Tournament shield is complete

It was supposed to be a quick project, but it hasn't exactly been that. It has been an interesting and educational one though and I'm really glad I decided to make this.

The sanding didn't go as well as I'd hoped and I ended up having to rebuild the bottom set of points after they broke off. I also ended up adding a wood filler to the entire piece when the papier mache just wouldn't smooth and sand. I also added a bit of dimensionality to the cornucopia at the advice of my friend Marguerite. Sculpting with wood filler isn't exactly the best of ideas, in case you were wondering.

I spent some time reading  Cennino Cennini's Il Libro dell'Arte just because this is one of those interesting sorts of projects that artists would be called upon to do. Banners, embroidery designs, tournament shields, textile printing; it all had to be in the repertoire of the painter. I find the flexibility and scope fascinating.

The word impresa and the first emblem books are Italian, but my specific portrait reference is not, so I wanted to add a bit more Italian feel to my shield, so I referenced maiolica pieces when I added the scrollwork.

The piece I was most drawn to was this bowl by Maestro Giorgio Andreoli in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dated 1530. The hearts, flourishes and scrolls are lovely as are the colors. I also like the putto with his pinwheel. Perhaps it is because I love toys, I'm not really sure.

The colors of maiolica with the bright blues and yellows really appeal to me and let me go a little nuts on the shield. I felt it was only fitting with a motto meaning "More is Better" that more be involved. The cornucopia was just a little too plain. I also added the Greek version of my name "Parascovia" on the horn itself.

I feel ready for battle now. On, on, to the couch to continue couching the cappotto. (It just doesn't have the excitement of a charge, does it?)

A challenge within the challenge

My friend Lady Maysun Nura al-Ishfahani al-Samarkandiyya decided yesterday to issue a challenge to the artisans in Artemisia to make a hat in the month of May. Beginning April 24th and continuing until the last day of May, the populous is challenged to make a hat, veil, headcovering, headfrosting, intricate hairstyle or some other kind of 'do. No prizes or judging, justfor fun and to stretch ourselves.

Conveniently, I was already planning  a bonnet to go with my cappotto. Everything was sitting in a pile to start it, just hadn't gotten going yet. So, I got going yesterday afternoon.

The extant Don Garzia cloak has a matching bonnet so deciding what style hat to make to match was pretty much a no brainer. I did briefly consider whether or not it would go with my outfit, but even if it doesn't go with the current dress, bonnets are very popular in 1540 Italian portraits on women. One of my favorites is this woman in bronze with lattice  partlet and feathered bonnet. Venitian School 1540. With the orange and blue, the cappotto and bonnet will coordinate with other parts of my wardrobe.

Super simple basic construction on this one. I followed the Sempstress tutorial for a cartridge pleated upper class hat but did it entirely by hand rather than using my machine. I did put a layer of wool felt into the crown. There are two layers of wool felt in the brim.

I may be the only woman in North America without a curling iron, so the feathers still need a bit of shaping and once I settle on my fan decoration I want to make a matching brooch for the hat, but other than that it is complete.

So, one more complete item, and I'm ahead of the game for Maysun's challenge. I've got a veil on my to-do list as well as a jeweled hair ornament so I might end up doing a few more headcoverings in May, just for good measure.

Poste revisited

I had a brain storm this morning while tying to decide what I wanted to do for the poste (sash.) Last time I made one I just hemmed a rectangle of silk and added tassels and pewter plaques. I keep throwing Luca Moia's definition of a poste from The Silk Industry in Renaissance Venice around in my head. "Poste: Silk veils related to sendals, sometimes made like a net, and usually worn around the waist as a belt."

The "sometimes made like a net," keeps getting stuck. There is this set of garters at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston dated 1575-1600, accession number 43.2001a. (The super cute pink and green ones.) They're made of silk using sprang.

Military officers (including George Washington) of the 18th century wore beautiful netted silk sashes made using sprang. . .

Various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean islands as well as some Slavic groups still utilize sprang sashes as part of their traditional folk costume. . .

