Peerages and relationships, or How I Became A Protege

To keep myself sane in the game we call the SCA I long ago co-opted the tag line from Who's Line is it Anyway? "The games are made up and the points don't matter".

My goal is to make the SCA better and to grow the Society, not to be up in someone's posterior trying to get a shiny object. Really, my ultimate objective it to be a Tyger of the East - to have made the East Kingdom better by my playing and to have forever changed it for the better.



How did I get here?

I think it started with Zsof. Syele von Heidelberg, one of my household, and I had both read her rules to Peerage and had discussed them. We both decided that they made a lot of sense and we were going to try to implement them, and more importantly, we were going to try to hold each other to them.

Please go read them in depth right now if you haven't. They are that good. I'll wait. I have snacks.

Mistress Zsof's Rules for Peerage:

Rule 1: Be Discreet

Rule 2: It's Not About You

Rule 3: Don't Assume

Rule 4: Don't Swear

Rule 5: It's OK to Say No

Rule 6: Having a Bad Day? Walk Away

Rule 7: Think Before You Speak

Rule 8: My Path is Not Your Path

Rule 9: Be a Knight

 

In my opinion, striving to follow these rules will make you a better person, which in turn makes you a better SCAdian. And I'm all about transferable skills. Progress is slow, but it's happening.

Something I also try to keep myself to is if it comes out my highly opinionated mouth, I'm going to stand behind it. This goes hand in hand with Rules 1 & 7. It also cuts back on spreading gossip, am I expousing my opinion, or the opinion I've heard someone else express? I make it a rule that if I have a problem, I come up with at least one solution to present to the person who can solve it.

So, when before a meeting or at an event I am bad-mouthing expressing my desire for change and then I find out someone leading the meeting or class is of a different opinion I can follow up my opinion with reasons that are my own and examples. I don't like that rule or decision - here is why and how I think it should change. That way we're having a discussion instead of whining.

Example: A few years ago at a Harper's Retreat my group was assigned to a cabin that had a horror-movie level terrifying bathroom situation. Next door, there was an empty cabin that had a broken shower, a dirty bathroom, but could be lived in. The cabin on the other side of that was populated by friends, we discussed with them if we could use their showers if we changed cabins, and they agreed. So my next step was finding the autocrat. I explained what was happening, that the cabin we had been assigned to was uninhabitable, that we had checked out the empty cabin, and about our shower-sharing agreement and asked permission to move into the empty cabin. The autocrat agreed and we moved in and were happy the rest of the event.

We avoided adding an additional headache to an already stressful day for her. That's very important.

I try to get my household to work towards doing this every time we come up against an issue at an event. You identify the issue fully, you come up with at least one solution (preferably at least two), and then you go find the person in charge to work it out. And eventually, when you are the person in charge, you'll be able to better identify what potential problems may come up and have successful solutions.

Now. Let's talk about paths.



A German woodcut depicting The Saw, published in 1474

Paths are a thing in the SCA. Don't try to tell me paths aren't a thing. They are, in my opinion, a good thing. To me a path is a goal, it's working towards making an aspect of your participation in the SCA better. I want to be a more helpful person - Pelican path. I want to have a better kit/persona/authentic meals - Laurel path. I want to win more when I fight - Chivalry/MoD track. They are not exclusive. They are not set in stone. SEE RULE 8 above.

I don't think you should have to collect all the awards in order to get there. If you're good enough to be a Laurel but don't have a Maunche, you should be a Laurel.

Now, I love sewing garb (hello... this blog), I am starting to love persona research, and I love to research portraits. That all screams Laurel-path, pursuing the arts and sciences, and becoming someone's apprentice.

Well, but I also love volunteering, making the Society better, and being a Chatelaine. That all screams Pelican-path, service, and becoming someone's protege.

One of the things I love best is teaching. And that's both.

Can't I do both?!?!

A few years go, my friend Simona bat Leon and I were contemplating our roles in the SCA, we were more than newcomers, we had a couple accomplishments under our belts, but we could use direction. Well, we're in a service household: House Strangewayes, let's think about service, and brainstorm who we would want to be proteged to if it were to happen. We hit upon Master Dorio of the Oaks. He was local, he was someone we knew fairly well, and he would be a great guide to better service.

