100 Day Art Challenge 2017 - the lead up

A few of my friends did a 100 Day Art Challenge toward the end of last year in response to a fighter challenge called 100 Century Drill (wherein the fighters do 100 consecutive days of century drills - hitting 100 strikes on a training pell). For the artists, they posted on the various SCA artisan groups/their own pages the kinds of ways they were "arting and crafting."

I'm currently a Queen's Artisan for Her Western Majesty, Queen Zanobia. I've not really felt like I'm doing a "good job" as an artisan. I haven't been doing any research on anything new. I've not really been doing any of my art. I've not been teaching. I couldn't get to March Crown (or even send with someone else) my current projects to display for the populace. The only thing I've been working on is the blackwork sampler chessboard for the Publick House. Literally. I'm still working on game boards for the project that was meant to be a birthday gift last October. I'm sucking at this gift giving thing.

Now, the only other time I've been a royal artisan was during the last Cynaguan reign, for Princess Sylvie. Sylvie was recently made a Laurel right before her husband won the coronet of Cynagua. So she had a lot of ideas for her artisans in order to help promote the arts in the principality. We had a checklist of thing to do. . . I think I got them all done. Maybe I didn't succeed with "make something for yourself" because I usually do make most of my stuff for myself. I'm either crafting for largesse coffers of making garb for me. I did start on, but not finish, the doublet for Jon. That's something new.

So back to Queen's artisan. I was feeling a serious lack of direction and like I was being not a good artisan. I'm not doing anything of note really. Just working on the chessboard. I was also feeling really bummed about missing March Crown and about my place in SCA in general. Sort of sad-sack. My tenure as seneschal is coming to an end and I don't feel like I've done a very good job in running the shire; there's been many times when I think I've done more harm than good and just barely kept the thing together despite my best intentions. (There was a moment when I got an email from kingdom exchequer saying my shire -I'm- the reason we can't use paypal for transactions.) Long sob story short, I really feel like I'm just not present, not doing a good job, not being recognized for anything I do do.

So I wrote to my Laurel Counselor (who just happens to have been my Laurel's Laurel - so she's like my grandlaurel). The reason for this is two-fold. She's the Laurel Counselor for this reign and it's her duty to guide us artisans along our paths. My Laurel has also not been in the game as of late; she's often saying how she's just not feeling the SCA thing anymore and pulling away from the game (so when your own guide is lost, you don't ask them for direction).

"Grandmother,

"I'm very sorry to say that I don't think I've been a very good Queen's Artisan. I've done very little research or creation. I don't have a real direction with any art. I've not done any teaching nor have I even been to our local A&S nights and discussed art. My muse seems to be gone. I spend little time doing any artistic pursuits. And then I add to all of this the inability to get to events; I am lost.

"Do you have any advice for me or suggestions on what I might be able to do? What do I need to do to be able to really be a Queen's artisan?

"Thank you,

Margaret"

"Is real life being overwhelming? Work, family, other stuff? That can often chase away the muse. If that's the case, real life comes first. Find ways to deal with that or hang on and ride out whatever the crisis may be.

"I will often find my inspiration by immersing myself in art ... anything from pinterest to a museum. Another thing that works for me is picking something I've never done and giving it a try. I'm going to attempt the Kingdom A&S Championship (with the new format) this year and I'm doing all the entries outside my comfort zone (i.e. no food). Learning  a new skill, even if you may only use it once, can stretch and re-awaken the muse.

"Never let creativity become a chore. Her Majesty chose you to encourage you, not to scare or pressure you. We are all makers, it is part of what distinguishes humans from other animals. Your muse will return when you are ready for her. If that doesn't come until after Beltane, that's OK.

"I hope some of this is helpful. Please feel free to talk to me about this or anything else as much as you need.

