The Baronesses birds

Baroness Jennet of Loch Salaan surprised me awhile ago with a large box of feathers she'd been collecting.  She raises alpacas (and I have a closet full of fleeces from her last shearing destined to be rugs and boots) but there are also peacocks and chickens running around the farm. 

I was busy teaching classes at Collegium when she handed the box over so I didn't get to really talk to her much about the projects, but she asked that I make her a fan in payment for the feathers.  Seemed like a more than fair trade.  Especially since I didn't actually have to start from scratch.

Jennet had a fan she had received that used to belong to Constance de la Rose.  Constance was one of the greats.  I met her only briefly once, but her legacy is extensive.  Everything anyone has to say is glowing and sweet.  There is a memorial cooking competition held at Uprising in her honor so her love of cooking and learning continue. I found this beautiful article she wrote published on Florilegium about what makes a peer that hold some of the magic the SCA Dream embodies.

The fan needed some rehabilitation.  It had come in contact with something that left big pink and black mess on some of the feathers.  They also needed to be combed and fluffed a bit.  I tried spot cleaning the feathers but whatever it was was not coming off.  And it was hot pink.  I ended up trimming the feathers a bit to remove the worst of it and then adding feathers to cover.  The inside of the fan now has a layer of  new black and white feathers.  I picked out the feathers Jennet had collected from her silver laced Wyandotte chickens.  Her Barony's heraldic colors are sable and argent. They have a populous use badge of an ermine spot so the white spots on the tops of the black feathers were absolutely perfect.  I added pearls and black pear shaped rhinestones to continue the theme.  Then I topped it with a little dragonfly button since dragonflies are one of Jennet's heraldic charges.  The silver Celtic knots also bring her persona into the composition.

Here's hoping she likes it and it's what she had in mind.

Complete fan (at least for a minute or two)

This is documentary evidence that my fan was complete. The feathers are a bit unruly, but for the most part I was pleased and took a picture. Then my boys (ages 4 and 2) got their hands on it. Apparently destroying my IRCC projects is a habit for my son. I thought it was up high enough, but they're climbers and it was sparkly and important to me so they had to have it. I was in the other room fixing dinner and came in to them using it to hit a ball around the living room. One had it and the other had my new parasol I got for Mother's Day at the Renaissance Faire and planned to paint. That's broken too.

So, now there's a long crack in the back of the part that holds the feathers in and it doesn't hold the feathers in so well. After staring at it for quite some time, I've come to the conclusion that if I go ahead and mount the feathers on cardboard or leather or something I can insert it into the fan handle and glue it inside the pocket so there's no functional stress on the handle. I've got a small mirror I had considered attaching to the back of the handle anyway and it should cover the crack. I'd say that's tomorrow's project but I'm still a bit riled up about it so I might wait a day so I don't make it more of a mess than it already is.

As for the parasol, they pulled one of the struts out of one of the ribs. They're bamboo with a small wire pin and they pulled the pin through the bamboo, leaving a groove. I can either push it back in and wood putty the damage or drill a new hole close to the original. That's also going to wait a day.

Just to reassure you, both boys are still alive.

It worked!

I about lost my mind in the few minutes it took to bake this, sure that something would go horribly wrong and it would explode or something. It's out of the oven and cooling now and my heartrate has dropped back down to normal. Just need to gild it, jewel it, and add feathers.

Lots of things I'd do differently, not least of which are a) not do a human figure and therefore a human face and b) make the whole thing quite a bit smaller. It rivals the turned table leg that is the base of my peacock fan for size. I'm sort of thinking I may need to get a few really big ostrich plumes to go with what I already have, but we'll see.

Come on silly thing, cool down so I can play!

More of the same

Another fan update. I'm always so tentative about doing ART projects rather than craft stuff so the going is slow. I did, in fact, put the forelegs with curled talons along the sides. I love how it looks, but it left a large chunk of open space between the braided border of the central medallion and the gryphon heads. Not sure what to put there yet. I tried a few things, including flourished seeblatter like on the bottom but it didn't work shapewise. I tried a different type of border around the central medallion as another option but it made the gryphons get really lost and the border became the star. Not really the look I'm going for.

