Side Board / Feasting

I seem to officially have my side board items decided on. Due to this fact, I can now make permanent sign-age for them. Also, because I have a very nice flow chart of when I have made them and how many I cooked for, how many were actually there, and how much was eaten, as well as how much a single batch costs, I am able to manipulate fairly quickly and easily. I do have a few other recipes on stand by that I have tried or would like to try again in order to flesh them out and have things for substitutions if, say, there is a really bad year on beets or something. But, otherwise, these are certainly the main things I make and have people beg for me to make again.

Chapatis (flat breads)
Shashlyk (grilled beef)
Pagach (cabbage pie)
Griby (marinated mushrooms)
Hen with prunes
Turnip pudding with ham
Dinner kasha
Creamed beets
Tea eggs
Mushroom caviar

Over all, things seem to go over really well. I've noticed that, depending on the event, some things go over better than others. There are a few other things I have made that I would make again depending on if it is a feast or I just want to substitute.

Cod with spiced cherry sauce
Stuffed onions
Root vegetables in milk sauce

There are also quite a few things that I would like to make at some point, including and not limited to borscht, cold salted cucumber soup, kvas (again), and hand made Russian sausages. Perhaps the next side board I will make sausages for. Perhaps I will make up a small batch for Pennsic just to get an idea.

For recipes, please view this entry: Recipes

SCA Goals Updated

Obscure goals: 

To have someone filk one of my original songs.

To have someone show me something they made/did because I inspired them to do such.

To have friends in every kingdom.

To get over 1,000 hugs from different people, documented, at Pennsic.

To go to events in at least two other kingdoms (not counting Pennsic) in the course of one year.

To have tried every craft in the A&S category and have proof of my trials.

To finally have the courage to perform something at Enchanted Grounds.

To help put together Casa Bardicci. As of Pennsic 2012, I did get to help put together the Casa. It was awesome coming down each day and seeing how it grew and changed.

To make something using all of my A&S talents that is good enough to be displayed in Casa Bardicci.

To have someone tell me that it isn't truly an event until they see me there.

To have someone commission me into making something special and important for them or someone they know.

To have someone approach me to tell me about their research because they know it is something I would enjoy.

 To have someone approach me because someone else told me I was the perfect person to talk to about a certain subject. I have officially had a few people approach me specifically saying that I was the person to go to in our area for anything Russian. That certainly made me blush and feel honored that people feel that I am that knowledgeable.

To have someone approach and want to meet me just because they've heard so much about me.

To hear about something I have created being spread far and wide through another kingdom (be it craft, story, or song).

 To have someone tell me that they are surprised I don't have a (order of the emerald, Tyger of the East, maunche, laurel) because I seem to embody exactly what that award is in their eyes. Not only have I been told by someone they are surprised I don't have a maunche, but I also have been awarded the order of the emerald because people couldn't believe I didn't have it yet. I cried. My scroll has tear stains on it.

 To some day become Queen specifically so I can inspire others.

 To some day become baronial/kingdom level bard/A&S champion specifically so I can inspire others. Did I inspire others? I feel as though I tried. I tried by pushing myself beyond what I would normally do and I entered A&S competitions and displays in places I normally wouldn't and at events I may never have gone to otherwise. Everything I entered, someone in the barony had given me great help with and they are thanked in my documentation. Each time someone approached me, I spoke highly about Concordians and what an inspiration they are and how we all support each other in our crafts and, in such, inspired others in similar crafts and mannerisms. Even my tokens I had been giving out this year, small little pearl flowers, was a technique taught to me by Pashalika and each time I give one, I say how the craft was taught to me and the person I am giving it to was inspiring and teaching me in kind. So did I inspire others? I like to hope so. Did I have fun? I really did. It has been a wonderful year and it is soon to be over. I will try not to cry as I look forward to smiling unto my successor and hoping that my words inspire them to continue dreaming and working their magic in their craft and teaching others as well as accepting more knowledge from wherever it comes.

To have someone approach me and tell me how knowing me has made their SCA life that much better.

To spend a full day with each person that inspires me and learn all I can from them.

To have people remember me fondly, as they do so many others, whether it is because I need to move or something sadder happens.

More tangible to understand goals: 

 A matching hat, collar, and cuffs full with embroidery, leather base, gold thread, and pearl couching.

