New Kingdom A&S Project

It's that time of year again. Kingdom A&S in Ealdormere is approaching in March, and as the host Baron and a member of the Order of the Crucible, I'm feeling like I need to pull out something from my bag of tricks.

As you may know from reading this blog in the past, I don't like doing the same old same old when it comes to A&S projects. I like things that are out of the ordinary, or that I haven't seen done before in the SCA context. That's how I got to the stick purse and the leather dyes, and I think I've come up with a good one this time.

I'm not going to get into too much detail here because I want the project to be a bit of a surprise, but I'll give some hints:

1) The item that inspired it was something I saw from one of our museum stops in Europe.

2) The type of item was not done in Europe in period, but would have been encountered by European travelers. The culture that produced it had extensive interactions with Europe, and the items go back to at least the 12th C in that culture. It didn't arrive in Europe until the early 17th C.

3) It is a leather item.....sort of. :)

4) As usual, I'm having to lean some new skills to make it.

5) As usual, I could be biting off more than I can chew, so we'll see if I can pull it off. Possible I'll enter something that's not completed or I might have to scale it down from the full period examples (which are large, incredibly ornate and complicated). To give you a sense, modern makers with extensive expertise at using traditional techniques usually take up to 5 months to make the thing I'm looking at.

On the bright side, my research is more or less complete, other than re-reading a few peer reviewed papers to make sure I've got everything for my documentation.

Stay tuned - New major project underway

Sorry its been kinda dead around here lately. Other than posting my class handouts I haven't really posted in a while. I haven't really been doing much leatherworking. Mostly just bodging little things together or repairing items.

Part of that is that we were selected as Baron and Baroness of Skraeling Althing last November, so most of my free time is going towards planning things for the Barony, and part of it is a lingering shoulder injury from last Pennsic which doesn't like certain movements needed for leather projects.

I've been doing some silk banner painting, and playing around with carving fabric stamps, but that's been about it.

But in the last few weeks I've started a major project that folks around here will likely be interested in.

As a continuation of my leather dye project, I'm developing a new database for period leather dye recipes.

Soon you'll be able to search for recipes that use particular ingredients, produce a certain colour or come from a particular region or time period. I won't have the actual recipes, since they are copyrighted. But I will include links to the sources, and will include my redactions and notes in cases where I've tried the recipe.

I'm hoping to have the full thing created and all the data inputed by the end of the year.

So stay tuned, big things afoot.

Voyage of the Stick Purse (AKA Crazy European Adventure)

I know, it's been a while since I've posted, real life and work have meant I've done very little A&S activity this past 6+ months. But I have a doozy of a post for you this time.

This fall Avelyn and I spent almost a month travelling through Europe. We stopped in Paris for almost a week, and then did a tour through Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. On the trip, I was on the lookout for representations of the stick-purse. I also planned a visit to the Fries Museum to actually see the original artefact and see if I could see for myself some of the construction questions I still had. So, without further ado, here are examples of the stick-purse that I found.

France:

We saw lots of really cool things in France, but only one stick purse to be found. It's a post period painting from the Louvre called A man weighing gold by Gerard Dou. I've posted the pictures on my smugmug account at: https://dgotlieb.smugmug.com/Travel/Europe-2017/France/Louvre/i-7PdhPqp/A

Belgium:

More luck in Belgium. We stopped in both Brussels and Bruge and I found an example at the Old Masters museum in Brussels. This one is  also post-period and is called The Money Counter by Willem van der Vliet. Here's the link: https://dgotlieb.smugmug.com/Travel/Europe-2017/France/Louvre/i-7PdhPqp/A

Netherlands:

We found a few good examples here but not as many as I expected. I'll go in order. First up is the Boijmans Van Beuningen museum in Rotterdam. They had a couple of post-period etchings that I hadn't seen before.

The first one is "Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple" by Rembrant.

https://dgotlieb.smugmug.com/Travel/Europe-2017/Netherlands/Bojimans-van-Buningen-Museum/i-hRLBd8v/A
https://dgotlieb.smugmug.com/Travel/Europe-2017/Netherlands/Bojimans-van-Buningen-Museum/i-Tx54XkT/A

The second is an engraving done by Salomon Savery based on Rembrant's work, also post period.

https://dgotlieb.smugmug.com/Travel/Europe-2017/Netherlands/Bojimans-van-Buningen-Museum/i-7L6PS3b/A
https://dgotlieb.smugmug.com/Travel/Europe-2017/Netherlands/Bojimans-van-Buningen-Museum/i-DdFxrmp/A

There were no stick-purses in Amsterdam that we found, but then we went to the Fries Museum to see THE stick-purse. :)

I took dozens of close ups from multiple angles. Main discoveries were that it looks like I did in fact engineer the bottom and the back seem correctly, which is what I really was hoping to be able to check (yay). However, in discussion with Avelyn and looking closely, the pouch probably had flaps originally. There are what look like leather buttons still attached to the pouches. Here are a few pictures, but all of them are posted in the Fries Museum album.

Germany:

Our next stick-purse sighting was in Cologne Germany at the Wallraf Museum. Here we found two new paintings I'd never seen before (they have no mention of money changers or anything related in their titles).

The first is a painting called The Quill Pen Cutter (I know, right????) from 1627 by Jan Lievens.

The second one is Sampson and Delilah by Jan Steen from about 1660. Again it had nothing really to do with the topic but there's a money lender in the corner of the painting.

None of these paintings were part of my original research of the stick-purse, so I feel like I've added to my knowledge, even if they were all post period. Plus I was able to confirm that my informed guesses about the construction of the Fries purses were bang on, which makes me pretty happy (even if I do need to make a new one now to add the flaps.) :)

Thoughts about Future Kingdom A&S Entries (Part 2)

Here's part two of my post about Kingdom A&S. This one's just about what I've learned about why I enter Kingdom A&S and what I'm looking for in the process. I'm posting it because I figure I can't be the only one with these feelings and so hopefully it will help other people work their way through it. Happy to discuss here or on Facebook or even in person.