I decided to move on and rough in the Amazon. Depending on what I do with her hair in the frog below the central medallion I think the upper might blend. Or maybe inspiration will hit and I'll have a brilliant idea for what to put into the empty space. Nothing worse than empty space.

I have decided I need to do something further with the Apres. It is a little squished anyway right now from getting knocked as I smoothed and worked with the back of the handle, but in general I think it is too cartoony in contrast to the gryphons. Maybe some muscle modelling will help. Not sure. It certainly needs something.

I'm playing around with adding some swarovski crystals in blue and considering some pearls as well so I set these on to see how it might look. It might be a bit over the top. But who knows. The entire project is a might bit crazy. I'm going to keep fiddling with it and see what happens. Hopefully it will be done in the next couple of days and I can pop into the oven.

Progress on the fan

Not really much to see, but after resculpting the gryphon on the right five different times I wanted to get a record of the wings and faces before I screwed them up again. I'm just not very good at symmetry. Considering I haven't had an art class since junior high school though, I don't feel too terrible about how it is going.

I'm planning to do a twisted rope around the central medallion to set it off and I need to do some sort of flourish about midway down on the sides in order to get the correct shape. Considering a curled claw/foreleg. Maybe. I also need to do some work up between the wings to echo the bulb at the bottom of the handle and reiterate the seeblatt.

I spent a couple of hours couching gold cord on the cappotto this morning as well. Anyone remember that? It's been crumpled in a pile next to my couch as I've ignored it for several weeks. There was some serious consideration of just ripping off all the gold cord since it just doesn't lay like I want it to. Plain guards would go on much faster and then I could just finish the thing. The little bit of gold really does pop though so it is still there. I'm determined to keep plugging away at it. I'm bound to finish eventually. Of course, I said the same thing about the never-ending loose gown. . .

Sent in my update for June

I kept hoping to finish more to have it to report so I've been procrastinating my update to Bella for the IRCC II but I finally just bit the bullet and sent it in today. Figured I should do some updating here too. Most of the last week has been spent working on a pair of Effigy style (ish) bodies for the petticoat bodies. I drafted them correctly the first time with the long angled seams in back, but it wasn't working with my body so I adapted the back from my side back lacing bodice pattern and put a seam at the side, then kept the shape of the Effigy from there forward. It doesn't have the dramatic shaping from the back seam, but since most of my intent is for smoothing and structure I think this will work just fine.

The fabric choices are kind of funny. I've been dithering over what I wanted to use and have gone shopping several times and come home empty handed. I actually pulled this canvas from my junk pile for use as a mock up. It was a $1.50 table find. I made it into a coat awhile back, but it has issues with fading when washed. Since the corset and silk skirt won't be washed in that manner I think it actually works great for this project. The firey orange silk was a gift from Maestra Bianca da Ravenna a couple of years ago. It's one of those fabrics that doesn't quite go with anything so it has been sitting in my stash, but it somehow matches the crazy red and orange of the canvas. I'm going to do wide guards to tie it in further. I've got the stays boned (130 bones/two packages of 36" duct ties later) and am cutting the binding now. I'm using a really soft red pigskin suede that I had originally planned to make embroidered Rus boots with. That keeps getting back-burnered so I decided to go ahead and use it rather than hoard it and replace it later if I got around to the boots. Working on the binding is this week's project and then I'll move on to stitching the far too many eyelets for the front lacing and the points at the waist tabs to tie on the skirt.

As you can see, work on the fan continues. I pulled off the clay ring from the bottom and intend to replace it with an eyebolt screwed into the wood armature so it will be more sturdy for hanging. I got the Apres sculpted in in the center medallion and blocked in the gryphons on the side. I've been fiddling with the Amazon a bit, trying to figure how to make her work on the back of the handle rather than just being plopped down on the front. The last attempt got pulled off, but I think I'm getting closer. The armature is just too wide, but it is too late to fix that so I'm adapting to it.
  

