For the masked ball this year, I decided to finish the green silk/linen blend bliaut I had started back in 2016 for the 2017 ball (original post here), as the theme for the year was Wear Your Heraldry.  In the 12th century, the only way that people really wore their own heraldry was on a mantle, which I doubt I would get much use out of during a ball, but which I will certainly make someday.  However, this dress is slightly fancier than the rest of my garb and features my colors. 

I never did make a ceinture or add bicep bands on this dress, but I'd still like to do so in the future.  I even bought a couple sets of pearls to sew on, which somehow were forgotten in the push to finish.

​I also experimented with set-in sleeves on this bliaut rather than my usual square construction, and it was a bit of a challenge.  Let's just say it's a good thing my arms are smaller than when I first made the dress, or it wouldn't have worked out.  The other challenge is that I let my darling husband help me pin and cut the hem, and it wound up uneven, so therefore shorter than I'd planned.  I was able to use some scrap bits of the silk to make a facing inside the skirt so I was only losing a little bit of length, maybe 1/4" instead of the inch or so I'd lose with my typical double rolled hem, but needless to say I didn't have any train for train wrecks.  Next time I'll try this great tutorial for hemming without help.

Sadly, the only photo I have is a selfie I took in the car before the event, so I will have to do a photo shoot if and when I wear this dress again. 

​I also made a mask using the bear from my device as the theme, and made a little circlet with garlic flowers made from pearl beads for it to wear.  Again, the only picture is a selfie I nabbed during the evening with my friend Bug, who also wore a bear mask.

​The challenge is that this dress is not breastfeeding friendly, and I'm still nursing at this point, but for this evening formal kid-free event it worked well.  This was also my first full night away from Freya, who my sister had to basically pry from my arms and hide for me to consider an evening without her.  Motherhood is weird.

The event was very nice.  I chose the dances for the ball and worked with the musicians to secure live music for all of it.  My friend Viscountess Morgan ran the dance practice and we shared the brief instructions before the dancing in the evening.  There was a bardic competition, a heraldic mask competition, and a lot of nice nibbles and drinks.  I also donated a period spinning lesson with all supplies (including distaff) provided, which was purchased by my friend Mistress Gilliana.  We'll have fun with that, I'm sure.

I posted last week about what I'm learning about making baby garb and shared a few pictures of Freya in her first SCA outfit.  She has a plethora of lovely hand-me-downs from friends, but I wanted to make something special for my little treasure.  Anyway, when I shared last week, what you saw was the assembled dress with raw edges everywhere.  However, I wanted to make an heirloom piece, one that might be worn by a future sibling, or handed on to other babies.  One that would be soft and comfortable to wear, and pretty enough to merit our lovely firstborn.  I firmly believe that handmade items are a physical manifestation of love.  They show the hours we spend thinking about the recipient and giving them our good intentions.  If billed by the hour at a rate worthy of the skill it takes to make these items, they would be cost-prohibitive.  To that end, I knew I wanted to put some hours into making something special for my wee dove. 

Here are a couple of photos of the final product.  All the hems and seams are rolled and stitched by hand in linen thread.  The neck closure button is a wee Nazar bead that my husband received as a gift (I believe from previous Artemisian Queen Esther).  Nazars are ancient amulets to protect against the "evil eye," and would have been common trade goods throughout the medieval period, as they are even now.  Honestly, I'll take all the good vibes we can get, whether real or not.  The loop to go around the button is a bit of needle lace in linen.  Making that wonky loop was a good reminder that I need to practice my needle lace some more!  The embroidery at the collar is split stitch done in white spun silk and features a ramson flower from my arms and an acorn from my husband's (convenient that we both have white plant bits on our devices, eh?  We didn't plan that.).  This style is universal enough that the dress could work for either my husband's 9th-century Viking persona or my Norman one.  Baby clothes haven't changed much, really.  I put enough extra room in this dress that Freya should be able to wear it more than once, which is great, since it was certainly a labor of love.

