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.

Illumination

Well its been more than a decade since I did any calligraphy or Illumination. I thought I would try my hand at some Celtic Knotwork. It looked great before I colored it in. I should have used proper pigments but instead tried to make do with what I had around the house. It turned out way to dark. It worked out but I must admit it looked better in my head when I was thinking about it.

More practice and some proper tools should help.

New Helmet

Well after a couple hours here is a rough fitting. I have several more pieces to rough out and then starting to assemble it in earnest.

New Helmet

I have started a new project. I picked up a helmet kit from Zweihammer Armory for a Valsgarde 6 helmet. I will start working on putting this together for Robert. If this works well I may get one for myself.

Tuesday Guild night

Class got out early tonight so I dropped in on the local Art Guild at Teryll’s house. It looks like they are working on garb tonight. I hung out for a while and then had to go home to work on homework. It was nice seeing everyone.

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.

Lady Terryl's Artisan Guild

Catching up on my Blog again!! A couple of weeks ago Robert and I attended the Tuesday night Artisans Guild at Lady Terryl’s.

Kudo’s to Diego for teaching the class on making Pouches and Drogo for bringing extra leather that Robert could use to make his Pouch. Robert was very happy with the way his Pouch turned out.

Thanks Diego, Drogo and Terryl!!!!

Upcoming Artisans Guild Schedule

Spring 2008 Schedule for Artisans Guild:
Jan 15 Period Embroidery and Hand Sewing (Lady Eron) If you have a sewing basket or Magnifying Glass please bring to class.
Jan 22 Youth Crafts Work on Treasure Chests (Lady Teryll)
Jan 29 Crafting Time / Officers Meeting including Event Discussion (Lord Gerard)
Feb 5 Youth Fighting / Crafting Time
Feb 12 Leather Working (Lord Diego)
Feb 19 Youth Crafts type TBD
Feb 26 How to Run an Event (THL Skalla) / Officer Meeting (Lord Gerard)
Mar 4 Youth Fighting / Crafting Time
Mar 11 Ukrainian Eggs (Lady Teryll) All ages welcome
Mar 18 Youth Fighting / How to enter A&S events (Lord Diego) / Officer Meeting (Lord Gerard)
Mar 25 Arrow Making and Archery (Lord Ervon)
Apr 1 Youth Crafts TBD
Apr 8 Arrows Continued (Lord Ervon)
Apr 15 Youth Fighting / Crafting Time

Guild Night Tuesday

Last night the Artisans Guild met to determine the coming Spring Schedule of classes. Many good suggestions and ideas for classes were discussed and Teryll will put together the list with dates and publish them soon.

If I understood the gist correctly, every Tuesday night will include guild activities. One week will be all guild activity perhaps with a class. The next week will be youth combat with guild work after the fighting has ended. This way if projects are not completed or fall behind, people will have time to work on them.

After that a more general meeting broke out about what the Shire should do about the webpage and a few other issues for the next couple weeks. It was decided to talk about this again during the meeting at the revel later this month.

It was noted that this would be the Guilds first anniversary and that it had had a pretty good first year all things considered. Everyone is looking forward to an even better second year!!!

Getting Back to Work!!

Well things are getting back to normal around Skalla’s Steading. I have been able to get back to some of my projects. I have finished the Banner Stand promised to Eron!!! I will have to review my list for the next project.

Fall Guild Schedule

For anyone not on the Stormvale e-mail list here is the fall schedule for the Artisans Guild and Youth Fighting hosted by Lady Terryl!!!

We met Tues eve and came up with the following. First of all, youth stuff will be on every other Tuesday night with a little fighting and a little crafts. Youth and adults are welcome on every Tuesday, but youth nights have things aimed at kids. All are most welcome to come play - particularly our older fighters who can help train the young uns. If adults wish to fight those nights, they are more than welcome to do so, but it would probably be wise to send out a call to get others there to fight with. The crafts those nights will be aimed at kids, but all who want to craft can come. If you have an unfinished project, or are working on something else, you may bring it to any craft night.