If you read part one of this post, you might ask if it was such a good day, the caliber of entries was high and my project went over well, why wasn't I jazzed following the event. That's an excellent questions.

Here's what I've figured out, and where I'm going from here.

As an A&S Minister I was super excited to see people geeking out about their work and being able to show people what they can do. And I can safely say that my feeling off had nothing to do with any expectations personally about prizes or awards because the feeling started pretty much as soon as I was done my judging. Hopefully it didn't overflow into the discussions I was having with other people, I tried really hard to be encouraging and to provide good comments.

I don't enter these things to win prizes (good thing too since I'm just not at that level compared to some of the really awesome artisans in the Kingdom. In the past, I've entered experimental projects like the leather dyes and the stick-purse, which have generated really good discussions and those have been the ones that I've been really excited about.

So after thinking about it for a while, here's what I came up with: I need to be more selective about what I enter into QPT and Kingdom A&S type events.

1) This year I felt like I SHOULD enter since the event was in our barony and I'm the Baronial A&S Minister, so I put together a project because of that, rather than because I was super excited by the research. I thought I came up with an interesting concept by recreating my original project from five years ago, but it still wasn't the same caliber as my previous two projects from a research perspective. The bottom line is it felt more like I was just showing what I had already learned, rather than actually learning anything new.

2) I think the other thing I've noticed is that people at A&S tend to gravitate towards stuff they know. I do it too. I may look at the fibre arts or illumination projects and say "oooo, that's impressive", but I'm unlikely to stop and have an in-depth discussion with the artisan because it's not something I know. I know enough to tell between an advanced effort and a beginner effort, but that's about it. Same thing goes for leather projects. There just aren't as many people interested in leatherwork in Ealdormere as most other arts, and so I don't find many people stop by to chat (unless its something so obviously awesome like Lucrece's book that everyone wants to see it). They see shoes or a purse and can appreciate the aesthetic from the perspective that we all need accessories to go with our garb, but the geeking out doesn't seem to happen as much and I think that's where I get my fun out of the event.

Solution

Given the above, here's what I think I've decided:

1) At least for A&S (QPT may be different), I think I'm going to try to avoid both entering and judging at the same event. I think judging entries on the day tied up so much time I wasn't able to be around to chat about my project with people, and since that's where I seem to get my energy from I think that its important to dedicate some time to that on the day. Given the following points that probably means I'll be entering fewer projects and judging more often at this point. I think that's OK.

2) When I'm deciding to enter a project, it needs to be something I'm going to learn something new out of. So that means either I start entering beginner projects in other areas, or enter different kinds of leather projects. That also means I need to work in advance much more than I did this year, since its going to involve more hard core research and skills development.

3) If I'm entering leather items, they need to be projects that add to the collective knowledge base like the stick-purse and the dyes, rather than just showing off what I can do. I also think these types of projects cross the boundaries better so more people will find them interesting, rather than just people who do leatherworking.

4) Tied to point #2, I need to take advantage of QPT like I did with the stick-purse and leather dyes. Use the full A&S cycle by entering mock-ups at QPT and final projects at A&S, incorporating the input I received.

So, thoughts? Agree? Disagree? Do you have a different perspective? Readers here have been seeing my various projects for years. You see what I get super excited about. Does this sound right, or am I thinking about it wrong?

Planning for Practicum (with a question for readers)

So the call for teachers has gone out for Practicum, which is a local day of classes in February on all things historical and relevant to the SCA here in Ottawa. Last year I taught a class for the first time (Intro to Leatherworking) and I think it went pretty well.

So this year I'm trying to decide if I want to actually offer two classes, and whether or not I have the time and energy to get them both prepped.

The first class would be the same Intro class I did last year. I have some kits left so I don't think it would take too much work to prep enough for another small class.

The second is a new class I've been working on around my period leather dye project. It would be more of a discussion, rather than a hand's on class (it takes too long to make the dye and apply it to the leather and the process is just too messy and smelly to really do in that setting). The idea would be to walk through the sources of recipes, what colours would have been available and show the results of my experiments. I have permission from the publisher of the Plictho to reproduce the recipes, so people would walk away with at least a few original source recipes to play with.

The question is, would there be interest in the classes? I only got a handful of people for the intro class last year, which was fine because for a hand's on class I'd rather work with a small group. The dye class is more advanced, but still pretty specialized, so there may be a limited number of people interested (but also less prep involved in it since I don't need to make kits for people).

So, let's do a survey oh readers of the blog. If you're going to Practicum, would either of these be of interest. You can comment here or on Facebook when I share the link there, whatever's easiest. :)

Our Day at QPT (With Pictures)

In a small Kingdom like Ealdormere, there aren't a lot of events that draw close to 200 people. Trillium War does it, but that's a multi-day camping event in the middle of the summer. But in the winter (or at least close enough that there's always the threat of snow), and an event without any martial activities? It's pretty much unheard of.

And then there's QPT. An entire day with the entire focus on just geeking out about research and arts & sciences projects. The fact that 200 people showed up is just amazing.

On top of entering a project this year for QPT, I was also scheduled to be a judge for four different projects, so my day was much busier than last year.

My Project

Last year for QPT I entered my period leather dye project and got lots of great feedback and tips to get the recipes to work better. It ended up improving the project, which I entered into Kingdom A&S in the spring.

