Updating my SCA resume

Since I am restarting my blog again, I thought I would update a couple of my old posts. Here is an update to my SCA resume. I think this is pretty accurate until the about 2008 or so. I was able to go through our local newsletters and reconstruct most of this history. However in the last few years we have went to an e-mail type newsletter and my information is more sketchy for that time period. SCA General ------------- First SCA meeting Dec. 1981 Shire of Westvale (group attempting to form at University of Michigan-Flint) First Event: Crown Tourney Spring 1982 Authorized as Fighter June 1983 Attended First Pennsic 1984 National member 1983 have remained current to the present Authorized as Fencer June 2001 Offices Held ------------ Pursuivant Westvale 1982 All offices following are for Stormvale except as noted Exchequer 1983-1986 Castellan/Chatelaine 1983-1986 (Prior to it being a Kingdom recognized job) Pursuivant 1984-1985 Seneschal 1985, 1987-1988 Pursuivant 1989-1991 Group Knight Marshal 1993-1994 Chirurgeon 1993-1994 Opinicus Pursuivant 1994-1996 (MK College of Heralds) Pursuivant 1999-2000 Group Knight Marshal 2001-2004 Web Minister 2001-2003 Pentamere Regional Seneschal 2007-2011 Group Knight Marshal 2015-present Other Responsibilities ---------------------- Co-Founder Shire of Stormvale Oct. 1982 (Genesee County Michigan) Co-Founded Stormvale Militia 1984 Event Staff St. John the Baptist 3,4,5 1988, 1989, 1990 Co-Founded Stormvale Armorer’s Guild 1988 (In existence on and off as needed to present day) Shire Steering/Goals Committee 1988-1989 Autocrat St. John the Baptist 6 1991 Event Staff Feast of Samhain 1991 Event Staff Vikings go Home 1,4 1992, 1997 Event Staff Fall Crown Tourney 1992 Shire Steering/Goals Committee 2 1993 Shire Goals and Direction Committee 1996 Event Staff Harvest of Souls 2, 4,5, 6 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006 Event Staff Toys for Tots 1999 Baronial Exploratory Committee 2004-2005 Co-Founder Stormvale Artisans Guild 2007 Awards Recieved ------------------ Award of Arms 16 Aug. 1987 (for local activity) Award of the Purple Fret 17 Oct. 1992 (for local activity, specifically offices) Order of the Dragon’s Heart 06 Dec. 1997 (for Opinicus Pursuivant) Award of the Purple Fret 08 Oct. 2005 (for local activity hosting revels/guild/meetings)

I decided I should go back to updating my blog as it helps me stay focused on my SCA activities. By listing my goals and activities it forces me to be more accountable and less likely to put things off.

Stormvale Meeting

Tuesday I dropped in on the local SCA group, Stormvale. I met a couple new members and dropped off some rivets for Jaysin. With the weather warming up I need to get backt to attend some of the fighting practices.

Tuesday night fighter practice

I attended the Shire of Stormvale’s Fighter practice this last Tuesday. There were three authorized fighters and one in training. I need to attend practice more often and will be trying to make it as many Tuesdays practices as work will allow.

I had to stop earlier than I wanted when the leather ties keeping my legs attached to the C-Belt snapped. So last night I changed the leather cord out for a nylon that that should work better in the long run. Its hidden under a couple layers of padding and armor, so it should be fine.

In addition I was testing out a new padding system for my helmet. I had been getting headaches when wearing the helmet for more than an hour, so I completely stripped out the padding and liner and reworked it all. After a wearing it for well over an hour, I did not get a headache . I hope the problem is fixed but will find out more after a longer time in helmet.

Badge Update

This is going slower than I had expected. I am learning how to do this beading, mostly making it up as I go. This is a little smaller than the original, but I think this size will be better. I may end up putting this on a livery collar, which is my current plan. I started backing it today and hope to finish tomorrow.

Many years ago, when I was awarded the Dragons Heart, the award came with a beaded representation of the badge. I liked it so much that one of my friends bought me a similar badge for the Purple Fret that I had previously been awarded. Those two badges became some of my most cherished SCA belongings. A few years ago both these badges went missing. I do not know if they got left at an event or simply misplaced at home, but I have not been able to find them.

I think I will try to reconstruct them, I know it will not be the same, but I have given up on them turning up around the house.

I tried to do the Purple Fret badge by freehand but was not satisfied with the results, so I set up a loom. This is a little smaller from what I remember the old one being but its as big as the loom will allow. After this is done I will sew it down onto fabric and make a pendant or I may make a heraldic mantle and put this and my own badge on it.

Well it took 4 coats of paint but my banner is now correct for my registered Arms!!!

I was so convinced that my first change of my Arms would go through that I had a Banner made. I should have known better, but I was positive it would pass. First it was lost and then when it was resubmitted it did not pass. It was too close to a couple other designs.

After it failed, I made a list of all the possible permutations of the device I had originally submitted and double checked every possible conflict. As I found conflicts, I crossed them off the list. When I was finished I had a small a very small list left over. After looking at them for a couple weeks I picked the one I though looked best and resubmitted it.

