Estrella 2013 wrap up

I'm back from Estrella War, which was a week long historical recreation event put on by the Society for Creative Anachronism. There were about 3000 of us this time around, and I had a blast!!! I can't wait for next year when I can do it again. Perfect weather, wonderful people, great activities...I got so lost in the Middle Ages that I never wanted to come back. Estrella reminds me of the story of Brigadoon. A town arises out of the desert once a year, goes about its business, and disappears back into the dust.

Again????

I was too busy enjoying myself to take a whole lot of pictures, but I did get some of a small selection of the great amounts of arts and crafts that were being worked on, used, and displayed. Most of these were at an arts display on Saturday afternoon, with some around town heraldry, and a few shots of the felt boot class I taught. So, here is a small taste of the artistry that is being created in this wonderfully crazy group.

Looking so forward to next year. I never wanted to come back.

Making metal loops in a coal forge

As I mentioned, I've been making these fabric painted heraldic panels, to mark the entry way to our Estrella camp this year. (estrellawar.org) Now, while I do great on the fiber side of things, I turned to my husband to figure out a way to display these panels. We decided that he'd make some rebar stakes with metal rings on them, one for either side of a panel, and I'd sew ties to the sides of the panels to attach to the rings.

Hmmm. We had some old rebar, but we didn't have any metal rings. We did however have a bunch of metal rod.

And, we have a small coal forge in the side yard. He cut the metal rod to the appropriate size, and fired up the forge. I thought it might be fun to take pictures of how he transformed the rod into rings, so you could see what he was doing too. It is a neat process!:

He took the piece of metal rod, and stuck it down into the hot coals.

Then he cranked the blower to force air into the forge, to heat things up.

When the metal was hot, he fished it back out again...

...and used a handy hole in the legs of the forge to help him bend the metal rod.

The metal cools relatively quickly, so it went back into the forge to heat back up.

He fished it back out again...

...and this time used another set of pliers to help him bend the metal the rest of the way around into an approximate loop.

One more time into the fire. (I just like these fire pictures, actually.)

He found where the loop was hiding under the coals, and brought it out one more time.

Then he used a hammer and anvil to do the last bit of shaping.

A few more taps, and it is done.

Time to let it cool with the others. He ended up making 42 rings total. That ought to do us!

Once the rings are cool, he can take them into the garage to the welding station, and weld them onto the pieces of rebar.

Yup. That ought to do the trick!

Playing with Heraldry

Every year about this time I go into a frenzy of preparation, getting ready for a chance to step out of time. I'm talking about a historical recreation event put on by the Society for Creative Anachronism, called Estrella War. http://estrellawar.org/ This is week long trip into a Medieval past that never quite was, with 4000-5000 of my closest friends. Silly? Yes. Marvelous fun? Absolutely!!

This year as in most, I'm in charge of my own little camp, The Hearth. Only, this year I'm looking after over 40 people. Folks have been having such fun around my fire that they're bringing more of their friends along with them each year. The more the merrier, I say. Anyway, after last year I decided that it would be easier for folks to find us if we had a heraldic symbol to identify us. So I drew up a badge, and submitted it to the SCA powers that be. I just received word that my badge passed, which means that it follows all of the rules of heraldry, and doesn't look like anyone else's heraldry either. I registered it in my name so nobody else could snag it, and I've been working on ways to display it. The obvious first project was to make a sign for the entrance of camp, so folks knew where we are supposed to be

So, I pulled out some white fabric from my stash, and grabbed some Tulip fabric paints. This might not be the most historically accurate way of making a display, but it should get the job done.

I used some high tech tools to lay out the initial circle that I needed: a pin, some string, and a pencil. Hey, it works well!

Once I had my design sketched out, I drew my outlines with metallic black fabric paint straight out of the applicator.

When the outlines were dry, I used a brush to paint in the areas. This is basically a big paint by number. Easy! It just took patience.

And here is one finished fabric panel.










My husband Eric is making some rebar with rings welded to it. We'll stake the rebar into the ground on either side of the panel, and tie the fabric to the rebar. In theory, that should hold it up. We'll put this one at one side of the entrance to camp.

Our camp is part of a larger group, the Barony of SunDragon. That is the local group for the west side of Phoenix, AZ. One of the other baronies has challenged ours to a 'spiffy heraldic display' competition at Estrella. So, I'm also working on making another matching fabric panel for the other side of the entrance to camp. It will display the heraldry for the barony. The outline is drying, even as I type. Between the two, it should be obvious which camp this is, no?

Oh, and the King decided that he wants his warriors on the field to all be in Kingdom colors. In this case, he wants a Sea of Blue. For one thing, it is easier to see what is going on in battle if you can identify your troops at a glance. Also, it makes for good esprit de corps, adding to the magic of the event. So, I made my two warriors blue fighting outfits. They are in Kingdom colors, with the Baronial heraldic War Dragon badge on their chests to denote which unit they're fighting with, and the Kingdom populace badge on their shoulders. (You can't see their other shoulders, which has their own personal devices on them.)

Don't they look wonderful? And as you see them across the battle field, there is no question as to their affiliation. Kind of like modern sports team jerseys, only more Medieval.

Practical heraldry. There is a reason that we still use this stuff in our modern world. Product logos, school mascots, team uniforms...it still serves the purpose of letting you identify a place, person, or thing at a quick and distant glance.

