process that requires - among other things - urine). So far, both are pretty interesting.

I had a couple worries from a supply standpoint: rosemary and lead. We have a rosemary plant, but it never took off. Instead, the moonflower kind of choked it, so the rosemary is still small and unassuming - not ready to give up large parts of itself for herbal experimentation. Luckily, Julie emailed Campfire this weekend saying she had harvested her rosemary bushes and did anyone want some? I wanted some. I jumped at the chance, in fact, and now I am the proud owner of a large armful of rosemary. Much of it is outside so the wood can dry; the fresh greens are stripped and I have them in the freezer for now.

Lead, of course, is for use with the pigments. (Needed lead and copper, but I have copper foil.) I spent a little time bumming around online looking at scrap lead, but I had a hard time finding it for sale in quantities less than a ton. Eventually I wandered to this site, though, which seems to be just what I was looking for. Ordered a sheet of lead, and it should arrive in a week or so - we'll see if it's what I need. Hope so!

In the meantime, I have actually done the only physical labor required for any of this. I dug a hole in the backyard for the (airtight, closed) boxes where the pigments will age. The primary-source "recipe" calls for that, so I figured a little digging was reasonable. I could probably approximate the effect by insulating the boxes well and keeping them at roughly the right temperature - but why, since I have this backyard and a shovel? It's about the same amount of work, in the end. Part of me is a little leery of burying a box containing lead, but even if it somehow bursts open and the lead leeches into the groundwater I don't think it will be enough lead to do any significant damage. We aren't talking about an industrial chemical dump here, after all!

I think it should be possible - I've managed to stretch fabric by accident enough times - but I've never tried it on purpose. The fabric is a lightweight woven cotton, and what I plan to do is dampen it, stretch and pin (maybe to a towel-covered board). Not sure what else to try.

On the flip side, it took navy-blue dye very nicely. (Completely mundane garment, completely mundane Rit dye, but I still was skeptical; it's a lovely color. Just can't wear it without looking like a sausage now.)

I've decided that I am going to try making salt green & lead white pigments for part of the St. Luke's challenge. At least the salt green; lead white will depend on how easy it is to find lead. Theophilus calls for sheets of lead, which would be ideal; but I think I'd settle for lead fishing weights. (Wonder if they still sell those?)

Also need to start encouraging the rosemary in the garden if I want to have enough of that to play around with different ideas for the herbal challenge. I think rosemary will be the herb I focus on; there are just so many interesting references to it in the bit of research I've done. Plus, I love the way it smells.

Having finished the pink stockings for Timoch at his hatching (and what's a significant milestone without a gag gift or two?) I'm now actually finishing the second pair of stockings for *me.* Mine are white, not pink. :-) One pair complete, first stocking of pair 2 complete, second stocking a little more than halfway done. I may have said this before, but - I really begin to understand why people mended and patched and wore these until they absolutely fell apart. When there is this much work going into simple stockings, you want to wring every last day of wear out of them before you have to replace them.

At the torchlit ball on Friday night, there were a couple Italian dances - it sounds goofy, but I don't think I've actually done any of the Italian dances before. Lots of English stuff, not so much Italian. I'm sure they were some of the simpler variations, but they were a lot of fun (and not so scary). So that's good!

Naturally the main focus of the Pas was the tournament itself, but there were also several A&S competitions/displays going on. (And they were in the air-conditioned hall, which lent them extra appeal….) There were several kids' entries in the "accessories" competition, a couple of which are enough to make just about anyone feel inadequate. ("Wow…. I couldn't have done that at age 7! Or even age 14, actually.") Also, eye-catchingly, a subtlety of the head of John the Baptist on a platter, surrounded by "blood."

There was also a poetry competition, which I decided to enter sort of at the last minute. Last week I started batting around the idea of trying to write something, since it's been awhile since I tried poetry, and I eventually settled on a sestina. Even after writing it up I wasn't sure about entering it, though. I wasn't completely happy with the poem, and it's pretty hard to let other people read something I've written. I don't know why. Displaying a normal A&S project makes me a little nervous; displaying something I wrote makes me very self-conscious. Go figure. In the end I went ahead and entered, and I'm glad I did; I got a lot of good commentary on it and (surprisingly enough) I won the competition. That's always startling, but in a nice way. :-)

If you're interested, here's ( the documentation part, ) ( the poem itself, ) and ( a period example of a sestina (not in English though). )

There was also a great bardic circle Saturday night - I didn't actually participate but I really enjoyed listening. Now I'm wandering around at work with SCA songs stuck in my head, trying not to hum to myself….