Am I completely up in the night here or might there be a connection? And if there is, do I want to pursue it? Making a silk sash using sprang is going to be a significant commitment of time and money, especially as I've only ever done tiny samples of sprang, nothing even approaching this magnitude. How crazy am I really?

Bias tape and couching cord

In order to understand how actually exciting this post is, you have to understand that I detest ironing. Nothing in my house gets ironed except for those things that absolutely must be. That means clothing to be worn gets done maybe twice in a year and many things are topstitched that should not be so so that I can get away with finger pressing. That being said, I spent 2 hours last night ironing. There are now 25 or so yards of 1 1/2" bias in blue brocade ready to be attached to the cappotto. It is sort of a miracle brought on by my vanity goading my laziness. It is just going to look so pretty though and I know it will be worth it. Even if the half assed voice in the back of my brain keeps trying to convince me otherwise.

My mom taught me to do continuous bias when I was a kid. Large numbers of quilts happened at our house once we were all old enough to hold a needle. Quilting at our house was also usually stitching on whole cloth so the stitching was the important part of making a quilt. Anyway, that is the method I use for bias. A search will turn up plenty of tutorials if you need one. Basically you cut a square corner o corner and then reattach into a parallellogram, mark, sew into an offset tube, and start cutting. It is all one strip, which is rather nifty. You can calculate the size of the square to make just the right amount of bias, but I didn't really want to and have other places to use it if I have extra. I did a 60" square cut into 3" strips.

Somewhere in my sewing room there should have been bias tape makers but they were not to be found. Some stuff is still in storage, so they could, technically, not actually be there and the 3 hours I spent searching for them was not fruitless because I'm just a dope. I really hope that is the actual reason. Anyway, they didn't turn up and it was late and I was determined to finish this. Luckily, Margo Anderson had posted a tip a few days ago to the Elizabethan Costume Facebook group. If you take a large needle and stitch it through your ironing board cover twice, leaving your bias measurement in the middle, you can run the fabric through and it will fold. Press it as you pull through and it works about as well as the tools meant for the job.

And voila, there is a huge coil of bias.

 I pinned the first section in place and began couching. Finished one side of the front, which was my goal. I've divided it into 4 sections, because the vents already do that. Each section has 2 guards so it should (cross your fingers) be done in about 8 days. Then there's sleeves to couch and assembly. I'm shooting for a two week project. I hope.

Cappotto begun

I drafted the pattern for my cappotto and got the cloak itself cut out. I have a basic sleeve drafted as well, but still haven't decided for certain if I want to do a functional sleeve or a hanging one so haven't cut that out yet. As you can see by my sleeve, I'm a lazy drafter. The reason I pointed it out though is because I wanted to share my favorite drafting material, especially for large/full projects like this one. I use a medium weight plastic drop cloth. They are nigh unto indestructible and great for tracing things on to because they are clear. Sharpies work great with them. They also have some drape so you can see at least part of how the garment will hang as opposed to butcher paper. I ran across this mural by Nicolo dell'Abbato

while looking for bonnets. The matching bonnets, particularly the lady in orange with her back to us, convinced me I needed to do the bonnet to go along with the outer layer. There should be extra of the blue-grey feathers I got for my fan to trim it.

Buttons and frogs are finished for this, so that is out of the way. I did the same raised rib type of button as those for my loose gown, but with 6 ribs instead of 8. I happened to have a ball of DMC Senso wool/cotton/metallic in a spice color that was a really near match to the fabric. I made 14 buttons and matching braided frogs. The loops themselves are knotted/buttonhole. I had thought to braid enough cord to use to couch the guards on, but I only had one ball and Senso has been discontinued. I'm going to use a basic gold cording instead. I cut the guards from a blue cotton brocade that is the same fabric as the cloak, just in a different colorway. I've been alternating ironing bias and sanding my tournament shield throughout the day.