This time the work paid off and the device was passed. I now have to repaint part of the original Banner. After two coats of paint the blue is still coming through so it looks like it will take several more. I will try to finish tonight, if the paint will dry fast enough.

Well I won’t go into all the details but I have been semi retired from the SCA for most of 2011. I was able to keep up with the paperwork for the Regional Seneschal job but only ended up attending a handful of events. I think I have only been in armor twice this year.

In August I was able to hand off the office to Baroness Giovanni from Cynnabar. I am glad the office will be going to someone who can devote the time needed for it. I was really a little two pinched for time for the last few months of the job.
It’s been getting slowly better since October, I have had some time to look over my SCA kit and start making improvements. I should be able to get back in the swing of things with the new year.

One noteworthy item from this fall, the design for changing my Coat of Arms passed the College of Heralds and my old arms were released. I kept my old badge but now my Arms are: Quarterly Argent and Gules, A mullet quarterly Azure and Or.

Since I am not a great artist, this will be far easier to paint on my shield and make clothes with my Arms on them than the old one. Since I retained the Panther as a Fieldless Badge, I can still use it when I want.

Regional Seneschal

On August 1st I handed off the Regional Seneschal job for Pentamere to Baroness Giovanna from Cynnabar. I would like to thank her for volunteering and stepping up to take this job. At almost four years I had reached my sell by date!!!

In 2008, I had made a goal of attending one event for each group in the region and a business meeting, if it was close enough and the schedule permitted me to attend. In the first two years on the job (2008-2009) I was very successful in this endeavor. I attended a business meeting for all the groups on the East side of the state, a couple on the West side and events for both. In 2010 things changed a bit at work and I only attended “problem” business meetings. On top of that I only attended four events in the Region. I kept the paperwork side of the office flowing well but getting out and attending events really suffered.

2011 started out even busier between work and a couple family health issues. So far this year I have only attended two events and a small handful of business meetings. It was time to hand over the job to someone who would be able to be more active.

I must admit that it was a little bit of an eye opener being Regional Seneschal. In the past I had held a couple jobs in the College of Heralds but they were paper pushing type jobs. Having to talk with members and groups who have problems and dealing with the larger SCA bureaucracy over the last four years I have changed many of my SCA assumptions. I think there are some fundamental functions that the SCA should be doing to remain healthy that are broken.

Now that I am no longer an officer, I may expound on this in future posts.

Tuesday night at the Stormvale Art Guild

Last night I attended Stormvale’s Arts Guild. Lady Teryll’s having her annual Ukrainian Easter Egg making session. I worked on my revised Coat of Arms and colored in the new drawings. I am going with Quarterly Argent and Gules, Quarterly Azure and Or a Mullet. This seems the catchiest design from the Heraldic event last weekend.
It was nice seeing everyone and checking out their egg designs.

Heraldic Event

Well my friends have been yelling at me to either cancel my blog or update it. I think I will work on the updating part.

I attended the Canton of Weldlake’s Herald Pointe and Scribal Collegium today. It was a nice event and they were very helpful in looking over my proposed device change. My last attempt had failed in that I had forgotten that a 5 pointed Star and a 6 pointed Star would conflict from a Heraldic perspective. So it was time to try again.

Duncan Cameron the Fenris Herald and Master Kondrad Mailander the Rouge Scarpe Herald along with the Event Steward Lord Aindle ODiarmada all helped with one aspect or another of looking up some possible ideas. In the end it appears that counterchanging the Star should be clear of conflict. I will make examples of both Gules and Argent and Azure and Or and see if either grows on me.

The drive home was quite nasty with several cars off the road on US-23. I hope everyone else from the event made it home fine.

Helmet Almost Done!!

Well I really should try to keep this more up to date. I have worked on this helmet a couple times in the last few weeks and have everything roughly fitting now. I need to have Robert over to do a final fit and then rivet the cheek and face pieces on. Maybe one more session and at most two too finish!!

P.S. Don’t mind the workbench clutter. I was cleaning out a couple cupboards and it's usually not this bad.

Helmet update

I worked on Robert’s helmet again tonight. I had miscounted the number of rivets needed to finish the top. Instead of 15 it was actually 24. I am down to 12 left and I did a little shaping on the other parts for the helmet.

Robert's Helmet update

Well I did some more work on Roberts helmet last night. I closed two rivets and then started shaping pieces. All the parts for the top of the helmet are now shaped and either riveted together or bolted waiting to be riveted. 15 bolts will have to be replaced with rivets to finish off the top but I will wait until Robert can attend again before doing those.

Since the top is shaped I decided to continue breaking my rules and started shaping the pieces to attach the back slats and also first cheek plate. I would like to shape and fit the pieces ahead of time so we can concentrate on riveting for our next get together. This way it may be only 2-3 sessions before the helmet is finished.

Worked on Armor

Robert (my household member) stopped by last night at 7pm and we worked on armor and other projects until a bit after 11pm. Much was accomplished and we are talking about getting together weekly again.

