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The weekend saw us braving the wilds (and damp) of East Anglia to find the site of Fight of Brothers, the planned 'armed engagement' against Nordmark.
Since only HG Sir Sven showed up to represent our neighbours to the north, the war was a bloodless win for ID, though he warned us (as kingdom seneschal) that it's likely to double our tax bill to TRM.
This site has now been used 3 times, including for Crown (won by Sven and Jovi, and one of the best Crown tourneys I've enjoyed), so it's beginning to feel familiar. It's got ample outdoor space, a very attractive high-ceiling hall for feast, and a decent kitchen for feasts and feeding masses of folk. Unglamourous, but serviceable for most.
The charm of the weekend was taking classes from, and talking with, folks I don't usually see often, including Mssrs Etienne, Sigmundr, and Sven.
Etienne provided a very useful survey of jewelry styles, with lots of tips about finding passable modern jewelry to suit your persona. Apparently their household are recent converts to the joys of eBay particuarly for finding quantities ofcheap low-grade perfect authentic grades of gemstones at affordable prices. His emphasis on the beauty of uncut stones, esp. cabuchons, were a balm to my heart.
For the rest of the day he mentored several folks in making wax moulds for silver jewelry. Robert and I've now both entrusted wax rings to his care, as did![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sharikkamur and at least three other ladies. We should have them back at Raglan.
The wax was great fun, and Etienne emphasised just how 'fixable' mistakes were, though he confesses preferring to carve from a single piece rather than assemble from several smaller pieces.
I'm struck by the huge crossover between drawing and sculpting - you need a clear image of what you want, before you can mould it, and both Etienne and Sigmundr sang the praises of ermingard, for her skill at moulding and crafting lifelike animal figures in wax.
The scriptorium was largely inpogbody 's care for Saturday - I crashed out in the afternoon, unable to keep awake despite the best coffee available. I think she had a couple of students, and Catelin from WD did a handsome tracing and illumination for a scroll blank.
Alaric and edith_hedingham fed us to the gills, as I expected - nine dishes with not a dud among them (though even armoured rapes are still too close to being vegetables for Master Sigmundr to contemplate), leaving us comfortably fed but not at risk of exploding.
Katherine Gordon did an excellent job of teaching and leading dance in the evening - we covered and re-covered more dances than I had ever expected us to complete! and Robert blarted through his repetoire on his schawm/torota to provide a bit of live music.
I realised, as she was teaching some that I hadn't danced in years, that many of the dances of my 'youth' in Ealdormere are English Country Dances, and thus are avoided by the authentic dance mavins, as they are firmly 17th c or later - but it's hard to compete with their fun, because they are fun to dance. Guess I'm not (yet) enough of a dance purist...
One happy surprise of the weekend was getting home before midafternoon on a Sunday, rather than crawling in after dark, more typical for event weekends. With all of the afternoon and evening to sloth about, Sunday evening almost felt like the start of a weekend rather than the end.
One drawback of the site: unfortunately, the site owners still seem content to let the shower above the ground-floor foyer seep through the floor to drip onto the sofas, and to simply open windows to air out the mouldy bathroom in one wing rather than installing a workable ventilation system. (The new-build facilities on the ground floor are much better, but they weren't close enough for late-night visits...)
By the end of the weekend, the smell of mould was seeping into our clothing, and we're still washing clothes and cloth bags that carry a faint smell. Ugh.
Since only HG Sir Sven showed up to represent our neighbours to the north, the war was a bloodless win for ID, though he warned us (as kingdom seneschal) that it's likely to double our tax bill to TRM.
This site has now been used 3 times, including for Crown (won by Sven and Jovi, and one of the best Crown tourneys I've enjoyed), so it's beginning to feel familiar. It's got ample outdoor space, a very attractive high-ceiling hall for feast, and a decent kitchen for feasts and feeding masses of folk. Unglamourous, but serviceable for most.
The charm of the weekend was taking classes from, and talking with, folks I don't usually see often, including Mssrs Etienne, Sigmundr, and Sven.
Etienne provided a very useful survey of jewelry styles, with lots of tips about finding passable modern jewelry to suit your persona. Apparently their household are recent converts to the joys of eBay particuarly for finding quantities of
For the rest of the day he mentored several folks in making wax moulds for silver jewelry. Robert and I've now both entrusted wax rings to his care, as did
sharikkamur and at least three other ladies. We should have them back at Raglan.The wax was great fun, and Etienne emphasised just how 'fixable' mistakes were, though he confesses preferring to carve from a single piece rather than assemble from several smaller pieces.
I'm struck by the huge crossover between drawing and sculpting - you need a clear image of what you want, before you can mould it, and both Etienne and Sigmundr sang the praises of ermingard, for her skill at moulding and crafting lifelike animal figures in wax.
The scriptorium was largely in
pogbody 's care for Saturday - I crashed out in the afternoon, unable to keep awake despite the best coffee available. I think she had a couple of students, and Catelin from WD did a handsome tracing and illumination for a scroll blank.Alaric and edith_hedingham fed us to the gills, as I expected - nine dishes with not a dud among them (though even armoured rapes are still too close to being vegetables for Master Sigmundr to contemplate), leaving us comfortably fed but not at risk of exploding.
Katherine Gordon did an excellent job of teaching and leading dance in the evening - we covered and re-covered more dances than I had ever expected us to complete! and Robert blarted through his repetoire on his schawm/torota to provide a bit of live music.
I realised, as she was teaching some that I hadn't danced in years, that many of the dances of my 'youth' in Ealdormere are English Country Dances, and thus are avoided by the authentic dance mavins, as they are firmly 17th c or later - but it's hard to compete with their fun, because they are fun to dance. Guess I'm not (yet) enough of a dance purist...
One happy surprise of the weekend was getting home before midafternoon on a Sunday, rather than crawling in after dark, more typical for event weekends. With all of the afternoon and evening to sloth about, Sunday evening almost felt like the start of a weekend rather than the end.
One drawback of the site: unfortunately, the site owners still seem content to let the shower above the ground-floor foyer seep through the floor to drip onto the sofas, and to simply open windows to air out the mouldy bathroom in one wing rather than installing a workable ventilation system. (The new-build facilities on the ground floor are much better, but they weren't close enough for late-night visits...)
By the end of the weekend, the smell of mould was seeping into our clothing, and we're still washing clothes and cloth bags that carry a faint smell. Ugh.
