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A&S Follow-up

I entered the championship for Calontir on 7/20/19 and I came in second. Here are my thoughts on my entries and the judging:

Italian head-covering: scored 25/30 and I was happy with that. One of the first comments was a question as to what style of footnotes I was using and I have no idea. Since this is not my area of expertise and not my culture of research, and I had difficulty even trying to find out where the portraits I was using for documentation were located. And I was primarily using portraits for documentation so I picked portraits that showed a similar head covering from Italy in the same time frame. They wanted more textile references and more process pictures, and comparisons to other headdresses from other areas and periods. Also to know how it was done in period and I can’t even begin to figure out if there is existing documentation for that. I can look at a thing and puzzle it out – I was vague on the overall puzzling.

Reliquary hood: scored 29/30 as I lost a point for “Post–period looking pin use” They really liked how my documentation was laid out as I broke it down into 15 parts – for such a small item there was really a lot going on with it and I broke it down into all of the major components. I based this piece on approximately eight extant objects which all had an analysis of the object online in Dutch. So the flaws in my project added to the authenticity of it. I liked this project and might do it again.

Treatment of a statue: scored 21.5/30 and I was told that if I had won then this item would have been disqualified. True – one of the three statues had been entered in a competition prior and it had not been fully carved at that point. I did not hide that fact – the judges could just have easily concentrated the judging on the other two statues if that was their objection. I did not talk about carving in my documentation and did not expect them to judge the carving because I was focused on the surface treatment. They liked the dog, they liked the sheep, they knocked points off in every category – including complexity which was baffling to me that I could get a 3/5 in that area. Overall it felt like the judge who took the lead on that team had a goal score she was trying to reach and the other two just let her. I immediately after judging knew I didn’t win. And while the rules state that your documentation and scores can be enhanced by your conversation with the judges, there didn’t seem to be any of that going on. Again – this is not my area of focus and even though I had lots of extant statues from the same region and time period, I’m a little agog about the scoring.

Part of the overall problem with the documentation standards is that they make NO allowances for how in-depth you want to get into a field of study, the ADA federal standards, or how much is actually known already in that art, time, and region. The fact that I know all those basics should be apparent based on the conversation and I shouldn’t have to put basics in the written documentation for an advanced level project. I don’t know how to fix that issue. I also don’t think the style of footnote or bibliography should be as big a factor as the books or sites that you’re citing. Especially when the end result of your labors is supposed to be the work of art – not the research you used to produce it. I expect those standards for a research paper – not for a physical item.

Not sure if I will do it again – would kind of like to do a project when I do the documentation as a photograph of the project work space once a week so you can see the progress, see the references I consult, see the materials I use. And see how long it actually takes to create the project itself! And I think I would like to make more critters for the shrine.


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State of the Studio

A long time ago I held C&I at my house on Friday nights. Over the three or four years that I was doing it, pretty much everyone in the Barony attended at least once. About once a month we would get fishfry from the VFW hall down the street. I really enjoyed those evenings. And I miss them as well.

Eventually I moved and then there were no more C&I nights and I don’t think I even unpacked the majority of my C&I stuff. I didn’t really have space for it except in the basement and that became the sewing room. I didn’t (I’m being honest) play at the local level and I was getting deep into the silk flower research at that point which was a very solitary pursuit. Then I got married and I resumed playing again but I was still mainly focused on the flowers. Lack of space and no longer being centrally located really restricted my ability to host things. (And honestly, that group really had it covered before I got there.)

And then we moved again. I’ve tried to attend every business meeting and moot but fight practice isn’t really my thing. There are some other things locally but they don’t usually appeal to me or are inconvenient timewise. I also know me and I’m far more likely to attend something if I can host it.

I’m really looking forward to the studio getting completed. Hubby says by Labor Day! The downstairs is his domain (which I call the shop and is dedicated to woodworking) and the summer kitchen/garage. Upstairs is the studio – my giant sewing room. Giant is 1100 square feet dedicated to fabric based activities. I will have a 5×10 cutting table (counter height, lightly padded, and canvas covered) with a large light overhead and the ability to have the iron plugged in above so I can iron right from the table. I will have at least two sewing tables (I aspire to get a long-arm machine within a year) and two class tables. A television and the sectional sofa will also be up there and all the fabrics I have accumulated (like all that cashmere and the 100 plus yards of linen I haven’t used yet.)  I haven’t decided yet if the bead cabinet will get moved there (because I will still have a craft room in the house and it might be better at least for now to leave that in the craft room) but I’m pretty sure the silk stuff will get moved (it takes up less space than the beads but I usually use the silk in connection with the fabric and it’s what I most want to teach classes on.)