Simona, not being as into the garb thing as I and really feeling like she was drifting, approached Dorio about becoming his protege. They came to an agreement and she became his second protege. I thought then that avenue was closed to me. Simona and I often had to work at being recognized independently. This happens when you're besties, in the same hobby, and at the time we worked together. So I didn't think at the time being proteged to the same Pelican would help either of us. (Yes Fate, I see what you did there!)

Also, as in my dating life, I want to be asked, I don't want to be the one asking. It doesn't mean approaching someone is bad, just my preference. Yes, this is a lot like dating. You have to know the person well, be comfortable with them, and trust them to not abuse the relationship and hold up their end of the bargain.

Fast forward to this latest Pennsic. There are rumblings in my camp. All of a sudden many people are asking me about my thoughts on the paths and if I wanted to be an apprentice OR a protege and who I'd want. I love my friends, but you are subtle as bricks. So the fourth time I had this conversation was with Dorio, who was our camp master and is now also Baron Stonemarche, and he asks me if I would consider being his protege and not to tell him then, but a few weeks after at Harper's Retreat.

So, what else could I do but research?

I started by reading about other people's experiences. I read Protege Life, Ceara of the Midrealm's blog. Her journey is a lot newer than mine, which has helped me look at my experiences from a different angle.

I investigated other kingdoms. Master Hirsh from the West has very firm ideas on Peerage as an "honor and a responsibility, but it is not an award!" I read a great quote about protege belts on Master Hirsch's notes on goldenstag.net:

"When I give out a squire's belt (or an apprentice's, as the case may be), I tell everyone present that it is not a badge of rank, it is a symbol of the standards by which this person wishes to be judged, and an invitation to judge them by those standards.

This makes it a burden, not an award."

-- Sir Andras Salamandra

 

I spent a long time thinking about the decision, and really not talking to anyone about it. I didn't want to feel like I was choosing one path over another, I wanted both and I still want both. So I further talked with Dorio about this, he agreed to also try to match-make me with a Laurel, and support my creative pursuits, even if that meant breaking our relationship one day.

 

I also determined that Pelican or Laurel, I didn't want to be associated with one if they wouldn't be supportive of my efforts in the other.

 

So come Harper's Retreat we came to an agreement that I was a Protege-to-be, and at East Kingdom Coronation we solidified the relationship.

 

It was informal. No ceremony. No oath. Just a question and an answer. I received a beautiful book, a token and a quest to find a yellow belt alternative that I liked that would be distinctive. (Ha ha, that's what this post was supposed to be about, my quest for a yellow belt that fits with my persona) My new friend Catalina Doro happened to be there because we were nerding out about early 1500s Venetian gowns, which was awesome. As well as Bianca and Simona of my Household and Lady Anastasia of the Oaks, Dorio's wife, and an extremely talented narrow worker.

 

I've had more than one person express surprise over my not apprenticing. I feel I've just gotten a little bit further down this path first, and I'll get there eventually on the Laurel path.

 

Time will tell.



 

More Pelicans! A Hood for his most excellent Excellency Xavier

This time I created a hood for Master Juan Lazaro Ramirez Xavier- former Baron of Stonemarche and my SCA big brother.

Xavier, as he's known, with his beautiful wife Maria were brought before the king at Great Northeastern War and given writs to contemplate joining the Order of the Pelican.

I would not be in the SCA without Xavier.

My household, House Strangewayes, would not exist without Xavier.

It was Xavier and Maria's wedding that a young Mistress Iulia Agricola (formerly Elinor Strangewayes) attended which hooked her, then her childhood friend Simona, and then Simona's work friend me on the SCA. And it's been encouragement and support for us and a legion of other newcomers that he and Maria undertook during their decade as Baron and Baroness Stonemarche.

You know those posts I have about Palio? Palio is his idea. His baby. They also established the newcomer tour at Birka. They first introduced me to Sir Kyppen's YouTube videos on being a chatelaine by holding a class about these videos at Harper's Retreat.

So needless to say we wanted to give back. Stonemarche is the home of our hearts, and a huge reason for that is Xavier and Maria's work as Baron and Baronessa.

So on to the project! He wanted a hood, as he overheats easily, instead of a full cloak and cap of maintenance. We also had a two week window due to Pennsic. So I sent him a sketch of what I was thinking:

Red linen hood, with gold silk lining and red jewels and embroidered pelicans.


