Tuesday Art Guild

Class ended early last night ( I am taking night classes) and I was able to drop in on the Teryll’s Art Guild. She is currently teaching a token or coin casting class. In attendance was Sylvia, Seth and his wife ( I should have written down her name) and an old Stormvale member from the 1980’s, Elnor. Seth tried on my old helm ( also from the 80’s ) and it fit!!! He will be borrowing the helm until he can make/purchase one of his own. I also have an old set of legs that look like they would fit him. They will need to have a couple straps fixed but that should be a quick and easy fix. The funny part is that both the helmet and the leg armor is older than he is.

Fighting Wednesday Night

Robert called and said he would like to stop by last night around 6:30. I contacted Ervon to see if he would like to have a fighting practice and help get Robert ready for his authorization. We started at about 7pm and the three of us fought until dark. Robert did much better than his last practice and was working in thrusts a bit more. I think a couple more practices should see him ready to authorize.
Ervon loaned Robert a sword and some body armor for the practice. Robert also used Ervon’s round shield and decided he liked that style better. It may have helped that the shield was a bit lighter than the one he had been using.
Robert needs a gambeson because the chain he is wearing is leaving small round spots where he is getting hit. He seems to be stuck on using chain so we will have to make sure we get it padded better.

Last week

Last week proved much busier than I expected.

Robert was ill for our practice so instead of practicing, I ended up working on Colleen’s box lid and replacing a couple straps on my armor. I also had to reshape part of the armor for my right leg. Somehow I ended up with a twist to my knee making it difficult to walk. That took quite a bit of work to straighten out and make it work properly again.

I did not make very much progress on the chainmail. I closed up another 5 inches on the front patch but need to do another 5-6 inches to finish up and then close in the neck opening. Hopefully I will find more time this week. To finish the box and the chainmail

Working on Projects

Well I finished installing the new back panel of the hauberk, split the front and attached the first 5” of the front panel. Now that the panels have been added I can tell I will have to add several inches to close in the neck of the hauberk as it nearly falls off the shoulders now. Later in the week I will finish up the front panel and probably start on the neck over the weekend.

At that point I went into the basement and did some sanding on a box lid I am putting together for Eron. Her original lid had split at Pennsic last year and I am finally getting around to finishing a new lid for her. I should have this wrapped up over the weekend as well.

Making an early period armor kit.

A couple weeks ago I decided to add an early period fighting kit to my list of SCA things to do. I would like the kit to be somewhere between 950 to the first Crusade. I think this would compliment my current 14th Century kit and allow me to be work on a couple different styles of fighting. So I have pulled out my old butted chain hauberk and started working on setting up the early period armor. I made this hauberk back in the mid 1980’s and I must have worn a much thinner gambeson back then because I remember it fitting and actually having a decent amount of room. Now when I put it on I look like a sausage in a chain mail casing. So I started working on panels that I will add to the front and back of the hauberk. Last night I finished the panels and split the front of the hauberk to start adding in the first rectangle of mail. I should be able to finish up the front panel tonight after work.

Getting Robert in Armor

Robert has been dropping in irregularly this summer and we have been working on getting him armored up. He now has all the armor necessary to practice in!!!! He may need to upgrade his body armor a little and we will lengthen his aventail to make the barrel helm he is wearing legal. Or I should say its “legal” now but I am not happy with the possibility of the current aventail moving up and exposing some of the back of his neck. So our next armory sessions will be to correct that.

To celebrate his armor being ready, we went out into my front yard and had an impromptu practice. We started about ½ speed and I had Robert hit me to get a good idea of how hard he should be hitting. Next I struck him and we worked on what was a good blow for him to receive. Next some basics about sword swings and blocking with the shield. Since he wanted to mix it up a bit more we spent the last ½ of the practice sparing. Robert did quite well but will have to work on thrusting if he is to prepare for his authorization bout.

We discussed the possibility of running a fighting practice each week until he was ready to authorize. So I think we will meet each Tuesday or Thursday to practice until dusk. After that we will work on armor or weapons. I will send a couple e-mails to check if there will be authorizations at the next few upcoming events. These events will be Havoc at Hastings, Procrastinators Brawl and Vikings Come Home and I hope to get Robert to one to authorize.

Mid Michigan Renaissance Festival

So far I have only been able to make it up for one day of the Mid Michigan Renaissance Festival. This is the final weekend and I had hoped to put in more of an attendance. Work, School and a Cold has made this difficult. I did enjoy the Saturday I spent at the Festival. I believe it was the first time I have ever fought Edmund d’Amberville and we put on a couple fights for the crowd. The Fest seems to be going well and I hope it will help result in recruiting members for Fearann na Criche and Stormvale.

Busy Lately

This has been a very busy month and I have forgotten to update my Blog. I suppose this is good and bad…I am too busy doing stuff to have time to write about doing stuff!! I will make a series of updates and post them in the next couple days to bring this current again.

Working on Armor

Robert stopped by last night (with his armor) and basically said “hey lets work on armor”!!!

So I dropped my homework (I will just have to stay up later to work on it) and we picked up the shop a little to set things up to work on his armor. He would like to get authorized as soon as possible so we are bringing his armor up to snuff (all his equipment is older and could use some TLC). His gorget was too large so we cut down the front and re-hammered the shape so it would fit better. After that was done we glued padding onto the inside of the gorget. We looked over the rest of the armor and decided to strap the legs slightly better and add a row or two to the aventail of the helmet.

