Two new little things

Just some five-minute jobs for little peices of hat-bling that I'd been getting around to doing:

First up is my cypher from the reign of Gabriel and Constanzia. I backed it in brass and filled in the background with (faux) enamel, and then rough sanded/polished to give a better finish.



Seccond is a Rowany Festival site token, which is just backed in brass, and cleaned up a bit.



They'll both get modern pins glued to the back of them once I go to the shop that sells 'em.

What I've been up to: A photo-post.

So, since moving into the new place, I have been doing a little more work, especially without the interents to distract me.

First up is a shirt. Here is is before the neckline was gathered:



And here it is, with the gathered neckline. It sits quite low on the shoulders. It was going to be smocked, but for some reason the selvage at the top started to fray, so I had to enclose it in a little piece of linen:



There are just the sleeve cuffs (hand), and the hem (machine) to sew. So almost finished.

I also dug out the head-wear for pixi, and re-assembled it. I figured out why I gave up on it for so long - the couched on pearls aren't staying put, and wobble about, and I got annoyed with them. So, I'll pick them off and re-do them and then it will be done (at last!):





Next up is some older brass stuff, which is an attempt at making a badge/pin for my hats. Most people wearing my kind of hat (the general black velvet/wool tudor thing that everyone wears) have a brooch or jewel on it. So I'm doing my heraldry. These ones aren't quite right, so I may need to etch the bits before enameling, or score in the lines with a knife. More on this when I get to making 'em. The one on the left is freehand painted and the right has the gold chevronelles cut out and superglued on, and then enameled in the middle bits;



And, been doing a little more design-y work on Baron Benedict's coronet (as started in my previous post). I'm really not sure I want to have sharp pointy bits at the peaks, as per my previous image, so I have a few ideas worked out on paper and cardboard. (Business cards are perfect for this!)



But what I like the look of most is the bottom image here;



for aesthetics, anyway. I'll talk to bene and see what he thinks. The wavy one seems to Riverhaven-y for my liking, and the sharp bits are an issue. In the bottom image, the top points would be pearls, obviously.

...

Last of all, some quick photos of my new place.

Lounge:



Kitchen:









Note that the outside is -way- better than it was - this time two weeks ago there were four or more dead cars here, and a -lot- of rubbish, animal byproducts/remains, and peices of construction materials. Junk, basically.



Bedroom:

Project backlog:

This is my backlog of half-done stuff that I should be working on before starting new stuff:

~The half-done circlet for pixi, which just needs an hour or two of finishing work.
~The U-shaped opening jerkin/bases, in red wool.
~Fixing up the velvet version of the above, which I purchased at Crown.
~Getting around to writing the new Chirurgeonate Policy.
~The "oh gods" sunshade.
~Fixing the hole in the gusset of one of my rus' shirts

The new stuff:

~more points and laces for my hose/doublets and a set for Essylt.
~a coronet for Benedict (In the style of 11thC Rus' ones like the ones from Novgorod - leather base with etched brass panels attached)
~leather lanterns like the ones Iarnulf made
~More hose/stockings
~A pouch for early 16thC use, probably in leather 'cause I have some laying about. (And I've wanted to give leather stitching a go for a while)
~pants that're passable for early 16thC
~researching medieval recreational drug use (I'm apparently doing a class next year at CF called "How to get high before 1600")
~Making brass belt bits for my woven heraldric belt.
~More silk banners.
~A gown from the pattern I purchased here
~Two doublets, which I have the fabric for (one in red velvet slashed with yellow silk as per my heraldry, one in brown velveteen)
~One or two more shirts for Festival, including the pleatwork one I'm working on now.
~Another hat or two, and another coif. Just because.

Project: A coronet

At St Caths 2009, Benedict was made a Baron of the Court of Lochac. I'd been wanting to do brass etching and jewellery stuff for a while, so this was a chance to work on something for him.

The general scope of the project is a basic level for me to learn new skills, and work on the ones I've already got. The coronet itself will be made of twelve brass plates, riveted to a leather base, which will be padded with wool and enclosed in silk. This is in the style of early Rus' head wear, which is definitely in use for women, but not definitively for men. The look will be of a fairly authentic piece, with the gender-anachronism. The etching, which will be of Benedict's device will be entirely anachronistic (AFAIK).

Mistress Sofya la Rus' of Calontir writes on her website;

"Banded [lentochnye] head-gear from plaques make up subtype 7. They are decorated with a number of plaques, plates. In burials they are found on the frontal bones of the skull (Kolchin)

In the Old-Russian treasure hoards are known the most luxurious models of this kind of attire. They consist of nine gold plates, seven of which are rectangular in form with a fin-shaped [kilevidnym] completion (in the form of "kiottsev") [literally, icon case], and two end plates of trapezoid form, which narrow to the outer ends. Between them the platelets were connected by threads, which penetrated holes on the sides of the plates. Head-gear was presented as a diadem with an ochel'e made from plates, which was tied on the back of the head by ribbon. They were decorated with enamel, pearls, and pendants, and they were included in the composition of ritual attire of the ancient-Russian princesses. (Kolchin)

A "koruna" [a different kind of hat] was a more complicated, richly adorned venchik (a general term?). The koruna was formed on a rigid base, covered with fabric (sometimes under the fabric was laid a bolster), and distinctively decorated. "

Therfor, with some ultra-quick image creation, I have this as a draft:



This is a headband/circlet I made in a similar style for Alison;



The next phase will be a cardboard mockup which I'll send up to Ildhafn for him to try on, and then the following stages:

~Purchase and cut the brass
~File off the sharp bits
~Etching
~Assembling onto the leather
~Stitching in the lining (which will have been riveted already)

Goal is to have this done by Midwinter Coronation.

More as I make it.