As far as actual useful projects go, I'm not getting much done - although I did get another stocking completely sewn on Saturday while watching the fighting! Almost finished with those, and then I can move on to the next project (whatever that ends up being). After hanging around with middleaston I find myself wanting to make hats. This is a dangerous urge and probably should be stifled. Hah.

Helped Megan with some of her fingerloop braiding last night (not substantial help, of course, just occasional pushing the loops down or grabbing colors of thread for her). I am still impressed by the stuff that she makes; the braids look so nice and I'm sure if I tried it I'd lose track of where in the pattern I was in no time at all. To each his (her?) own, I guess. So far, in terms of A&S, we balance out nicely - she also really loves glassworking, and while I love looking at the results I didn't like the process itself. Hot flaming gas, two rods to move in two different ways at two different rates, and the possibility of the final product cracking or just refusing leave the mandrell - no, thanks! I'll just go do some sewing instead. :-P

If I were any sort of a chemist I could tell you why, but I'm not, so I can't.

Does that mean I haven't been doing anything? Well, probably….

Mostly I have been working on stockings. Now I have a couple pairs of nice, prettily-done (or at least adequately-done) stockings floating around. However, it's summer, so I’m not actually wearing them anywhere. It's really tempting to put this project on hold and work on something else that I actually *want* right now - but one of my goals is to get better at actually finishing projects I start. I'm awful about that. So, stockings it is, for now.

Then, maybe, the yellow gothic gown that I've been planning for about a year. Or maybe something else. Who knows? Either way, I need more clothes. After that I will need more closet space, which is harder to get.

Looking at all the challenges for St. Luke's - very spiffy. I hope they all get a lot of entries because I'm really looking forward to seeing everything. I have been looking at the ones about herbs and *ahem* urine, actually, since both seem especially interesting. I have to do some more research about the urine challenge, since my usual method of preliminary searching (paging through books I have, whatever I find at Addie's, and whatever useful websites* I find) is yielding very little. Uroscopy looks interesting, but that's not really the main focus here. I can find references to urine vats for indigo, of course, and one just-post-period primary-source quote about urine as a bleaching agent on linen (interesting). I have heard people mention urine used for tanning leather, fertilizing plants (all the actual sources I've found so far just mention animal dung though), making black powder (Megan is all for this but it seems to take longer than we've got) and several other activities - but so far no luck finding actual in-period sources. Lots of new-agey modern sources on how to re-use your own…bodily byproducts….to organically fertilize your garden, but that's not really helpful from a historical-research standpoint.

So I'm going to have to give that a little more thought, since I don't really know where to look for more information. I probably need to decide pretty soon, though, since the event website says to let the sponsors know if you plan to enter.

In the meantime, I decided to have a go at writing something for the poetry competition at the Pas. I may have decided too late - it is this weekend, after all - but it's been awhile since I've written something and it sounded like fun. I think the first A&S entry I ever did was (partly) poetry, and I don't believe I've done anything since. This time I am trying to write a sestina (strong emphasis on the word "trying"). Not sure if anything worth entering will come of it, but I'm enjoying the attempt….

After the Pas, looking forward to Assessments (and Tim's elevation). I hope the weather stays nice for both events. Nice, in this case, means minimal-to-no rain and temperatures below 95 degrees, for a start.

And after that, while everyone else gets geared up for Pennsic, cossaccountant and I are probably going to take a deep breath and focus on some projects around the house that we've put off all spring.

(*yes, websites aren't always good for research. But a lot of times websites have pointed me at relevant books or articles. I do have to get a better actual library going, though...)

Actually I'm interested in a *lot* of them. But so far there are three that I actually feel drawn to do something for: the herbal challenge (Metressa Jadwiga Zajaczkowa), the "needful things" challenge (Master Richard Wymarc), and the "disgusting challenge" (Master Eadric). Hmm. Eenie meenie…..

Hey, it's still a while out. Maybe I can do all three? :-)

Seriously, though, this sounds like it could be really fun.