Juana Isabella"

This was very much what I needed to hear at the time. You see, for those keeping track at home, it's hard for me to ask for help or to appear fallible. Even though I'm still a learner and unfinished. Which brings us back to the purpose of the post. Almost immediately afterward, my friend (and mega-artisan) Tusya decided to restart a 100 Day Art Challenge - a version 2.0 so to speak. She wants the artists and artisans of the Kingdom to just keep plying their crafts. And part of her initiative is that we even post the days when the craft goes wrong, or all we do is research, or maybe all we work on is boring stuff. She just asked that we work on our art for 100 days between March Crown and October Crown. It doesn't even have to be 100 consecutive days. We'll actually have about 6 months to get it completed.

So I took up the challenge.

I taught a class (yeah yeah, I know I do that all the time)

I'm back. I've been focused on doing several things lately that have kept me from posting on the blog. Mainly, I've been adjusting to the new school site and teaching 3 classes I've never taught before. It's a bit terrifying to teach English when you've never taught it before and there's no real curriculum for you to go by. The drama class is going well. The ancient history class is what it is. 6th grade is the first time most students get any kind of history at all and I can teach my way out of a history curriculum wet paper bag in my sleep backwards (confident in that one). Must be doing something right though because I got my employment status changed from "temporary" to "permanent" last week. Oh yeah, I accepted that offer.

So back to the subject of the post. I've been continuing to do medievally things all these months. I even have a couple of posts partially written. Couldn't post them right when I began typing them up because they're for "sooper seekrit" projects that I was waiting to post to the general public until gifts were given to their recipients. Then I just stopped posting. But last weekend, I taught a class! Should be no big deal, right. It's what I do for a living. But this was at Collegium. It's an SCA event where we get together for a day and do lots and lots and lots of learning. I've been to a couple of them before (also the Arts & Sciences Tournament in the early summer which is a similar type of event) and I LOVE THIS EVENT. I love it because it's full of the people who I feel are serious about recreating the past. And since I'm an apprentice to a Laurel and part of that perrage's job is to teach and educate the populace about medieval stuff, I need to start thinking about these things - this teaching to other medievally people is real.

I was pretty much required to teach at this event. Now, first off, know that the SCA is a volunteer organization. No one was actually forcing me to teach at Collegium. But I'm a Princess's artisan to Her Highness of Cynagua and one of the things she asked us to do was to teach a class at an event and then discuss it with the other artisans afterward. Another reason was my Laurel basically gave me the imperative. I seem to remember the words falling from her mouth being "so collegium...we're not going to be at the event but you are teaching something." This was very matter-of-fact. The sky is blue, you are 37 years old, you are teaching at Collegium this year.

I taught the latchet shoe class. In fact, my handout was just a slightly less snarky version of the blog post. I wanted the class to be a make-and-take though so that people could leave with a pair of practical and fake footwear that give an illusion of the Renaissance. Too many times I see folks walking around in their running sneakers under their beautiful garb. While I was setting up, a couple of gentlemen came. I missed their names, but I gathered one was already an experienced leather-worker. They mentioned that they were interested in putting shoes on the feet of children. This is such a great idea! I even bought a couple of smallish sized shoes for the class (although not quite small enough - next year when we're at the height of summer season there will be more sizes available). Then as I was beginning, in walked a few of my friends from the Mists. I know that Cyn came because she had already expressed that she wasn't really into any of the classes happening that afternoon. I was grateful for the friendly face. Also, two more friendly faces, Elena and Cathyn tagged along. Now, Elena is already well-known for her gorgeous work in 16th century costuming. She already has gorgeous shoes. She doesn't need my fake latchet shoes made from canvas sneakers. And then Cilean came in too. So I had lots of people who are very 16th century enthusiasts enjoying the class and kibitzing with me. (I think one or two may have come as spies as well, but I'm glad for it - they're friendly spies so I hope they saw good things in my class). My points that I couldn't stress enough:

1. the practicality of the shoes in the types of terrain we often find ourselves at for events (come to think about it, I didn't even mention the new permanent site but I bet it's muddy, lumpy ground too) 
2.  the ease of how fast and inexpensive you can put someone into a period-esque shoe and ease the problem of bad footwear
3. that it's a modern shoe and therefore supports your body in a way you're more comfortable with and can handle things like orthopedic insoles for better comfort
4. more people need to wear 16th century garb

