Shrewsbury Faire Summer 2015

I’m not a cooking person. I have a tendency to burn water, but this past summer at Shrewsbury Faire, I was roped into working in the (outdoor) kitchen. I ended up making my first cakes ever from scratch with no electricity (save refrigeration), using a medieval recipe. Don’t ask me what kind of cake it is, because I don’t remember. I just do what my feastcrat tells me to. 🙂

In this picture I am wearing a red T-Tunic and Blue Kostrup style apron dress with brooches from Raymond’s Quiet Press.

Kumihimo braids for En Garb

Some of the Kumihimo braids I made to tie up tokens for our En Garb workshop. They are all 8 strand and made on a foam loom because I have not had the opportunity to purchase tama for my marudai.

Supercon

Or how I threw together outfits for an SCA demo.

The Shire to the south of us, aptly named Southkeep held a Viking themed demo at Supercon last weekend. John and I were planning to do our research and make some nifty Norse garb. John is the local tablet weaving savant and is currently working on a Halstatt band, but other than that, I had no clue about Norse garb.

Unfortunately, school, illness, and two friends wanting help with their cosplay sort of got in the way. The clay I was going to use to make fake tortoise brooches also went towards said cosplay.

John and I sewed his tunic and had enough fabric to make a slit apron dress. Both were sewn the night before and morning of. The straps of the apron dress were cut from an already completed inkle band that John was not satisfied with. (He wouldn’t let me use any of the others.)

I hope to add some nice woven trim to the apron dress and tunic and purchase some Tortoise brooches before attending Coronation in August.

How am I supposed to sew with this on my craft table?

This is what happens when John gets gifts. Still needs a little work.

First Archery Practice

John and I attended our first ever archery practice this past Sunday and really enjoyed it. I was afraid it was going to be a total wreck, because I have shaky hands.

Green and white is John’s. Yellow and black is mine.

The bruises looked even uglier the day after

My goal was not to have the arrow land less than two feet in front of me. Looks like I managed that. John was even luckier. He managed to consistently hit the target. I, on the other hand, mangled my arm during my first few shots, so every time I shot, I winced and the arrow went off course. Better luck next time… with an armguard. We are already considering our first bow purchase.  Our top choice is the Samick Sage. We’re going to venture down to an archery store down in Kendall to see if there is anything else that sparks our interest.

Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya- Mughal-e-Azam

 

 

The World’s Oldest Handbag

Interesting BBC article today about the centerpiece of a new exhibit in London, England.

Book Review: The House of Wisdom

Title: House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient and Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance (Amazon link)

Author: Jim Al-Khalili

Summary in One Sentence: “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants.”- Sir Isaac Newton

History/Commentary:

I can’t speak for everyone, but I live in the United States. Throughout my entire public school attendance I was taught that Rome was sacked by Goths then the whole world was devoured by the Dark Ages until 1066, well except for that guy Charlemagne and some Arab guys that created Algebra and invented zero and VIKINGS. I understand that we like to pretend that England is our cultural forebear, but I live in a society made up of totally different cultures and ethnicities other than Western European and I am trying to be vigilant in acknowledging those too.

In fact, some of the greatest civilizations of the world existed during this time. This was the height of the Mayan Classical period, the start of the Khmer Empire, Heian Japan, Tang Dynasty China and the civilization this book begins with, the Abbasid Caliphate.

The Abbasid Caliphate peaked during the reign of Harun Al-Rashid and continued on during the reigns of his sons Al-Amin and Al-Ma’mun (well, except for the civil war and all.) It was a time of Islamic philosophic debates, advances in science and mathematics, art, and licentiousness (which I’ll be talking about more in future posts in my blog.) During this time, the House of Wisdom, a giant library and research facility, was founded. There was a strong Persian influence at court during the Abbasid period, in fact most of the great minds of the House of Wisdom were of Persian or Central Asian descent. This coupled with the fact that Al-Ma’mun himself was the son of a Persian concubine decreased some of the discrimination towards Non-Arabs during that time (There was still a ton of favoritism and racism going on, but it had been much worse under the Umayyads.)

The Post-Rant, Totally Biased Book Review:

I wish this book went into more detail about everything. It was entertaining to read and the author (who’s a physicist) is not afraid of presenting mathematical concepts, which was very refreshing. All too often authors refrain from placing even the simplest of equations or diagrams in their history of science books in fear that they will scare readers off. For a person like me (the first time in college I studied physics, this time around I changed my major to biology), it’s usually insufficient. This book reaches a good balance. The concepts introduced are not overly difficult and are only introduced in order to describe exactly what the scientific/mathematical discovery was.

I also enjoyed the author’s perspective. Jim Al-Khalili is half Iraqi, half White British, so essentially he’s relating the history of his people. Being half Syrian, Half White American I instantly related to his point of view. There is definetly pride for the monumental acheivements, but also criticism of faulty ideas and philosophies and regret for missed opportunities.

I wish there was more social history, but then again, this is a book about the history of science and how the translations and discoveries during the middle ages affected future scientists and philosophers, particularly the  great thinkers of the Renaissance and early Enlightenment. It is not a book about the affect of this scientific revolution on the normal everyday people in Abbasid Iraq or what was being discussed in the salons of the Qiyan during that time.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5

New fabric incoming

This weekend I ordered 8 yards of linen from http://www.fabrics-store.com

New projects coming up soon.

Tunic Dress Complete!

Yellow T-Tunic, Feb 2014, Tourney of the Three Ships, Southkeep

Here’s the Tunic dress I’ve been blogging about. I didn’t have any scrap linen or muslin to make headgear, but I’m still working on that. The belt was inkle woven by John, my SO. The things attached to my belt are the Tourney of the Three Ships Site Tokens and two fibulae made by John and I during a class there.