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Low-post period, quick catchup
Mar. 28th, 2011 04:15 pm I seem to be going through a lull in posting. This isn't because there aren't fun things happening (or even less fun ones), but that I'm finding less time to post from work. When I get home, the last thing I want to do is jump back onto the PC.
Some recent highlights:
- mid-Feb, Robert, Master Paul, Tom Monmouth and I went to a conference at the Wallace Collection, celebrating the life of Claude Blair, who was one of the leaders of medieval armour research. He worked at the Tower armouries, then the V&A, and evidently had inspired several generations of historians and colleagues. He remained active and engaged in research and correspondence to almost the very end of his life.
The speakers were either colleagues who had collaborated with him, or folks he'd inspired, and all the talked had some link to his own work, or one of the topics he'd touched on over the years. It was fascinating stuff; if you have to die, it would be nice to have so many people remember you so fondly, with respect and affection even for the rough sides of your character.
The fun part for me was watching the audience, which was about 70% academic to 30% reenactor. The reenactors are the 'young' ones, who are wearing T-shirts, ponytails and earrings. I was one of maybe 5 women in a group of 80? 90? attendees.
- had a week off in late Feb/early March, just because - well, actually because I have leave to use up otherwise I lose it. I spent the week puttering around the house, scribing, sleeping in, visiting the British Museum, and hanging out with my sweetie. Embarrassingly, I did almost no exercise that week; evidently it's good use of time to go for a run at lunchtime when I'm at work, but I can find lots of other things to do other than run when I'm on my own time!
Going to the BM was an effort to work on my sketching skills - I want to draw more accurately what I see in museums.
This is harder than it sounds; I'm a bit crap at fast sketching unless there's a time limit. I did succeed in sitting down to draw two of the Lewis chessmen (bishop and a knight), and I was really, really pleased with the result, but each one took about 30 mins, which isn't really sketching, it's drawing. It's also brain-demanding; after each drawing, I couldn't settle down again to draw anything else the same way.
Drawing, I've found, has a very calming and centering effect on me. I came away almost in a relaxed and meditative state of untroubled peace, happy with myself and with the world. I had had little idea it would be so powerful. I think it's the effect of having to focus so closely and carefully on a specific task, to the exclusion of almost everything else, that enables that peace.
- at the end of that week, I went to MEDATS' most recent seminar day about 'Making it', which mainly focused on weaving skills. It had a higher proportion of speakers who had actually re-created the skills they talk about, rather than researchers and academics who knew the records, but had not attempted the skills.
Most impressive to me were the weavers and spinners; one Danish speaker had woven an entire sail on a warp-weighted loom for a reproduction Viking ship, from wool. Another weaver was working at Eindhoven, the recreated Dutch village, to recreate 15th c broadcloth on a four shaft loom; a third was a spinner who had worked extensively to develop the vocabulary to explain handspinning. There were also demonstrations of techniques of cardweaving, spinning with a very early spinning wheel (the style shown in the Luttrell Psalter) and warp-weighted loom.
At this event, picking the reenactors out from the academics was harder work. :-) And the crowd was about 90% women.
- In amongst all of this, I'm scribing. I'm working on some of my weaker skills of sketching, painting and gilding with Nerissa, who comes over every couple of weeks to play. I'm always amazed at how much better I understand illumination techniques by demonstration, even though I read lots of instructions, and can learn well on my own - I learned to knit mostly by myself. But some handwork, it seems, is just better in person.
Nerissa has lent me a pen to practice left-handed scribing (I'm naturally a leftie). I'm pleasantly surprised at how well I've done with it, even though I've never practiced it. She insists it's perfectly do-able, and certainly with her pen I can 'push' the nib more than I expected to.
I'm not convinced it's my favourite though - there's a part of me peversely proud that I've learned right-handed, 'against' my own writing hand, simply because, well, right-handedness is traditional, regardless of inclination, and most calligraphy tools are intended for right-handed users.