The best part. . . ! Elena, Cynthia, and Cathyn all made shoes!!! Cilean tried, but due to recent foot injury, my shoes didn't quite fit her comfortably on Saturday but she's excited to do so for this spring when we get back to tourney season again. (I will also point out that while I've seen gorgeous appropriate shoes on their feet before, both Cyn and Elena were wearing modern "period-looking" shoes because the weather was crappy and wet on Saturday and they didn't want to ruin their very expensive shoes - see PRACTICAL APPLICATION!). Then another gentleman came in while we were making shoes and he was wearing knee-breeches, hosen, and a nice pair of suede Vans shoes just like the ones we were converting. I convinced him to take scissors and seam ripper to his shoes and he left with a much more appropriate-looking shoe on his feet. See, a random guy came into my class and left looking more medievally than when he arrived. I've done a small favor for the kingdom I guess.

I still feel inadequacies when it comes to sharing my studies of costuming (and embroidery for that matter). I feel like there's nothing innovative or new that I can bring to the table. I'm learning, just like everyone else. There are so many more who know so much more than I. I'm not specialized. I'm not special. I've been reminded by many that everyone starts somewhere new; that I am probably "amazing and know so much" to someone who doesn't know at all. But why would those folks come to me when there are many more better sewists and costumers than I wandering about the kingdom. This is a hill I'm going to have to get over. Sooner rather than later I hope.

Coming up...the chat I had with two laurels about the path to the peerage.

The Great Game Board Project

Plan: Create a set of fabric napkin game boards for my dear friend (and laurel's fiance) Master Vyncent who generally runs the West Kingdom Publick House as a birthday present. The game boards will be on heavy linen fabric, made up into napkins/table cloths and will be embroidered by me using period stitches. This should be simple enough because most of the game boards are just lines that one uses markers for.

Some planned games:
Nine Mans Morris - completed
Glukhaus (added) - completed
Checkerboard (in blackwork) - in progress
Game of Goose - still in planning stages

12/31/16 ETA: I finally gifted 2 of the game boards to Master Vyncent as a Christmas gift. I gave him the Nine Mans Morris board and Glukhaus.

4/1/2017 ETA: still woring on the damned chessboard. I'm almost done. Almost. This will be the death of me.

Helping others make patterns

Several weeks ago, I was asked to help Safiya do a toile so that she can make a pattern for a kirtle and then a pattern for her Burgundian dress. Part of me was really wanting to help her because I love the idea of bringing people into wearing later period garb in the SCA. But a very large part of me was terrified at the idea because I feel like I'm not very good at patterning for myself and helping someone else is SCARY! So I was honestly looking for plenty of excuses to get out of it. I also was down at the weekly Crosston dance practice in San Jose and staying overnight at my laurel's. So honestly, because Safiya lives in Vacaville (on my way home), I should not have been trying to get out of it.

Ok, so I sucked it up and showed up at her house at the appointed time. I didn't have any of my sewing stuff with me (that was another one of my potential excuses) but she had more than enough of what she needed. I followed the steps for patterning that I learned at a recent class taught by Master Charles de Bourbon from up in An Tir. (clicky linky). I draped her toile, explained to her how this was going to be a copy of her body that we will make future patterns out of. We drafted a sleeve that didn't turn out too bad either. (sleeves are evil) Had to message for help from my laurel when I was drapping the armscye, but it came out great.It took about 5 hours but we were chatting and dealing with her kids and husband (oh poor guy came back from the dentist with a bad wisdom tooth and lots of pain meds - suck!). I felt pretty good with how it went. Honestly, I did almost all of the work (it's pretty darn hard, afterall, to dape yourself). But our other friend Edith will probably be wanting to drape a toile soon and that time I think I'll take the teaching to the next level, making Safiya do the work on Edith while I walk her through it.

