My Own Grandpa

More Projects

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 03:20:15 GMT

What have I been up to?

* Made a new giornea from the carcass of an old cioppa I've had for years but don't like the cut of anymore. It was a lovely blue and gold brocade, lined with the black cotton/linen blend I've used for a million other things. There was just enough to piece together a gironea out of it. I trimmed it with some nice brown fake fur, though I may have gone just a tad overboard on that bit.

* Finished the new shoes, though I used two different types of seams. They worked well enough, though my feet tended to slide beack into the heels. I may try padding the heel with something. The leather's a bit stretchy, so I hope they don't go all floppy on me. Aside from that, they were great to walk around in without pattens (which don't fit on them anyway).

* The books are still going out. There are 17 in the hands of authors now, with another 3 ready to go for Gulf Wars.

* Went to Black Griffin up in Tennessee. It was a simply lovely event. I got to meet a lot of great new people, and hang out with others I've never really had the chance to talk with before. There was beautiful snow on Saturday that had the good grace to quit by Sunday morning for the drive home.

* I'm settling in to my Gulf Wars sewing now. The red silk gamurra is finished, and tomorrow I begin my greaqt undergarment crusade. I have a huge pile of white cotton (alas, no linen for me!) that is destined to become a variety of chemises, shirts, and drawers.

* The other project on the horizon is a new sewing box, modeled after this. It's mostly an excuse to make another lock, but I'd also like to have something a little less nasty than my (admittedly useful) tackle box to have out at events.

Edit: I also rebuilt the lock on the library chest in a more period fashion, after the original lock got jammed by some over-enthusiastic key-turning while I had it on display at Midwinter A&S. The rebuild wasn't as hard as I feared it might be, and the new lock is far superior all around.

Project Updates

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:47:28 GMT

I've been working on things, trying to shift gears from one project to the next.

I finished the chest for my library. I finally found a good source on locks, but a little too late for this project. The mechanism in mine is functional, but a complete fantasy. The next one will be better, if I ever get around to doing this again. The current count of books "in the wild" is 11 (unless I've forgotten one), and I plan to make up a few more this weekend so I'll have them ready for Midwinter A&S.

I've got half of a new pair of shoes done, and I may try to whip up a new giornea this weekend as well. I would like to have the shoes done by Gulf Wars, as the ones I have now don't have room for any sort of insoles and would make a hard week of walking. I should probably expand my selection of Italian underwear as well, so I can stretch my wardrobe further. Also need to make another gamurra and underclothes for the wife.

What I've Been Up To

Tue, 03 Jan 2006 01:58:24 GMT

It's been a while since my last update, and I've been busy. Part of me always wants to keep my projects secret and unveil them fully formed, but this is really more of a long term thing, so I don't feel too bad about letting the cat out of the bag.

After I started writing my little tailor's manual, I started thinking that it might be neat to get some other people who make or do cool stuff to write similar books, and collect them all into a library that I could take with me to events for people to read. The goal is not so much for it to be the most informative or comprehensive body of knowledge (the internet is a far more efficient way to transmit information), but rather to recreate the feeling of giving and receiving information in a period fashion. The books would be all hand bound and hand written in a period voice, on a variety of subjects.

Some of you are already aware of the project, and have been kind enough to write books for me. I'm looking forward to seeing what each of you decides to write. I don't expect to get any finished books back for quite a while (I'm only about a third of the way through my own), but I've been told that patience is a virtue. In the meantime, I've been preparing a home for when all my wayward tomes find their way back. I found this 14th century German casket that looked like it would be about the right size and shape for a fair number of books. I'll go into more detail later, but that's what I've been working on for the past several weeks.

More Accessories

Thu, 03 Nov 2005 04:52:18 GMT

Elizabethan hat and ballock dagger added to the sewing (and apparently woodworking) journal.

http://www.houseofpung.net/clothes