This year I entered my full mock-up of the stick-purse. This was a pretty big deal since I've been working on the research and engineering for a couple of years (the dye project actually stemmed from my desire to go whole-hog on the stick-purse, which meant figuring out how they would have coloured the leather in period).

The conversation with my judges was interesting because it didn't really follow the usual flow for these things where I talk about what I was trying to accomplish, etc. We just jumped straight into what the heck it was, how it was used and the different design considerations. It felt like a pretty in depth discussion with people who really knew their stuff, which was fun. We were talking about what the best approach would be for the back seam, whether the bottom seam was the right approach based on the picture, and best materials for the final pouch.

They also seemed to agree with me on my theory that coloured leather (in this case possibly on the drawstrings) could have been used as a way to tell what coins were in which pouch. I specifically demonstrated this by having four different currencies distributed in the four pouches. We had no way of telling what was in each bag without pulling the coins out (which seems clumsy for such an otherwise well thought-out item).

Overall I got the impression that they felt it was a pretty accurate reproduction using modern materials, with a few possible tweeks that could improve it, so the next step is to translate it into the final period purse while improving some of the elements that I'm not yet satisfied with. The final purse may be done for Spring A&S, but it will depend on where the event is being held as well.

It was also neat to have conversations with a number of other people who've been following my work on the stick-purse and were really excited to see some sort of tangible product finally. :) The stick-purse got lots of strange looks by people wandering by trying to figure it out, which was fun to watch.

Here are some pictures of the final mock-up. It's not the easiest item to take pictures of since its kind of busy, but it gives you an idea at least.

 

My Judging Experience

This was definitely new for me, as it was the first time I've volunteered to be a judge for anything like this. Frankly I never really felt like I had enough knowledge or skill in any area to really contribute much. I'm still not sure I do, but there were so many people entering I wanted to help out where I could. 

I had offered to judge entry level leatherworking projects, anything with leather dyes, as well as any juggling or tumbling entries (given my circus background). Sadly, there were no juggling entries but I did get assigned to judge a total of four leatherwork projects (although one of them pulled out on the day so I ended up with three sessions total).

Overall, I'm not sure how much I contributed to the conversation on most of the projects. I was judging with people who had far more experience and knowledge relevant to the items, and kind of trumped anything I might have had to add (not that it came across that way or was at all negative, it was just that I had so little knowledge to pass on in comparison that I was more in listening mode than anything). I did learn a lot about horse bridles and knife sheaths though, so it was certainly a valuable experience. I had a little bit I could share for Grom around dying the leather and the pictures we took while in Dublin of tooled leather knife sheaths, but that was about it.

The one project I feel like I actually added some value wasn't even on my original judging list, it was added closer to the event. The project was around experiments with dye-stuffs, including applying dyes to fibers, leather and wood. I had a good chat with Brendan about his project and was able to share some of my experiences with my research project from last year. I gave him a copy of my documentation so he could track down some of the recipe sources and do some experimenting as well. Hopefully he found it useful.

The Rest of the Day

Both Avelyn and Emelote entered items as well and it sounds like they had good conversations and input on their projects.

For QPT, sponsors bring prizes equal to the number of people they sponsored and then they each pick entrants that they would like to present with their items. That way each entrant gets something, usually from someone who was really impressed by their project (and who wasn't their sponsor).

In my case I received a really cool mortar and pestle, along with a box of dried spices from Mistress Aibhilin (which I'll totally be able to use for some upcoming cooking). You can see it in the middle of the picture below.

I was also called up into court at QPT and presented with an Award of the Orion, which is an arts and sciences award from the Kingdom. This was really cool on a number of fronts. First, obviously it means people are liking the work I'm doing. Yay me! :) It also means I have awards in all three of the main areas of the society (A&S, service and martial skills). I think this is really cool because it's not all that common to have people active in all three spheres (although my martial participation hasn't been great lately).

It was also really cool because of the crazy scroll I received for the award. Lady Augusta went totally over the top with the artwork. There's a frickin leather kraken appliqued to my scroll! How crazy is that? The kraken isn't just in the name of my blog, it's also the main charge in my SCA heraldry. We call him Steve. :) And the wording, which you can't really see in the picture below, is full of groan-inducing puns by my very own Lady wife Avelyn. I know they are groan inducing because the room was groaning as they laughed while it was read out in court.

There were, of course, lots of other highlights. We got lots of hugs from friends, were able to see Her Excellency Christiana put on vigil for the Order of the Pelican (WOOT), I got my apprenticeship pudding (don't ask, long story) and we were able to start giving out some of the gifts we brought back from the UK (although most of them are still in transit).

UK Trip Summary - Part 2 (with pictures)

Warning: This is another long post. :)

When last we left our intrepid adventurers they were leaving Oxford and heading to the Midlands to visit with Robert the Blue and Lerthan.

Midlands

We had a great visit as we stayed with them for about four days. We spent lots of time talking about the differences between the SCA at home and in the UK, and some of the things we could do to improve how we run events and do feasts.

The highlight of the visit from a history perspective though had to be our stop at The Original Reenactor's Market (TORM). We had specifically timed out trip so that we could check out the market, as we'd heard about the really awesome recreation quality merchants that go there.

In a word, it was epic. We basically spent six hours there wandering through the merchants. We bought lots of gifts for other people back home, and some stuff for ourselves as well. I focussed on hardware like belt buckles, pouch frames etc. that are hard to find here at home. But we also got to meet some of the people I've been following on Facebook like NP Historical Shoes (yes, we got our measurements taken for future orders). I also got to chat with Peter Crossman, who helped me with my research into the stick-purse at the Mary Rose last year. We're just waiting for the packages to arrive since had too much stuff to bring back with us on the plane.

Avelyn had a lot of fun as well. One of her highlights was meeting the author of Medieval Tailor's Assistant, and having a lovely chat with her.