About a month ago our Barony held a banner-making day to help members display their heraldry at the upcoming Artemisia Twenty Year event.  I made a banner several years ago, but have since changed my arms a bit, learned a bit more about banners in period, and picked a motto I like, which is a customary addition to devices in these parts once one becomes an armiger.  The motto is a French saying (appropriate for my Norman persona, eh?), bien faire et laisser dire, which means "do good works and let them talk."  Good, eh?  I think it's a good fit for my personality.  I'd rather roll my sleeves up and get to work on what interests me, and leave the gossip/drama/idle chatter to others.

Mistress Gilliana and Master Braden from our local group have a pretty good system ironed out for silk banners.  We use the 20x72 inch silk scarves from Dharma Trading Co., along with their gutta and acid dyes.  Participants sign up ahead of time and pay for the scarf to use and chip in on dye that we all share.  They own probably eight frames (built from 1x1s, corner brackets, and small nails), and the other supplies needed.  There's a lot of good info and discussion on the process on the Stayner de Silk Facebook group for interested folks.  

I cheated a bit by printing out large black and white images of the bear, garlic flowers, and crenellation from my device, along with a typed out version of my motto in a period-looking font, then traced them onto the banner in pencil ahead of the actual painting session.  The silk is then stretched on a frame and gutta is used as a resist to trace outlines and prevent dye from bleeding.  The gutta is left to dry, and afterwards the dyes are painted on.  We always do these sessions on nice dry sunny days so the gutta and dye will dry well, but that creates an issue when filling in large areas.  If the dye's leading edge is allowed to dry, it creates a line in the finished colored section that's impossible to fix.  This is annoying, and inevitable, even when working in teams.

I've since learned it's possible to avoid this by wetting the scarf (after gutta has dried) with a mix of rubbing alcohol and water, the same solvent used to dilute the dyes.  You can even carry a spray bottle with this mix in it to keep the scarf wet while working.  Oh well.  Live and learn.

Anway, the scarves are then rolled in paper to prevent bleeding, steamed to set the dye, and rinsed.  Here's a few images of my banner before steaming.  Can't wait to get it up in the air and fluttering!  You'll notice I didn't bother with the more traditional/historic practice of including kingdom/baronial/household affiliations and award insignia.  I did this on my last banner, but I wanted one that was just all about Ursula!

Note: the white strips at this end will actually be cut out, leaving three tails at the end to flutter in the breeze.  You can really see the lines in the dye I was writing about above.  They aren't a big deal, but they do annoy my perfectionist nature, as do the little drips/bleeds that always seem to happen.

Another month, another blog post!  At least I'm settling into a bit of a routine, but it's a far cry from my weekly posts last year.  In any case, it's been a few weeks since our Barony's annual spring event, and I have lots to share.

First, I'll say that we were not chosen to be the next Baron and Baroness.   Though it's never fun to lose, it's a relief to know I won't have to find out what it's like to be a first-time mom and a landed Baroness at the same time.  Our friends who won will do a great job.  Since I wasn't going to have to step up, I decided to renew my warrant as Baronial Chronicler for another two years.  It's a fun and relatively painless job that I'm good at, so why not?

The site was a park in nearby Mountain Home, ID, and in true Mountain Home fashion the wind blew all day long.  I had fun helping out with the heavy fighting championship.  The combatants held a large mug full of water in their off hands, and gained points both for winning the bout and for having the most water in their cup at the end.  I was head refiller of cups, which was great entertainment. 

I also competed in our Baronial Arts and Sciences championship.  My three entries were a loaf of my ale barm bread  with spent grains (with more info and updated documentation), a tablet woven belt based on the Snartemo II find, and a demonstration of period spinning techniques based on my research and practice shared on this blog.  Rather than rehash details of the projects themselves, I'll just share my documentation (see below).  If you look through it, use it, have questions or feedback, etc. please drop me a comment or email and let me know!