Sculpting the fan

Lelio Orsi Design for fan handle 1526-87

 Via

I've been turning this idea over and over in my head, trying to figure out how to make it happen. I really want to take a step forward and do something more exciting than the turned wood, dowels, and pressed wood filigree I've done in the past.  I found several drawings of designs for Italian fans that are just shatteringly beautiful, including the one to the left that is in the British Museum. They were major luxury items at the time involving skill and a great deal of gold. I got the harebrained idea that I would cast one in pewter and then gold leaf it. That was a delusion of grandeur I'm afraid.  Loads of research on lost wax casting later, I have put that idea up on a shelf and decided to go with modern methods for now and learn to cast to that level of expertise later. I figure it will take a few years.

Sculpy wins again! Just like the zibellino masks, it is a quick and easier solution for not having a goldsmith in my pocket. I decided to use the basic layout of the Orsi fan and change the individual details to be more in line with my preferences. The figure is getting shifted to an Amazon, I'm adding my seeblatt, and the side grotesques are becoming gryphons. The central medallion is probably going to have my Apres. I'm not sure yet. it will really depend on how well the sculpting goes and what I can manage. I've got a wooden stir stick covered in a tin foil armature as my base and it's working so far. I'm liking the pieces I've sculpted on the bottom. Hope the rest goes as smoothly..
 

Still trying to get unpacked

But, the button making continues. In the meantime, want to drool along with me at this fan from the V&A collections? Museum number T.184-1982

Dated 1620 from Florence, it's cut straw applied to silk covered cardboard reinforced with metal ribs. Its just so different. I love the whimsy of the decoration and the shapes of the fan staves.

My magic spatula and girly power tools

One day down and 121 to go. I'm really excited about the lace. I picked up a nice firm 6 cord cordonnet 20 weight thread. It's working up really crisply and holds its shape and shows definition much better than the generic size 10 crochet cotton I used for my sample. It's going to be gorgeous! Now I just have to make yards and yards and yards of it.

Unfortunately, yards and yards of lace just aren't that exciting to watch pile up. Especially a couple of inches at a time. I decided to make an accessory or two in the meantime so that there's something interesting to look at and my pile of completed stuff gets to look a bit more substantial.

There isn't a fan in my portrait, but it is a possible accessory and I had the materials floating around the house so it was quick. I'd started one a couple of years ago, but never finished it and had pulled it to pieces. Putting it back together and figuring out how to finish it up went pretty smoothly. I'm not quite sure I like the length, and am considering cutting it down a bit, but I'm going to live with it awhile. The portraits and engravings show a variety of handle lengths so I think I'm okay either way. As it is now it fits in my hand really well and is a great fan for, well. fanning. If I decide to attach it to the girdle it might be nicer if it was a little smaller, just because it'll be less heavy. On the other hand, the girdle is already going to have a zibellini attached, so I'm thinking another large accessory might not be a great idea. Decisions, decisions.

The reason its not smaller already was the failure of my girly power tools. I have a real Dremel somewhere around here, but it was not poking its head out yesterday and I had to use my pink buttoned Walnut Hollow tool. It was a present from my brother in law a couple of years ago. I was excited at the time, but I've since become disenchanted by it and its total lack of power. Who came up with the idea of branding "girl tools" and then making them inferior? I'd like to give that individual a piece of my mind. Pink power tools are silly and perhaps a bit degrading. I'm frustrated that my multi-tool didn't have enough oomph to really sand and shape this handle. There are little rounded grooves I put into the sides for decorative effect that at present aren't particularly visible. They do, however, make it FEEL nicer even if they aren't adding much visually.

I started with a nicely tapered spatula for the handle and then cut two pieces of leather into a fan shape and epoxied them over the end of the spatula. That made my spatula into a fabulous leather flyswatter. Then I glued the feathers in place and added a decorative piece of metal on both sides. I think they were meant to be part of a drawer pull. I bought about 20 of them at a local antique store for a quarter a piece a few years ago thinking they would grow up to be something steampunk. There's enough of them left that they still might. To jazz up the handle I added a strip of wood with a filigree look that I bought from Michaels. Then I painted the handle with an orange metallic enamel paint. To highlight the filigree in the wood and hopefully make it look more like a metal handle I rubbed it with a metallic wax in gold and a brownish bronze. Its sort of like Rub and Buff, but mine was specifically meant for painting pewter gaming miniatures.

Today's project is more lace. I also have a lot of laundry to do so we can leave town. Ooh, the excitement.