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Sometimes high-end reenacting is lame because there are such a limited number of people selling high end goods that you end up all knowing all their stock. So, say, you spend a hundred dollars on a gorgeous reproduction tablecloth, and it's like, "ohhh nice you got the Historic Enterprises tablecloth!" (Yes, we have the tablecloth.) Or I keep seeing photos of really great costumers in fifteenth century clothing and I'm like, "HAH! I see you splashed out for the Armor and Castings collar."

Half of everybody has Feed the Ravens tortoise brooches, because they're hands down the best available in the US, and of those, half of us own the same design from a grave at Birka, because it was one of their earlier models offered. (I do. Mercifully they're now offering half a dozen other options.) Those turnshoes are Boots By Bohemond, those pattens are Armlan, that machine embroidered Byzantine tunic is Linen Garb, and so on. Does take a little of the wonder out of it.

On the other hand, maybe some day people will say, "Oh, did you get those beads from Golden Apple Beads?" That would be alright.

#SCA stuff

I'm back on a watching medieval dance performances kick and one of the things that's been nagging me about them is how short the skirts are, I've really seen only two who consistently do their performances with a properly long skirt (including train) and they're Judith (The Creative Contessa) and Catherine (Morescarole). Now, I'll admit some level of bias since Judith was my first proper teacher of period dance (not counting @coyacoonadillo, who taught me how to follow and figure out a dance on the fly), but having the full skirt and train is a major part of performing these dances. It shows a level of skill and familiarity with how the dance works and its affect on where the fabric goes, and ways in which it may affect other dancers. It also adds more visual interest, which dancers in shorter dresses tend to have to compensate for by making these simple steps more dramatic (a rendition of les bouffants where the doppio couldn't be told apart from the saltarello comes to mind). Most importantly, though, it gives dancers something to do with their hands.

We don't have instructions for what to do with hands in the vast majority of period dance instructions. Half the time we're lucky if we have full instructions for a dance, since historical manuals are mostly a CV, and other descriptions are just weird (looking at you, Nuremburg). The manners section fills in what men ought to be doing (doffing their hat, saluting their partner, managing their sword and cloak) but while one hand may be occupied with their partner's, there's not much for a lady to do. until you remember the train. Having that hand free allows for it to either be bundled up and draped over the arm, or carefully pull fabric out of the way in portions of the dance where you must go backwards. You can direct the skirt out of another's way while turning, etc etc. All this can greatly enhance a performance and appearance of skill.

I think a lot more of the nature of these dances make more sense when you factor in the size of the skirts involved.

#It's also like #of course they were wearing their court dresses at balls #and the ease a lady had managing their skirt while dancing would obviously show off her station and grace #its a similar quiet exclusion to expecting gentlemen to know how much hat doffing was needed in a dance #because you're expected to do a small reverenza when returning to a partner but too much and you appear odious #and also the more you doff your hat in a dance the more likely your cape was to fall off #because on top of all this you're not supposed to dance with a fastened cloak in the renaissance #medieval balls tend not to have cloaks involved thank god but the hats and swords are still there #sca stuff #this was why i was avoiding reading dance manuals but i keep being asked to teach dance #Judith Myfanwy and Twill i blame yall

Hood I sewed and hand embroidered the trim for an SCA elevation to the new order. I can post now that it has been given to the recipient.

#embroidery #my work #hand embroidery #sewing #sca stuff #society for creative anachronism

I was telling a non-SCA friend that I've been struggling a bit with my SCA persona's name, since as far as I've been able to find, Old French did not have the th sound. Am I willing to go by Caterine instead (not feeling it), or do I settle for being a leetle bit historically inaccurate?

And God bless him, he replied, "I think you mean creatively anachronistic."

#society for creative anachronism #sca stuff

Noodling about test pieces: Early Medieval composite sewn belt, I did the belt plate to add to a buckle for a test belt piece (garter sized rather than full size belt) sewn by Aelfberga with wrapped pigskin around a leather core, sewn with two strand linen on boar bristle sewing points.

Edit: Actually, with that style of offset bar pointed D buckle, this one is probably more 12th-14th century, but we were wanting to try the composite wrapped core leather assembly for doing late migration era to early medieval composite belts.

#composite belt #sca stuff #early medieval belt