When I started down this whole apprentice path I was super focused on my pouches and purses and I’ve been missing it a bit lately. I can only blame myself since I’ve made a change to my overall persona and have been working on fleshing that out, my pouches have kinda fallen to the wayside. I’ll try to do the cliffnotes version of what I’ve been up to since my last post back in May.
I was asked to put together a Regional A&S faire for our Shire’s Crossroads event. Since I’ve taken over as A&S Minister for the Shire I have honestly enjoyed it far more than I had when I was Chatelaine. An A&S faire was another little challenge for myself. First and foremost I contacted the amazing Mistress Serafina, whom I look up to not just because she’s part of this household family, but because she’s an artisan whose research and documentation is SO GOOD she corrected a museum, which kinda blows my mind a bit. She also happens to be the Kingdom A&S Officer so she was the POI to get the faire on the calendar. It had been awhile since I had entered any sort of faire or competition (my first being a Stella Nova a couple of years back that was kind of a reality check with what I needed to do and be able to do for people to consider me seriously as an artisan). I managed to get a score of 16/20, which is pretty good for a first attempt all things considered, but I became aware of how lacking my documentation is, as well as my ability to write a paper around it. I was pretty pleased with how my girdle purse turned out, although I can already think of several things that needed to be addressed and corrected before I re-enter it in the future (Yes damn it, I’m gonna do it).
Back on track. As I was learning what went into organizing an A&S faire, I asked if I could enter as well. I was given a resounding YES! and I took that as a sign that I need to get off my apprentice butt and get to work. At first I thought about entering some of my jewelry, but I decided against it due to lack of documentation and what’s referred to as reverse documentation (writing it after the fact) so I decided to move forward with something a little more relevant to my new persona; 15th Century German Women’s Hair Accessories!! It’s a mouthful, I know 😉
Overall it was time and energy well spent. I had a variety of pieces to show, as well as show my progress from what started with some messing around with yarn from a craft store to an in progress set of more period appropriate materials. I even made an extra gefrens to wear with my complete German outfit (a horrible idea btw, in 90+ degree weather and almost as much humidity to boot). While I looked fabulous according to some of the attendees that day, I was wasting away from dehydration and had to leave the event. Lesson learned, I will never make that mistake again.
I ended up with an overall score of 18/20; my highest score yet. My first attempt at Stella Nova yielded me a score of 16/20, which is not bad all things considered. I can tell a huge difference in my documentation from that attempt to my current, which is the thing I struggle with the most. I mean, who doesn’t love to make cool new stuff? To be honest I’ve thought documentation was kind of boring at first, and felt that way during my girdle purse construction. Maybe it was just the subject this time around, but I enjoyed it far more than I did in the past.
Once I get a little further in my documentation I’ll upload my entry here. Here’s a sneak peek at my progress with my hair accessories. You can see how far I’ve come since I made my first gefrens. 🙂
Ta-da! Not a color I would wear personally, but it served its purpose for my experimentation.
And my entry 🙂 Look familiar?
detail from ‘Krönchenstechen’, after 1480, Housebook Master of castle Wolfegg, South Germany
I’m still debating if I want to add on the feather bit on the front. As best I can tell, I think it’s more appropriate for a much younger, single woman than on me (I touch on that subject in my documentation). There’s plenty of other fun hats and hair accessories I can make.