Kicking into gear

Estrella War, the SCA event I went to last week, was absolutely marvelous. It was a week long party with 3000 of my closest friends, including folks that I really only get to see once a year. And I got to help out at the period demo center on Friday morning, talking to scads of grade school age kids about what our ancestors went through to make clothing. I think they were most impressed by the idea of the pink/purple color of the yarn that we dyed with cochineal, especially when I explained that cochineal was bugs that you find on prickly pear cactus around here. Color from squished up bugs is just the thing to grab the attention of bored grade school age kids--especially the boys.

But now Estrella is over, and I've almost got resulting laundry and dishes done. I was feeling kind of let down and at loose ends, coming off of the high that that event gives me. I wasn't quite sure the direction I wanted to go...and then my husband came home yesterday to tell me that he had lost his job. Which is actually probably going to be good for him personally, but the timing seriously sucks.

Well, I have a direction now. I've been letting the Etsy shop slide over the past few months as I worked on the fabric for the Estrella arts display. Now it is time to kick the Tangible Daydreams business back into high gear, so I can make more of a contribution to the household than just my life drawing modeling gives. Over the next while, I'll be putting in many more hours in the studio, and listing lots of items.

For instance, yesterday I dug out the golf balls and the wool roving, and made up four new sets of juggling balls. These are actually my best sellers out of the Etsy shop, and my stock was getting low.



While those were drying, I also started to rummage through my stash of shawl yarn. Before Estrella, a friend found me a batch of Red Heart 'Baby Clouds' yarn. I put it aside at the time, but dragged it out yesterday and started matching colors. I decided on a pretty pastel peach and some bright white, and mapped out a two color plaid on the triangle loom. I've gotten the weaving part done, and now I'm working on cutting and tying the fringe. I'm actually rather pleased with the way this one is turning out. The colors make for a very subtle and delicate pattern, which I could totally see as a wedding shawl. The yarn is a little thicker than the Lion Brand Homespun that I often use, so it is packing in a little tighter and making a more stable weave. But it isn't as tight as some that I've tried, so it should still drape well once I get it off the loom.



(Ignore the dark shadow down the middle of the weave. That is the support for the easel behind the shawl.)

I should be able to get that shawl finished up tomorrow. Then I've got several more shawls worth of the same yarn to work up, as well as yarn enough for a dozen or so pairs of socks. Oh, and while I was at Estrella I picked up a copper focal pendant that will make a great center bit for one of my gourds. Come to think of it, I probably have enough materials in my stash to work steadily for a month or so, without having to buy supplies.

Now, it is time to quit freaking out, buckle down, and do the work. I need to have my crafting finally take the step from a hobby into a real, bill-paying business.

Eep.

Deep breath...Ready? Go.

Sewing for Estrella, and modeling for life drawing

Oh man, am I sore again. This semester I'm working with 6 different teachers of life drawing classes, and this week I modeled for each and every one of them. It was only about 16 hours of work...but imagine if you worked out at the gym for 16 hours in a week's time. Yup. My muscles are talking to me. Mostly whimpering, and asking for the hot tub pretty please. But I'm kind of stubbornly proud that I can help the learning process in this way, and that even at 44 years old I'm fit enough to do the job well. Also? There were two paintings of me on display at a professional art exhibit this week. How's that for kind of making for weird feelings?? They were evidently done from class sketches like this one:



(Hopefully that one is work safe enough not to freak anyone out.)

In and among the class work, I've been able to get some more prep done for the upcoming Estrella War. (estrellawar.org) I still need to write the documentation for the fabric I wove for the arts competition, but I was really pleased that the matching linen (from fabrics-store.com) came in today. The hand woven will end up being a nice warm over-tunic, and the linen will be the under-tunic. I need to enter a length of fabric ready to be made into something for the competition, so the actual construction of the outfit will wait until after I get back. But won't it be beautiful? I'm so pleased the colors matched as well as I thought they might.



My husband is kind of hard on his clothes, and I hadn't sewn for him in a couple of years. So I made him the fingerloop braids (http://tangibledaydreams.blogspot.com/2011/02/tutorial-basic-finger-loop-braiding.html) to fix the cuffs for one shirt, and then sewed him another one. This is from the McCall's M4864 pattern. There were some fiddly bits around the cuff and collar with getting all the gathers tucked in correctly, but I'm pleased with the way the shirt turned out. And the XL fits my husband beautifully, with plenty of ability to move. Since he's not a small man, and is very active, that makes this pattern worth the little bit of fiddling and hand sewing. Yes, I really hate hand sewing. But I'll be using this pattern again. (And it looks better on him than it does crumpled up on the ironing board. Really.)



This was an easier project. McCalls Easy Stitch 'n Save M5738, minus the collars because Joann's didn't have enough of the yellow bias tape to go around. The dog coats run a little large for what the measurements call for, and I had to shift the placement of the belly strap for the smaller dogs. But the pups didn't mind wearing them. Actually, when I tried to put a coat on Kaylee, Wash tried to nose his way in to get the pretties instead. He even did the roll over and show his belly trick as a way to beg for the coat. I think maybe he just wanted all the attention for himself, but it was still cute to see them jockeying for who got to wear the new clothes. Luckily, I made up three of them.



You can almost hear them saying, "Ok Mom, we're in our new garb. Is it time to go yet???"