I'm loving the gold. I really am!

Years ago I made a little silk banner from deep red silk and a gold Crowned R on it and this just matches so well! There's still a lot to do- the background roses and vines and I feel like though I like the darker pink in the low-lights, I want a little more contrast and will repaint with a slightly browner tone.

I feel this will also be a re-do on the Amore shield with the blue and gold to make the low-lights stand out just that bit more as well. Meanwhile, I'm very happy with the progress so far on this one.

The Squirrel Shield, meanwhile, continues to be not-quite-red-squirrely enough and needs further painting.

Here's a progress pic on the shield.

I've photocopied the logo a little larger and now it fit's perfectly and matches the size of the A Shield. I have the roses from the Manesse Codex ready to trace on too, so this might be a bit of a project for through the week while I think a bit more about the Squirrel shield and the brown on the squirrel.

Having some fun tonight updating the tutorials page on my website. I did a share to Faceblergh earlier today and new followers are really enjoying the sewing How To links. I love it when people other than me get excited about medieval clothes.

I'm loving the new banner, which is much like the old one but the photo has been replaced.

 
I've finished my brown kirtle glow-up. It now has a laced front to go under surcotes and groovy buttoned sleeves to be 14th century stylish!

I am loving the autumn colours. I have a brown surcote I can wear with this too.

I love autumn colours!

 
One more button sewn and stitched on, and five more buttonholes done! 

Making progress... making progress...

I'm very much looking forward to this event- and it's not open to the public, so it'll be a great chance to chill a little bit, and if it's well supported, it'll be an annual event. There's a private Dark Ages event which is enormous and well supported in another state which is on most people's list of events not to miss, but nothing for us later people, so this event is starting up with a view to being the same sort of thing, only a later time period.

I'm only day tripping with a friend as her work schedule doesn't permit an overnight stay, but photos of the venue show a lake with medieval-type jetty and shelter, a guildhall for talks and a very cool tavern made in early medieval style. This is all on private property, and in the past they have run dark age events which I've not been to, but the venue looks amazing. I'm not sure whose trebuchet is in one of the photos, but I sincerely hope it belongs to them and we get to play with it.

I've signed up to do a button making workshop because it's the thing that lots of new people need help with and since events are back on again now, quite a few groups have had an influx of new members. A bit timely, because I'm working on a kirtle upgrade which needs all the buttons made and sewn on before the event.

The clock's ticking!

 Whilst I was doing the big clean and tidy on the weekend, I found a few more unfinished projects and stashed them into a container together so that as I feel enthused, I can work on them and they'll all be together in the mean time.

I did find a wool hood made from 95% wool and 5% cashmire which was not really that far from being finished, so I pulled that out and thought it might make a nice lunchtime project- just something to chip away at until it's done. I did a little yesterday,  and a bit more today and now the inside seams are sewn down and the face hemmed, I only have the bottom of the cowl to go. And it's so snuggly and soft and a really pretty shade of brown.

Now I'm very keen to get it completely finished so I can wear it to a medieval event in a few weeks time. I have just recently seen photos of the site and there's a gorgeous little medieval dock at the dam which would make for great photos, and the hood would be perfect for the outfit I was going to wear! 

The pink, wool kirtle isn't anywhere near finished, so it can wait a little longer.

A few weeks ago I was excited to attend the Tania Crossing School of Illumination workshop of Figures & Drapery held in the hall at the Abbey Museum of Art & Archaeology.  I've done one of her workshops before on illuminated letters, and I have done some art over the years, so it was more of a refresher and a look at her ideas and techniques.

She supplied all the goodies we needed, and we got down to work!


Firstly, we had a little chat about supplies and what we were using in case there were any newbies in the group who hadn't done any illuminating before, then we drew in our main figure, working from an image Tania had provided to us. I found this the most challenging of all, because I prefer to draw stuff from scratch, not copy someone else's work.



We had a drawing guide, and I did well enough with the figure itself. Once the drapery started to go in, however, I struggled to put folds where they were in the guide picture, because I really wanted to put the folds and crumples when I felt they would fall, not where they had been put in the artwork. I was pleased with my work, but already at this point it was starting to stray a bit from the image it was supposed to look like.

I kept correcting it, but that was a real exercise in frustration.

Once we started in with the colouring, I was feeling a bit happier. Tania offered advice on how to use the colours to look like they do in manuscripts and showed us which order to do things and when to start adding detail. By half time, I was sort of happy with how it was going, but the folds in my picture, were definitely not like they were supposed to be.



Here's how it was looking with large blocks of colour and very little detail. I was pretty pleased with her hair and face at this point, which was a definite win for me. Sometimes my faces in medieval art really don't quite work, and again, my face wasn't looking like it was supposed to, but it was consistent with art and didn't need fixing.

The folds in the fabric were another story altogether.

I redid the folds and scraped them off the parchment multiple times and was supremely unhappy with the end result. We all enjoyed looking at each other's work and progress and seeing everyone's interpretations of the image and their results. Some more experienced illuminators produces really fabulous results. It was very obvious who copies well and who kept wanting to add a bit of license. (Which is fine normally, but less so in a class where we were supposed to be doing a certain thing.)

In the end, I will need to redo the folds again to get a result I am happy showing people, but I managed to take some nice photos with my glasses artistically placed over the bit I really was unhappy with. If you look closely, you can see why it isn't really working. Overall, I really enjoyed the workshop and learned a few things but I had hoped there would be more "This is how you know where to draw your folds" and less "Copy this picture."  I have done fabric folds in art before at High School, and I can draw folds from life. I just struggled seeing how all the folds and crinkles on the supplied picture were formed, so it was extremely stressful for me on a personal level.

The end result is this:

 

I'm looking forward to this workshop so much! I've done one before, and have enrolled in the Master Class. I'm hoping this will improve my skills since I haven't really studied fabric draping since high school.

Tania Crossingham is the artist who provided the artwork for my book based on the Manesse Codex and I've known her for many years now. She's flown in from Finland for the Abbey Medieval Festival and these workshops and it really is an opportunity too great to pass up.

 

 In a series of frustrations, I give you the side of the tent which is undergoing yet another change. Originally, this had ties at the top, so the wall could be removed for displays

This led to gaps at the top which let the bitter, winter cold in at night. The following year, I sewed the wall to the tent roof. Not too big of a job since I sewed the tent in the first place. This addressed the issue of the gap and the cold and was wonderful. Sadly, it means that the wall can only be used as a lift up awning and not removed altogether which meant if I didn't want to use an awning, it needed to be rolled up and tied at the tent entrance, which is less than ideal. 

So off it came again. 

Since the original making of the tent, I had come across these great small but sturdy hooks which I've been using for the tent linings. My idea this time round, is to sew the hooks to the wall, and sew matching little brass rings on the inside of the tent roof. This would hold the wall to the tent and be able to keep the gaps at the top closed. 

Having decided to do that, it was pretty obvious, that reinforcing strips were needed to make the whole wall less likely to be torn in poor weather. So that's a LOT of sewing I've been working on.

Work In Progress.