The Baroness held a competition for her personal champion, asking people to create and model a belt, garters, or a codpiece for the competition, so I was able to enter my belt for that as well.  The fashion show was pretty hilarious to behold, and nobody was surprised when Lady (soon to be Baroness) Merin won with a gleaming brass-plated brayette (think late-period groin protection worn on the outside) with a beautiful epousse weasel from her device on it.  

The competition for A&S champion was stiff.  There were three of us, and my friends Lord Ambrose and Lady Britta had some wonderful entries.  I really didn't feel like my work was going to win, but amazingly, it did, and I was named Arn Hold A&S Champion for the coming year.  I look forward to enabling other people's projects and sharing my work with the group!  Note to self: get a picture of the lovely scroll to share here.

My husband and I were also honored to be awarded with a relatively unknown baronial award, the Order of the Unicorn Meadow, created in memorial to a former populace member.  The award is given for research and skill in a particular aspect of the Arts and Sciences.  It was a real honor to receive this recognition, and to learn more about Lady Teckla of Unicorn Meadow herself.  The scrolls, created by our friend Lady Britta, were so beautiful and thoughtfully made that I have to share them here.  Recognize us?  She captured me perfectly, right down to the infamous teal and orange bliaut I love to wear. The picture of my husband, Lord Aonghus, is based on one he's always liked from the Silos Beatus Codex, and she even managed to incorporate parts of our devices and symbols of our arts.  

All in all a lovely blustery day, despite the abrupt tear-down in the storm that struck right as we were in closing court.

My belt, since there's no image of it in my documentation.

Well!  Suddenly it's March and it's been a week since my last post, so it's time to catch up on what's going on in my SCA life, especially my Arts & Sciences life.  I really didn't think I had a thing to talk about, then I remembered I have an event to talk about, and plenty of other little bits and pieces that have piled up.

Firstly, way back in March of 2014 I submitted my device, which you can see and read about here.  It passed without any issues, along with my name, in December of that year.  However, the more I look at it, and looked at more period devices, and use the colors, etc. the more I felt like it just wasn't *quite* me.  It was close.  I was in love with the bear and the wild garlic flowers, but it felt a little sloppy to me and just not quite right.  Using the resources from www.heraldicclipart.com I came up with a new configuration using a more period image of a bear, and elements that feel more cohesive.  The switch from or (gold) to argent (silver), the move from a per fess (split in half horizontally) to a chief (smaller border at the top) and a move from wavy to embattled division looks a lot better in my opinion.  I'll be submitting this later in the month once I get my paperwork colored and sent in.  What do you think?

Two weeks ago our household had a banner-making day to make some signage to identify ourselves when we go to war.  We used canvas drop cloths from the hardware store painted with latex house paint diluted with water, and Duchess Clare's handy projector for tracing on the designs.  Here are a few pics of the fun

Facebook also reminded me today that it is my one-year anniversary of becoming my Laurel's apprentice.  Both Mistress Antonia and myself are introverts with busy lives, but I have tried to be a good apprentice this year, and I've made lots of new garb, taught two classes at events, and set an agenda to make sure I keep up my art this year even while I finish up my master's degree.  I have gained a sister student who returned to our barony after a long absence, and I'm sure I'll continue to learn and maybe even improve!

Finally, on March 5, last Saturday, my husband and I attended our kingdom's coronation celebration in the Barony of One Thousand Eyes  I volunteered to serve on the new Queen Veronik's retinue when she asked for people in our area to step up, but I have a feeling it will be a very different experience than my first time around with Duchess Clare.  I am beginning to see how deeply I dove in and how gleefully I took on a full-contact experience.  I was really hungry for a deeper view of the SCA, and I surely got it with Clare.  