He is going to stop by again on Friday and we should be able to get in a little fighting and then finish off the leg straps. I don’t think I will have the aventail lengthened by then but I will get a start on it over the weekend.

Havoc In Hastings 2008

Over the weekend I attended the Havoc in Hastings event. It was a nice demo and a lot of people stopped by to check out the fighting area. I hopefully this will result in some new members for Three Walls.

Sir Angus Gordon was running the Authorizations. I put on my MIT hat and helped out. There were two new authorizations, one re-authorization and one out of kingdom authorization for the day. Sir Brannos did a great job of running commentary explaining what was going on to the spectators and it reminds me that we sometimes fail to do that well during demo’s. I received another signature for acting as MIT for the event and now need one more to be able to take the test to become a Marshal!! Hopefully I can get the last signature this month and try to wrap up this process.

As far as I could determine the only other members from Stormvale attending were Erevon and Eron. They spent the day shopping and at the archery field. I did not see them at the event but they had noticed me on the list and had expected me to come over and say hi. Without my glasses I am good to 75-100 feet but past that I cannot make out individuals. So they yelled at me Sunday for not being sociable but it was more blindness and not so much anti-social. I probably should have stayed for court but as the fighting was wrapping up I ended up running home.

Old Picture

Recently a friend of mine found this old picture from about 6 years ago when my helmet and brigantine was new. The jeans and tennis shoes have since been replaced as well as the leg armor.

Aventail

I am about 2 days behind schedule but I did manage to finish the aventail Sunday. Now I need to attach it to the helmet. Robert should be dropping it off tomorrow, so hopefully by Thursday-Friday it should be done.

Well it’s been a pretty slow week. I should be finishing the Mail aventail today or Friday and will attach it to the loaner helm this weekend. This should make the Helm SCA legal and let me get Robert authorized for heavy weapons.

I liked the Banner and Pennons so much that now I think it’s time to get a Standard. Someone on the Armor Archive makes beautiful Standards and I think I will give them a try. I still need to design the Standard and will work on that this weekend.

Since I seem to be planning out my weekend I might as well look at further out to fill up more weekends. Looking at upcoming events my short list will be:
Havoc in Hastings (Hastings, MI August 30-31 )
Rain of Arrows (New Lothrup, MI Sept. 13 )
Vikings Come Home (Kalkaska, MI Sept 19-21)
If possible I would also like to attend: (not sure if work will co-operate)
Harvest Days & Chivalry Tourney (Camden, OH Sept 5-7 )

This makes for a pretty busy September. I may have to skip at least one of these events between real life and work. I am duty bound to Pentamere and feel I should give preference to events in Michigan so if anything has to slip it will be the Chivalry Tourney.

Missing Pennsic and Chainmail

Erevon dropped by Sunday night and we had an impromptu Pennsic pity party. We both worked on our chainmail projects and generally bemoaned the fact we would not be attending Pennsic. He is not going this year due to a couple family matters and I am not going as this is my off year. My wife hates the camping and we have come to an agreement that we would attend every other year. So my August yearly vacation consists of alternating between Pennsic and somewhere my wife would like to go.

The chainmail project I have started working on is a butted chainmail aventail. Robert (my nephew) has been working with me to get authorized as a Heavy Weapons fighter. He is using several pieces of my old armor. My old barrel helm allows too much exposure to his neck so I am putting together an Aventail. I hope to have it finished this week and attach it to the helm so we can get in a more serious practice. I will get some pictures up when his loaner kit is finished.

I put to together a gorget first and that helped but there is too much gapping when he tips his head forward or back for the helm and gorget to pass an inspection. I believe a nice aventail will take care of this problem and look better than anything we could do to the helm or gorget to get it to pass. I haven’t done chain mail since the early Nineties and it brings back some memories of when the Shire of Stormvale produced a hauberk as a gift for the King nearly twenty years ago .

New Gonfalon and Pennons arrive!!!

About a month ago I ordered a Gonfalon and Pennons from The House of Dirk and Arrow. Examples of their work can be found at http://dirkandarrow.com/.

I had come across their work on the Armor Archive and was impressed. Since I have the artistic talent of a Walrus, I thought I would give them a try. I received the finished product last week and they are outstanding in quality and construction. I recommend them for anyone who needs beautiful and durable heraldic display. I am particularly impressed by the Panther Pennon. This only took a couple weeks total so that was also impressive.

I am going to save up my shekels and order a Gonfalon of my wife’s arms in September and also a couple more Pennons.

The Armor Archive can be found here. http://www.armourarchive.org/

Protege

A couple weeks ago I was having a discussion about the SCA with Melisande of Woodcrest (OP) and Balian deBrionne. The discussion went pretty far afield and included many different SCA topics. One of the topics covered was asking Melisande for some advice on some activities I could take as Regional Seneschal to help foster more communication and information sharing. Since she had been a past Kingdom Officer and Regional Seneschal for Pentamere, she could have some ideas I had not considered.

She made a couple comments at the time that I took to mean she would be interested or happy to help me if I needed any more advice on the topic. After I got home and made notes about the various topics we covered, I realized she may have been offering more than just help with advice but a more active arrangement (I have been know to be very slow on the uptake). She may have offered to take me as her protégé. About a week later I was able to ask her for clarification and she said she had indeed offered to have me as a protégé. I accepted on the spot !!!
Now I need to find out what she expects out of me as a Protégé.