After our visit, we packed up on Remembrance Sunday and headed back towards London for our flight to Dublin the next day. On the way we made a stop in Northampton at the Museum of Leathercraft. This is a small museum that covers the entire history of leathercraft, but there were a couple of neat items for our period.

Late 16th C buff-leather
doublet

Early 16th C gunpowder flask

Since it was Remembrance Sunday, we also walked through the rest of the Museum complex, which included the local history museum. We saw lots of local history about everything from the American civil war up to WW II.

We arrived at our hotel in Windsor after everything was closed so we just went out for dinner and then settled in for the night. On the way to the airport in the morning we made a quick trip to Windsor Castle so Avelyn could check out St George's chapel. We also arrived right during the changing of the guard, which was a neat bit of pomp. :)

We then dropped off the car at Heathrow and hopped on our plane for Dublin.

Dublin - Day One

We arrived in Dublin late afternoon so by the time we bought our transit passes at the airport, caught the shuttle to our hotel and got into our room, all the touristy stuff was pretty much closed. So, we went for an amble through the Temple Bar district (which is basically the bar area), got some dinner and generally just wandered around before heading back to bed. Interesting tidbit though is that our hotel was literally right across the street from Christchurch Cathedral. Quite the view, and the bells on the hour were lovely.

The next day we did a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city, and then hit Dublin Castle and the Chester Beatty Library.

The library was very cool and very disappointing at the same time. The collection is amazing. It has one of the largest collections of Asian and Middle Eastern scrolls, books and artwork in the world. It's a treasure trove for SCA scribes, and they had a couple of dozen examples of really neat leather bound books with really intricate covers (including neat cut-work covers with brightly coloured sub-layers of paper underneath - might be my next project).

Unfortunately no pictures are allowed and the leather stuff I was interested in isn't captured in their online collection of pictures. I did buy a book that has a couple of the items but I'm going to have to contact the library to see what else they have. I was rather irked to say the least.

We then ran through the rain to get to the Dublin Castle so we could take the tour of the viking remains under the castle. Dublin dates back to the viking period and while there's very little left from that period, they discovered the remains of a viking river embankment under the foundation of the medieval castle. It was pretty cool to see.

Our tour guide with a illustration of what
the viking town would have looked like.

The pile of rocks on the middle is the
viking-age embankment. The round wall
is the base of one of the towers build
several hundred years later.

Dublin - Day Two

We had a lot to fit in for our last full day in Dublin, so we hit the road early and got out as soon as sites started to open. We first hit Christchurch Cathedral since it was right near the hotel. It was amazing. They've turned the crypts underneath the cathedral into a museum, so they have all kinds of really neat stuff down there (plus the crypts are just neat with their stonework dating back to the 11th and 12th century.

Original 12th C tiles at
Christchurch Cathedral

The crypts under the cathedral.

We then moved on to Trinity College to check out their collection, including the Book of Kells. Again, I wasn't able to take pictures in the main exhibit but WOW! (I also brought a notebook so was able to jot down lots of interesting stuff) The tiny scale of the illuminations in the books on display was just crazy. I can't imagine how they managed to do such tiny detail. There was also an interesting display on the inks and pigments used in the period.

The other interesting point was that the exhibit explained that both the Book of Kells and another book on display (the Book of Armaugh) had coloured leather covers (both were red). We're talking about 8th C books, which pre-dates my earliest leather dye recipes.

After drooling on all of the displays, we moved on to the National Museum of Ireland, where they have a major section on viking materials, along with a fair bit of medieval artefacts as well. It wasn't the most captivating display I've seen but they certainly had a lot of artefacts. I took hundreds of pictures, including leather, bone and metal items. They also had an interesting selection of farics from the viking age, so I did what I could to get pictures of the weaves.

A set of leatherworking tools.
Undated but on display in the viking section.

A weight (used with a set of scales)
with a rabbit on it - 13th to 15th C

We didn't leave until the museum was closing. The next morning we caught our plane back to London and connected to our return flight to Canada with lots of pictures and way more in our suitcases than we started with. :)

UK Trip Summary - Part 1 (With Pictures)

Warning: This will be a longer than normal post. :)

We've just returned from over two weeks in the UK, with stops around England and a couple of days in Dublin. There were lots of stops at museums to see all kinds of stuff, so I'm going to try to capture some of the most interesting things I saw, with pictures where possible. This is part one of the post. Part two will capture the second half of the trip, which includes the Reenactor's Market and Dublin, among other things.

Eventually I'll probably post my artifact pictures somewhere (possibly on Pinterest), so I'll add an update here with a link when the whole collection is available.

London

We'd hit a lot of the major museum stuff in London the last time we were there, but it's London so there's no shortage of things to do. :) The V&A was a bit of a bust because we went on the night they were open late but almost all of the medieval galleries were closed, so we didn't see much. I did get a picture for Her Excellency Catherine of a woven towel with pelicans on it. Otherwise a lot of our time was shopping and such.

Item #487-1884 - Towel dated 1400-1600
from the V&A

The highlight for London from a history/museum perspective was probably the British Library. The collection of documents on display is epic! Sadly, no pictures are allowed but the British Library has an extensive online photo archive of the collection so that's OK. Scribes should definitely check it out.

Portsmouth

Portsmouth and the Mary Rose museum were on the agenda last time but we missed it because of a flat tire. As a result, we were really excited to go there for a couple of nights this time.

The Mary Rose museum is awesome and one of the best designed museums I've been to. They actually have the remains of the ship as the heart of the museum, and you can watch people working on preserving the ship. The museum is then setup parallel to the ship so you are walking through what would have been at that section of the ship as you walk the various levels.

