My Own Grandpa

A Sonnet For The Missus

2009-12-06T21:12:44Z

I was feeling kind of bad that I had written sonnets for foreign queens but not for my wife, so when I heard about the Poet Laureate competition that was going to be held at Magna Faire, I figured that it would be a nice opportunity to make up for it. I didn't really expect to win; I just wanted the captive audience. Whoops. Anyway, here's what I wrote:

Knight-Slayer

Twelve years have gone since first I saw that maid
Who went to war with shield and spear in hand.
In shining mail and sturdy helm arrayed
She strode upon the field to make her stand.

Two knights came forth to test the lady's skill
And each in turn soon found himself no match
For flashing steel and stalwart iron will
That saw them both upon the ground dispatched.

I came to her bare-headed and disarmed
To signal my defeat on bended knee
Submitting to the dark-eyed beauty's charms
And asking only that she dance with me.

She took my hand and laid her own heart bare
And thus began this endless dance we share.

Magna Faire

2009-12-06T21:05:08Z

So we went to Magna Faire this weekend, and it was big fun. Camp Grandma wasn't available this time, so we ended up taking the boy with us For a 2-year-old, he was very well behaved, though he was still a handful.

There was a fairly large contingent of the South Downs artsy crowd that piled into cars and came out for the event. happygoth made a good showing with her first A&S entry, her first attempt at Persian bookbinding. adelavanbrugge entered my Laurel scroll and greetpg's Meridian Cross scroll and got good marks on both. She also won the fine arts category of the Magna Faire. Mistress Jadi performed in the Dance Champion competition along with several other excellent Middle Eastern dancers, and won the accolade. I entered the Poet Laureate competition on a lark and accidentally won. More on that later.

I got to attend my first Laurel meeting, and I brought two loaves of cinnamon bread as my new-guy-brings-the-food contribution. I got there late, as a few of us were tied up judging the performing arts entry, so nobody actually ate any of the bread during the meeting. I spent the rest of the afternoon with it tucked inside my coat, offering samples to everyone I thought looked hungry. It was super tasty, and all gone by this morning.

The field test of the Flemish peasant outfit was a complete success. Since the weather forecast was a bit grim (and we did have snow Friday night and Saturday morning), I brought the failed wool hose that I had cut down to knee socks and wore those over my blue hose. My legs stayed quite toasty all day. The hose themselves were incredibly comfy and I had no problem with range of motion whatsoever. I'm looking forward to getting started on the fancy Italian version once I get a couple of other sewing obligations taken care of.

Feast was tasty, dancing was fun (if very late), and on the whole I had a great time.

After Action Report

2009-11-29T11:12:42Z

A few notes on the recent gaming sessions, for those who might be interested but mostly for my records:

Character creation was a little bumpy, but not too bad considering none of us had looked in the books before. Judging by the role descriptions, I decided that the necessary things to have in a 2-person party were a defender and a striker. D waffled on her choices a bit, and then decided on an Eladrin Fighter. Fighters are generally easy, so I was down with that. We decided to make adelavanbrugge a Tiefling Warlock to fill the striker role.

The Fighter (Ella) is a high-Dex flail-wielding type, though weapon choice doesn't make a big difference at this point. Daesa the Warlock has a high Cha and Fey Pact, which seems to be working out as well as advertised.

I decided that the two already knew each other to make things easier, and live in a city on the outskirts of The Great Forest, full of Fey goodness. They have connections to the Eladrin community in the city, and were summoned by one of the elders to find a Ranger who was two days overdue returning from his 3-day patrol. They set off and immediately showed why this was usually a job for a Ranger. They wandered around in the woods (despite having a map of exactly where they should be going) and eventually I decided that if I wanted the story to progress I'd have to have pity on them. I had the Ranger's squirrel animal companion show up at the abandoned camp they'd found and pull a Lassie.