Artisan's guild schedule -

9/4 Finish glass and boxes. Glaze clay pieces. Anything not finished at this point will be put to the side. Youth combat will happen from 5 - 7. Guild will be from 5 - 9.
9/11 Viking wire weaving, 7 - 9
9/18 Youth night
9/25 Calligraphy 101 - teacher pending on the various volunteers and how they split the tasks
10/2 Youth night
10/9 Period Embroidery - Lady Eron
10/16 Youth night
10/23 Breadmaking - Carrie - I assume you can use my kitchen ok?
10/30 Youth night - this is the night before Halloween - any possible conflicts?
11/6 Decorating Russian enamel boxes - boxes will be painted ahead - just the decorative painting will occur
11/13 Arrowmaking 101 - Lord Erevon, Youth combat as well, since we will be taking a break on Thanksgiving week coming up
11/20 - Thanksgiving week - break
11/27 - Illumination or calligraphy 102 - see notes for 9/25
December to be announced
Unless otherwise noted, guild nights will be 7 - 9. Youth, I believe is 6 - 8. Some classes will need "reservations" because we need to know approximately how many supplies to bring. Note also, if kids are brought to adult guild night, some crafts are more applicable than others. I believe most teenagers can handle anything an adult craft night would throw out - unless otherwise noted. Next week, we will be discussing what crafts the kids want to do, so let the kids know to think about it. Unless I hear any objections, I am going to send an invite out to those groups local to us to let them know this exists and they are welcome to join us if they so choose. If you want to object, do so soon - the invites will go out t his weekend.

We also very briefly discussed the event. Gerard was going to notify the Pale that we were not going to have a formal event since we would not be having a meeting in time to advertise it. So, we will be having a Founder's day - that will hopefully be a tad fancier than normal. Plans to be made at September's revel. I don't remember the upcoming schedule, but since at one point, the post event party was to be at my house, I offer my house again. A thought to be put out there - and considered or ignored - is to have an overnight event with pavilions, perhaps, a fire, drumming etc. Maybe no one else will be into it, but I would like to do something a tad bit more memorable than a regular feast for our 25th anniversary. Just a thought.

In service,

Terryl

Thank you Terryl for all your hard work with this!!!! You Rock!!! to steal Sarah's expression.

Another Standard Stand

Erevon’s standard stand completed!! Only 5 more to go!!

Gift of Chairs

Also in the last 6 weeks, I worked on two of the gothic camp chairs. They are complete except for the armrests which I still have to make. I thought that Eron & Erevon should have these chairs after all their years of hard work and in appreciation of Eron going to War and being camp master. At the recent Friday Populous meeting at my home, I presented them with the chairs. I believe they were well received. Arm rests have been added to my SCA to do list!!, also Mark II of the chairs. I failed to take a picture so I will have to track them down when they are being used and get one.

Tuesday Night Artisans Guild

I think we had about 15 people total attending the Guild last night. This week was working in clay and Lady Teryll supplied many pounds of the material. There was no class project, so each person worked on whatever struck their fancy. I saw some very nice items being created and will try to get pictures when completed. The projects will have to dry and then Teryll can fire them in the kiln. As she can only do a couple at a time it will take several weeks before they have all been finished. I was anti social last night as I did not join in on the clay making, instead I took the time to finish one of the shields I had promised as Ryan would like to use it in Boffer fighting at the Coronation Saturday. I figure that I am about 2 weeks behind on the projects I had promised people and needed to finish a couple of the 15 shields.

I was in a hurry and used zip ties to hold the edge on the shield. After looking at the completed shield, I should have laced it instead. I will end up doing this on the rest of them and will need to redo this one. Perhaps I can do it at next weeks practice or at a populous meeting.

Near the end of the evening the question came up about what should be done about continuing the Guild through the summer. Several regular attendees have conflicting schedules as other summer activities like baseball practice etc. have begun. No definite conclusion was reached although it sounds like people are leaning towards a general suspension for most of the summer. Teryll is happy to have people come over to work on existing or begin new projects but she is not sure how well a structured meeting will work over the summer with busier schedules and a heavier SCA calendar. If I understand correctly the matter will be discussed again at the next Guild meeting and again at the next Business meeting to reach a conclusion.