I think I want to make table coverings that are like fitted bedsheets – lightly padded but with a tight, no-slide fit to them. Or maybe make one fabric covered and the other one with a giant mapped-out cutting mat (the green ones that have all the grids and you can use a roller-cutter on them.) There will also be room to set up a quilt rack when I need to. I’m also thinking I might want a small beverage fridge up there. Even with all of that it feels like I’m missing something – what am I not planning for that I should have on the list? (All books will be in the actual library though there will be a shelf for the ones I really need to keep on hand in the sewing room.)

My hope is that by fall I can host open sewing/crafting/stitch ‘n bitch although I understand that the stairs are going to be a deterrent for some folks. I just hope not to many.


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All the Dress Details

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I spent the weekend cleaning up the house and packing/unpacking various bins of stuff. Here are all the dress details as one of the items in the repacking bin was the new German dress. As I was going through the pictures it occurred to me that, while the construction isn’t overly ‘period’ in nature, it is perfect for the theatre in that it literally takes a minute to get into or out of the dress! Lots of garb is extremely fussy and can take a good twenty minutes to get into but not this one. This is simplicity and if you have a swimsuit (or other clothes) on underneath you could easily make a backstage change in seconds. I didn’t design it that way though. I designed it to be easy because I can be very claustrophobic about my clothes and I didn’t want to have to ‘need’ to get out of it ‘now’ and have to cut it off myself. So here is a walk-through of getting into or out of this dress. Please forgive me my wrinkles.

 


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Now Completed

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This picture is before the dress was actually finished but you get the idea – I’m pleased with how it turned out.

The black and white portions are secured at the bottom of the front and “flip-up” to get into the dress – the back black is stitched at the collar. I will get more pictures here soon. It is very easy to get in and out of and that is the underskirt in my arm.

I finished the *entirely too much* hand sewing while camping at Lilies. I also finished the neckline on the chemise that goes with the blue kirtle (both of which are newly constructed) and I finally finished the purple/robin’s egg that I cut out at Mdln’s house like 15 years ago (I had cut out three dress that day and the other two were completed that same year.) So I think this is a first for me – all of the sewing UFOs have been completed. I also had some tunics for hubby delivered and then we purchased some additional  to use for patterns. I have enough linen to make bunches more.

I taught two classes – actually one class twice and that went well. We entered our saint statues in an A&S competition for favorite saint in any medium – we won. That was cool because we got a pilgrimage rosary which will go in the shrine. We were also give little pilgrim badges for the dancing porkchop thing they have at Lilies. I met a lot of new people – and we were invited to camp with Herald’s Hill – we love them and will camp with them for every future Lilies we attend. They really were so welcoming and awesome and made the trip so enjoyable. They fed us and talked shrines with me and I think I’m finally going to be able to register my name and device.


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The Final Design

This is the dress I’ve decided to go with. A nice red dress which dates to 1520-1530. It has the same basic design of the GPM so I can use my existing pattern for it which will take considerably less time than coming up with a new pattern.


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The Status of Things

Five weeks ago we moved from the safety and peacefulness we have always known to the new and unknown, adventure-filled Here. Here is located in NW Arkansas and I am currently calling it Enddleton.

Enddleton is a wonderfully large estate compared to most of the other estates I have knowledge of – the house is 3k square feet and the land is 5.56 acres. We currently have two horses, a pony, a baby donkey, and nine chickens living on the estate with us although none of them actually belong to us. We have a large number of trees, a real pasture, a spring fed pond, and lots of flat green grassland that will be gardens in the future. This is a lovely estate just on the very edge of the city proper with all the amenities of city living and all the joys of country living rolled into one beautiful property. I love Enddleton.

Enddleton is a five bedroom, two and a half bath house with two living and two dining areas. There is plenty of room for all our various hobbies and we plan on building a workshop onto the horse barn so we will have greenhouse and woodworking space. The pasture will eventually become an orchard.

Of our five bedrooms, one is for us, two are for guests, one is for yoga, and one is designated sewing. Sewing is code for “all the craft stuff.” The sewing room is packed full and unpacking it has been my latest project. I had 15 medium size boxes with nothing but cashmere in them and those now live on wire shelving in one of the closets. There is an additional wire rack on wheels that doesn’t fit in the closet so I really have an abundance of sewing to do so it all fits in there like it’s supposed to fit!