Damon and Veronik, who were on the thrones when I first started playing, seem to be fairly low-key, with good senses of humor and the knowledge of experience, as this is their third reign.  In any case, I did not hear from Her Majesty or anyone on her retinue after her email asking if I would serve, didn't have any duties on Saturday, and wouldn't be surprised if she couldn't pick me out of a lineup, though we did meet once last summer.  In any case, I'll be here to help at the events they attend in our Barony, and hopefully we will get to know each other a bit too.  This commitment level is a better fit for my life right now, and the longer I play the more variety I see in how different people approach this game.  It helps me remember how much of what we see in the SCA is just convention, habit, etc.  I saw queens from my area, like Duchess Kortland and Duchess Clare, who had long courts, naming retinue, giving favors and tokens, and filling long stretches of time with pageantry.  A king and queen who stepped up, were brought the regalia by members of their own household, put it on themselves, accepted oaths, and left it at that was something new to me.  We'll see what the future holds.  

For now, here's a couple photos of the day.  The first, by Mistress Jacquelinne of Cobalt Dragonfly is the oath-taking.  I'm in my blue bliaut and white silk veil, my husband behind me in white shirt and green cap.

The second is a selfie of my husband and I.  We're both making odd faces, but I share it because the trim on his hat was woven by yours truly.  I had just enough for the hat, with a bit left over for the cuffs of some future sleeves.

My  husband and I have a friend who joined the SCA about a year after we did, and whose interests are not as much in the direction of the arts and sciences.  The two of us have been sending small care packages with a few little bits and bobs, mostly accessories, to help our friend with his garb.  In the SCA, as in the mundane world, accessories really make the outfit.  My contribution was a populace badge for his barony (can't for the life of me remember which one), embroidered on a bit of leftover aqua colored linen from a bliaut I made (click the garb tag to see photos).  The thread is just cotton embroidery floss, but the stitches are all period.  Stem stitch for the borders, satin stitch to fill in the three hammers, and Bayeux laid work for the background.  This was my first time with Bayeux laid work, and it was a lot of fun.  I want to give it another try with wool, and learn more about using it to create textures and contours.  Not sure what I'll make yet, but it's rattling around in my brain.  Of course, I signed the back, dated, and used a lazy daisy stitch (I have NO evidence that this is period) to stand in for the ramson flower on my device.  Turned out pretty nice for a quick little belt favor, eh?

I can't believe I forgot to mention that my name and device were both passed as of December 14, 2014, a nine month turnaround from my original submission.  Here's the text from our Kingdom Herald:

Ursula de Strattone. Name and device. Per fess wavy vert and Or, two ramson flowers affronty argent seeded Or and a brown bear passant proper.

Blazoned on the Letter of Intent as sexfoils, these flowers are not sexfoils. We have reblazoned them as ramson flowers.

I was particularly pleased that they re-blazoned my device, since my original intent was always that the flowers on my device were, indeed ramson (wild garlic) flowers.  Before submitting I was told by folks on the SCA Heraldry Chat Facebook page that I should blazon them as sexfoils, as it may be hard to show that ramsons were known in period, or used on devices, but I did include some of that in my documentation, and I'm thrilled.

In honor of this, and in exchange for some knitted socks, a friend is embroidering blackwork cuffs for my Italian camicia.  The motif will include both garlic bulbs and knitting needles, and the socks are coming out beautifully.

I have a few other projects I've been working on, a bit of embroidery for my own garb, etc. and lots of projects I'd like to do, but all my SCA crafting time lately has been consumed with helping with garb for Their Royal Highnesses' coronation next weekend.  I will share pics after the event, at least of the work I've done, but hopefully some of the couple in all their finery.  It really is coming out beautifully, and I don't mind wearing a dress I've worn before, especially since I am sprucing it up a bit, and since the event is 100% not about me.  The theme of the event is 12th century Anglo-Norman, which happens to be my persona's time and place anyway, so I already have perfectly good garb to wear, and it's far more important for this event that TRH look perfect.  

I am hoping to make at least one new bliaut in the next few months though, and I'd love it to be something a bit fancier for court, likely in a synthetic taffeta or possibly China silk, since I love the idea of having something light and drapey, as bliauts often appear in art.