They followed the squirrel to a small stream which led into a valley. There they ran into their first encounter: a pack of 8 giant rats surrounding a gnawed corpse. I figured that it should be an even fight, and they're minions, so how hard can they be? There were accusations of cursed dice, an almost-TPK, and a bit of fudging to keep them alive, but they managed to pull through. Many rules were manhandled during this encounter as we learned how they worked. Still, they managed to survive and retreated back to the camp as they heard a "yip yip" coming from the end of the valley.

After spending a few healing surges getting back on their feet, they returned to the valley. The rat bodies and mysterious corpse were gone, and they saw evidence that it had been dragged further up the valley. They explored further and found a massive stone entryway set into the hillside at the end of the valley. An open doorway lurked in the shadows. They were not as stealthy as they'd hoped, and they heard a "yip yip" that almost sounded like a bird call from the bushes above the entrance. Two kobold skirmishers came out of the doorway and the fight was on.

Ella decided to make for the high ground at the side of the valley, while Daesa went straight in and started cursing the skirmishers. She used her Eyebite on one and it lost track of her, deciding to charge Ella instead. Trying to use standard group tactics, his partner followed, leaving the Warlock in the clear. At this point the hiding kobold slinger appeared on top of the entrance and started chucking rocks at her. The rest of the fight mostly turned into a ranged duel between Daesa and the slinger and a contest to keep the high ground for Ella and her two suitors.

The choice to climb the hill had initially seemed like uncharacteristic cowardice, but in the end it kept the two skirmishers from being able to flank Ella as they kept failing their climb checks to shift uphill into position. Ella took out one of the skirmishers, then fell as Daesa prevailed over the slinger. The Warlock made short work of the remaining slinger and they retreated to the camp once more to rest for the night after looting the bodies of the Ranger's pouch of gold and a shiny amulet.

This was the end of Friday's session, and I now saw a desperate need for healing. There was no time to take a Second Wind, and they just kept getting nibbled down to nothing. When they woke in the morning they found Findal, the Elven Cleric, who had been sent from the city to check on them. They filled him in on their progress, and he was concerned by their report of the mysterious corpse. The three companions returned to the valley to explore further.

After lighting torches , they entered the gloomy stone doorway, went down a short hallway, and came to a foyer with two pairs of columns and carvings on the walls. As they entered the room, Ella (who was in the lead), fell into a pit trap they had been unable to detect. She climbed out and, while they looked for more traps, they didn't see any. Based on the layout of the room, though, they had suspicions that there might be a second pit between the other two columns. With some experimentation, they managed to trigger it as well. Meanwhile someone who was not the highly trained Cleric realized that this was an ancient Elven tomb that had been forgotten for a millennium.

Moving on from the pit room, they came to a large square chamber with a mosaic floor and dry holy water basins in the corners. One corner of the room had collapsed into a large pile of dirt and rubble. Alerted by the noise of the traps, four giant rats and a dire rat were ready for the adventurers. With three people and one of them a healer, they made fairly short work of these rats. Ella got bitten by the dire rat, but assistance from Findal helped her fight off the disease it carried.

Continuing on from the collapsed room, they came to a final large room with six massive columns and a sealed door at the end. Ella managed to notice a kobold hiding behind one of the pillars and whispered a warning back to her friends before making her way into the room. Heading to her left, she ran into another kobold and scared him so much he fell down (botched on his readied attack).

The room was defended by four kobold minions, a skirmisher, and a blue dragon wrympriest with a wand +2 (I like to have my baddies use their treasure when I can). This was a nice tough fight, and we learned a lot about cover and flanking. The party wisely stayed near the door at the beginning, and it was the first time that I was forced to remember that ranged attacks provoke attacks of opportunity. This changed the dynamics a lot. Eventualy I had the minions pull back and try to draw the PCs out to where they could be flanked, but only the Fighter (as she should) took the bait. The others made use of their mobility and healing to whittle away at the larger foes.