It had been long enough since he last dropped in that we needed to review the state of our various projects. We started with Robert’s kit and had him put it on and check everything for fit and completeness. He has an arming cap, gorget, gambeson, athletic supporter, steel legs, aluminum gauntlets, heater shield and sword with cross hilt. He is still borrowing my helmet, steel arms and Balian’s spare breast plate. In addition his sword will need a thrusting tip since that is part of the authorization now.

For projects in process, his new helmet is about 20% finished and his butted chain hauberk about 60%. After our review we indentified that he needed several additional items and made a project list. We will probably stick to one project each and finish up one before we go on the next item. This will work best since we have not been getting together as often and I would rather finish one thing at a time instead of having all of them partially done. In addition the agreement has been that I would work on his helm and other items but only when he was present and that if he came by more often the stuff would get done quicker.

Project List in rough order, new helmet, chain hauberk, sword tip(we may actually do this next week), blue or brown helmet, arm harness, body armor so hauberk can be used, axe, great sword & polearm. So after the review we started working.

Robert split his chain hauberk down the front and began adding in extra rows. The mail was too small to be worn over his gambeson and needed to be expanded. When he made it, he fitted it while wearing a tee shirt. He split the mail, added several rows and ended up running out of chain links. So then he started helping me work on the helmet. He says he will come back next week with enough links to finish off the front and will probably add longer sleeves but will do that on his own now that he knows how to make his own links and expand/contract the mail. He had essentially made a chain poncho and didn’t know how to make the chain grow or contract for necks and arms etc. He spent the last couple sessions making the rounded neck. He ended the night with the chain hauberk about 80% done.

I took the helmet and began riveting in the pieces for the top. Previously I had shaped all but 4 of the top pieces and had held them together with nuts and bolts. By 11pm I had 24 rivets to go on the upper portion of the helmet. 12 are for the top pieces I haven’t shaped yet. For a couple of the last rivets I had to have Robert hold the helmet so I could use a tool with the hammer to be able to reach into the helm. I may cheat a little and shape more pieces before we get together again but will wait for Robert before I rivet anymore parts together. Considering the remaining shaping and the enormous number of rivets needed, I would guess the helmet is now 40% done. If I work on some shaping this week, I may be able to get it closer to 50% before we next meet.

Armor repair

I have apparently neglected the routine maintenance of my Armor!!! At a recent practice my shield edging came loose so I switched to two sword. Then after a couple minutes my sword finally pulped out and it broke at the cross guard. In addition I have been having problems with my leg armor. If I wear the legs for a couple hours the leather stretches and the knees drop down too far.

Having taken a complete inventory of my fighting kit, I need to put some work into nearly everything. So I am starting at the top and working down and fixing everything. This week is my helmet. The interior liner is loose and the leather cord for the aventail is frayed so I have taken them both out to replace.

The liner (after a good washing) is fine and looks to be in better shape than I thought. One small seam had split and the thread actually holding it into the helmet had worn away. Now the seam is patched up and I am in the process of sewing the liner back into the helmet.

Friday Night at Skalla's Steading

Robert did stop by on Friday but he was later than normal and we did not get as much accomplished as I had hoped.

He was able to finish his Chainmail Hauberk. At the same time, I put a bit more work in his helmet and the main supports are now all in and we have started on some of the X’s and Y’s for the helmet. I hope to finish the top section and be working on the sides after one or perhaps two more sessions.
Before breaking up for the night we decided to take stock in what he had and what he still needed.

Completed so far: Legs, gambeson, arming cap, sword, heater shield, chain hauberk.

Still borrowing: Helmet, Churburg style Breastplate

Still working on: His own helmet, Arms ( He has vambraces but needs elbow cops), Gorget ( We discovered he needs to re-make his gorget, it’s too small to fit his new gambeson) He would also like to switch to round shield from the heater he is currently using. After those are done we will consider what to do to replace the Churburg Style Breastplate

So our schedule is: Gorget first, elbows second, helmet third. I hope to have the Gorget and elbows done in three weeks. If I keep working on the helmet it should be close to being done by then.

New Poleaxe

Sir Vitus von Atzinger has recently been offering SCA weapons on Armor Archive. He listed a nice looking Poleaxe and I have never been completely happy with my attempts at making one. They have always turned out too top heavy. Since this would look great with my 14th century kit and I wanted one made by an expert I snapped it up. It arrived the other day and here is a picture. I hope to do some grievous damage at fighting practice with this. Its pretty sweet and looks cool!!!

Working on Helmet

Measure twice and cut once was something my dad repeatedly reminded me when I was young. I should have remembered. I finished bending all the pieces for Roberts helmet and was in such a rush to make more progress that I installed one of the bands on upside down. I figured it out pretty quickly when the next piece failed to fit. Since I had pre-fitted everything I had an immediate sinking feeling that I had done something wrong. So the rest of my work time tonight was used up cutting off the rivets for the part.
Now that I have the piece off I will put it back on the next time I work on this (correctly since I wrote “this way up” in Black Marker on the inside) …..probably on Friday as Robert tends to drop in then.