Just a quick update

The kids have swiped the batteries from the camera for the remote control, so no pictures until tonight, but I've started sanding the tourney shield. Hoping to get some work done on it tonight after they go to bed. The other project I've got going is a cappotto/Dutch cloak based on the Don Garzia Medici extant piece. I finished the buttons for it yesterday. Fourteen goes much more quickly than 100 something. I'm doing simple braided frogs, with the loops formed by half hitches (would have been buttonhole stitch, but I tied them rather than stitched them) and they are almost complete, just 3 left to finish the second side of. Planning to cut the cloak and guards out tonight or tomorrow and get started on the couching. I just have to decide for sure on the couple of things I'd like to change. I'm considering doing a picadil on the shoulder rather than the wing in order to make it more feminine. I might also make the sleeves hanging, but do like having them functional. I'll be honest, I'd really have preferred to do a much fuller bag sleeve, or even the Neopolitan type that Katerina or Purple Files did on her cappotto, but I didn't want to make that many buttons after all the buttons I just made. Simple as that. The just 3 buttons per sleeve on the extant piece was very convincing for that reason. Still thinking about the picadils at the base of the neck. They're kind of weird but rather fabulous as well.

Impresa for the tourney shield

My impresa came together pretty quickly. I knew I wanted something very clearly rooted in the emblem books, rather silly, and totally appropriate to my current "tournament." I also wanted to very clearly follow Paolo Giovio's "Rules" for making an impresa from his 1559 Dialogo dell'imprese as listed by Ursula George after Alan Young's Translation in The English Tournament Impresa.

" There should be a proper proportion between soul and body [motto and picture].
The impresa should be neither so obscure that the Sibyl must interpret it, nor so obvious that every plebeian can understand it.
It should have a beautiful appearance, making use of stars, the sun, the moon, fire, water, green trees, mechanical instruments, strange animals, and fantastic birds.
It should contain no human form.
It should have a motto, which is the soul of the body, and should be expressed in a language other than the native language of the bearer, so that the meaning may be more obscure.
The motto should be brief, but not so much that it creates uncertainty. Two or three words may be enough, unless they are in the form of verse. "

I also wanted something that fit Praksedys' persona (the personality, not the Russian place and time) so I could possibly use it at a future point in the SCA. Between my tendency to create quantity and embrace color and Praksedys' love of pearls and over the top decoration, I settled on the concept of positive excess. Throwing a few wording options into translation software in a variety of languages and picking the one with the best ring to it gave me "Magis est Melius," the Latin for More is Better.

I had already been gifted with the idea for the perfect symbol by my friend Dame Kadrina Tanskalainen after she took my impresa class and was then forced to brainstorm about this on the way home since she had been my travel buddy to Collegium. A cornucopia seemed rather perfect. How perfect I didn't quite realize until I dug a little.

Abondanza, Abundance/Plenty, with her cornucopia is the very first emblem in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, an emblem book first published in 1593. The symbol is as Classical as they come, often attached to a variety of Roman Ggoddesses or Dionysus on occasion. One of the original myths has it being created from a horn ripped by Zeus accidentally from his nannygoat wetnurse Amalthea. To make it up to her, he insured that it will always be full of the best foods for her.

There is a double cornucopia in the emblem for Fortune in Alciato's Book of Emblem's as well. It turns up constantly in decorative art and allegory. It has a solid pedigree for use in imprese all around.

So, I have a 3 word motto in Latin with a mythological symbol full of nature. Check, check, and check. If I draw it without the goddess we're clear on the no human figure (the rule is often ignored, but I was trying to be a good kid and follow it.) Balance is subjective, but it seems pretty reasonably matched, and because of the circumstance, the motto seemed pretty clear. Add a couple more checks and I think the rules are fulfilled. I should probably write a poem or compose a song just to be thorough, but visually the impresa is complete.

I'll get a scan of my drawing tomorrow. Hopefully, the shield will be done drying by then and I can start prepping it for paint.

In other news, I have finished the swatch for my knitted stockings so I can calculate the pattern. I also think I've settled on a camicia style. I'm going to put off the black pointed project until later. I want to do this dress next, and that camicia will be nice for that project I think.