Golden Maple Leaf

For those not Artemisian (or even not players in the SCA), The Order of the Golden Maple Leaf is an award given to those who have shown prowess in the arts and sciences of pre-17th Century. It bears an Award of Arms, if the recipient doesn't already carry one, and is held dear to my heart.

I have been watching Jane Fox grow as an artist since I met her a few short years ago, sporting an amazing Elizabethan made of delicious red silk damask.  She eagerly dove into the world of 16th Century costuming to great effect.  After she won the Novice seamstress category in the Artemisian Costuming Challenge, I knew their Majesties would surely see what I did and I submitted a letter of recommendation for her to receive admittance into the Order of the Golden Maple Leaf, and offered to do the scroll should they see fit to do so.

Clearly they are both wise and gracious.  This piece is done with gouache on pergamenata, based on the Hours of Bonaparte Ghislieri, Use of Rome c. 1500ish below:

I chose this piece because of the bright red which reminded me of that silk gown, and because of the jewels and pearls, and what appear to be auches which are often used to decorate late period dress.

I had to tape the bugger down to my art stand because the perg kept curling (anyone have tips on this annoyance?), but I use architects tape, which does not damage the paper and can be easily pealed off.  I do wish I'd had a little more time to fuss with this as I'd have liked to shade down the gold even more, but alas deadlines cannot be avoided.

Doing this piece also reminded me how much fun pearls are to paint.

Those who do not Craft, Shop.

Quest has come and gone, and was a most excellently fun event, despite the seriously craptastic weather.  Between wind and torrential rain, we were cold and wet all weekend.  But we had awesome company, great conversation, and a fire pit to ward off the chills a bit.

My goal was to get a photograph of Sven in his red and black tunic that I made last year (but yet to have a picture of), but alas it was not meant to happen.

I am partly done with one scroll that has been in my queue since April (shame).  It is to be given out at Uprising, so this weekend is slated to do a lot of painting.  Pictures will follow after it has been awarded.  This is my first experience working on pergamenata, and it has been interesting.  A full review to follow later.

I am super excited to share with you my latest shopping haul.

I have been massively in love with early Tudor styles for years, so The Queen's Servants was a must-have.  I expect it will take me quite some time to actually make something from it, but now I have the book in order to do so.

I'm so stoked about scoring a copy of Old Italian Patterns for Linen Embroidery.  This is a rare piece.  I struggle calling it a book since really it's a book shaped folder full of loose-leaf patterns that are tied into place. with this really cool bound envelope dealio.  Really, I should have taken photos of the inside...

I drooled upon Noelle's copy (and even made copies of a few of my favorite patterns, but they were destroyed in the craft studio flood a year and a half ago (the photocopies, not Noelle's original - I'd just die!).  It's a difficult "book" to find, and when you can find it, it's usually quite expensive.  That was my experience, anyway.  After a year or so of looking (and only finding it in the $100 + range), I found one for $30.  It took about 0.35 seconds to click BUY.  I believe there are a few more copies out there on Amazon if anyone's interested.

My Weakness

My weakness?  A fabric sale.  Admit it, costumers, fabric sales are wallet-slimming fiends! 

Fabrics-Store.com had a sale on their medium weight linen last week, so I demanded that Sven pick out a few colors for tunics.  He picked out the royal purple and autumn gold.  I'm told the autumn gold is for a "Kirk" inspired tunic *snerk*.  I picked up some black and white for the stash  That stuff is always handy to have around.

The darks are in the wash now, for pre-shrinkage.  I still hope to have a new undershirt done for Sven for Quest, but I haven't even started it and it's two weeks away.  Where has my time run away to?

I have sadly gotten in the very bad habit of sitting in front of the TV after work, and it is draining all my time away.  We're tempted to cancel our Netflix account to curb our potato-ing.  Tonight we have guests coming over, so I may not get started yet again.  But tomorrow, I have no excuse!  This weekend will be full of shenanigans at the Utah Renfest and other social obligations.  

In other, completely unrelated news, I have been playing with different braids/braiding techniques lately.  The hair is back down to my waist again, and it's been a ton of fun to play around.  Today's adventure is two dutch braids that are wound around each other to make a braided spiral in the back.  Excuse the poor photo - it's surprisingly difficult to take a picture of the back of your own head with a smart phone.  Also, it's nearing the end of a sort of crazy day, so I have loose wild hairs.

No Progress - Plenty of Plans!

With camping season upon me, my crafting priorities need to shift.  I did not complete some of my goals, but c'est la vie.  These items will remain "In the queue" and will eventually happen.