After Findal ran out of healing and only the skirmisher had been taken down, the big guns came out. Findal and Daesa came around behind the wyrmpriest and hit him with a double team of Avenging Flames and Curse of the Dark Dream, which reduced him to a mindless, flaming husk. They managed to clean up the minions and emerged victorious. This was the first fight that I really felt was balanced well. They claimed some treasure and Daesa appropriated the wyrmpriest's wand. They also identified the slinger's amulet as an Amulet of Health +1, which went to Ella.

The sealed door at the far side of the room was heavily carved with scenes of battle, and was surrounded by a crude shrine built by the kobolds. Findal studied it for a while and determined that there was some dark energy on the other side that the wyrmpriest was trying to access. He discovered a way that he could use his divine power to open the door when the others were ready (they were each only down 2 healing surges and al their daily powers). This was the end of the Saturday session.

As much as they smack of WoW, I really like the combat roles, both on the PC and monster side. It makes it easier to work as an effective team, at the expense of the flexibility and creativity I'm used to from previous editions. It also makes it easy to cook up an interesting group of bad guys, even at 1st level. D stayed focused much better this time than last time, and never missed a beat with all the math.

Impulse Buying

2009-11-28T00:00:43Z

So this morning D inquired about playing D&D again (though she referred to it as "the game with the little clay people on the grid"). After some waffling, I ended up going to town to finally shell out for the 4th edition books. It's not the game I grew up on, but considering the amount of time I actually foresee having to play, a more streamlined, casual game is really more of what I need. I managed to con adelavanbrugge into playing with us, and I was impressed by how capable even 1st level characters are in this version. They still almost died in both their encounters, but that's just how it is at 1st level, especially when you only have two people in your party. We'll see how things progress from here.

Food Report

2009-11-26T22:06:56Z

Okay, before I forget it all and/or fall asleep:

This year's Thanksgiving feast:

turkey
gravy
mashed potatoes
homemade egg noodles
sweet potato casserole
green bean casserole
Grandma Pung's dressing (with ground turkey and shiitake mushrooms)
canned cranberry jelly
orange Jell-O
Pillsbury crescent rolls
deviled eggs
apple pie
chocolate pecan pie (bought)

The turkey was the one adelavanbrugge gets every year from work. I got up under the skin and arranged most of a stick of butter on the breast, along with "Complete Seasoning" that went under the skin and all over the rest of the outside. I preheated the oven to 325°. The turkey started out upside down on top of a canning rack in a large casserole dish, then covered it with foil. It cooked for 3 hours upside down, then I uncovered it and turned it right side up to brown. I put in the meat thermometer since the little pop-up timer had suffered enough trauma that I didn't trust it (and indeed it never popped). Once it got to 165° I pulled it out and let it rest while we finished side dishes.

The upside down method resulted in very juicy white meat, and the browned skin reportedly tasted like bacon. It is by far the best turkey I've done yet. I look forward to lots of sandwiches. :) The drippings also made excellent gravy, which I stretched by making it with half drippings and half milk. No extra seasoning was required.

Insomnia Project

2009-11-24T10:09:44Z

I went to bed early last night (before 8:00), and for some reason woke up at 1:30. I tried to go back to sleep but my brain was on and would not shut off. One of the things it was thinking about was the Laurel "medallion" I wanted to make for Magna Faire. I plan to wear the current iteration of my Brueghel peasant outfit, so neither the big blingy medallion or the tiny pendant with the drop pearl were really appropriate. Instead, I decided to make a simple cloth patch to pin/sew to my hat or coat. This would involve embroidery, which I haven't done in so long that I honestly can't remember. I only know a few stitches, so I used the ones that I thought were the most fun. The stems of the wreath are chain stitch, and the rest is all split stitch (except for a couple of leaves where I was experimenting). The wreath is 3 strands of cotton DMC floss, and the monogram is 6. I lined the back side and top stitched the edge with linen thread. The whole thing is about 2" in diameter. It was kind of fun, but I still don't see any big needlework projects in my future.

Weekend, Part 1

2009-11-22T12:11:03Z

It's been a productive weekend so far, and it's not done yet!

