It Happens

Well, I am not going to be able to finish my project for the ACC.
I was unrealistic about my ambition and the scope of the embroidery.  Am bummed that I don't have a Fabio new dress to wear, but at the same time... I have to forgive myself sometime or I will spend an eternity looking for an invisible jet.
Pneumonia likes my lungs.  This makes me sad.
I failed another set of bloodwork - anemia, a1c outta whack, low blood count.  I think the DMV has officially revoked my lisence.
I keep telling myself that when you hit rock bottom, the only way you can go is "up".  Unfortunately, there is also sideways.
Time to count blessings: great kids, new boots,  job I love.  Now I'm smiling again.
:-D

And there were beads

Well, the faux pearls aren't a terrible addition.  They were the inexpensive alternative for a budget-driven decision.  Still under my $100 budget for the ACC.

back of veste

Embroidery is 95% complete on the back.  Now to add beads, then move on to a different project before i detest the sight of green fabric and gold thread.  I'm thinking i will deconstruct a camacia and reassemble it with a black silk insertion stitch.  Sounds like a challenge.

ACC Update

I'm about half way done with the embroidery on the Veste.  I doubt I will have time or desire to embroider the front guards.  I know, bad Laurel, shame on me.
Life is still chaos.  I may be moving to day shift as a result of the whirlwind of life crap my family has gone through.  Maybe, if the boss' boss' boss approves my request.  Have I mentioned my frustration at government beaurocracy and it's love-affair with paperwork?
Fencing is still fun.  I got to fight, actually fight instead of practicing parties and lunges and footwork.  I got my butt kicked, but giggled the whole time.  And I killed my Don!  Once, but I it!!  And from the surprise on his face, he didn't let me do it. 

ACC Progress

Embroidery takes a fearsome long time.  I've finished about 1/3 of the embroidery on the back of the veste.  That means I'm not quite done with half the embroidery just on this piece.  I am seriously doubting that I will get all the bits and pieces done before NYE.
I'm full of excuses why I haven't finished more yet, but excuses are like @$$holes, everyone has one and they all stink.
;-) 

Hit and Miss

I've felt like someone's emotional punching bag for the past two weeks.  I think I have exited the ring with grace and decorum.  I am trying to leave the bitterness behind and move on.
Swordplay has not been going well.  Seems I have become a petulant brat to my teacher.  He threatened to take Vilhelm's sword away and make me practice with his heavy, poorly balanced sword.  Did I mention I got REALLY whiney?
I went through my stash hoping for enough linen to make the shift.  BEEP.  No luck, unless I want to make it out of blue linen.  Raspberries.
I am almost done with my extra project at work so I can go back to a 40-hour workweek.  This 55+ hour weeks is total crap.

I suppose I should stop grumbling and get some sleep so I can do more embroidery tomorrow.
*sighs*

Needle in my Arm

Thorvald coined the phrase this weekend.  I have a new addiction & obsession.  I can't get enough of it.  I am hooked.  I constantly have sword play on the brain.  Every step I take is translating to advances or retreats, cross-overs and demi-voltes.  My head is aware of muscle extension and contraction, balance and reflex.  It's been twenty years since I've had this kind of awareness, and it's invigorating, empowering and exciting.
Don Sionainn had us put masks on this weekend, and started showing me how each move rolls into the next.  How a lunge, recover, party four attack flows into a demi-volte with offline attack.  I am giddy; setiously intoxicated with the whole learning process.
Sunday, Sionainn made me watch an episode of Firefly with my mask on, to get used to focusing beyond the black mesh, and to learn depth perception with a screen in front of my face.  It was a silly "Daniel-san, paint the fence, wax the car" activity, but it got me used to the mask before a sword came at my face.
Thorvald took me to Don Aaron's last night, and His Excellency agreed to make me a gorget fitted to me, so my windpipe doesn't get crushed when a head shot tips my mask and pulls Vilhelm's gorget into my throat.
And today, Don Tarkash agreed  to help me practice during the week.  I get to play with swords every day! 

I waited twenty years for the "right time" in my mundane and SCA life to have the opportunity to learn this art.
And the phrase "when the student is ready, the Master shall appear" is so true.  I have five masters who want to feed this addiction.  Five.  I am beyond flattered, and highly motivated to learn more.  It feeds my competitive nature, makes my doctor happy (I got my first "normal results" back from the lab in five years!). All around, in every facet of my life, things are improving.  Things that used to disappoint me or set me on edge have no influence on me.  They are *chuckle* outside my circle, and until my circle expands to include them, they have no control over my joie de vivre.

