Elric's Journal

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:49:18 GMT

Okay just one more :)

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:46:33 GMT

More can be found here. http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/09/02/stab-at-relevance/

An interesting social experiment

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:58:49 GMT

One of the more interesting articles I have read all year

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 19:06:36 GMT

http://freerice.com/index.php

I am stuck at level 42. What level do you folks get to?

Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:06:54 GMT

I have changed my livejournal user name from Hanksan to Foxen. It is still me!

Just for Glasseye

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:08:51 GMT

Behold my D&D spell templates

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:24:15 GMT

So I've been playing D&D lately. It is something I haven't done in quite a while and I'm having a blast. I just created these to help my sorcerer better cast his spells on the battle mat we use.

More can be seen here

Day Light Saving Time

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:37:40 GMT

Am I the only person that is getting absolutely floored by the daylight saving time change? I can't seem to catch up on my sleep since Monday morning. Come on people, tell me I am not alone in a state of perpetual brain-fog!

I have great hopes that I can sleep in this weekend and pay back this burgeoning sleep debt.

Kingdom Arts and Sciences

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 07:29:16 GMT

The event is going well so far. Everyone appears to be having fun. We are down to two contestants. I'm still pretty wrung out so this is going to be a short entry. Cheers!

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 20:58:49 GMT

Greetings friends

It looks like my families new business got listed on google. Try doing a search for "historic workshop" in google now :).

As a favor to me and Vandy, if anyone has a webpage please consider linking to http://www.historicworkshop.com Along with some cool phrases like Medieval, Re-enactment Supply, Art, etc.

We can use plenty of help getting our web presence established.

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:48:01 GMT

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make The world great. Not to imply that our world is necessarily greater than any other world nor the only world in the Milky Way or indeed any other galaxy.

Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the ‘wishee’.
By accepting these greetings, you are accepting the aforementioned terms as stated. This greeting is not subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for herself/himself/others, and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.

This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:26:29 GMT

I've been working on my Italian Ren garb for this weekend all week and well as a gambeson. Sadly the liner for the gambeson is too small :(. The shell is fine though since I added a side piece. The liner is a fine size for non-fighting purposes though. I decided to make a new liner for the gambeson and make the old liner into a modern jacket. Style'n!

I plan to make some hose tonight which will give me a good outfit to wear to the Madrone Baronial Banquet.

Bad Project Night

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 19:02:18 GMT

Well I had a pretty bad setback on my Italian Ren project last night. The cat peed on my houpalaund. This did not make me happy. Elfa was kind enough to wash it for me since I was too mad to do anything but storm about the house menacingly thinking about fellinacide. It goes from bad to worse though. Apparently the gold silk brocade was dried with a little heat and it lost most of its luster and looks crepe-ish. Ironing it helped a lot, but I had to tear out the lining of the entire houpalaund in order to add some silk pieces to make up for the shinkage. This all happened when I was hand stitching the hem and almost done with the damn thing. Grrrrrrr.

Lessons Learned:
Very Expensive Fabrics probably have Very Specific ways to be washed
If someone sells you fabric that has already been "Prewashed," don't believe them
Houpalaunds are Evil and a Tool of Satan

Woo Painkillers

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 17:53:06 GMT

Went to the doctor yesterday to have my back looked at and managed to get myself a referral to physical therepy and some pain medication. Hopefully the therepy will help me strengthen whatever part of my back keeps getting tweaked so I don't have to go through this again, especially since I am getting into the fighting thing.

On a happier note, with the help of the pain medication, I was able to actually get stuff worked on yesterday! I finished the applique on my wolf on the second side of my new silk standard (this is a different banner from the gonfannon I am handworking at events). Still have to do some detail work on both wolves (leg lines, fur lines, teeth and claws, eyes), but at least the long tricky satin stitch is done. Sadly I have the orle to do also but that is just a bunch of big straight lines so it shouldn't be hard. The orle will be next. On a side note apparently the English called the orle "escutcheon void" on occasion and the Italians called it "cinta." Probably pronounced Cheen-Ta.

