Changing my Coat of Arms (I hope)

I have always liked my coat of arms but have a terrible time trying to recreate it. I am not a great artist and the panther is fairly complicated to draw. I thought I would try to change to a more geometric design, so I have submitted a new device. The blazon of this new device would be Quarterly Argent and Gules a Mullet Azure. I have submitted this and will release my old arms if this one passes. I will keep the Panther badge.

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!!!

12th Night in Cynnabar

I attended 12th Night in Cynnabar this past weekend and had a wonderful time. My wife and kids attended also and had a nice time. Alex, who is not very excited going to most SCA events, said “it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be”, on the trip home. It was good to be able to touch base with people and catch up a little.

Drogo and Kayla were very gracious and allowed us to set up our stuff at their day camp in the gym (which reminds me I have to find our chair covers or make more). Stormvaler’s in attendance were Drogo, Kayla and son. My family Giovanna, Saiyuke, Bjarky and myself. Gerard, Breanna, Laura and friend, Ervon, Eron and Teryll. I did not get a chance to speak with Teryll but did get to spend time with everyone else.

With Lady Jaelith’s help I was able to convene a meeting for the Seneschal’s of Pentamere. It was sparsely attended (in fact I had more Seneschal’s show up after the meeting had ended than during). I did get the opportunity to meet Duchess Eanor and Lady Jaelith and have them explain the ins and outs of the job. I should have a good footing for this job going forward.

After theSeneschal’s discussion broke up, I headed over to the Heralds meeting. Back in the day (the mid 90’s) I did the internal submissions for the Kingdom and did some commenting for the Middle Kingdom College of Heralds. I would like to get back into doing more Heraldry so was looking for information on how the commenting process currently worked and how to get back into it. I was advised to sign up on the Middle Kingdom Heralds e-mail list and so I have done so!!

The afternoon was spent in shopping and hanging out at the Stormvale camp. Later in the day Drogo (who was arranging the guards for the royalty room) needed a guard and I thought it would be great for Bjarky (Alex) to stand a watch. Since he is only 13 and wouldn’t know what was expected I decided to stand the watch with him. Drogo promptly stranded us for 2 and half hours : ) Needing to get dinner we snagged Ervon, Gerard and Saiyuke to relieve us from guard duty so we could grab something to eat.

I ended up running out and picking up food for most of Stormvale and due to a wrong turn ended up getting back with barely any time to eat before Court would start, so many of us ended up sneaking into Court after it had started. After Court was over it was time to make our goodbyes and head home.

Set up for new Job

A couple things I will need to set up for the Pentamere Regional Seneschal Job:

Business Cards to hand out.
An E-mail/Post Card reminder schedule for local officers
A list of the meeting times and places for the groups in Pentamere. I would like to drop in on as many as possible in the next year.

Pentamere Regional Seneschal

I have been chosen to be the next Pentamere Regional Seneschal. This will be effective early in 2008 after Duchess Eanor, the current Regional Seneschal, has wrapped up a couple projects that she is in the middle of. I am hoping to learn as much as I can from her before the change of office takes place.

I have been in the SCA for 25 years but in the last 8-9 years have devoted 80% or more of my time to my local Shire (The Shire of Stormvale) often at the detriment of playing in the larger SCA. In 2006 I took stock of my participation in the SCA and decided to get more active and change my percentage of local activity to a more balanced number. By this summer I had increased my event participation and activity level to the point that I thought I would look for a regional job in the Marshal or Service arena. In October I noticed the job posting for Pentamere Regional Seneschal on the new Middle Kingdom forumhttp://forum.midrealm.org/ and thought this would be a good opportunity so I applied.

This will be my second office above the local Shire level. In 1994-1996 I was the Opinicus Pursuivant which is a deputy position to the Rouge Scarpe and helped make sure that the name and device submissions for the kingdom went smoothly. It was a very interesting job and consisted of a lot of paperwork including informing people of the status of their submissions. Either that they had passed the Kingdom level or that they had been sent back because of some problem or conflict.

Update on Armoring

I had Robert over Friday night (11-9) to work on his armor. He is taking my old set and we are fitting it to him. He turns 18 in May and would like to be ready to authorize by then. So he dished the dents out of an old pair of pauldrons and strapped them. This is his first riveting job!!!

He wants to make a set of nice Japanese armor so as we finish this set we will start making his nice set. It will be made of ABS plastic and will give me the opportunity to learn how to form the plastic with heat.

While he was working on the pauldrons I fitted my new gauntlets for gloves and added a couple straps to them to hold the gloves on. I now need to sew the gloves on to the leather strips I riveted onto the gloves. I also bent my helmet hinge back so I could fight until the new ones are finished.

All in all a fairly productive night!!!

Toy's Event

I attended the Iron Oak Toys event and really enjoyed myself. I did not feel well enough to fight which was a big disappointment but I did get a chance to talk to several people I had not seen for a while. It was nice to talk with Morgaine, Ananda and Angus from Iron Oak. Stormvalers in attendance were Ervon, Eron, Edward von Schonberg and myself, if I didn’t miss anyone.

At least some of my armor got borrowed to be used in the tourney so it was not a complete loss fighting wise for me.

Edward von Schonberg gave me a couple tips on forming ABS plastic so now I need to pick up a sheet so I can help Robert start his Japanese armor.

Tomorrow!!

