Month: November 2006

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Sara Margaretha’s trousseau

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Not that medieval Hungarian maidens assembled trousseaus, but here’s a collection of stuff I intend to clothe her with: Shirt-collar decorations and ancient Hungarian women’s clothesLove the long braids and headdress. *11/29/06* – Okay, I’ve made a substitute for the cap, and have wool for braid extensions. Lots of embroidery links, but not many pictures of typical motifs from before 1600 – from descriptions apparently red was the preferred color, representing joy. Mary of Hapsburg’s gown – maybe this is good for a Twelfth Night? but also perhaps too late, at 1520. Continue reading Sara Margaretha’s trousseau

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Why does the universe hear ‘I want my mother’s table loom’ and SuperSize my thought?

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Just came back from the Mission, where I was looking for a garb belt. No luck there, though I did bring home a boiled wool men’s blazer to cut up for my detachable sleeves and braid extensions and a great pair of shoes that will work well for garb.  Shoes are tricky.  That was very lucky, esp as these are cutout in the back to show off the fancy heels of the socks I’ve been working on.  Cool. Anyway, I’m poking around the ‘Weird Stuff’ section, and I see a FLOOR LOOM.  For $89.  Amazing.  A floor loom is way … Continue reading Why does the universe hear ‘I want my mother’s table loom’ and SuperSize my thought?

Clothing and EquipmentLeave a comment

Folding Chairs Through The Ages

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Look here. "the folding stool as a ceremonial chair developed in two ways: one secular, and the other ecclesiastical. the makeup of the roman ‘sella curulis’ assumes, through the longobard ‘sella plicatilis’ in steel, the form of the carolingian ‘faldistorium’. here we notice another typological alteration. the crossed legs are frontal instead of being placed laterally. this was to emphasize the crossing ‘X’ – structure which became a symbol of authority. the most emblematic example is the throne of dagobert I, king of the franconians." Continue reading Folding Chairs Through The Ages

EventsLeave a comment

China isn’t quite the Third World, is it?

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With this second example, I’ve started a "There’s a Culture" category, in appreciation of successes in past history, which we would do well to simply copy, if not take as inspirational benchmarks. This one is from An Intimate History of Humanity, by Theodore Zeldin.  Again, highly recommended. "History is full of people who talked as though they were alive today, and yet it is assumed that the experience of the Celestial Empire was so exotic that it has no relevance to the West, which sees China simply as a developing country waiting to follow the Western path to prosperity.  But … Continue reading China isn’t quite the Third World, is it?

EventsLeave a comment

Assassin’s Meeting Ideas

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UPDATED 11/13/06 The Assassin’s Meeting: As explained by Geoffrey (our Hospitaller), the idea is to provide everyone with someone else’s Victim Identity card at check-in.  During the day (but not on the field, so as to Keep It Holy – sanctuary! sanctuary!) everyone is trying to ‘assassinate’ his or her designated victim.  If I was assassinated, I would receive my own VI card from the evildoer, exchanging it for the VI card I’d previously been assigned, and would trot back over to Troll and report myself dead, by whose hand, and by what means.  Then, at Feast, awards would be … Continue reading Assassin’s Meeting Ideas

ResearchLeave a comment

Tudor Planning

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The previous post reminded me of something that I recently read in A Primer on Sustainable Building, which I’m reading for work. There’s a famous story told by the late epistemologist Gregory Bateson about New Colleg in Oxford, England.  The Great Hall had been built in the early 1600s with oak beams forty feet long and two feet thick.  Three hundred fifty years later, when they developed dry rot, a committee was formed to find replacement trees.  They searched but couldn’t find any (to fit the job).  A young don joined the committee and said, "Why don’t we ask the … Continue reading Tudor Planning