A simple hood with red cabochons for the blood drops around the hem and two embroidered pelican roundels



We made a few modifications, he was worried that the red jewels would not stand out against the red linen so he suggested gold balls behind the jewels as gold balls are part of his heraldry.

AND BECAUSE I LOVE MY FRIEND I AGREED TO APPLIQUE CIRCLES

 

 

Pennsic gave me a chance to shop for materials. The gold silk which was too heavy to line the hood was perfect for the gold silk Pelican giornea which Lady Simona bat Leon was making for Maria from the lovely new fabric and notions vendor in Poison Pen Press's old spot. Booth 63 I believe. Instead I got the silk at home at Sewfisticated and Xavier ordered the red linen from fabric-store.com.

 

The things that make this hood are the jewels, which I got at Cabochons on Bow Street #19. Run by the amazing (Mistress, Countess, all around awesomeness) Arastorm the Golden and her daughters Willow and Kat. They had not just teardrop jewels, but I could pick from red faceted jewels or red cabochons! They came with the fittings and Willow gave me a crash course in sewing them on. Plus, they are from Stonemarche!

Layout

I copied a hood that he already had which was made based on Cynthia Virtue's hood pattern. The one he had the buttons were sewn on the very edge and the buttonholes handsewn through both layers.

I basically cut the same shapes for the outside as the lining. On the lining squared off the back of the hood instead of making a tail. The only thing that wasn't fully lined was the liripipe (the long tail) which we measured at 41" long on him, to give just the right amount of drape when the tail is tucked into his belt. So I cut a 4 1/2 inch wide by 42" strip for the liripipe. More on the liripipe later.

The hardest part of this were the appliques. The thing that made the hood though, were the appliques.

I first cut out a template out of a folder for the heavier paper weight the finished size of my circles. I then cut out ten circles with a quarter of an inch seam allowance around the edges. I then proceeded to use ALL THE STEAM! I wet down the circle, placed the template in the center and folded up the steam allowance carefully and ironed it down around the edges. (Pictures forthcoming) I take this technique from quilting circles.

The first one I serged around in red, but there were two difficulties in that. First, serging tiny circles is a maddening task, and second, the serging didn't do what I wanted it to, which was give me an even guide to hand sew against. Instead, it betrayed me and showed in an ugly manner around the ironed edge. So I banished that circle and cut a new one.



The finished ironed silk circles

Then I added the findings, snussled the jewels into them, and played around more with placement.

More spaced out. Less work. I felt it didn't look right.

More circles! This is the right look!

Then I got to hand sew around the wee little balls.

 

Here are the mistakes I made doing this:

1. I should have sewed the gores in first, but I was intimidated to do that, so I procrastinated.
2. I didn't use silk pins so I then had the smooth out the silk from the fat quilter's pins I used.
3. I agreed to applique circles in the first place.

 

Finished sewing on the circle! Now to embellish

How it looked from the back... at first.

The finished applique

 

After the stitching around it, I did a back stitch in gold and whipped around it in white.

Due to the different fabrics they sort of "puffed" when I finished them. So I put a circle of red wool felt (left over from Viking Sailor Moon) behind it to keep the convex shape and give more of a "ball" look to the appliques.

A note on the motivational cocktail:

It's a motivational cocktail! A Fortune must while sewing!

Syele von Heidelberg made me an awesome boozy milkshake from vanilla ice cream, cocoa and cookie butter from Trader Joe's and vodka! And it had a cool straw!

I sew (on a deadline) better when a little buzzed, it gets me over some of my hesitations and have Brilliant Ideas (tm)! (I once came back tipsy from a Halloween party, drafted and made a Venetian gown and wore it to Crown Tourney the next morning. I looked FABULOUS)

In this case I had a Brilliant Idea (tm) about the liripipe. Xavier, for all his noble qualities also has a great sense of fun and whimsy. So I was determined to hid the squeaker from a squeaky toy in the tip of the liripipe.

Which of course meant I got to go to Wal-Mart and look like a lunatic squeaking various items in the pet toy aisle to find the right pitch of squeak.

Turns out - squeaky toys are harder to open than you'd think.

The way my mother's 8 lbs Malte-Poo goes through them I figured no problem, this thing will give up it's squeaker easy. NOPE. I had to eventually stab it to death.