Of course, for me the highlight was seeing the Purser's section, and the stick-purse. But there were tons of other leather items as well, ranging from jerkins, to shoes to arm guards and knife/sword sheaths. The collection is really huge and a goldmine of items.

The remains of the stick-purse at the
Mary Rose museum (item 81A0806)

We also did a tour of the HMS Victory, which was Admiral Nelson's flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar. It's post-period for the SCA but very cool none-the-less.

HMS Victory at the Historic Dockyard
in Portsmouth

Weald & Downland Museum

After Portsmouth we drove to an open air museum near Chichester. This is where they filmed a large part of the Tudor Monastery Farm series, so it's really cool because you see what the living conditions and layout of various buildings might have been.

Lots of really neat things here. We learned about a period fruit crop I'd never heard of before. It's called a medlar and is related to the quince (Here's a nice web site reference about the medlar). We also had a lovely conversation with one of the volunteers named Tina, who showed us where they make all of the period garb they wear (and they are really hardcore about the accuracy of the details of their outfits).

Some of the medieval buildings

Merchant's shop (left-hand
building from previous picture)

Early 17th century craftsman's cottage

Early 15th century home. This is
the main hall.

So many ideas about stuff we could do here. It's incredible seeing some of this stuff, especially if you've watched the Tudor Farm series.

Oxford

Oxford was probably one of our favourite cities on the trip (although Portsmouth was up there too). We were only there for a day so we had to squeeze some stuff in. On Mistress Keja's recommendation, we made a stop at the Ashmolean Museum, which was really good. Lots of pics of artifacts were taken, and we just happened to be there on November 5th, which meant it was particularly cool to see the lantern used by Guy Fawkes. 

Guy Fawkes' lantern,
as seen on the 5th of Nov

The other really neat thing they had was a major collection of fabric samples from the Middle East and India, which I'm sure a lot of people will find interesting.

India from the 13th - 15th century
(Ashmolean EA 1990.146).

We also stopped at Oxford's science museum, where we saw some period clocks and timepieces. But the highlight for me there was Einstein's chalk board. It's just a chalk board, but still.......

At the end of the night we took a guided tour of the Bodelian Library, which dates to the late 16th century.It's massive and epic and no pictures are allowed. :( But totally worth the stop, especially since we were the only people on the tour so we basically had a private tour guide.

After Oxford we drove off into the Midlands for our next stop, visiting with Robert the Blue and Lerthan and our trip to the Reenactor's Market. I'll capture the second half of the trip in my next post.

Research into who did leather dyeing

Trying to flesh out (haha, get it) my understanding of who was responsible for the dyeing of leather.

The period leather dye recipes are found in books with a mix of other skills. The manuals include fabric dyeing recipes but also recipes for how to tan leather, make parchment and a variety of other skills.

So, who did the actual dying? Was it done by the people who processed the skins (the tanner or currier), was there someone else in the process (dyers guild or a leather dyer) once the leather had been prepared, or was the leatherseller or end craftsman the one who dyed the skins?

Based on the way the recipes work, it seems like they would be used on whole skins, not just painted on smaller pieces of leather for a specific project. Given the nature of the recipes and how they are documented, I suspect it wouldn't be the seller or end craftsman, but rather would have been delivered already dyed for their use - really not that much different from how we get our leather today.

It probably varied by region but I'll start my research with London given their structured guild system and reasonably good records (despite the 1666 fire).

Some research links:

English industries of the Middle Ages, being an introduction to the Industrial history of mediaeval England
https://archive.org/stream/englishindustrie00salzuoft/englishindustrie00salzuoft_djvu.txt

Contains a reference to "leather-dyers" as an industry as it indicates they were banned from dyeing certain types of low quality skins.


History and antiquities of the Worshipful company of leathersellers, of the city of London: with facsimiles of charters, and other illustrations
https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=2zVOAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-2zVOAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1

e-Book copy of a resource about the leathersellers company in London. Could have useful information about how the industry was structured. May reference dyeing of leather. Will need to look through it carefully.

The Art and Mysterie of the Currier

http://www.curriers.co.uk/Art%20&%20Mystery.pdf

Information on the historical role of the currier/leather dresser, which mentions that once curried the leather could be dyed or stained. No mention of who did the dyeing.

Craft Guilds in the Early Modern Low Countries

http://books.google.ca/books?id=r27gwgLydGoC

A book on the structure and impact of craft guilds in Neatherlands as early as the 11th century. For when I expand my research beyond London.

Craft-guilds of the thirteeth century in Paris

https://archive.org/details/craftguildsofthi00millrich

A book from 1915 on the craft guilds in Paris in the 13th century. It mentions the tanners, the leather dressers and the curriers as three separate guilds in Paris as early as 1160.

York’s Guild’s Names in the 15th Century and their Translation into Spanish

http://www.ual.es/odisea/Odisea05_Mouron.pdf

Section 2.1 discusses the translation of the names of guilds that dealt with leather. This gives some ideas of the leather-related guilds that were operating in York. Also a list of names at the end of the document.

Thinking about research accuracy

I read an interesting article today in the Ottawa Citizen about the rise of fake peer reviewed journals and how they are affecting the scientific world. This was of interest to me from a work perspective since we're always having to answer questions based on "new research" that shows X or Y. But I also thought about it from an SCA perspective.

I pride myself at being pretty good at research. I've been able to dig out a lot of little tidbits of information on my leatherworking projects over the years. I mainly use book resources and museum artifacts as my base, but I also often do some pretty heavy online research, which helps me find artifacts and other people'e research. That being said, I'm not an academic, and I'm certainly rusty when it comes to using research journals as a major source of information. But this worries me.

