My January goals were:

• Make a set of sleeves out of the remaining pink wool, ideally in time for Bright Hills Baronial Birthday in February

• Make Evan’s vest thingy

• Finally make time to go over to Hakon’s to do belt, quiver, and chopines

• Keep on documenting the almodrote

• Research of the Month: Jews, Food, and Spain by Hélène Jawhara Piñer.

January was a really challenging month for me artistically. I had a bout of what I don’t want to call seasonal depression because I know what that feels like and this wasn’t it, but I’m going to call “seasonal apathy and paralysis by analysis.” I had so many mundane decisions to make that my SCA decisions kind of collapsed out from underneath me. I’m sincerely hoping this is NOT the way 2023 goes but I think I’m going to have give myself softer goals and a little grace just in case.

I started with the really simple but shockingly tedious task of finishing the belt loops for Evan’s pants. These little rectangles of fabric are really fiddly but it’s what he asked for so it’s what I’m doing. Having those done is super nice and Evan appreciates them. Thankfully, my SCA schedule changed and instead of Bright Hills Birthday, I’m going to KASF this year, so his vesty thing can get pushed back a bit and is less pressing because KASF is definitely inside. I’ve got a vague idea of how I want to do a KASF display this year: I know would like to display all the layers of the Green Saya outfit in entirety, the belt project below, and maybe my handwriting if I make some progress on that. I might also make some tiny spinach empanadillas as well but that’s TBD.

I did finish my pink sleeves! I decided to do these experimentally as to a two part sleeve. They have a front and a back and be open down the back seam except at the shoulder, a tiny bit above the elbow, and the wrist to let my camisa peek through. There are several examples of these in paintings, but I’m quite looking forward to them. I’ll be attaching them with pins onto the Pink Gonete. I like how they turned out, for being entirely experimental. I think to do a fully open back seam in the future, I’ll need to use some sort of interlining to keep the openings from flapping.

Hakon and I had a super productive day at his house working on and theorizing on projects. We prioritized fixing my mirror box/figuring out how to fix that and then got started on my belt. I’ve wanted a leather belt that is both persona accurate and blue to go with my soon to be archery equipment and it’s been a long time coming. I learned how to attach the buckle and we worked together to sort out how to do the wrapping down the side. Then I got into punching holes. So. Many. Holes. It’s such a pain in the butt, but I am so absolutely thrilled with how this effect is turning out in our sample. I’ve started calling this belt “Apprentices First Leather Project,” somewhat affectionately.

I also have a good idea about how I want to approach the chopines going forward. My original thought had been to cut them from a cork yoga block because that’s already block like. My new plan, for ease of cutting, is to cut the shape from thinner sheets of cork and stack them. I was hoping to make these about 3” thick, so getting a large sheet of 1” thick cork (which is reasonable considering how thick cork comes off the tree) and gluing and/or nailing them together before adding the leatherwork to them is going to be the best plan. I can also sand down the sides once this is done to smooth them out.

I got some great guidance this month about my issues with consistent ink flow for my hand writing project. I’ve cleaned up my quill a little bit, cut it nice and short to keep in accordance with actual period pens, and gotten some powdered gum arabic to thicken up my ink. The ink being too thin is what’s causing the inconsistent flow and causing my heavy and too light patches. I’ve got to run a few experiments to see how much is necessary to thicken my small ink pots.

I really don’t know where to start with this thought, but part of Mariana’s story in my persona is about being the oldest, unmarried daughter in her family. That is because that mirrors my life mundanely- I’m the oldest of two siblings with three other siblings by choice- and I wanted Mariana and Emily to come from common ground. Some of those details are about to change this year, as I’m getting married. It seems kind of like the opportune time to look into wedding customs both in Sephardic communities at this time and in Christian Spain. My Jewish wedding traditions will all come from my mundanely Ashkenazi heritage. I’m not really sure where to start with this research, but I’m hopeful I can turn it into a class at some point.

On the research front, I did get some reading done in Jews, Food, and Spain. It’s so far proven really interesting and I hope to incorporate some of what I learn into future A&S projects. That said, I did not expect to finish the book this month and I didn’t so I will withhold further commentary until I have. I did also finish fleshing out my University slides for next weekend and I’m very happy with how this is going to work as a lecture presentation.

I’ve picked up a project for some friends, Their Excellencies Storvik, for Coronation the first weekend of April. I’m very excited for this. We did our first measurements and discussed goals at a sewing day. My current plan is to rough out the shapes prior to Ymir, bring those to Ymir with me and do a preliminary fitting there, before beginning construction and stamping. I’m hopeful that should this go well, I may still be able to get myself some new garb out of the Moroccan Blue linen done for Coronation as well.

For February, in keeping with my much less ambitious project list plan:

• Finish punching holes in my belt. This will likely be a University project. If I manage to get that done, I would like to begin sewing the cord down the side, possibly in the car to/from Ymir.

• Play around with ink thicknesses

• Cut and baste Gracie and Jon’s first draft of patterns before Ymir, so they can be fitted at Ymir.

• Finalize KASF display details.

• Research of the Month: finish reading Jews, Food, and Spain by Hélène Jawhara Piñer.