Quiet sewing in the midst of chaos

I've gotten to spend some time sewing for Sylvie's step-up coat. I went to her house last Tuesday and got the main body of the coat lining and one sleeve sewn together. She's concerned that I won't have enough time finish it because of the move and all the packing. Well, our paperwork is still stalled out and the escrow stretches onward. Hubster has taken the majority of our things movable to storage or the garage of the new house. I went to weekly dance practice in San Jose on Wednesday evening. It's a long drive and I took the coat pieces to work on in my laurel's basement if there was a chance. The chance did present itself. She had writing to do for one of her blogs. The fiance hadn't been feeling well and so stayed home but was working from the dining table. I holed up in the basement sweat shop and sewed for three uninterrupted hours in silence (only because I had forgotten my charger for my phone and couldn't stream music). It was very pleasant regardless of the headache I started to develop from an allergy/cold I felt coming on. I don't often get a chance to sew so completely left alone. And when I do usually hide away in my sewing room, I'm often made to feel guilty like I'm abandoning my family when I really am quite available to help out. But I managed to finish the rest of the lining and sew the coat together. I even got two hours into the work before I needed a seam ripper (which is A) nearly unheard of and B) something I had to scrounge for because I apparently packed all of mine and not a single one made it into my bag of stuff*).

I am very grateful I got the chance to sew last week and very sad that my sewing room is mostly packed. I have for decades now used sewing as my escape from responsibility. With the house buying process going so utterly sideways, there are many things I should be doing, but all I really want to do sew.

* - I did have to go buy a seam ripper yesterday morning in a fit of frustration with a sewing mistake, frustration with children already crabby at 10 am, and an odyssey of traffic in town and F-ed up Walmart-ness that would try a saint's patience. But I conquered an oddity of sewing/lining garments that I'll post on later. Just know that I should have gotten a cookie for the damned getting a seam ripper sojourn I went on yesterday. 

Extroversion?

Had a very introverted reaction to today. Was helping "sew all the things" at a Sylvie's house but there were just so. many. people.

Normally I love a busy household and the chance to have multiple opportunities to converse with a variety of folks. But the crowd, the noise (made a gazillion times worse by my own squealing serger in want of oiling again), trying to process cutting diagrams in the busy atmosphere (when I want to do a really really really good job and not f*** it up since it's for royalty so I'm under pressure). . . it all just led me to feeling completely mentally exhausted. Drained. So strange for me when I'm normally energized by the opportunity.

I guess my mind was just on other things today; honestly there was someplace else I would rather have been. When I think about it, spending the day in bed feels like it would have been the most enjoyable activity I could have chosen. Like I said, a very introverted reaction which I'm not used to. And I'm not sad I went. I'm just overwhelmed I think. Need a bit of quiet reflection time (which is also not happening because I got home to one grumpy child and then my mom coming over to help pack/toss stuff for the upcoming move.

And the house? Still haven't gotten word on closing status yet. Lender mentioned on Friday we wouldn't hear anything until Monday (tomorrow). Job interview from Friday? Went pretty good and the principal really liked me (I left feeling like they would be a great group to work with), but he can't actually give me the job. HR has to do their work and then offer me employment. What were they doing on Friday? Oh the district office is closed on Fridays so I won't here anything until at least tomorrow.

See, my mind is definitely other places and being around so many people was exhausting.

quick mid-June update

And this is how I find myself a bad blogger who doesn't regularly update. I haven't been doing any projects and I feel like no one really wants to hear about other events so I haven't posted since the 6th.

The house purchasing problems continue to plague us. We're at 2 weeks until we have to be out of our current home and we still haven't closed escrow on the home we're buying. Argh. That being said, a lot of my sewing room has been packed away. No progress on the list. Progress on the house purchase is that yesterday I made an unscheduled drive to Santa Rose to get signatures on the initial loan disclosures from our cosigners (my brother-in-law and his wife). They hadn't consented to e-sign documents and so that meant all the docs have to be signed the old-fashioned way and we were looking at maybe only getting keys on the 27th of this month. But Haley, you said you had to be out in two weeks. Yes, I did. You see the dilemma. That literally gives us 2 days to move out and turn around on the house. So driving out and getting their signatures so I could drop the loan paperwork off to my loan officer in hand yesterday evening? Well that moves the timeline up to the 23rd for keys. That gives us a week (including a weekend so we might get some moving help from friends).