Squeaky squeaky murder

Back to assembly!

I have done these hoods before - but every time I get intimidated by the gores, look up Alysaundre's Perfectly Pointed Gore Technique and wonder why I get intimidated by the gores. They came out perfectly, no having to rip out and try again on any of the four gores.

I stitched the long liripipe strip to the outer hood, folded everything and ironed it, sketched a half moon shape at the tip and stitched up the liripipe and down the center back.

I stitched the tip of the back of the hood together, left a generous 6 inch space and then stitched down the back of the neck as well. I then matched them both up and stitcked around the edge of the hood and around the cape edge. This uses a lot of pins, but worked out really well. Then I pulled it right side out through the slit and sewed that up by hand. Now it's more ironing, because linen NEEDS to be ironed and silk takes so beautifully to an iron.

It came to the night before and I sewed on the buttons which I'd found at a local Jo-Ann's which looked like period metal buttons. The young lady at the checkout also let me use every coupon they had going so it cost me about $5 for $20 worth of buttons. I stitched them to the edge of the fabric about every inch, tightening to ever 3/4 of an inch around the curve of the neck.

The intention was to do handsewn buttonholes through the fabric. But... that looked terrible and I was doing it on site the date of the event. For some reason the silk and linen did not want to cooperate and it looked like a small rodent had chewed a hold through the garb.

So I changed tactics. I had three hours, and I had seen a technique for turkish garb making thick thread loops and doing a buttonhole stitch around it. This site calls it the buttonhole bar stitch.

From rocksea.org Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials

Instead of doing it here in the middle of the fabric I did it on the very edge with red embroidery floss and when done correctly the loops don't even twist!

I was able to get the loops done in plenty of time for court and they looked fabulous!

The below photos are from Lady Estefania del Bosque who did a magnificent job photographing the day.



Her Majesty places the hood around his shoulders



Xavier, His Majesty Omega, and Her Majesty Ethedreda



Xavier, Maria (and her gorgeous gold giornea), His Majesty Omega and her Majesty Etheldreda

 

Master Juan Lazaro Ramirez Xavier

Here you can see the one handbound buttonhole I managed to finish. The Pelican embroidery did not make it to the event, but will be added later.

I didn't tell him ahead of time about the squeaker. I told a couple other people, but not him. So after he was done with court some rapscallion squeaked him. It was huge hit.

More about the event:

It was a beautiful day at King's and Queen's Equestrian.

Inspired by Pennsic my cohort Lady Bianca Anguisola and I made a big effort to have as much of a period pavilion as possible.


Isn't she just lovely folks?

We borrowed the tent from a friend of Simona's and brought our wood tables, wood benches and period servingware. We served a simple but period lunch and had some great fellowship.

And aside from the vigils we were the place to be

It helps to have a war kitten!
Zeus (the cat) and Munchkin (the dog) were great entertainment

Lady Este offered to do a photoshoot with us so... we couldn't resist.

Some of House Strangewayes: Lady Lysken die Waeyer, Lady Cecily Wyndham, Lady Elvira Ballesteros, Myself- Lady Fortune St Keyne, and Lady Bianca Anguisola

Things quickly escalated...


Drama Queens



The Hills are Alliiiiiiiiiiive!!!!!!!!

 



As you can see, my household are a super serious bunch.

 

My dress is based off several portraits in the 1520s made for Pennsic out of some wonderfully soft lurex striped fabric from Jo-Ann's and the lower sleeves are out of velvet. The camicia is from my Birka dress for the Queen's Celestial Challenge - which reminds me I need to do a post on that dress. Bianca has a 1550s back side lace gown and her dramatic walking veil. Elvira is in a 1530s gown which is scandelously under dressed without sleeves (the hussy!). Cecilly is in a similar dress out of gold key because she wanted to be in on the Italian flavor of the day and Lysken, who has to be different, is in a Roman outfit, while technically still Italian from several hundred years in the past.

 

A wonderful day all the way around!

Pelicans and Great Northeastern War - Mistress Deirdre de Planchette

Years ago, a friend was making a Pelican cloak for someone, and the full elevation outfit, and vending GNE and time was running out for it to be finished, so I spent a dreary overcast Saturday morning sewing down trim and adding the little garnet blood droplets to the Pelican cloak to be presented to Master Peter the Red.