The biggest event my husband and I (and half the kingdom, it seems) will attend in the next few months is the first coronation for the Kingdom of Avacal, the newest SCA kingdom and likely the last in North America, which is directly north of us.  It should be a once-in-a-lifetime event, and the monarchs of every SCA kingdom will be in attendance.  I am considering wearing my Italian dress to that court, which I will considerably fancy up between now and then, and hopefully I can make a black giornea to go over it, which will then give me some very nice black and gold (our kingdom colors) garb to wear.  The thought that I may get to view that ceremony from behind the thrones is really exciting, and it's enough to tempt me into making the fifteen hour drive it will take to get there.

I hope to get the Italian ensemble polished up and finished in time to share it as my entry to the Artisan's Display Tourney (formerly the Laurel's Prize Tourney) at Uprising War, our Kingdom's largest event.  That means giornea, partelet, possibly a hair covering of some kind, and additional trim/embellishment on the gamura itself.  I want to continue trying to participate in competitions even though it's intimidating for me, especially since I will be officially becoming an apprentice on Saturday at coronation, and HRH has said she will make an effort to attend the ceremony.    I also plan to enter the A&S competition at the Crown Tourney event in April, so I should really get on that.  ARGH.  Don't even get me started on the whole grad school thing, which is what I actually SHOULD be thinking about.  That said, it's going to be an awesome spring/summer.

Our kingdom's largest event each year is Uprising War, held in the Barony of One Thousand Eyes (Idaho Falls area) every June.  In preparation for this, many members of our barony got together to make new silk banners to adorn our encampments.  Our baronial herald, Baroness Gilliana, purchased supplies through Dharma Trading co. and members could then pay her for the silk and use of gutta, dye, frames, etc. and get her expert skill with the process.

There are many tutorials available online regarding this process, and HE Gilliana's is one of the best.  You can take a look here if you're interested in learning more.

I'm a bit of a novice with this whole process, and I came to discover that 1) the gutta bottle I was using was leaky, dispensing way too much, and periodically dropping blobs everywhere and 2) some of the dye got mis-labeled resulting in some "interesting" colors.  That said, having spent $20 from my very tight budget on supplies, I wasn't about to throw in the towel.  Here's my first banner (with my husband's behind).

The portion to the left of my banner is our barony's unofficial badge, a moose head.  The background should have been purple, but apparently the black was mis-labeled.  I choose to think it looks neat, and since our kingdom colors are black and gold, it's okay.  Annoying, but okay.

To the right you can see my bear and garlic flowers in a slightly different configuration.  My banner (and device, for that matter), are pretty simple compared to many people's, but I'd rather have simple and recognizable than a complex mess for my first attempt.

The banner is a swallowtail shape, so I used the empty triangle on the right to make a little pennant which totally breaks the heraldry rules, as it is basically a "resume," with a ball of yarn, knitting needles, and a spindle.

This picture shows some of the gutta blobs and thick sections.  Even after steaming and two washes it is still a bit sticky.  I read online that you can dust the gutta with cornstarch to deal with that.  However, as they say, they look great twelve feet up and fluttering.  Stay tuned for photos of the banners in action!

Here is the device I submitted in March, 2014 for approval.  Lots of thanks to the SCA Heraldry Chat group and to my husband for help with the art (and a lot of the research and documentation, too).  As you may have read on the Persona page, my persona is based in the Cornish town of Stratton, famed for its  gardens and "good garlicke."  

The wild garlic that grows in Europe and Asia is Allium ursinum, called Bear's Garlic, and supposedly dug up and eaten with great relish by the brown bears that originally lived across much of Eurasia (including the British Isles).  I loved foraging for the stuff when we lived in Scotland, and I've long hand a fondness for brown bears, so this device was a no-brainer, along with my name, Ursula (Latin for "little bear."), and the stories of St. Ursula, who may have lived in that very part of Britain.  I still haven't had word of an approval (or a denial, for that matter), but I'm sure it won't be too long.  Fingers crossed!  

The argent sexfoils seeded or are the flowers of the wild garlic plant, but calling them "garlic flowers" would have been a bit problematic for the College of Heralds, at least according to the facebook group.  Here's a picture of what they really look like (source: internetgardener.co.uk)