As an amateur historical organization, I'm not sure how many people use research journals as a source of information. But if this trend is happening beyond the science journals and has been happening in the humanities as well, it's going to make our lives that much more difficult. Given that most of us are not professionally working in these fields, it's probably harder for us to tell whether a specific journal is a good source or not.

I guess it means the same rules apply whenever you're doing research, including online and through the journals. It's important to remember that just because someone wrote it down doesn't make it true.

When I'm doing research somewhere where there's a high risk of inaccuracy (for example, online) I mainly use sources as a way to point me to primary sources and artifacts.  I try not to base my opinions on other people's theories unless its backed up by solid evidence. I'll look for links to other more authoritative sources and then work back from there. Often I'll find references to books I know are good, or references to work or artifacts from museums in Europe. I'll then try to find those references or contact those museums for more direct information about the item.

I think applying these same techniques to research journals is probably a good idea.

General A&S To-Do List

So many ideas and projects floating around, I'm updating my list of things to work on so I can keep track. Some of these have been on the list for a loooooong time. :) These are not listed in any particular order.

1. Replace Avelyn's favour (likely make a second more sturdy one for wearing in armour as well)
2. Develop carving pattern for my heraldry and badge
3. Figure out how to fix Avelyn's armour/finish new lamellar or alternative
4. Start work on designing new leather leg pieces for Avelyn's new knee armour
5. Do "commissioned" children's archery glove for Eluned
6. Do "commissioned" belt favour (with award badges) for Robert the Blue
7. Figure out shoe pattern
8. Start research for leather tooling project
9. Start research for survey of period belt hardware (buckles etc)
10. Finish stick-purse
11. Try blue dye recipe from Plictho using lye 
12. Develop period leather dye class for next Practicum
13. Follow-up with Dragon Dormant about possible leatherworking class interest
14. Fix Avelyn's boots
15. Make silk personal and household banners for camping season

A busy day at Kingdom A&S

So much happened at Kingdom A&S this weekend, I'll try to sum it up in a logical way. Overall it was a terrific event and the site was bursting at the seems with so many people entering the competition. In particular, there were a lot of Skraels in attendance this year which is nice to see given the event was on the other side of Toronto.

Important News

My biggest news from Kingdom A&S came outside of the official activities for the day. Mistress AElfwyn and I have been talking a lot about leatherworking, the arts and sciences and the SCA in general since before QPT and at A&S she officially took me on as her apprentice. This is a really big deal and kind of blows my mind.

We did the ceremony in a gap in the judging schedule in the afternoon, so the low-profile ceremony I was expecting turned into pretty much the entire event watching us. Eep!

For those who couldn't hear what we were saying, this is approximately what was said:

AElfwyn: I will provide you with the wisdom of my council, my guidance, and my protection.  You will have a seat at my table and shelter in my hall. 

In turn, will you pay heed to my words and follow my direction? (I said yes) 

Will you strive to increase your skills, learning from the wise, that you may better teach others?  (I said yes)

Will you share your knowledge openly and fairly? (I said yes with a bit of a smart-ass remark about my level of knowledge)

Dafydd: Before these witnesses here assembled, I will be to AElfwyn faithful and true. To study and faithfully apply myself to the development of my craft in the arts & sciences, in service, and in all the courtly arts. I further pledge to defend her and her manors and household in peace and in war, and through her the Crown of Ealdormere;   and never, by will nor by force, by word nor by work, do aught that is loathful to her, on condition that she keep me as I deserve, and that all remain faithful to the agreement made here this day. 

Given that AElfwyn won the Technological Sciences category, I think I'm going to have to up my game. :)

My Project - The Leather Dyes
The culmination of over a year's work sort-of came to fruition this weekend at Kingdom A&S. I say sort-of because the project is nowhere near done, as there are many more recipes to try and other colours to produce. But, that being said, the formal part of the work is done and I've presented it at A&S, so I can now continue the work at my own pace between other projects, and work on developing my leather dye class.

It'll be interesting to see the comments on a my judging sheets, I had AElfwyn and Master Dafydd as my judges so I know they'll be fair and give me good suggestions to improve. If I had it to do again I'd probably take a different approach to my project for A&S. Based on my initial conversations with my judges, and the way some other people handled the transition from QPT to A&S, I probably would have been better off producing an item made with leather dyed using my period dye. Of course, that was always the plan as I took on this project as part of my overall stick-purse piece. But the stick-purse just wasn't ready to go for this weekend.

In the end, I expect I would have scored higher that way but I always knew it was one of those projects that falls between core research (AKA a research paper) and end product, so wasn't the type of thing that would necessarily do well in a competition. But I've certainly generated some interest and discussion about the topic, which is a good thing. I go back to a conversation I had with Master Wilfrid about how surprised he was that I was able to show a green leather dye was available in period. To me, that's the point of this project.

I'll keep the approach in mind for next year though, as Her Majesty confirmed she plans to sponsor QPT again this year.

Some Gotcha Moments

Not specifically leatherworking related but I wrote my first two sets of scroll texts for this event and got to see the response to the scrolls live and in person. Lady Augusta had contacted me to do these ones personally, which was super awesome! She did a great job on the scrolls too.

The first award was for Avelyn. She was called up by Their Majesties during morning court and received her Scarlet Banner. She was rather shocked. I wrote the text to touch on a number of things, including her heraldry (which has a comet sinister on it, which is interpreted as an omen of doom), some references to her Pennsic fighting experiences and her interest in the Coppergate Helm (her blog is called Y in the Well as a reference to where the helm was found).

The second scroll was for Lady Emelote. She was called up in afternoon court to receive an Award of the Orion. She was bouncing she was so excited. In her text I touched on her sewing and cooking, and tried to reference some of her projects (including the 30 dishes for 30 years of Skrael that she served at Border Spat).