On a completely different note, I'm grumpy because rather than working on sewing my other stocking during lunch I had to go pick up my prescription from the doc's office and drop it off at Target. Grump grump grump. I was all in the mood for sewing, too.

I’m internally laughing at myself: last weekend when I started sewing the first stocking (at Tim & Addie's), I looked through my sewing box and went "I can't sew this, I left my white thread at home." I looked through the box something like three times without even considering the roll of cream linen thread in there - my mind went "that's the nice thread, you can't sew with that!" and just moved on. It's not like it's embroidery floss or anything - just midweight linen thread. I ended up using it and it worked fine, but apparently my subconscious feels that I should just hoard it rather than *gasp* using it to sew with. Oh well.

I think I'll look at it as ( perfecting my approach. )

Just got back from a lunchtime run to Jo-Ann Fabrics. It was an unsuccessful run, although that's probably my fault. I went to Walgreen's first and ran into Ron there, and we hung around and chatted for longer then I meant to. Then I dashed up to Jo-Ann, spent a little time hunting for their muslin (I swear they moved it since last time!), browsed through the linen-esque things on sale, and went to get the fabric cut. I thought leaving myself 10 minutes to get the fabric cut & pay, midday, on a week day, would be enough (especially since there were only 2 people in front of me in line). It wasn't. I ended up putting down the bolts and leaving so I could get back to work on time. I swear, sometimes cashiers in stores on weekdays seem to work soooo slooooowly. What, is the assumption that the weekday clientele are folks without a set schedule (stay-at-home parents, retirees, whatever)? Personally, I’m more likely to be in a hurry midday on a Monday - it means I'm shopping on my lunch hour, and I have a deadline. If you work quickly, I'm going to leave happy and come back more often. But maybe that's just me.

OK, nuff ranting!

isenglass

attack_laurel

That, plus several other recent discussions I've seen, got me thinking about A&S competitions in general. I think both competitions and non-competition displays are good for the A&S community. Open displays, artisan's row, discussions, classes - all wonderful, all fun, all instructive. These sorts of displays have gotten a lot of good press recently, it seems, and that's great. However, sometimes the tone seems to shift into "Let's just ditch competitions, we don't need them anyhow." ( That, I disagree strongly with. )

In brief: as far as I'm concerned, a little competition is a positive thing. While not winning can sting, being able to both win and lose gracefully is a vaulable skill that everyone can use (me included). I'm an adults, and I hope I can handle the fact that sometimes everyone makes mistakes - even judges. In the same vein, I'm an adult and I hope I can recognize that most judging is fair, even when it means that my lovely project-du-jour didn't win. I can realize that winning is the icing, not the cake; competition is for everyone's benefit, not just my own; and nobody can win all the time, so not winning doesn't mean I'm a failure. See? Just like kindergarten. Nothing we all can't handle. If you ask me, competition is just as important to the A&S community as teaching, demonstrating and all that other wonderful stuff. For me personally, competition is what inspires me to excel (or try to excel) - which makes it a very powerful and important part of being an artisan.

( Now! About less philosophical things: )

Working on getting a good pattern, and then a good pattern-drafting method (for other folks' legs not just mine), for pieced stockings. In mid-/late-April I'm teaching an A&S class on that, since it's something I have an idea of how to do and have long wanted to actually do. Now I have to do it, because in a month I have to teach it! Have drafted up and scrapped a couple patterns - they were close, but I want something that's actually a good method for making a pattern that will fit. Not just something that's a good start, then needs to be majorly adjusted. I think I know where to go next, though.

Sadly, whatever stockings I make will probably be pretty baggy around my ankles, because my ankles are skinny compared to the width of my heel at its biggest point! Wide feet + thin ankles = baggy ankles on non-knit stockings, even if they are cut on the bias. Can't complain too much, though; my ankles and wrists are just about the only parts of me that are consistently thin! :-P

At the same time, cossaccountant is getting all geeked out over making a Tudor dress (you know, like the ones that show up on the portraits of Princess Elizabeth and Katherine Parr). She's borrowed Addie's copy of The Tudor Tailor and is contemplating fabrics, undergarments, and all that good stuff. I think it will be an absolutely smashing dress, and it should look good on her too. She's very frustrated about the scarcity of silk velvet, though.