I'm working on a variation of my favourite bastard secretary hand, for a 16th c backlog scroll. I'm modelling it on a period Tudor grant, and would like to get it as close as I can. The more I practice it the more I see how it's different from my 'standard' hand, and so the more work I see!
Some recent highlights:
- mid-Feb, Robert, Master Paul, Tom Monmouth and I went to a conference at the Wallace Collection, celebrating the life of Claude Blair, who was one of the leaders of medieval armour research. He worked at the Tower armouries, then the V&A, and evidently had inspired several generations of historians and colleagues. He remained active and engaged in research and correspondence to almost the very end of his life.
The speakers were either colleagues who had collaborated with him, or folks he'd inspired, and all the talked had some link to his own work, or one of the topics he'd touched on over the years. It was fascinating stuff; if you have to die, it would be nice to have so many people remember you so fondly, with respect and affection even for the rough sides of your character.
The fun part for me was watching the audience, which was about 70% academic to 30% reenactor. The reenactors are the 'young' ones, who are wearing T-shirts, ponytails and earrings. I was one of maybe 5 women in a group of 80? 90? attendees.
- had a week off in late Feb/early March, just because - well, actually because I have leave to use up otherwise I lose it. I spent the week puttering around the house, scribing, sleeping in, visiting the British Museum, and hanging out with my sweetie. Embarrassingly, I did almost no exercise that week; evidently it's good use of time to go for a run at lunchtime when I'm at work, but I can find lots of other things to do other than run when I'm on my own time!
Going to the BM was an effort to work on my sketching skills - I want to draw more accurately what I see in museums.
This is harder than it sounds; I'm a bit crap at fast sketching unless there's a time limit. I did succeed in sitting down to draw two of the Lewis chessmen (bishop and a knight), and I was really, really pleased with the result, but each one took about 30 mins, which isn't really sketching, it's drawing. It's also brain-demanding; after each drawing, I couldn't settle down again to draw anything else the same way.
Drawing, I've found, has a very calming and centering effect on me. I came away almost in a relaxed and meditative state of untroubled peace, happy with myself and with the world. I had had little idea it would be so powerful. I think it's the effect of having to focus so closely and carefully on a specific task, to the exclusion of almost everything else, that enables that peace.
- at the end of that week, I went to MEDATS' most recent seminar day about 'Making it', which mainly focused on weaving skills. It had a higher proportion of speakers who had actually re-created the skills they talk about, rather than researchers and academics who knew the records, but had not attempted the skills.
Most impressive to me were the weavers and spinners; one Danish speaker had woven an entire sail on a warp-weighted loom for a reproduction Viking ship, from wool. Another weaver was working at Eindhoven, the recreated Dutch village, to recreate 15th c broadcloth on a four shaft loom; a third was a spinner who had worked extensively to develop the vocabulary to explain handspinning. There were also demonstrations of techniques of cardweaving, spinning with a very early spinning wheel (the style shown in the Luttrell Psalter) and warp-weighted loom.
At this event, picking the reenactors out from the academics was harder work. :-) And the crowd was about 90% women.
- In amongst all of this, I'm scribing. I'm working on some of my weaker skills of sketching, painting and gilding with Nerissa, who comes over every couple of weeks to play. I'm always amazed at how much better I understand illumination techniques by demonstration, even though I read lots of instructions, and can learn well on my own - I learned to knit mostly by myself. But some handwork, it seems, is just better in person.
Nerissa has lent me a pen to practice left-handed scribing (I'm naturally a leftie). I'm pleasantly surprised at how well I've done with it, even though I've never practiced it. She insists it's perfectly do-able, and certainly with her pen I can 'push' the nib more than I expected to.
I'm not convinced it's my favourite though - there's a part of me peversely proud that I've learned right-handed, 'against' my own writing hand, simply because, well, right-handedness is traditional, regardless of inclination, and most calligraphy tools are intended for right-handed users.
I'm working on a variation of my favourite bastard secretary hand, for a 16th c backlog scroll. I'm modelling it on a period Tudor grant, and would like to get it as close as I can. The more I practice it the more I see how it's different from my 'standard' hand, and so the more work I see!