Gratitude, hope, elation and tiny bruises are my sustenance .  My hand becomes an extension of fluid steel.  Strength, poise and balance are my mantra.  I have found another happy place within the SCA.

As for the ACC, my fighting doublet will be a mock up for my Veste.  See, yet other example of how this joy intertwines itself into every face of my life.

Not Enough Hours in the Day

I pointed out to my husband today that picking up another SCA hobby is taking away from my embroidery time.  He chuckled at me and reminded me that *I* was the one who jumped on this new, shiny and active hobby and have been spending the past week or more obsessing over it.  I had a choice this afternoon.  I could add more sparkly gold thread to the next piece of my Veste or keep working on cleaning Don Vilhelm's sword so I can play with it.
Needless to say, the sword is gleaming clean and the embroidery never left the bag.
... I am a silly girl, infatuated with gleaming steel and long, leggy lunges.  I'm sure I can manage to squeeze in embroidery time between workouts and lessons and practice and maintenance of the gear I've been loaned.  Somehow I will find more hours in the day... Especially since the kids go back to school tomorrow.

ACC Veste Left Front

Embroidery finished on left front of Veste.  Going to have to replace pearls with faux pearls to stay under budget.  :-(
One picture with flash, the other without.

Progress Report

I've almost finished the embroidery and pearls on the left side front of the doublet/veste.  Problem is, I'm out of those 3mm rice pearls.  I also need to run some fabric over to the Beautiful Crystal and her generous Justin.
Next, I get to make some back-to-school clothes for my daughter.  Pink, skulls with bows and obnoxiously colored flowers.  Such is the joy of having a girly-girl for a daughter.

And there are flowers!

Rice pearls, seed beads and more pearls.

Participating, not Entering

I had a valid question asked of me today.  "Why are you entering your own challenge?  Isn't that kind of unfair?"
This is a totally valid question.  I am participating in the Challenge, but will not enter any of my projects in the scoring process.
I am participating because I believe I should not ask anyone to do anything that I am not willing to do myself.
And, this is also a fun way to keep up on what's going on with everyone else, and to be giddy with excitement at their progress.
It's SUPPOSED to be fun.  If it's not fun, change the game you're playing.  :-D

The Ensemble - the best laid plans of mice and (wo)men

Artemisian Costuming Challenge - Two Outfits

The First Outfit: Women's Clothing of the 1490's

The lady's clothing of this era began with her unmentionables.  Corsets were generally not worn during this time period, and the silhouette was achieved through boning in the dress.  A fine or rich lady would wear Brache or Calze.  Brache appear in inventory lists of the mid 16^th century.  "The drawers listed were made from elaborately gold-worked green velvet, and one is listed as being made from crimson silk taffeta."  (Landini 2004: 133).  Several of the extant brache have lace and embroidery embellishments.  Silk and gilt were consistently used to decorate the extant brache. The brache pictured are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.  It stands to reason a noble lady would wear drawers appropriate to her wealth and station.

 The camasia or camacia was worn over the corset and was made of as fine a linen as the lady could afford.  Bleached linen was worn by the upper class; it was considered a sign of a virtuous wife if she wore a crisp white camasia.  A woman's camisia was "made full length, to the floor. Sleeves were generally long, some were cut in raglan style" (Tortora 162). Embroidery was frequently done at the neckline and the wrist as a show of wealth and station.  Black and red were the most common colors used when embroidering the camasia, but other colors, including gold, were used.  (Landini 2005: 125).  The camasia pictured is from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A lady would also wear an underskirt with a stiffened hem to help provide the desired silhouette. The hem was often decorated with embroidery and a clipped (sometimes piped) edge.  The underskirt was frequently shown off by lifting or draping up the skirt of the dress.  This website, http://aneafiles.webs.com/renaissancegallery/doppia.html, has instructions that I'm going to try to follow for my petticoat.  I have some felted wool – it's beautiful except for the webbed backing glued onto it, so it's inappropriate for any place where it'll show, some black duck canvas and some lilac colored linen to make the skirt out of.