Tuesday Guild Night

Well last night was a catch up night, with several people having projects to complete, it was decided to work in some days which had no specific task. I would allow different projects at various stages of completion to be worked on. I think we had 11 people all together, most of the kids worked on Mancala boards or bags to carry their boards in. If I understand correctly some of the bags and napkins had gotten painted before I arrived and they will be competed at a later date.
I cheated and instead of working on my box (which I still need to complete ) I took my gambeson and sewed on the buttons that had fallen off from combat. Using advice from Eron and Teryll, I used four strands (instead of the two used earlier) to ensure that buttons will stay on. The gambeson is so thick that I have to use a pair of pliers to pull the leather needle, that Teryll lent me, through the fabric. Last meeting I managed to only attach two buttons but I have now doubled my speed!!! I was able to get four buttons sewn on Tuesday night. I have four left to put back on and three that are still attached that will need additional thread to strengthen them.
I forgot the camera so no pictures this week. Sorry.

Last Tuesdays A&S Guild

Guild meeting last week!!
Well I am still behind but starting to catch up on my posting and my projects. Last week, at the A&S guild, Lady Teryll had a class on making Ukrainian eggs. This is a process were the egg is colored and layered with wax in several cycles. When you are done you can have a very detailed and intricately colored Easter Egg. Terryl has produced kits with instructions that can be purchased for anyone who would like to learn this technique but was unable to attend the Guild night. All in all I believe we had 11 gentles attending this meeting and creating egg art. I will try to get some pictures of finished eggs to post.

Sunday's Revel

Sunday’s Revel was fun. Teryll had a houseful and the food was great as usual. Some people worked on finishing off Artisan Guild projects in Teryll’s workshop while others gamed or fought in her yard.

The fighting consisted of Toroshi our GMIT, Ervon, Balian and myself. I thought it was a good practice but I felt slow, or at least slower than normal. It was a little frustrating as I saw what I thought were openings but was not fast enough to be able to take advantage of them. I will need to spend some time working on the fundamentals and pell work to get my speed back up to something reasonable. I did manage to break two swords. One was the hilt of my siloflex sword. I think I carve the handle too small and it is prone to breaking and upon borrowing one of Balian’s swords promptly ripped the thrusting tip off.

We had to cut the fighting off a little early in order to eat and as I said before the food was great. I had made a couple cheese tarts (with no eggs for Teryll ) and during the revel I realized it was the first cheese tart I had made, in 25 years. I will have to get slightly more adventurous in making dishes to pass.

We had our normal meeting after everyone was finished eating. Several topics got discussed but I will defer to Teryll’s minutes for the meeting rather than my memory as I did not take notes. I did ask Gerard to call Balian forth just before the meeting broke off. I made a gift to Balian and his Lady Melisande of two banner poles that I had painted in their Livery colors. It was a gift from my household to his. I thought it would be a nice token of appreciation for the years of service to the local group.
On a side note, My daughter was tickled that she could teach Japanese Chess. She has made my drop her Viking name in favor of a Japanese one. So we will have to retire Kelsey Geirmundrsdottir. She also wants to have some Kimonos made for her. I fear that she has gone over to the dark side. What's a father to do?

Guild Update

Update on Box project from a couple weeks ago!!
Drogo and family have finished their boxes. They look great!!! I believe Teryll has also completed at least one possibly more! I have to confess that I have 2 cut out but not assembled and one assembled and sanded but not finished.
Way to go guys they really look nice!!

Tuesday night Guild meeting

Well, this week turn out was a little smaller than normal. A couple people couldn’t make it for one reason or another.

We had fun making our book covers and I learned that Teryll’s scissors are very sharp indeed. Note to self: keep finger away from sharp end of scissors.

Making the books the previous session was a little quicker than making the boxes for the books. It takes more time to get the ties made and the holes cut out than it did to cut and fold the paper. Even with that, most of the book covers are very close to completion and Lady Teryll has offered to have us complete them at the revel this Sunday, held at her home. Here are a couple of pictures of the covers in progress!!

Another Banner Stand finished

Well work is going a little better now. A couple projects are wrapping up and I have a bit more time this week.
I was able to get back to working on several of my SCA projects on Sunday afternoon and Monday night.
I finished painting Melisande’s banner stand!! Now only 4 more to go!!