I didn't know Peter then, I knew his wife a little, but I knew of his reputation in the archery community as a teacher and master of his craft. Since then, Peter has become my friend and I was reminded of that overcast Saturday as I sat this past year in my encampment finishing a dress for another Pelican-to-be.



Mistress Deirdre de Planchette with their Majesties Omega and Etheldreda
Great Northeastern War 2015

Let me tell you about Deirdre. Lady Deirdre de Planchette was the Exchequer of the Barony of Stonemarche for a LOOOOOOOOONG time. Which means she's been the person getting the 2,000 SCAdian cats who attend Birka swiftly, accurately, and efficiently through gate each year. (The folks from Pennsic Troll came up to Stonemarche and modeled Pennsic's system after hers)

And you never see her. She sits in the back room counting, sorting paperwork, making sure everything one else has breaks and has everything they need. Not to mention being responsible for the funds it takes to run such an event, and all the other events held in Stonemarche.

She has given to the Society in more ways, fostering newcomers, fostering the arts, and never seeking attention to herself, just doing and doing well.

So when the call went out from her daughter to help out with Deirdre's vigil and Pelican ceremony my household wanted to help. So Simona bat Leon and I volunteered to make her dress.

Deirdre's colors are blue and red so a bliaut was born: baby blue summer weight wool with red silk dupioni lined sleeves, red silk neckline yoke and trim. Lady Anastasia of the Oaks made the most gorgeous red and white silk trim for the dress and belt. (I kept petting it, it was so soft).

A quietly elegant dress for a quietly elegant lady.

I used a variation on this bliaut pattern by Adrienne Dandy. The pattern is simple but striking and I wanted the fabric to speak for itself.

We cut the fabric out on the Camelot Common House pool table (I'm sure that's why they got that thing, for fabric cutting). The edges are all serged inside and the lower sleeve is entirely lined in the red silk.



Full length shot of the dress with my lovely assistant Simona bat Leon

A shot of the silk trim being applied

The trim was terrifying to cut, as I know how hard Anastasia worked on it. But it looks so magnificent on the red silk backdrop. The trick is sewing across the trim first in two parallel lines and cutting between them.

Simona and the sleeve - what ironing! And she's a serging machine!

The sleeve is in two parts, the top portion is a trapezoid for the upper arm and I sewed down a strip of silk there at the top edge of the arm band then folded it back over the sewn edge, applied the trim and zig-zagged down the part that would be in the selvedge attached to the lower fuller sleeve.
 At some point I will do a keyhole neckline tutorial. Today is not that day, I'm sorry darlings.

The silk facing applied to the neckhole

Handsewing down the neckline facing

Adding a little hint of embroidery around the edges to pull in the red and white of the trim

 The embellishment was done by backstitching in red using 3 strands of embroidery floss around the edges and whip stitching white around those back stitches, just like I did with the bow on my Viking Sailor Moon dress. I'm a novice at embroidery and am a bit of a one trick pony right now.
 

Finished!

Simona and I presented the dress to Deirdre during her vigil during Saturday of the war. (Once we were done hemming it in camp...)

The evening court (there were like 5 courts at the three day war) they inducted her as a Pelican. The bycocket was made by her daughter Kiaya based on Agnolo Gaddi's fresco of the Legend of the True Cross in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence circa 1380. It's her first bycocket!

You have to look hard for her - for a while I was calling her "St Helena Not Appearing in this Fresco"

Deirdre and Baroness Megan Laine, first Baroness Stonemarche



You may now greet your order - shot of the back of the dress

The scroll was a happy accident - it features what looks like the dress - but no one had seen it yet! The choice for light blue wool was made very late in the game due to fabric availablity. Mistress Eleanore did a fabulous job on it. 


Illumination by Lady Eleanore MacCarthaigh

I'm very pleased with this project and of the inclusion of this lovely lady into the Order of the Pelican.

Oh, and while we were in court - two rapscallions named Juan Lazaro Ramirez Xavier and Maria Pagani were given writs to go on vigil for inclusion in the Order of the Pelican themselves... so guess who got to make more Pelican regalia? Simona and I!

But that's for another post tentatively titled - Love is Appliqueing Circles