Friday morning, I made up a double batch of bread dough with a little added sugar, olive oil, and a lot of garlic. At lunchtime we went to D's school for a tasty Thanksgiving feast, and then brought her home with us. In the evening, I made half the dough into bagels and the other half into a standard round loaf. The bagels (half boiled in plain water, the other half in water with a couple tablespoons of baking soda) were largely disastrous. I think I need to pay closer attention to the boiling time and/or alter the baking time for the addition of the oil. Either way, the bagels were waterlogged to varying degrees and I don't expect anyone but me to be made to eat them. The round loaf seemed to turn out fine, though olive oil alone is not a sufficient lubricant for easy release. I freed the sides of the loaf from the pan with a knife, but had to wait until condensation softened the bottom crust enough for the rest of the loaf to come out. It did turn out intact eventually, though. I sent it with adelavanbrugge to Castle Wars, so I don't know yet if it was any good.

On Saturday I went up to Lawrenceville to help my apprentice sister Larkke drape a cotehardie pattern while her brave husband watched all four of our kids. Serafina wanted to help with the patterning, so I had her do the work while I directed because I am a vicious taskmaster. The pattern seemed to turn out fine, though of course we won't know for sure until the thing is finished. Once the pattern was done we cut out the body panels and gores out of a nice drapey black linen, plus a lining of heavy white linen that goes down to just below the hips. By the time we finished, the linings were installed in two of the body panels and it was very close to being ready for construction. It still needs a chemise, but that should be easy enough to pattern.

Bagel Experiment

2009-11-13T15:45:14Z

I was originally planning to make a batch of rolls for alasais's party tomorrow, and another batch for adelavanbrugge's company holiday feed today, but then I realized that my paltry pan of rolls wasn't going to make a dent in the factory full of hungry people. That left me with a spare batch of dough (I made a double batch of the usual bread dough) to play with. I decided to try making bagels. So far it seems to have produced a bagel-like product, if not a stunningly attractive one. They're cooling now...

Just a bit of crunchiness in the crust, soft and chewy inside, and I wish that I'd put garlic salt on more of them now. Om nom nom, as the kids say these days.

Like A Glove

2009-11-13T01:12:23Z

I finished the eyelets on the Flemish peasant doublet last night, so all it needs now is sleeves. I just cut some leather points and tied the doublet and hose together to see how everything fits. It's so comfy! I have plenty of range of motion, no reported baggy butt, and no obvious stress points yet. I need to move the codpiece eyelets about an inch and a half inward, but other than that everything seems to be a go. I'll get pictures once I fix the codpiece, put sleeves on the doublet, and repurpose one of my old 15c shirts. Barring catastrophe, I should have it all ready to go well before Magna Faire.

More Pictures From MGT

2009-11-06T11:30:08Z

Flannait posted her excellent pictures from MGT here. I grabbed the pictures of my elevation and put them over here. There are also some pictures with proof that I own armor!

Silver Hammer Pictures

2009-11-03T09:25:29Z

I didn't get many pictures, but here they are for your enjoyment anyway:

Mistress Rosemounde with her dog

Me playing hand puppet after finishing the seams on my codpiece

Extant Penner

2009-11-02T19:04:00Z

Many thanks to scribeo for digging up this gem, hidden in the very obscure V&A. ;) I particularly like the way the molding of the leather between the loops looks very much like they were held open with a round stick when it was formed. I am more hopeful.

Weekend Report

2009-11-01T23:54:56Z

Serafina and I went up to Silver Hammer this weekend. The weather was alternately wet and cold, but aside from that it was as lovely an event as I've come to expect from Thor's Mountain. I taught a dance class in the afternoon, which was well attended, and ran the ball in the evening. I was happy to see a wide variety of folks come out on the dance floor, and was quite impressed by some of the footwork I saw. In between the two bouts of dancing was the feast, which was excellent and tasty, not to mention promptly delivered.