It was suggested that my $10 Latchet shoes might make a good class (thank you Hubster - you're smart and encouraging). I like the idea of teaching a class that is very hands on and that you can leave with something period-oid for SCA as soon as you leave the class. I will definitely consider it.

The fabric for Hubster's doublet arrived this morning in the mail. Part of me wants to dive dive dive into this project immediately. See aforementioned issue with having half of my sewing packed for move. Frankly it should all be packed at this point.2 WEEKS PEOPLE!!! We have to be gone in two weeks!!! But it's a 7.1 oz linen from Fabrics Store in cobalt which is a lovely dark, but not quite navy, blue. He loves blue. It will be very nice for the doublet. Yes I know there are no real examples of linen doublets. But I'm gambling with my husband even wanting to wear it. And it gets hot here in the Sacramento/Nor Cal events. He's one of those guys that thinks one must wash every article of clothing after a single use (which to be honest is kinda necessary because boys are cute - but smelly) and I just can't do that with wool. So this will be a very simple, very "easy-going" doublet. And I'll feel better about doing it in linen anyway as it's my first time and if I royally screw up, well I didn't spend $20+ per yard on it. Plus, he's getting the striped mock-up as the lining and that just rocks.

We made a snap decision to go to June Crown tournament in Tres Pinos. It was our first time at that site. I had a really great time. I wasn't committed to doing anything "responsible" except for one shift of trotting along behind the Lady of the Swan (our soon to be Princess of Cynagua) and attending to her needs. I didn't go to any meetings. I didn't take any classes. Vittorio wasn't fighting for me so I didn't need to consort for him. I actually spent a large part of my time in the Publick House gambling with borrowed monies and drinking. And it was relaxing and fun to be so low-key. Shhhh I didn't even go to Court in the evening. And I never skip court. By the way, the awesome news is that my new friend Sylvie (go check out her blog - she's one of the ones I follow along with) is the Lady of the Swan. Her husband, Fearghus, and she will be stepping up as Prince and Princess of our area in July and they've asked me to be on their court. I am very excited. I like to be on court a lot. I declined the offer during this most recent reign for two reasons; I was worn out after serving on the last 3 consecutive courts and the most recent one I had been on had felt very stressful and socially awkward. But that worked well because I instead got to know the current Princess, Katherine, socially and in a crafting way. I got to just hang out with her. That was nice.

Okay, now I'm totally digressing on the point about Sylvie and Fearghus...this weekend at Crown, Her Excellency asked if I would serve as a Princesses Artisan! What?! Holycow!!! And she totally did it in the best way too. She's already cleared it with my Laurel (and my grand-Laurel happened to be standing right there waiting to talk to her about artisans too) AND she told me to only consider it if I didn't have too much on my plate with the house-moving and the no job thing. I've asked to at least wait until I've signed my home loan paperwork to consider, but I'm totally totally honored. This is the first time anyone in Cynagua has considered me worthy of being an artisan. Dah schucks [scrapes toe in the dirt]. I still have to think long and hard about it though because there are a lot of steps/tasks that we are being asked to do as part of the position and I know me. . . I want to do them perfectly and completely. And I don't want to take on a job that I know I'm only gonna half-ass.

Anyway, tonight is business meeting for my Shire and since I'm the one in charge of that circus, I better have some notes to talk to my monkeys about. Right now, the Shire is a huge source of anxiety with me. More on that later (or not at all because I don't know how comfortable you are with hearing about my mental issues). The quick update ended up being a little longer than I expected. But that's a good thing I guess.

