This report is for: July-Sept. ‘99
Region: Midlands
Group: Shire of Grey Gargoyles
Reporter: Mistress Amelie d’Anjou
Group events: none
Group Demos:
The annual Student Activity Fair at U. of Chicago on Sept. 26, which turned into a big do when Wild Chicago (a local PBS show) e-mailed that they wanted to film us (5 days before!). After a wild flurry of communications, many Gargoyles and Tre-Girt-Sears showed up and made a great display. There was fighting (heavy and light), a table with food subtleties, instrumental and vocal music, and people displaying and doing their crafts, such as lace-making, embroidery, calligraphy and woodcarving. We had many students sign up as interested, and are waiting to hear when we’ll be on TV (perhaps Jan. 2000).
Guilds &/or Special Interest Groups:
Tres Trepei
Kathleen and Ryan both participate in the Silver Thimble Guild.
Personal Projects:
Constance Grey has been very busy. She has continued to work on the embroideries from the bestiary, documented the project, and mounted three of the bestiary panels on velvet, surrounded in pearls and gold bullion braid for display.
Mounted one bestiary panel on a velvet book, surrounded in pearls. The book was designed to contain metal leaf for scribal arts.
Continued to build the medieval color reference
Begun more in-depth research into gold thread and needlepainting technique
Helped Henry make two linen shirts
Helped Douglas make a silk bog dress and a silk tunic
Helped Cassandra make a linen chemise and a dress
Helped Fiona make a simple dress as her first sewing project, pattern a
cotehardie and begin work on a silk cotehardie
Helped Regina begin an embroidery project, make one pair of velvet shoes
and start a second pair of beaded coruroy shoes, refit a dress and do the
finishing work on the dress
Helped Jonathon cut and start a new silk tunic; his first excursion into
machine sewing
Patterned a basic tunic with several necklines for Tristan
Made two capes for Douglas and Cassandra
Made a wool/fur lined cloak with beaded trim as a gift
Ran the camp kitchen at war
Cooked an engagement dinner for 50 over the campfire at war
Helped teach two baking classes at war
Learned silly period songs with Jonathon
Jonathon has been working to get fighter-types participating in the arts and enjoy it; specifically, getting people to sing and play games.
Bojegei 1) ongoing work on wine making (racking, taste adjusting, adding more oak)
plus I started a batch of blackberry mead.
2) made two dels for Pennsic. I used an extant Liao dynasty robe pictured (&
I got to see first hand) the museum catalogue _When Silk was Gold_ and then
modified it based upon illuminations from several manuscripts from the
Il-khanate.
3) tried re-dacting one recipe (a dumpling) from the Yuan dynasty chinese
cookbook I told you about several months ago. Tasted ok but I don't think I
have some of the ingredients right.
4) Along with a brother from Minneapolis, I've been doing research on
mongolian lamellar (I got the plate shape wrong on mine - my extant suit is
more byzantine than Mongolian) and we're doing the final figuring before
hiring someone to punch the plates out for us. (We need 1000+ plates per
suit and they have 11 holes per plate.)
5) Researching a way to make a more period ger (yurt). I've got pretty much
all the research & calculations done & will start making it when I buy the
tools & materials needed.
Ryan For Pennsic I've been beading and blackworking like a maniac to get garb
ready. I also ended up cooking up a batch of sekanjabin and rum balls.
I entered my strawberry-spice cordial in the Inter-Kingdom B&V Guild.
While at Pennsic, I've been brushing up my Italian Ren dancing, and have
been doing some teaching of such dancing at Gargoyles and TGS practices.
And there's the batch of stout I did for Pennsic, and, after it's untimely
but rapid demise, made another batch. And I've been working on learning
to play bodhran.
Sasza Well, I have been in the process of manufacturing a gorget with
the help of Bojei's garage. It is in the spanish collar style, using 12
or 14 ga steel, copper rivets, and probably 12 or 16 oz leather.
Mary McIntosh is learning cardweaving.
(2)I am attending a conference on medieval irish music
(3)Teaching two classes at an upcoming event on period celtic harp and period celtic music.
(4)Currently researching period celtic music
(5)Cut goldenrod and learned a great deal about dying linen.
(6)Still taking harp lessons, continuing my spinning
Amelie: I started card weaving some garters for my lord based on a surviving 14th century fragment from the Thames, I’m also teaching Mary card weaving. Harvested goldenrod and dyed some linen fabric a lovely yellow. Continuing to direct Trés Trepei.
Svein made a cotehardie for the baby, and several for himself as well. At Pennsic he took classes on relief carving and cordial making, and is ready to start projects on those.
Heironymous is researching period painting techniques, and has also been making sekanbijn-like syrups.
People to watch:
Praises/Problems: Heironymous apprenticed to Mistress Theodora and Andra received a Silver Oak for her research at Warriors and Warlords.
Questions or new info about office:
MoAS Goals and progress:
Events I’ll be attending: St. Nic Tourney, Boar’s Head, 12th Night
This page maintained by Ted Reichardt,
tedr@uchicago.edu.
Last Updated: 2/7/01