I started the weekend by going to a step class at the gym with adelavanbrugge and getting a new membership. Between that and all the dancing I'm worn down to the bone, but hopefully repeated attendance will improve things. For now I am tired and need to get to bed early.

Hose Progress

2009-10-30T02:46:26Z

I finished putting the codpiece together tonight. The pattern was largely built of guesswork and hope, since there was no way to really know how it would fit until the whole thing was built and attached. The seams are only basted together, but it all seems to work and is quite comfortable. It's a bit bigger than strictly necessary, but not out of line with period examples. Pictures of the hose with codpiece installed below the cut.

Codpiece Pieces

2009-10-29T10:18:17Z

I started on what I'm calling the "birdnester codpiece" last night. I'm building it out of one layer of heavy wool blend for sturdiness, one layer of squishy fulled wool for smoothnes, and a layer of the blue linen to cover it all. There are four pieces total: two in the center for the crotch and the front of the codpiece, and two for the sides. You can see some of them in various stages of construction here. After taking this picture, I noticed that I had made two left sides for my codpiece. This will be remedied. :)

Won Ton Helper

2009-10-28T02:23:51Z

On Saturday, I had leftover filling from the char siu bao, so I made won ton soup. The won ton wrappers were basically just egg noodle, so I recruited D to help me make them. She cranked the pasta maker and helped me seal up the won tons. She didn't eat any, of course, aside from a piece of raw noodle dough.

Codpiece Research

2009-10-27T13:36:02Z

I stayed up late again last night working on the feet of my hose. I took the legs in at the heel a bit and attached the tops of the feet. The entire edge of both feet is finished and ready to attach the soles. Once the feet are done I'll start working on patterning the codpiece. I may mock up the doublet body first so I can see how the hose work when tied up.

I want to use these hose for both early 16c Italian upper class clothes and later 16c northern European peasant clothes (e.g. Bruegel and Beham peasants), so I'll be looking at both sources for details. A lot of these will look familiar, as I've linked to them before.

The Peasant and the Birdnester - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1568

This one is a jackpot right off the bat. The seams on the codpiece show a multi-piece construction very different from the one-piece vestigial codpieces found on trunk hose. It also has triangular flaps to hold it up, which makes me happy. This is also an interesting example of what appears to be a drinking vessel suspended from the belt.

The Fight Between Carnival and Lent (detail) - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1559

Totally unrelated, but this shows some nice masks.

Wedding Dance in the Open Air (detail) - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566

More codpiece shape, though not as much seam detail. I'm not going to go as long and pointy as the piper's, but that's an interesting data point.

The Land of Cockaigne (detail) - Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1567

Some nice attachment detail here.

The Miracle of the Newborn Child - Titian, 1511

Kind of hard to see what's going on here, but the basic shape of the yellow codpiece seems similar to the Bruegel ones, if a bit less pronounced. Still has the little flaps at the top to attach it, though it looks like it may have a less complex construction.

Scenes from the Story of Joseph: The Search for the Cup (detail), Bacchiacca, 1515-1516

The Martyrdom of St. Catherine, Jan Provost, 1520s (before 1529)

A strangely enormous and high codpiece with a clear front seam, and lots of lacing details at the waist. I don't know how much I trust this one for construction, though.

Christ and the Adulteress, Titian, 1508-10

Some detail on the codpiece, but not as much as I'd like.

So, from a cursory look, it seems that the codpieces of early 16c Italian and later 16c Flemish peasant hose are strikingly similar. I think this is justification enough to try the "birdnester" construction method, which I think will make the best looking and most comfortable shape.

Hose Progress

2009-10-26T03:25:12Z

So, when last we left the story, I had built a short foundation for my full hose. I tweaked that until it fit better, then took it apart and adjusted my pattern to match it. Or so I thought. I cut two legs from the lovely stretchy Pennsic linen and did my best to match it up with the green linen foundation. Nothing really matched up right, so I just made it fit as best I could and basted things together, letting the extra flop around until I was sure what needed to be cut away. I sewed everything up and tried them on.

Of course, it didn't fit right.