Somehow I promised Elfa a hand sewn silk standard. Eep! I am going to use blanket stitch on all the feathers (plumets? plums? plumi?) instead of a satin stitch. I know I read somewhere that the blanket stitch was used commonly for banners, but I don't for the life of me remember where I read that. I will have to do me research so I can document it.

Isn't it amazing what you can do when the throbbing pain is gone (or at least hidden by vicodin)!

Armor

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:20:56 GMT

Well I met with Guy of Normandy last night to finalize my armor order. I ordered some gauntlets for $115 from a guy down south named Andy Ward, but I didn't really like them. In fact, I couldn't figure out how was I supposed to even get them to work. I put pictures up at on my flickr page. If someone knows something that I am missing about them please comment. Meanwhile I am having Guy make me a pair of gauntlets because I REALLY liked a pair of his that I tried on. That pair had been in service for a couple years and still are in good shape.

Here is what I finally decided on for round one:

Italian 15th C. styled Arm Harness : 18 gu mild steel w/16gu elbow cops, handmade medieval hinges and buckles w/leather straps, "latton" metal rivets, similar construction to the Cherberg #13 & #47 armours. "Grey" satin finish on the metal
Italian 15th C. styled Paldron / Spalder shoulder armour : 16 gu cops w/18 gu lames, construction elements to match the arm harness. "Grey" satin finish on the metal.
Pair of gauntlets with an articulated thumb.
Corrective modification - replace back flap straps on Wisby Coat of Plates.

I know that the Italian armor style doesn't quite go with the Wisby Coat, but oh well. It should still look contemporary together.

I also don't usually complain about health issues, but my upper back is killing me. I have a Doctors appointment tomorrow at 2:40. Hopefully I don't have back cancer or something.

Arming Cap

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:52:38 GMT

Finished an arming cap last night. I made a pattern from Derian's coif and totally forgot to resize it to my smaller head. Luckily, after I put it all together with the cotton batting it seems to fit me find.

One more piece of my fighting gear done. Go Me.

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 07:14:20 GMT

Greetings all. I have put a small selection of photos up on Flickr from An Tir Kingdom Bardic Championship here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/havene/sets/72157594298713899 I am still working on tagging and adding descriptions. If there is someone I havent identified please feel free to post a comment.

Here is a preview of some of the serious things that went on at this event:

And the final showdown between

againt

Two Bards Enter, One Bard Leaves! Who won you ask? That would be telling.

Busy Weekend

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:44:20 GMT

Had a pretty busy weekend. Spent Saturday driving around trying to get armor together. After meeting with Guy of Normandy I decided to commission the following items: Cuir Boillie Tulip Shaped cannons with 16 gu cops ( italian styling ) also hand made copper hinges and buckles and Pauldron / Spaulder set ( replaces current spade shoulder guards ) - 16 gu mild steel, semi articulated w / 3 - 4 lames. I decided not to have him do my legs because Mousey dug some up for me that seem to fit pretty well. Closer and closer to having a full kit. Go me.

Sunday was nice and peaceful so I was able to knock out of a couple sewing projects:

A linen pilgram bag for my lady.

A linen heraldic pillow.

Yes I am still trying to work through that full bolt of medium weight natural colored linen I bought for $2.50 a yard ages ago.

Heraldic Tabard

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:12:02 GMT

I have been quite busy and haven't posted in a while. However here is the most recent project I have completed:

This is the heraldic tabard based on several I found in HERALDRY: Sources, Symbols and Meaning by Ottfried with J. P. Brooke-Little Neubecker. Known to every herald I have talked to as simply "Neubecker" The fabric is linen but sadly the applique is done with a machine and the thread used is viscose :(. I was in too big a hurry to use a less strong natural thread. I believe I finished it in week. Nothing like waiting to the last minute.

I also finished the hand satin stitch of my gonfannon and started the split stitch embellishments. This is the project I show people and they say, "Nice, machine?" and of course I say "nope" at which point the conversation devolves into them calling me names like "Insane" :).