The other closet is filled with garb and not much else. I then found another box of garb and have not yet integrated that into the rest of the collection but it occurred to me that I need to find someone who fits in the smaller ones and make their day!

There is the sewing table and the sewing machine table and a sofa and a workbench. There are also a small dresser and at least ten storage bins with fabric. The bead cabinet rounds out the furniture in the room. And one very large wool rug covers the floor. Overall it sounds cramped but I would describe it as cozy and comfortable with enough space to get some actual work done once everything is put away as it should be.

Hopefully it won’t take me too much longer to get the sewing room into working condition! Then I can focus on the rest of the spaces!

Not Much of a Vacation

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So – back in July we bought a new house. This week we took some excess stuff to the new house so that it wasn’t taking up space when we try to sell our current house in the spring. Because we are only going to be at the new house for a week or two we decided not to have internet installed and I had to take the two weeks off work  as a result.

I packed a billion boxes in recent months – this week I unpacked a lot of boxes – except books because I don’t have bookshelves here yet. I cleaned almost everything, I cut my finger on the food-processor blade, and now I’m trying to relax. Eventually I will get working on the class stuff.


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Work vs Art

And now it’s the end of May and I’m so far behind in what I wanted to accomplish this year.

I had wanted to complete the statues for the shrine and then fill in with some additional flowers. I was going to get that done in the spring but A&S was held early this year and there just wasn’t enough time after the end-of-year rush at work in order to complete my entries for the competition. So I put it on hold but then didn’t get back to it (yet. I will get back to it eventually!)

Work has been crazy busy and, while I’m supposed to function more as a consultant, I got promoted and am now a team lead. I was hoping to be finished with my work project sometime within the next year but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen either. The company has postponed some of the key things I was there to do and so I’m functionally at a lose.

A good number of the summer plans have been set and the rest of the major ones were (again) put on hold because I never heard back from the contacts. Oh well – I’m not going to sweat it. Not much I can do about it since I don’t have much in the line of vacation time anyway. Then again – without my major work project I guess I could take the time and not worry about the consequences.


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Another Month Gone

It has been a busy month as most Januarys are for me.

The neighbor has sold her house and moved to Indiana for her new job. I’m optimistic because she sold hers (which is very simular to ours) in three days. And we have found some nice properties in our new target home area.

I’m still working overtime but not as much as I was three weeks ago. We should be getting back to a normal workload in the next week or two.

So yesterday I went to TOC and I wore the big German dress. It hasn’t fit for a few years and it’s on the verge of not fitting again so when I tried it on in the morning before we left, I decided to leave it on. I recieved so many compliments on it and it actually is more comfortable than I remembered it being. I had to fully explain its construction three times for people who were interested in making one. So here it is: I used the Period Pattern #46 for German Slash and Puff. I took the basic sleeve from Seams Like Old Times #8, figure 19 though I will caution that you should add some extra room to the pattern because when you sew it up it’s going to get a lot tighter. I stuffed the sleeve sections with that pastic mesh used in bath scrubbers because it doesn’t loose it’s shape. The base of the dress is a canvas weight cotton with a little stretch in it and it almost has the look of denim – a nice matte black. I used an iron-on stiffner on the lightweight strips before I cut them for the sleeves as this keeps them from unraveling – a washed wool would not have needed the special treatment. The gollar was cut from a single piece of cotton velvet, backed with a lightweight fabric, then sown like a snake and turned. Ironed and then beaded. Then the whole of it was sewn to the top of the dress.

The skirt is done with pleater tape and then sewn to a narrow leather belt. The entire back of the top was then sewn to the skirt. The center section is removable with hooks and eyes and the rings for the laces are sewn to the back of the gollar which pulls it all together. The skirt opens on the side-front, directly below the gollar. The gold and white pannel is stiffened with the eye end of the hooks and eyes and extends about two inches below the waistband but is not attached.

The hat and red band on the bottom of the skirt is a tiny wale cordaroy and the hat is pretty free of patterning, meaning that it looks like a quartered apple and the feathers had to be sewn in or would not stay in place.

 

I had gone to TOC to see a dear friend get elevated to the order of the Pelican. He had some wisdom for me and I found myself all misty eyed. It was a busy but enjoyable day.