I pushed and pulled and tested and figured out that the main problem was that the crotch was cut too low. I drafted an addition, made up a couple of lined pieces in that shape, and stuck them in. Putting the hose on again, I found that the fit was much improved. There are a couple more seams now, but those will be gone on future versions. The waistline was too high in back, but that would also be easy to fix. I looked in the mirror and... my butt was lumpy. It turns out that the foundation that I'd spent so much time making and matching up completely ruined the stretch of the linen in the back. I cut out big chunks of it and what was left at the seams was still making them look atrocious. I knew I'd have to take those seams apart and cut out the rest of the foundation. This destroyed my momentum and I didn't work on them for several days.

Tonight I finally picked the hose up again and started tearing them apart. Again. I cut out most of the foundation, leaving only reinforcing strips at the waist and center front, and in some sections through the crotch that don't affect the look of things. I put it all back together and saw that the rear seams were better, but still needed some adjustment to lay flat. I marked and nudged and adjusted for a while, until my butt was declared free of lumps.

I took apart the min seams once more, and laid one leg out on my pattern to mark the final shape. Back together again (machining the major seams), and I started flat felling and binding everything. I slipped into the meditative trance of hand sewing for a few hours and got everything squared away. Many of the seams have raw edges inside, though they are flat felled and cut on the bias, so I'm hoping they won't fray too badly. All that's left to do is one pair of eyelets at the front, eyelets at the waist, adding the feet and figuring out the codpiece. Hopefully all will go smoothly, but you never know.

Danelaw

2009-10-25T18:28:08Z

I was feeling well enough to head out to Danelaw yesterday at about 11. I unloaded into the little single-bed cabin behind the hall, changed clothes, and schmoozed for a few hours. Then Mariona and I taught a small dance class, which went pretty well. Court was mostly awesome, with old friends getting well deserved awards, and only a tad melancholy as Their Excellencies Bryn Madoc announced that they would be stepping down while things were on a positive note. The feast was tasty and well run, especially for a first time head cook with recalcitrant ovens, and the young faces in the kitchen crew reminded me of the way things were back in my college days.

After feast I attended the beginning of the memorial symbel for Master Dylan, then excused myself to start the revel. Dancing was energetic and fun, if not massively attended. I was very pleased to see a number of new faces with a lot of talent. Hopefully I'll see them out dancing again soon. I crashed a little before midnight (I think), woke up around 5, packed up and drove home to finish sleeping under the electric blanket. All in all, a good event.

Last Baking For The Day

2009-10-24T00:48:26Z

This is the last baking entry from me today, I swear.

So, it turns out that adding sugar makes the bread rise faster. This was not much of a surprise to me. About 7 hours after I put the dough together, it was all big and bubbly and I figured I may as well get to work making stuff.

Backing up a little, I got the pork chops out of the fridge, that were defrosting from having been in the freezer. I pulled out the first one and looked for the bone I'd need to cut out to make it into stir fry. No bone. Weird. That was when I realized that I did not have prok chops, but in fact had pulled out half a Boston Butt. Since what I really wanted to make was char siu anyway, I did a little happy dance.

Now, when I was growing up, Mom made char siu the way he'd been taught by my dad's mom, which was low and slow. There are a lot of different techniques out there, including a faster, higher heat broiling technique that she has been using to good effect lately. I was too impatient even for that, so I went for the ultimate heresy: the George Foreman grill. I cut the meat into 1/2" - 3/4" slabs for quick cooking and marinated it for a while (soy sauce, sherry, sugar, frozen garlic, fresh sliced ginger, five spice, hoisin sauce) while I was playing with bread.

Back to the bread. I pinched off half the dough and stretched it out into a long rectangle on a floured cutting board. I wasn't sure how much butter I would need, so I melted a whole stick. I mixed about 1/2 c. sugar and 2 T cinnamon and went to town. I spread out as much butter as I could without it dripping off the edges, then sprinkled on the sugar and cinnamon. There were some dry spots, so I poured on some more butter, which allowed me to add more cinnamon, and so on and so forth until I forced myself to stop the death spiral. I put on some of the big fat fancy raisins, rolled it up, and chucked it in the sprayed loaf pan to rise some more.