$10 latchet shoes

Yes, period-oid passable 16th century shoes for $10 (or less!).

So, in case you haven't noticed, in the SCA I tend to hang with the late-period folks. Some of them are particular sticklers for HA (historical accuracy)*. One of them is a stickler for shoes. I knew he was a shoe guy before I really got to know him, because that's what he was laureled for. (In the SCA a Laurel is a person who has done tremendous work in the arts and sciences of medieval studies. It's an equivalent learning/study/teaching level to being a Knight. In the modern world, have you ever heard the phrase "rest on one's laurels"? Yeah, some people have put in near PhD level work on their medieval studies so they're really good and knowledgeable on this stuff...bu I'm digressing from my point about the shoes).

I know that a particular peeve for many reenactors can be the wrong shoes. This doesn't just hold to SCA folks. It can be the CivWar folks, the living history museums, lots of folks really. But I'm not a leather worker and I don't have gobs of cash to spend on accurate footwear made by someone else. This also makes me sad because who wouldn't like to have gobs of cash to spend on fabulous shoes. Have you seen my shoes in real life? I'm not a purse gal, I'm a shoe gal. But I also have to be practical when it comes to buying shoes. I wear mine to work. I have to get MILEAGE out of them. (funfact - my first year of teaching I was voted "teacher with the best shoes")

The patent leather candy corn heels. Because...candy corn. 

Last May, I decided I needed to make something more appropriate. Here's some examples:

From a Holbein sketch.

Cows Mouth shoe and last from https://northamptonmuseums.wordpress.com/category/shoes/shoe-history/

a sketch by Lucas de Heere

 

The "Virginia" shoe available for purchase at American Duchess

Actually, American Duchess has a gorgeous raised heel shoe that is de rigeur in footwear for 16th century reenactors. I don't have the $200 to drop on a shoe I will only wear to a few occasions each year. I know the designer. I have seen the prototype in person. But alas, it just wasn't meant to be last May (or right now for that matter). So I got crafty.

See the photo journey after the jump...

No projects to keep my mind off of things

Things in the actual real-world part of my life got pretty bad on Monday. I'm still reeling from the news and I will post about it soon. Until then, I'm stuck going to my job that I'm soon to be unemployed from and feeling miserable about our home purchase falling apart. And I would normally turn to some kind of project for SCA to keep my mind off of things, but that's not happening right now because I don't have any small projects, just big things to think of. So instead, I'll make a list.

• needle books
• the squid collar and cuffs for Jorgen's shirt
• the rest of Jorgen's 16th c. shirt (not hand sewing this one like I did for Vittorio)
• learn to make hose
• at least a couple more changes of under things
• under partlet (5/28/16) Post Here
• over partlet that actually is long enough
• RUFFS! (full set, nothing too big)
• new $10 latchet shoes  (6/5/16) Tutorial here!
• embroider the sparkles on the snowflake corset
• mock-up of my new self-supporting cotehardie (patterned last week by Mistress Sylvie)
• mock-up English fitted gown (I just bought a great remnant of camel colored wool for this and I NEED to be conservative on the fabric use)
• do a body toile for Jorgen  (5/26/16)
• do a body toile for Vittorio
• plan the Burgundians! (for me, Jorgen, and Vittorio)
• Purgatorio Napkins - just waiting to find out who wins June Crown It will be Alfar & Eilis Post Here
• plan to teach a class  Post Here (this is a serious issue for me right now, what do I teach? to whom? why does this part of my apprentice path seem so daunting?! I'm a teacher by profession FFS!!!)
• think of little gifties to make for people (more hankies? ooh embroidered game boards!!!)
• 16th c. doublet for Jorgen (5/29/16 - finished patterning, mock up completed, 6/14/16- fabic purchased)
• sleeves - I forgot that I need to make sleeves and to put eyelets into my kirtles for said sleeves
• do a body toile for Safiya  (7/14/16)
• help Safiya pattern a kirtle

* stuff promised to folks that I actually should do 'cuz - promises