Well I have had a nasty cold for the last week but I am going to try and fight tomorrow at the Toys for Tots event at Iron Oak. I have bent my helmet clasp back into shape and hope it lasts through the event tomorrow. I am still a couple weeks away from having a replacement piece finished. Because of the cold I have not made much progress on any other items either. I guess there’s always next week!!!

Skalla's SCA Resume

On several SCA websites I had seen SCA resumes and thought it would be neat to make one for myself. I think this is pretty acurate until the last couple years. 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

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
Youth Marshal in Training 2007-Current

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)

Fighting Goals update

Progress on Fighting Goals by Monday morning 11-5-2007

5. Make a Great Sword
COMPLETED Sunday morning. The sword is slightly heavy but very well balanced and I look forward to trying it out on the list field.
6. Create exercise plan & Schedule of Pell work
(IN PROGRESS I have started with 30 minutes of general exercise every morning. This includes Push Ups, Sit Ups, Squats, Crunches & Leg Lifts. When I am in better shape (several weeks?) I will move on to Cardio. I have started walking 30 minutes after lunch and will work up to running as I feel better. I have started 30 minutes of slow work on the Pell every night. I have not decided where to go with that yet.
7. Replace Knee/Elbow Pads & Cup
COMPLETED Saturday afternoon with a quick trip to a local retailer.

Skalla's Fighting Goals

Since it will be a couple weeks before I can fight again, while my helmet being repaired, I thought this was a good time to go over the rest of my equipment and make a to do list. So Friday night I took stock and created a “Fighting” goals & projects list. I had more ideas than just fighting and I think I will create similar lists for A&S and other activities. I will review it every couple weeks to check my progress and add new items.

So as presently conceived the list looks like this for fighting and is not prioritized yet:

Skalla’s Fighting Goals and Projects 11-2-2007
1. Fix hinge on Helmet (IN PROGRESS approx. 2-3 weeks to complete)
2. Become Heavy Marshal
3. Become Youth Marshal (IN PROGRESS started at War need 2 more signatures and take the test)
4. Youth Equipment for Alex (my 13 year old son) (IN PROGRESS, have most equipment, need to make tabard to hide modern equipment and get him authorized)
5. Make Great Sword
6. Create exercise plan & Schedule of Pell work
7. Replace Knee/Elbow Pads & Cup
8. Help my Household members Daryl and Robert to construct armor and authorize (this may end up being its own list)
9. Create schedule of fighting practices to attend like Roaring Waste, Cynnabar etc.
10. Polish leg armor
11. Clean up loaner armor
12. Make loaner arm armor
13. Make loaner swords/shields
14. Attach gloves to new Gauntlets, Clean up and use old for loaner
15. Shorten my Brigantine armor by approx. 6 inches
16. Tabard or Surcoat with Coat of Arms and Mantle for Basinet
17. Put together Marshalling kit, Helm, Staff, Tabard etc.
18. Get Combat Archery bow and authorize
19. Look into Siege Engine what it would take to build and authorize

Helmet needs repair

Disaster has stuck!!! (or at least it seems so)

Apparently at the 25th year anniversary of Stormvale while fighting I bent my basinets visor hinge again. It had been prone to bending and lately I have had to reshape it several times. I think the metal fatigue has caused a permanent weak spot. Now it bends very easily and will not be long till it breaks.

To get a replacement from the original armorer will take up to 6 months and would require me sending my helmet to help facilitate the repair. I have taken the piece to a local tool and die shop and will get a quote from them to make a new one or perhaps two.

In the mean time I will need to carefully repair the hinge and hope it makes it through practice until a new one can be made. I guess I could always fix up my original helmet since my Norse helm is on loan at the moment. It would have to be sanded and made legal for face thrusts. My list of stuff just gets longer and longer.

Events to attend!!

Looking forward at the next couple months, I thought I would put together a tentative list of events to attend.

Perhaps I can get household members and Shire friends to attend some of these events with me. Let me know if you are interested in sharing a ride!!!

Tentative Events for the next couple months:
Nov. 10th Fall Harvest Festival
Nov. 17th Toys for Tots
Dec. 1st Christmas Tourney
Jan 5th 12th Night or 12th Fight
Jan 12th Grand Tourney
Feb 9th Val Day

These are my preferences for events to attend. Let me know if you’re interested in going or let me know which events you would rather attend.

Stormvale's 25th Anniversary Party!!!!

Saturday Oct. 20th we had a Revel to celebrate 25 years of the Shire of Stormvale. It was fun to see everyone and spend the day with them. It was nice to catch up on how everyone has been doing.

Femke the regional Signat was kind enough to run a scribal class that was well attended and I hope we get more local scribes as a result of her class. Balian and Eron have both been active in the past as Scribes but I am not sure if either one of them is still doing calligraphy or illumination.

It was nice to see Edward von Schonberg who also put in an appearance. I hope he catches the SCA bug again. He was always well liked and many of his household members are still active in one fashion or another locally.

It was fun to fight heavy again with Torashi, Ervon and Satto. While I bowed out of the Shire Champion tourney I believe that Torashi was the overall winner and will retain the position for another year.

Lady Terryl was a most gracious host and her garage/workshop worked out perfectly as the feast hall. We had a chance to sit around the fire and tell tales of old after the feast. Thank You Terryl !!!!!!

It could not have been a more perfect day to cap off 25 years of activity in Stormvale.