Now that I had a clear spot of counter, I set up the grill and started cooking the pork in batches. It seemed to cook through quite nicely, and each successive batch was browner as more sugary marinade cooked onto the surfaces of the grill. After I put the last batch on the grill, I poured the leftover marinade in a pan, got it hot, and thickened it with some cornstarch. The sauce went back over the cooked pork.

Grandma may be turning in her grave, but dang if that wasn't the highest flavor-to-work ratio I've ever achieved.

I took out a few likely looking pieces of pork and chunked them up, along with a couple of green onions (sadly, I found no water chestnuts in the pantry). I also used up the last of the frozen shrimp, which I cooked quickly in a pan with little fanfare. All of this I put in the mini food processor chopper thing and buzzed it into tiny bits. A little of the char siu sauce and the bao filling was ready to go.

Somewhere in here I put the covered loaf pan in the oven at 375° for 25 minutes, then another 25 minutes uncovered. More on that later.

I laid out a sheet of waxed paper and started filling bao. I ended up making 18, 14 of which went in the steamer and the last four I put on a pizza stone and baked after taking the raisin bread out. Both varieties turned out well, though of course I'm always more partial to the steamed ones. They're very chewy, perhaps too much so, but that's probably because I was using bread flour. Next time I can use AP flour, but they're still good enough that I'll eat every darn one.

So when I checked in on the raisin bread, the top was nice and brown and it was surrounded by bubbling sugary goo all around the edges. I was expecting a total mess when I turned it out, so I arranged a cooling rack and foil to catch it all. As it turned out, the goo was only at the very top of the pan, and there was very little mess. The goo was tasty, but hot like lava. Ask me how I know. The whole shebang is wrapped loosely in foil now to be tested in the morning because I'm too darn full now.

More Bread Experiments

2009-10-23T14:17:13Z

I was home sick yesterday, so of course I did the natural thing and made up a batch of bread (I also made egg noodles for soup, but nothing exciting there). This time I changed things up by using milk instead of water. It took longer to rise because it was colder in the house (it ended up going about 24 hours total), but it got there eventually. I baked it at 400° for 30 minutes covered and 20 minutes uncovered. It came out nice and brown, with a chewy crust and yummy soft middle. I'm not sure if the softer crust was a result of the shorter baking time or the milk or both, but I like it. The previous loaves had really hard crusts right out of the oven, though they softened after being bagged for a while. All in all, this was a successful experiment, and I'm seriously contemplating whipping up another batch to make cinnamon raisin bread out of tomorrow...

UPDATE: I made up another batch of dough using the same recipe with the addition of 1/4 c. sugar. Half of this will go into a loaf pan as cinnamon raisin bread, and the other half will be made into steamed bao. Stay tuned for further developments.

Paging The LJ Hive Mind

2009-10-15T10:43:17Z

From Scribal Tools

The second iteration of the penner is technically successful, but still not quite the look I'm after. This time I used 8 oz. (I think) cowhide left over from back when I used to make armor. It hardened beautifully, though I had issues getting the skewers into the loops to hold them in place. That problem can be avoided with a simple change to technique, but I'm still not happy with the look of the loops themselves.

Some reference images:
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7000102.JPG
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/netherlandish-a-girl-writing
http://www.wga.hu/art/g/ghirland/domenico/3fresco/1jerome1.jpg

So the problem is that I want the loops to stand out and be round, separate shapes from the body of the penner. Right now they're still just sort of bulges. I figure there are several possibilities:

1) My leather is too thick. Thinner leather may be easier to shape.
2) My technique needs work. I may need more tools or forms to stretch the leather the way I want. Also, the loops may be sewn into shape.
3) The loops are actually separate from the body of the penner. There are definitely instances where this does not appear to be the case, but it's a possibility.