I have two scribal projects in the works, one with no real deadline, the other with a loose one.  More info on that as I have progress to share and/or they are complete and presented to their new owners.

With Quest for Atlantis around the corner, I need to make Sven a new norse undershirt, for he only has one!  For shame!  That's top on my list of priorities.  After that, I'd like to dig up my plans from last year for my Elizabethan Jacket. Yeah, I plan in the long-term, because I'm super slow at completion.  The exciting thing is I have two awesome fabrics suitable for such jackets.  Remember this?  It wants to be another 'Bethan jacket.  I will be taking quite a bit of inspiration from Drea Leed's jacket.

I've also procured some new fabrics for more Norse tunics for Sven.  Autumn Gold and Royal Purple linen.  I think he wants one for Quest, but I'm not sure I can make that happen. <---SLOW SEAMSTRESS!!

We have some friends who may come to Quest with us, and who may need help garbing for the event.  I have some older items which may work, if cinched in and so forth.  I hope to know soon, so we can figure things out.  We also need to dig out all our camping gear, take inventory, and figure out what we need.  Bleh.

And since no blog shall be left picture-less, here's a sweet miniature of Bess of Hardwick wearing a super cute 'Bethan jacket.

Hair Clips

Yes, I am still alive.  The last few months have been a whirlwind of preparations and insanity as my beloved and I planned our wedding, and ultimately tied the knot.

Due to all this amazingly awesome chaos in my life, I haven't done anything creative in a while; something that is changing post-haste.  I have quite a few projects lined up that I'm very excited about.  I won't be spilling the beans on them just yet though.

For now, take a look at these hair clips I made for my wedding day.  They were quite easy, and the overall effect was both whimsical and elegant - contradictory in all things, as are my dear husband and I.

I started with a simple alligator clip, which I inserted a scrap of plastic or foil, depending on what was available at the time, inside the clip.  This was to keep me from gluing the clip closed.  A piece of paper would also work, though might be harder to pull away from the dried glue.  You may end up with a tiny bit of it permanently inside the clip, depending on the kind of clip you use, but it won't show.

I then cut apart some fake flowers I purchased, and removed the heavy plastic bottom receptacle/sepal combo piece, and trimmed the stem as short as possible.  I then hot glued the flowers to the alligator clip.  As the sepal and stem are what keeps fake flowers held together, I had to put tiny dabs of hot glue between the layers of the petals, to keep everything from just falling apart.  But hot glue works wonders!  (I recommend a low-temperature hot glue gun - burns are no fun.)

The Crystal branches were a bit of a strange brainchild.  I found some clear crystal drops at Michaels that were already shaped onto branches, which would have easily been glued on, but I wanted to add some ruby red Swarovski crystals into the mix.  This meant untwisting the wire branches, pulling all the clear crystals off, and slowly rebuilding it my way.  It would have been much simpler starting with fresh unused jewelers wire.

I made four clips in total - three were used in my hair, and one was clipped to the front of my red wrap dress as an accent on the sash.

Valentines Day Surprise

I don't generally post private things about my life in this blog, as it's designed to share my artistic endeavors, not my personal business.  However, this is so huge I have to share.

On Valentines Day, my dear sweet man proposed to me, and I replied with "definitely."  So here's to the man of my dreams.  I love him.

The Mr. and I, hanging out in Times Square, April 2010

Thanksgiving, 2011 (Photo by Morgan Goudy)

On the arts/crafts front... I have done very little so far this year.  I did calligraphy on two pieces, which are being illuminated by Bethany.  Hopefully I can get pictures of the finished products to share.

2012 Goals

It's a new year!  So what does 2012 have in store for Crystal?  Well, so far it's been nothing but illness and Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Not that crafty.

I do have goals though!

1. Make a favor for my champion and my lord (yes, they are two different people).
2. Make the red eggplant silk veste to go with my ACC butter yellow sottana.
3. Make the beaded partlet to go with said veste.
4. That long talked-about, but nary a cut to the fabric Jacobean/Elizabethan Jacket.
5. Make a wool zimarra with applique/embroidery/some other form of awesome.
6. Start teaching calligraphy again.
7. Make something with my silverpoint kit.  Even if it's just a trial.
8. On the "maybe this year" list is a wool flanders dress.

ACC Wrap-up Post

I have neglected to write my wrap-up post regarding the Artemisian Costuming Challenge, so let's get that done, shall we?  Links will take you to tagged blog posts for more information on my process and documentation.

Layer #1 (Skin) - Linen Camicia, hand sewn and embroidered in silk. 

 

Layer #1 Budget - $0 spent.  All materials came from my stash, including silk floss and beeswax for embroidery.

