January 2022 Recap: Little Things Add Up To A Lot
My January goals were:
Finish the black and gold cushion.
Make some good progress on the Green Saya.
Start on the white linen calzas.
January was an up and down month with a lot of stuff going on. I made progress on a lot of little things, that in hindsight, added up to a hugely productive month. Starting off mundanely, I accepted a job offer! I’ve been searching for quite some time now, and this is a huge weight off my shoulders. No start date yet, but I hope sometime in February to start this new chapter in my life.
I started the month off taking a look at the black and gold cushion. Unfortunately, I think because of how the squares are set up, it won’t actually make for a very nice thing to sit on. I need to try grading the corners of each square a bit, then it might actually work. It’s back being tabled for now, since there are easier and more exciting cushions I could be working on.
Pinning the large strip of ribbon on the Green Saya hem into place.
This month, I also began the skirt details on the Green Saya. I decided to begin with the hem area, since the detailing at the four points has to stop at the top stripe there. This is a massive undertaking as expected. At the pace I generally hand sew at it takes me approximately one week to get around the skirt’s circumference once. The first ribbon is done, I have completed the first round on the super wide ribbon in the middle, and almost all the way around the second time. This looks very dramatic on the hem and I am thrilled with it. I think on the points I’ll need to space the small ribbons a bit wider from the main ribbon to really maximize the effect. I expect that this I will have the hem completed and potentially pin on one of the four points for display at KASF.
My beautiful inlaid box.
I took some time off to go to Florida with Sof’ia for a quick trip, and came back with a small project- yet another box to repair. This one is beautifully inlaid, but has clearly been dropped a couple of times. There is missing mother of pearl, parts of the inlay are cracked or gone, and the sides need some TLC. I plan to patch it up, remove and re-glue the fabric on the inside, and use it for some of my larger SCA jewelry to declutter my other box. It is my hope that my circlet fits into it, but at the very least, my larger brooches and pendants from the red and green set of jewelry will for sure, and that will free up a good amount of space in the smaller jewelry box. If not, I also have the mirror box for that, but that is in great need of repair as well, even more so that this particular piece. I just love that this has an Islamic/Jewish inspired inlay pattern and the detail on the piece is just exquisite.
Once we got home from Florida, I decided to start on the under-socks. After reviewing my research, I have settled on the term medias calzas for these items. For the feet, I used a turn shoe pattern I had from a class I took during 2021. They matched up with the shape of my feet quite well. The leg area was more complicated. My understanding is that regularly, stockings like these were cut on the bias. The linen I have for this project does not at all like being cut on the bias so I did it on the grain, then draped and pinned it to fit. For the most part, it worked out ok. I did the leg and heel piece in one solid piece with the seam in the back, matching up with the stocking seam. These are sewn by hand with run-and-fell the seams and I did get both completed this month. Not that my documentation on it is exceptional but it wasn’t supposed to be on this one. I got the knitted parts blocked as well, so this project is done and dusted.
Photo credit: Constanzia de Zamora (Rachel Vess)
I also made some good progress on conceptualizing what I want to do for my block printing project! I found the photograph above in Stanzi’s albums and I just love the flower type pattern on the dude on the right. It’s from 1507 according to the museum placard next to it. Girona is much further east than my technical area of interest, but I think the pattern is neutral enough that I can get away with it. It’s also the same museum where my Green Saya inspiration came from, so there is a tie in there. I thing I have located a good stamp for it but I still have to pick an ink color- likely gold. There’s a scrolling border of some sort on the hem of this as well that I might try to find an approximation of, but it’s hard to see. This design will go on the blue linen I had originally purchased to line the Love and Beauty outfit. I’ll time this big project to match up with Ponte Alto’s block printing A&S block this spring, but will likely do some test runs in advance.
Veil test run after I finished attaching the trim.
Two somewhat unexpected accomplishments: After a year of on and off delays because of life, I also finally finished my arrows with Naran! I have 24 arrows now that are the correct length and weights for my bow that I made myself, which is super exciting. Now to just finish fixing my too-flexible hickory bow. And secondly, I did a test run of the sheer veil for the Green Saya outfit, using some silver, white, and blue trim I already have. I was brave enough to cut my silk only to find I have enough for three veils out of one yard and that I love how these look on. I need to get some gold trim for the actual outfit piece, but expect hoods and veils from me in the future.
I did also sign up for Esa’s persona development challenge. How the challenge works is that for four events during the next reign, we’re trying to make four items to deepen our persona. They can be works in progress until Fall Coronation in October. I have not settled on my items yet, but I think I was debating the following:
A quiver and the belts/straps necessary (I have found appropriate historical evidence for how these would look, I’m just not sure how to go about making it).
A Flemish hood (since this has now been ruled out of the Green Saya outfit, but would be a pretty solid opener piece for Coronation) and I now have some experience with the veils. If I have time and am feeling brave, I might even embroider it.
Trying to come up with an SCA signature? Would I ever even use this? It would be a totally new form of A&S for me though.
A rosary or some sort or paternoster. I want to keep it fairly neutral in theme (i.e not super in your face Catholic), but I think it would be a strong addition to any Spanish outfit. I have a small one but it’s fairly modern.
My new SCA business cards, with a ring token.
February needs to be a month of prepping for KASF in the first week of March. To that end, I got a bust for my veil and jewelry pieces, but I still need to make sure Evan has garb and equipment for the day, print official signage, and figure out how I’m getting all of this down to North Carolina. I did complete all of my token cards for this, and as it happens, the remaining cards fit perfectly into the box the rings came out of.
So, this all means that project-wise in February I need to:
Try to finish the Green Saya hem.
Finish my jeweled headpiece for the Green Saya outfit. I dremeled all the open work cabochon pieces during the last weekend of January, now I just need to finish sewing them all on.
Start on another set of body garments: a wide sleeved camisa and another set of calzas.
Make a “defining your terminology” paper for Spanish garb. I’ve revisited a few terms, but I think I’d like to have that somewhat more definite and published on the "Research and Documentation” page.
