14th Century Largesse Chest

The onset of fall 2012 brought forth a new challenge to the populace of the Cleftlands - a largesse gift exchange. Upon receiving my name, I realized I would have to up my game just a little. The recipient for this exchange was an avid lover of all things 14th century and an amazing scribe to boot! The plans quickly changed from just "a box" to A BOX!

As found on St. Thomas Guild: Chest
TR-NR 409 (ISN Ba 83). Made of oak,
dated 1375 and of Braunschweighter
construction.

I found the inspiration piece on St. Thomas Guild in a post titled Unconventional photography of medieval furniture. The first image you see is of a lovely 14th century chest from Kloster Isenhagen and would work perfectly for the project.

With a $20 limit on materials, the project was not made of oak, but made of pine and stained a light honeyed color to mimic some of the lighter tones in the wood. I wanted the chest to be functional as both a chest, as a seat, and as something more - a gaming surface.

Meinhard and I worked together on the design of the chest in Solid Works to get an accurate cut list. Once the pieces were cut, they were glued together, sanded, then stained.

Please disregard the fellow on the left.

I decided use a gaming illumination as inspiration. The board size in the original was a little smaller than I needed so I found regulation chessboard guidelines and made the board on the box top according to spec. After those were laid out, I transferred the two original figures playing chess, the whitework border, and the landscape.

For durability, the artwork was painted with acrylics. Once everything was dried, a light coat of wipe on polyurethane was applied.

Front view of the completed box.

Front detailed view of the inset cut work.

Aerial view.

The chess board in use.

Red Dragon 2012

Red Dragon in the Marche of Tirnewydd is one of my favorite yearly events although I'm not sure why precisely. I imagine most of the fun comes from day tripping with close friends. There is often stories, many of which can be repeated... others, not so much. I will spare the details to protect the innocent or the guilty.

One highlight of the event is the annual dance competition sponsored by THL Felice Debbage and Sir Cellach macChormac. To provide a little background, the first year Ginevra and I studied hard for Gracca Amorosa. By studying hard I mean talking a lot about it prior to and doing very little due to intimidation, then deciphering the steps from the Terpsichore handbook and finger-puppet dancing over lunch while trying to watching a video on my iPhone.

The second year, we vowed to study ahead with Candida Luna, but didn't have the music and were otherwise busy with life.

This third year, the dance was Alta Regina and as I'm sure you can imagine, we SRSLY vowed to go over it at least once, but it didn't happen. Life interrupted Ginevra's trip, but I went ahead as planned.

Mistress Alina was instructing this time as THL Felice was under doctor's orders to stay off her twinkle toes. The dance was similar enough to Gracca Amorosa and La Castellana to throw me every so often with the muscle memory. Two reprisa followed by two trabuchetti means you spezzato then cadenza without question, right? No... not in Alta Regina!

While far from perfect, I was able to compete later that day with the lovely Baroness Angharad ferch Tangwystl as my partner and we earned second place!

Renaissance Dance Database: Alta Regina

The Sisterhood Takes Coronation

Master Philip, Colette, Ginevra, Felice,
Gianna and Mistress Crespine!

On September 29, our dear sister Crespine de la Vallèe was offered membership into the noble Order of the Laurel. Ginevra and I traveled to the wilds of Michigan followed by our required stop at IKEA for meatballs. (Yum!) The vigil was lovely and, as expected, we assisted with some last-minute sewing... into the dress.

Another lovely gathering of the Sisterhood!

A Banner Weekend

I have had an interest in silk painting for a number of years, primarily due to the absolutely stunning banners I have seen displayed at Pennsic. Earlier this year, I decided to bite the bullet and stop stalking the art form and picked up a silk painting set from Dharma Trading and got promptly to work! Wait, that's not right. I got promptly to work... moving in to my new home. As you can imagine, there were a few other pressing things that needed to be addressed before I could get comfortable with my kit including getting everything moved and arranged, preparing for Pennsic, going to Pennsic, then coming home to a time-consuming disaster at work.

Thankfully, the dust has settled.

A member of the Philippian Sisters of Perpetual Scholarship is being elevated to the most noble Order of the Laurel at Coronation this year. As part of the pageantry, I tasked myself to stop procrastinating and start painting! Our patron saint is known by the arms: Azure semy of oak leaves inverted Or, a bend wavy argent. Using those arms combined with our own badge, (Fieldless) An acorn gules charged with a bend wavy argent, I was able to create a design that would be both challenging and classy, yet not so difficult I couldn't finish it in time.

I used several references to teach me the proper sequence of events, including 20' Up! Making and Flying Silk War Standards and How to Paint Silk Banners: A full Achievement for an SCA Pelican. The tools used an 8mm Habotai silk scarf that was 15 by 60 inches. I washed it with Synthrapol as recommended, then let it air dry. When I was ready to begin, I ironed it on a silk setting and set it aside for the design phase.

Using my cutting board, I laid out a length of MÅLA drawing paper and started constructing the rough shape of the banner. From the top, I left a few inches of material for the seam allowance, then proceeded to place the acorn wavy and the wavy dividing line. I created a semy of oak leaves out of printed pictures and tiled them down the main part of the banner until the end. After the design was complete, I laid the silk scarf over the top of it and proceeded to pin and stretch the material so I could trace the design with a pencil. The process wasn't as time consuming as I had feared, so I laid out a second scarf just in case the first was somehow damaged.

The process of stretching the silk was a bit more entertaining. A few weeks prior, my Lord and I built a frame out of 2x4 material and placed upright nails every two inches along the side. I initially used binder clips and rubber bands to stretch the silk, but since I was going to be painting to the edges (design change!), I replaced that with cotton thread along each point. Once the scarf was fully strung to the frame, I began working with the resist. I tested the pressure needed on a paper towel and went from there. I found it somewhat awkward to hover over the leaves so I used my yard stick rested on the frame as a means to keep my hand steady.

I was a little worried to begin the process of applying the dyes, but after several checks of the gutta outlines I bit the bullet and started with the red acorn and gold leaves. I used the Jacquard dyes and the bamboo brushes to apply the dye. My observation with the process is that it took a little more dye than I thought and it worked best if you painted slightly away from the gutta line and let the silk wick the color to the edge so as not to overpower the resist. While applying the red, a small flick of red dye landed in the wavy line, but it was barely noticeable so I proceeded with the gold a bit more cautiously and less energetically. After the red and gold dried, I moved on to applying the blue dye. I found the process to be a bit daunting due to the amount of detail work needed in the negative space around the oak leaves. I worked from the wavy division down to the end as quickly as I could to try to (unsuccessfully) avoid drying lines. I decided to go with it and use the same pattern around each of the oak leaves which created a subtle dragon scale pattern.


Overall lesson learned -- work quickly in big areas. I have read in several accounts that a wide sponge or brush should be used to cover large areas and I may try that for the next application and just accentuate the leaves with a narrow line of dye. I may also try using just the clip method, but I have to admit I kind of enjoyed stringing it to the frame. When applying the blue, there was a noticeable sag of the materials and I wonder how the rubber bands would have worked instead. I can't wait to start my next batch of silk painting projects!

Finished banner still attached to the frame.

The banners in use for Mistress Crespine's elevation.