Layer #2 (main gown) - Damask sottana and silk sleeves.

Layer #2 Budget - This is where I splurged. 
$25.20 on beads for the sleeves.
$23.98 on silk fabric
$8.99 on satin ribbons to attach sleeves
All other materials are from my stash.

Layer #3 (Accessory) - Partlet

Layer #3 Budget - $0 spent.  All materials from stash.

I had a lot of grandiose plans for a beaded/couched partlet, but due to time constraints, I made a simple Florentine partlet.  It is cut out of one piece of fabric, and ties under the arms to hold it in place.  It's designed based on a combination of these two portraits, both by Bronzino, wherein the first clearly has no shoulder seams, and the second has an added collar.  I will still be doing a more fancy partlet, but at a later date with no time restrictions.

Layer #4 (Warmth) - Fur-lined muff with gold-worked trim, hand sewn

Layer #4 Budget - $12.00 for thrift store fur coat to reinvent.  All other materials from stash.

I had intended mantelinne or Dutch Cloak for my warmth layer, but burned out, so I'm calling this my final layer.  It's for warmth, right?  My late start in the challenge due to scribal activities put me behind schedule, and I simply couldn't sacrifice my sanity over the holidays to rush making another layer.

Total budget -  $70.17

My overall experience was a good one.  I finally used some of my stash materials, and have a pretty new gown for the court season.  I do intend to add pieces to this for versatility, including a silk veste, beaded partlet, netted caul, and long pearl necklaces.  I have already secured most of the materials needed for these, so you can look forward to seeing them in the future.

Thank you, Maestra Bianca for spearheading this challenge and inspiring so many people.

Butter Yellow Damask Sottana - Complete!

My sottana is complete!  Joyous noise!

I was up until about midnight Friday night, doing finishing touches on the sleeves, and attaching lacing rings for said sleeves.  I was determined to get them done so I could the new gown to Solstice Court.

The event was beautiful, the company was divine, and everyone looked magnificent.  I feel so blessed to live among such wonderful, talented people.  Noelle, you always leave me in awe with your elegance and generosity.

So enough with the talk, it's time to see what I did!

The sleeves are a warm golden yellow silk taffeta, flat-lined with linen to add some durability, and lined in ivory silk taffeta.  Strips were assembled into a chevron pattern, resulting in looking a bit like a pseudo-spiral sleeve.  I won't say much about my construction techniques on them, as you can buy Lynn McMaster's spiral sleeve pattern.  I used her instructions, with my own sleeve pattern.  My arms never fit commercial patterns.

While I haven't strictly found portraiture of spiral or chevron sleeves exactly like this in Florence, this portrait of Isabel de Valois clearly has spiral sleeves, and the below portrait of Laudomia de Medici has chevron-esque sleeves.  I feel confident that extrapolation of these to what I created is well within the realm of what could have been done.

Isabel de Valois

Laudomia de Medici

My partlet was a simple straightforward partlet to use until I get a fancy couched and beaded one done.  I may be adding some gold lace to the edges of this to fancy it up a bit, but I was relatively pleased with how quickly it came together.  This was cut as one solid piece (no shoulder seams), which made the stripes end up in a fun diagonal bias angle.  I kind of like that.  This partlet was sewn 100% by hand. 

Enzo, the melancholy zibillino was made by the ever fabulous Holly/Aine of The Sable Greyhound.  Her work is always marvelous, and you should go check out her shop at the link above.  She also has an etsy shop.  Okay, enough with the crass commercial announcements.  I just love sharing her with the world because everything she's made for me is amazingly beautiful.  She also made the necklace, earrings, and girdle belt I wore to Solstice.

Photo by Kao Martin and blatantly stolen by me.

I was lazy and didn't take a camera, so I'm forced to thieve this picture taken by Kao.  I haven't seen any full length photos pop up anywhere either, so this will have to do for now.  I'll try to get more images taken at 12th Night.

Silk Sleeves Sneak Peek

I spent almost the entire weekend cutting strips of silk and linen, and magically converting an ugly pile of strips of fabric into tubes of fabric, and then magically turning tubes of fabric into what will one day be some pretty cool sleeves, if I can pull it off properly.  Will I be done by Solstice Court?  I damn well intend to be!

All I can say right now is that what I'm doing is very time consuming, but hopefully the results will be worth it.  Also, rotary cutters are the bomb.  Don't know how I lived without one before.  I kinda wish I'd gotten the bigger mat now.  Also, my entire house is covered in flitting bits of silk thread.  Supportive boyfriend is slightly annoyed.