The lady would also wear knee-high stockings with a decorative garter below the knee.  http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/workbox/extwomacc1.htm.  I will probably use stockings I already own.  I plan to make new garters that are more delicate and feminine than a length of my husband's tablet-woven trim tied around my calf. 

Over the camasia is the gamurra which could also be called the camora, sottana, cotta, gamurrino, camora, zimarra, camurra, zottana, gonella or zupa.  The gamurra is the everyday dress of a lady, and she would wear it around her home.  The bodice of the gamurra is a tight-fitting, wrinkle free garment usually laced under the arms, but could be laced up the front. Typically, these bodices closed with a simple spiral lace cord known in period text as accordellata (Thompson). The skirt could be attached to the bodice with knife pleats, box pleats, or gathers, however, they do not seem to use cartridge pleats until after this period. The sleeves of the dress were laced onto the bodice with many ribbons that could either be displayed or hidden on or within the sleeve respectively. The camisia would be pulled thru the spaces left by the lacing and form attractive puffs, one of the reasons why the camisia sleeves were so much longer. The material of the sleeve could match the dress, or, more commonly, the sleeve would be of a contrasting color. There is very little difference between the gamurra and cotta, except that the cotta was generally a lighter, summer garment, made from silk or lightweight wool. Women would wear the gamurra with nothing over it only in the privacy of their homes. This composite of the frescoes of Domenico Ghirlandaio shows the styles of 1482-1490.

The layer worn for outerwear could be a giornea, mantello or cioppa.  The mantello is a length of cloth, like a cape, that could be worn over the hair, and was made from rich fabrics.  The giornea was a tabard-like garment without arms.  It usually had open sides and an opening down the front to display the fabulous gamurra.  Giornee were usually of very rich fabrics, such as ornate brocades and velvets.  The cioppa was a dress worn over the gamurra.  They are very similar in style to a houppelande and had very full skirts and often had slashed sleeves. 

The picture shows some of the materials I plan to use with this outfit.  The giornea will be made from chenille, and the gamurra from the pale gold silk.

The lady would adorn herself with simple jewelry: a string of coral or pearls at her neck, rings and possibly earrings.  She might wear a girdle belt or a prayer book.  Jewelry was limited by Florentine Sumptuary Laws, so it tended to be more simplistic. Her hair could be taped with bende, which were lengths of white linen or silk fabric intertwined into her hair.  She might also have strings of pearls, called frenello, woven into her braided coiffure.  I am playing with the idea of headgear like Bianca Sforza, with the lenza (black band across the forehead, sometimes decorated with fermaglio also called brochetta di testa (hair brooches)), trinzale (metallic cap) and coazzone (hair tube.)  This brochette is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is from the 15^th Century.

Second: Women's Clothing of the 1560's

The second outfit will be based off of the late period doublet-gowns, called veste, worn by the de Medici family, immortalized by artists such as Lavinia Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola and Allesandro Allori. The inspiration portrait (red and gold) is of a style similar to each of these artists.  Bella, from Realm of Venus, states:

"The colour image is from La Couturière Parisienne Costume and Fashion Site , according to which this is a portrait of an Unknown Lady by a follower of Tiziano (Vecellio). However, the identical (monochrome) image is also located at the Bildarchiv zur Kunst und Architektur in Deutschland, where it is listed as a portrait of Eleanora de Toledo by the school of Bronzino. Whatever the case, it is almost certainly a Florentine overgown. The style is very similar to others in portraits by Bronzino."

The veste, which is the doublet-like outer layer, will be made from a printed green corduroy that will be embroidered and pearled. The skirt will be made from coordinating solid corduroy. The skirt will be lined in coordinating green cotton, and the veste will be lined in silk or linen.   The baragoni, also called brodoni, are the large decorative puffs on the upper part of the sleeve.  The veste was especially fashionable in Florence, where the de Medici family was highly influential.

I am replacing the ruffled collar with an embroidered "de Medici" colletto,  also referred to as a gorgiero or coverciere, such as in the Allori portrait of Maria de Medici (blue dress).  

The main garment layer in Italian clothing is the cotta. My cotta will be made from a butter-gold silk dupioni. The sleeves will be white silk with gold bands grosgrain, and covered in silk gauze floating sleeves (as shown in both portraits) with pearl rosettes to tack it in place.

 For accessories, I hope to make a pair of pianelle, which are slipper-like footwear without heels, or a pair of scapini which are flat shoes.   