I'll post the scroll texts as soon as I have the final versions for those who'd like to read them in full.

My next research project - the concept

A while back I posted following a conversation with Mistress AElfwyn, where she asked me what my next project would be now that I'm almost done the formal portion of the leather dyes. Of course, I expect the leather dye work will continue for a long time, but I had posted some ideas of what I could work on next.

Then, a couple of weeks ago I ran into AElfwyn again at the local leather store, and she asked me a question about how I did my leather tooling. After showing her my technique using a swivel knife, we had a bit of a discussion about whether that would have been how it was done in period (using cuts as a basis for the tooling pattern).

So, the discussion has been sitting with me since then (with a few more brief exchanges with AElwyn thrown in about the topic).

And of course, I can't just leave a question like that floating out there without a solid answer. Based on the two books I have on hand it looks to be true, but I think this calls for a research paper. :)

So, here's what I'm thinking:

Research paper on specific decorative techniques that would have been used at various periods, along with possibly work on identifying the specific tools that can be documented to have been used.

Step 1: Online research to see what else has been done by others. This includes reading the Floriligium and other online resources. Will want to do my own cross-checks on anything but could give me a good idea of primary and secondary sources to check. Should also check research journals for relevant materials.

Step 2: Documentary search of sources identified in step one and review of materials.

Step 3: Museum research to look at artifacts to determine evidence of techniques and tools used (This would be a good time to do another trip to the UK to see them up close). If can't go in person, perhaps contact museums with significant leather collections to discuss if they have done any similar analysis.

Step 4: Analysis and writing up of research, and any follow-ups necessary. Probably for submission at a future Kingdom A&S.

So I figure that'll take me what...2-3 weeks. :) OK, maybe not.

I can then turn my research into a period leather tooling class to fit in alongside my Intro to Leatherworking I taught this year, and the period leather dyes class I plan to develop this spring. A pretty good triumvirate of courses I think.

The Ongoing Challenge of the Period Blue Leather Dye

The last piece of my Kingdom A&S puzzle is the blue dye. For those that have been following along, this has been a bit of an ongoing saga, with multiple attempts at various recipes.

This past week I made yet another attempt at getting the dye to work. I used the first recipe I tried from the Plictho, which is basically a mixture of indigo, water and gum arabic. Based on the input a received at QPT, I adjusted the recipe process by:

• Grinding the indigo finer using a mortar and pestle
• Using distilled water instead of just filtered tap water
• Soaking the leather in alum water for a full 2 minutes instead of just a quick dip
• Soaking the leather in the dye for 30 seconds rather than painting it on.

All of these changes got me absolutely no further than I was before, at least with the veg tan leather. It gives me a bit of a tint on the surface but it just rubs right off as soon as I touch it with a damp cloth.

Just for a test I did try the dye on a piece of the alum tawed leather that I ordered from the states. It seems to have worked much better, and doesn't really rub off at all. I suspect this is one of the dyes that was originally for tawed leather and that's why it isn't working on the veg tan.

As a last ditch effort, I took a piece of veg tan and let it soak in my dye jar for a full two hours, just to see if it made any difference. It didn't really do much, other than collect some of the sediment on the leather (which rubbed off pretty easily as well).

I think this recipe is a write-off at this point. I may try one more attempt at my second recipe, which uses strong vinegar, but I'm not particularly hopeful. If that doesn't work, I'll have to try some of the more challenging recipes that involve stronger chemicals like lye. But that probably won't happen for Kingdom A&S.

Still, I do have four colours working now (red, green, yellow and black), which isn't a bad project I think.

Project planning - What's next

Mistress AElfwyn asked me this week what my next project was going to be. I've been working on the stick-purse for so long (and then adding in the leather dyes as a side project) I haven't really thought much about what I wanted to learn/do next.

She wasn't asking about my miscellaneous functional type projects that are always on the go (carving award badges, Avelyn's armour etc.), but rather those in depth kind of projects that present a real challenge.

I figure the leather dyes are going to be an ongoing area of work, between testing other recipes, improving my methods and figuring out how to finish the leather so the dye doesn't rub off. I'm also going to do some work developing my research into a class for next year's Practicum (and maybe at other events - we'll see).

The stick-purse will continue post A&S since it won't be ready by March. I'll probably enter it if there's a QPT in the fall this year and then enter it officially in Kingdom A&S next year (depending on where it is in the Kingdom).

I was thinking of taking another attempt at making shoes. I'm kind of tired of wearing my modern black shoes at events (at least when I'm not fencing), and I know if I can figure it out there would be a few people who would be happy to have some as well (cough cough Avelyn, Emelote cough cough).

There was also those funky leather framed late-period glasses that I found a picture of. Probably not a huge challenge but it fits into my bizarre project theme. Plus, it would be neat to have actual period glasses at events. :)

Of course, the other option would be to finally use the leather that Avelyn bought me as a wedding present to make my leather jerkin based on the Museum of London artifact we saw at the museum. This might even make a good White Wolf Fian project!

Or, as has happened before, I could just stumble on a picture of something strange, like say this, and decide I just have to make it.

Stick-Purse Update

I'm behind schedule on the stick-purse if I'm going to get it ready for Spring A&S. The dye project is in good shape but I haven't really done much lately on the stick-purse.

Last week I did put in an order for my linen thread (for those who wanted to piggy-back, I didn't have enough room on my credit card for anything more once we put together our own order - maybe next time). It should hopefully arrive sometime this week so I can get started on assembly.

This weekend I spent a bit of time down in the basement cutting out some of the pieces for the stick-purse though. I have to say, I'm concerned the leather isn't going to work. I bought the thinnest stuff I could find, 2 oz goat, but handling it as I was cutting it, I have a feeling it will still be too stiff for the pouch body and the pouchlet.