I have also been making progress on a silk standard that I am using a machine for the satin stich. With the camping season coming to close somehow I am working More on my projects.

Oh and if anyone knows of a nice used SCA fighting helmet with glancing surfaces instead of hit-attracting services please drop me a line. I am trying to get a set of armor together.

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:02:32 GMT

Managed to get more work done of the tabard. At Elfa's urging I made it a little larger than I had planned, but I think it still looks pretty close to the manuscript illustration if larger than the post-period ones. I have the peices cut and fit together and when I tried it on the first thing I thought was Bumblebee :). Now to start doing the applique.

On the non-SCA front, I managed to get the dog to sleep on her bed in our bedroom all night without being annoying! I have been trying to get her to sleep in the bedroom on and off for awhile now. Usually I pick some weekend night and see if she will settle down and sleep and it has never worked in the past. It did last night! Woo! Now I just have to train her to wake me up when the alarm goes off so I'm not tempted to Snooze into Work Tardiness...

Heraldic Tabard

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:35:50 GMT

I started work on the heradlic tabard for our Shire last night. Well started it if you count pre-washing the cloth... I ended up getting some softlinen to use for material. I couldn't find any sarsenet which is what Neubecker said the lowest ranked pursuivants' tabards were made from. All the silk had too many imperfections that would probably catch on everything. The yellow linen is a great heradlic color for mountain edge too. It isn't too light or dark.

I plan to throw together a pattern tonight based on some illustrations out of the Neubecker book. Hopefully having a period short tabard doesn't freak out too many people used to the longer "SCA traditional" herald tabard.

Illustration showing a heralds tabard. Probably made out of satin.

Here are couple is extent tabards. They are early post period. 1624 or something like that. It should give you an idea of the length I am talking about it. I could not find any research for long tabards worn by heralds except for when the tradition first began. Then the herald would be wearing the old worn out tournament tabard of the lord/knight/etc...

Kingdom Arts & Sciences

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:08:32 GMT

The Shire of Mountain Edge's bid for An Tir Kingdom Arts & Sciences was approved at July Coronation! This will be the first Kingdom level event our small but active shire will have ever sponsered. If anyone who reads my journal is interested in helping out with the planning stages or has some ideas on what might make this a great event please write me an email at elric@havene.org.

It will be held at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR on the first weekend in March. More details will follow.

Elric
Autocrat for KA&S AS 41

An Tir West War Event Report

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 16:09:40 GMT

Mileage: 612 miles
Fuel Cost: $132
Average Temp: 91°

Elfa and I attended An Tir West War and got back around 7:30 on Sunday. It was pretty sad that none of the old crew was there. Ursula and Derien were otherwise engaged. Gwynnin and Laura have left us for the East Coast. Thankfully one of my old friends has been getting into the SCA and has even gone so far as to buy himself a very nice French Bell. One of my other old friends has resurfaced and brought a friend of his that is very interested in fighting. Who knows maybe I will even start fighting with him :).

The event was made interesting because we supposed to have a reserved spot "Near" the An Tir royal encampment. When we got there we found out that "Near" actually meant "Smack in the Middle" Our pavilion was next to the An Tir throne hall and across the way from West throne hall. This meant we had ring side seats for both courts which was pretty fun, except for repeatedly telling one of the friends to shut up a lot during court.

It was a little too hot to do much besides find shade and chatting with people. On the whole it didn't seem worth the drive because of the heat - but hey - at least we were there!

Working on Over Lunch

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 20:04:10 GMT

Well I started going to Gold's Gym with "The Guys" over lunch today. Hopefully I can go at least 3 times a week and do some weight lifting. I'm looking forward to being pleasantly sore :).

Tonight hopefully I can talk The Vandy into helping me work on the family room floor. With both of us we can probably make some good progress!

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:00:27 GMT

Finally took pictures of my various embroidered designs. Here is the one of my wolfy badge

Elfa, your largess buttons are in flickr now too.