I will make a new girdle belt, a new strand of pearl beads, and drop earrings. 

I plan to make a saccoccia, which is a pocket-like teardrop or oval shaped purse that is tied to the waist, a belt or to the stays.  The saccoccia will be embroidered on the front.  If I can figure out how to do it, I might incorporate leather tooling in heraldic design on the saccoccia.  The saccoccia here is Spanish, and from Museo den Traje, Spain.

I plan to make a pair of embroidered leather gloves because I have always wanted a fancy pair of my own.  My preferred leather is kid skin or alum-tanned doe suede.  I will be happy with a period-correct leather that is affordable to my budget.  I might save this project for another time, as Italian gauntlets did not have the fancy embroidery that English gauntlets did (and I want bling!).

 Time permitting, I want to make a copricalla and a black velvet bonnet.  The copricalla would be made from this opulent brown velvet I received in trade for some silk.  I could repeat the pearl-and-cabochon from my cinture on the hat band, add a fabulous pearl or amber pin, and a few feathers for fun.

 It would tickle me pink if I had time to make a customized prayer book, filled with my favorite phrases from da Vinci, Petrarch, Machiavelli and other brilliant Italians. 

Garments & Accessories:

Drawers: linen or velvet

Camasia: linen with black silk & possibly pulled thread

Sottana/Cotta: gold silk lined in linen/cotton blend

Gamurra: Chenille brocade

Veste: Green corduroy lined in silk or linen, embellished with gold thread and pearls

Skirt: Green corduroy lined in cotton

Baragoni: Green corduroy and silk with gold thread and pearls

Colletto: linen

Doppia: the underskirt; felted wool, canvas and

Time and funds permitting:

Calze: Stockings, from linen with embroidery

Saccoccia: Leather and linen, possibly tooled leather

Gloves: Leather and silk

Scapini or Pianelle: Leather and Velvet

Bonnet: Velvet

Copricalla: brown velvet

Cinture, trinzale & brochetta di testa: jewelry, primarily gold, acrylic cabochons and pearls

Coazzone: silk

Accordellata: lucet

Trinzale: gold thread with pearls

Ventuolo: Fan of silk & wood, might make a feather fan instead

Prayer Book with illumination and calligraphy, possibly bound

REFERENCES
Arnold, Janet (1985), "Patterns of Fashion 1560-1620", MacMillan, London
Arnold, Janet (2008), "Patterns of Fashion: Shirts, smocks, neckwear, headwear and accessories 1540-1660", MacMillan
Campbell, Lorne (1990), "Renaissance Portraits", Yale University Press, New Haven & London
Cox-Rearick, Janet (1993), "Bronzino's Chapel of Eleonora in the Palazzo Vecchio", University of California Press, Berkeley
dal Poggetto, Paolo (editor) (2004), "I della Rovere, Piero della Francesco, Raffaello, TIziano", Electa publishing
Eisenbichler, Konrad (red) (2004), "The Cultural World of Eleonora di Toledo, Ducess of Florence and Siena", Ashgate
Köhler, Carl (1963), "A History of Costume", Dover Publications
Landini, Roberta Orsi and Bruna Niccoli (2004), "Moda a Firenze, Lo stile di Eleonora di Toledo e sua influenza", Pagliai Polistampa, Florence
Monnas, Lisa (2008), "Merchants, Princes and Painters"
Pope-Hennessy, John (1985), "Cellini", Abbeville Press
Steele, Valerie (2001), "The Corset. A cultural history", Yale University Press, New Haven & London
Welch, Evelyn (2005), "Shopping in the Renaissance, Consumer Cultures in Italy 1400-1600"

http://www.aneafiles.webs.com/index.htm

http://renaissanceitaly.net/

http://mositampa.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

All that glitters

I purchased some green patterned corduroy over a decade ago.  My plan has always been to make a De Medici doublet dress out of it.
So, Saturday at Sean's Ludus Magnus, I started the goldwork.  The entire vine pattern (I'm pretending it's acanthus) will be outlined in gold.  I am using gold foil (real metal, has silver and gold in the metal foil, which is wrapped around a silk core) to do a surface couching around the biggest leaves, stem stitch on the smaller leaves and Ceylon stitch on the bigger stems.
The effect, I think, is dazzling.

Beginning

This becomes another one of those "Anything I ask you to do, I should be willing to do the same."  So, here it is, My Blog.