The original purse at the Fries Museum was actually made of chamois leather, which is an oil tanning method different from veg tan. Here's some information on the different tanning methods: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/pl.html

I think I'm going to put a hold on cutting all of the parts out and just cut out one piece of each pouch piece. Once the thread comes in, I'll assemble a single pouch to see how it looks. If it doesn't work I'll need to figure out an alternative.

So what are my alternatives:

1. According to the link above, buckskin and brain/deer tanned leather are also period and are essentially an oil tannage (similar to chamois), so that could be an alternative. I know Zeli's carries it, but whether it is true brain tanned leather or just chrome tanned made to look like it is another question.
2. I could use my chrome tan pig skin that I have been using for pouches. It's light and flexible and would work really well (its actually what I used for my mock-up). If I can demonstrate that the actual period materials are not reasonably available and I knowingly made the substitution for the closest modern equivalent I could find, it should be OK. 

The one concern I have is that I don't think my period dyes will work on either of these leathers. It certainly won't work on the chrome tan. In theory though, the leather on the handle would have needed to be a bit stiffer to weave it properly, so I could use my veg tan for that component and dye it as I originally planned.

More to come I'm sure in the next few weeks.

Black is the new....black - Leather dye update (with picture)

Over the weekend I did an experiment with the vinegar black leather dye recipe.

My previous attempts at the vinegar black didn't really follow a recipe, I just let some nails sit in vinegar for a few weeks and then painted it on the leather. It worked, but I wanted to compare how it would work with an actual period recipe.

The concept and overall function was the same - the iron in the vinegar solution reacts with tannins and turns the leather black - but the period recipe calls for pre-treating the leather with gallnut solution to introduce the tannins. This is largely unnecessary with modern leather because it already contains tannins from the vegetable tanning process. But if, as is suggested in the Plictho, most of the recipes were intended for use with alum tawed leather, perhaps the tannins needed to be added in period?

In any case, I wanted to see if the introduction of additional tannins would affect the colour, even for veg tan leather. The theory being that more tannins might make a darker black.

I had previously made a new batch of the vinegar solution by letting some rusting nails sit in a jar of vinegar for about three weeks. The recipe called for boiling the nails in vinegar for four hours, but I figured letting it sit for that long would have the same general effect without stinking up the house. Call it a modern adjustment. :)

The next step was to make a solution using the gallnuts to extract the tannins into the liquid, so that I could apply it to the leather. I had gotten some gallnut extract from a dying supply store when I did my last order. This is the pure extract rather than the actual galls, so I modified the recipe a bit here too. The original recipe called for grinding up the gallnuts and then boiling it in water for an hour. Since I have the extract already processed, I simply added it to the boiling water (as much as I could dissolve into it) and boiled it for about 15 minutes. I figured I didn't need longer since I wasn't trying to extract the tannins but just to dissolve the powder into the liquid.

I let it cool a bit and then painted it on the leather as per the recipe instructions. Once it dried, I applied the vinegar black to both the gallnut-treated leather and an untreated piece as a control. I did only one coating, since I wanted to have a good comparison of the darkness of the colour. Once it dried I then applied a coat of olive oil.

Results:

As you can see by the picture below, there's very little difference in colour between the two pieces. The gallnut-treated leather is a bit darker but that could be fixed by applying extra coats of the vinegar I suspect. It also has a bit more of a shiny finish for some reason.

The one big difference I found is that the gallnut-treated version made a mess when I was doing it. Basically the vinegar was reacting to the liquid I had already applied to the leather, which meant it turned black as I was applying it on the surface, rather than reacting to the leather itself. As a result, my hands were coated in black that didn't wash off.

I also noticed that it left a black residue on the surface of the leather, which would need to be polished and rubbed off. I think most of it came off when I was applying the oil finish, but I'd still be concerned about it rubbing off on someone wearing a leather item. The non gallnut-treated leather was very well fixed and the black was not rubbing off the leather at all.

It could be that I didn't let the leather dry long enough between the application of the gallnut solution and the vinegar. But, given that both methods seem to produce an equivalent quality of black, I think I'm more likely to use the non-gallnut version for day-to-day use since I have more confidence in it not rubbing off on people's clothes.

Update on red leather dye (with picture)

Thanks to the input of my judges at the Queen's Prize Tourney (Master Dafydd, THL Lassarfhina, and Mistress Gaerwen) I've been able to tweek my process for my red dye and get something that I would be really happy to use on a project. It's a nice rich red, and a big improvement on the brick/brownish-red colour I was able to get prior to the QPT.

For those who didn't see my last post, here are the things I did differently with this batch from the previous.

• I used purified water in hopes of getting any chemicals/minerals out to see if that would make a difference.
• Totally unintentionally, I let the brazilwood bloom longer before making my dye. Last time I bloomed it overnight (so about 12-14 hours), but this time I got busy because of the holidays so it actually sat for at least 24 hours.
• I double checked the recipe and based on my notes from last time I may have miscalculated how much water to use (I had cut the recipe in half but my notes say I used the full 680 ml of water). I may have just written it down wrong though so not sure if this is a difference or just a scribal error.
• I pre-soaked the leather in my alum water for a full two minutes instead of just a quick dip to moisten.
• I actually soaked the leather in the dye for 30 seconds rather than just painting it on.
• I did four coats instead of three
• After the last coat, I applied the oil finish after about 8-10 hours of drying instead of 16 when it would be fully dried and faded.

So that leaves me with four working dyes that are ready for use on select projects (I still need to be careful what I use them on since I'm not entirely sure they won't rub off over time or if they get really wet). I still need to do some more experiments with the black, but otherwise the only thing left is the bane of my existence and the one colour I haven't been able to get to work at all, the blue dye.