Any suggestions from people with leather shaping experience?

Also, I'm looking for a source for the ink bottle (see above pictures). I haven't been able to find anything ready-made yet that doesn't require alteration or addition. I've contemplated vintage cone ink bottles that I could add a harness to, but I'd rather have something that's exactly what I want. I don't have the pottery skills to so it myself, but I imagine someone out in the world is making (or can make) these things.

A Fine Book

2009-10-14T23:00:10Z

I was given several gifts by my friends as I contemplated my pending elevation: a pile of black velvet, a 13th century Venetian grosso, and several other fine things, but the one that stood out among them was a hand bound book made by the lovely Margavati (aka happygoth). Those of you who have been here for a while may remember my forays into book binding, so I know how much work went into this piece (which is far nicer than anything I've made, to be sure). There are more pictures and construction details on her blog.

I now know how everyone else felt when I presented them with a blank book and asked them to fill it. I'm not entirely sure what I should put on these pages. The first few pages contain well wishes from people who came to the vigil. I think I'll use the next section to document the next few revels that I run. After that, who knows?

The Penner

2009-10-11T16:27:34Z

From Scribal Tools

So, a little more detail about the penner I mentioned in the last post. There are a number of different types of penner and inkhorn sets seen in period artwork. I decided to go with the tube-shaped style, made of leather.

I experimented with hardening various types of leather that I had on hand, using hot and/or boiling water. None of them hardened as well as I've seen happen with other leathers, but they all at least shrank and firmed up a little. The undyed elk hide (which is very soft and stretchy in its natural state) seemed to work the best for what I was trying to do, so I decided to start with that. I wanted the overall shape to be slightly tapered, so I got an oak chair leg from Lowe's and cut it down to approximately the right length. I sewed a tapered tube of leather loosely around the wooden form and chucked it into boiling water for a few minutes. It shrank down nicely around the form, and held its shape well one I took it off. It's not exactly rigid, but it's good enough to protect the contents from minor bumps and drops.

Around the elk hide I sewed another layer of thin burgundy leather, which I didn't harden at all, since I didn't want it to shrink. All of this was repeated with the lid. The cords are passed through slits in the outer layer of leather. I had to take the outer shell of burgundy leather off after it was sewn, make the slits, and then wrangle it back on. Not an easy task, but doable.

I wanted to make sure that the inkhorn end of the penner was leak-proof and relatively fool-proof, so instead of making an inkhorn I decided to buy a bottle and attach it to the cords. A little shopping around found the fancy little octagonal glass bottles that Omas uses for its fountain pen inks. It's a nice shape, and not outrageously modern looking, even though it does have a screw cap. After examining the bottle (which was larger in person than I expected), I decided to make a harness for it out of twisted copper wire. It seems solid enough so far, though I went through quite a few prototypes that broke as I was twisting the wire. I don't know if the actual ink will be good for this sort of calligraphy, but it can always be replaced if need be.

For the next version, I want to get some light veg tanned cowhide for the penner body. I've experimented with boiling this sort of leather before for armor applications, and it does shrink up and get quite hard. I'm also considering commissioning an ink pot with attachment points for the cords. Now that I don't have to keep the whole project a secret anymore, this should be much easier. :)

Why I'm Not A Doctor

2009-10-11T16:04:49Z

Because I have no patience. :)

adelavanbrugge's birthday is this Thursday, and our anniversary is November 21, but I gave her both presents this morning because I hate to wait, and I'd rather her be able to get use out of them now.

For our anniversary I made her a penner, one of the classic accessories of the scribal trade. It's not exactly what I set out to make, but it's a good first step. There will be more to come, I'm sure.

While doing research for the penner, I came across a reference to Scribes and sources: Handbook of the chancery hand in the sixteenth century : texts from the writing-masters, which includes, among many other things, a translation of Mercator's text on handwriting, quill cutting, etc. From a cursory flip-through, it seems like a very useful resource. This, of course, was her birthday present.