Hand cast a full set of temple rings

A mixed media (of all my A&S skills) Russian icon

A hand sewn hand woven coat with hand made trim (I'm half way there)

A story/song/poem for every bit of the Russian Chronicles

To understand Russian medieval modal musical style so I can begin writing my own music and then to... write... music

An entirely hand sewn outfit (every layer hand sewn)

 Create a class on Russian medieval law once I know a little more about it

To learn enough Russian that I can start throwing it into stories with a "excuse me, I mean blah blah blah" on ocassion

Goals I never knew I had until they happened to me: 

To have a stranger tell me I inspire them: This has happened in many ways to me. One of the first was at Pennsic when a woman approached me and handed me a small slip of paper telling me how much I inspired her and thanked me for researching my persona and keeping true to it to make Pennsic a more beautiful place. It was really wonderful and an amazing feeling.

To have someone see something in me and actively -want- to teach me without me approaching them: When you have two laurels you very much respect give you a joking sad 'aww, you are already apprenticed' because they see such potential in you.... it is really really humbling. In fact, there are more than just laurels that have wanted to take me aside and teach me. It seems a lot of people see potential in me for a lot of things. I hope I can make them all proud with all my endeavours.

To cook a feast: Oh it was stressful, but I love playing hostess and I never knew how much I really really wanted that honor until I got to do it once and then stand all proud before my meal that everyone enjoyed to the last drop. It is kind of a rush.

Goals I had that I dropped when life got busy and I want to get back to: 

Making cookies to give to awardees after court. I have found that it isn't so much the giving of the cookies that touches people as much as it is having someone approach them that is a complete stranger to tell them how inspired they are by their work and even sit down for a few minutes with them to hear more about the things they are passionate about. I have had people nearly in tears when I did this and it made me feel so connected and I know it made the awardee feel wonderful as well. I would like to get back into this habit as I feel I have been missing out on so much over the past few months for not having had the time to do it. I will get back into the habit this weekend at Crystal Snowflake.

Bells For My Bards

Many of you are near and dear to my heart. And many of you have received a bell from me, a gift for your inspiration to me, your bravery, and how you are so truly amazing that you have touched everyone with your gift of story and song. I wrote this for you, all of you. For you bring tears to my eyes in amazement with your beauty and growth.

Your words sing with beauty and glory
They touch every heart near the fire
You have changed many lives with your lilting
You have traits that so many admire

Take this bell with my blessing
Keep it close to your ear
May it's ringing remind you
You're beloved and dear

Our hearts laugh when jesters fall downwards
Our hearts break when you start to lament
Our hearts smile when endings are happy
When you finish your songs we are spent

Take this bell with my blessing
Keep it close to your ear
May it's ringing remind you
You're beloved and dear

A muse to so many around you
You inspire the warriors to stand
The East is so proud of your triumphs
Your words can be heard through the land

Take this bell with my blessing
Keep it close to your ear
May it's ringing remind you
You're beloved and dear

Nobelese Largesse A&S Swap

So I decided to sign up for an A&S swap. I figured it would let my muse play in places that it normally doesn't. So after signing up and waiting a few weeks, I had gotten my person. I wont mention them by name until the swap is over and I have given them their piece, but what I can say is she has a Spanish persona. Knowing that, I tried to think what I could make. I decided to focus on her colors (she really like jewel tones and I know I had a sapphire blue roving I've been dying to spin up). At first I was going to spin up the blue wool and then make her a book and hand knit (with interspersed pearls) a cover for her book. I realized that wouldn't work at some point early in the month of June and realized I only had two months left to make something.

I began searching the web, looking for something that would work for me. That was when I came across a spanish pouch that someone had recreated by embroidering it. It is a 13th century find and they recreated it with white, reddish gold, and sapphire blue. I figured... I can do this! Not embroidery, of course, since I don't know how to embroider, but I could knit it! Here are links to both the extant find as well as the stitch pattern as someone figured it to be.

Royal Institute of Cultural Heritage

Brick Stitch Pattern #16

Then came the scary moment of realizing I've never done color work before. I figured now was as good a time as any to learn. Since it is a simple stitch the whole way through, I figured I could focus on just the switching of colors.

So here I am wondering how to go about making the pattern. That's when I realized I could use my husband's pixel blocks! They are like legos, in 12 colors, except all perfectly square so it would work perfectly in making a color work pattern for myself. The nice part about working in this manner is that if I made a mistake (and I made a few) I could just rotate the block of 5x5 pattern to the proper manner.

As I started working, I realized I was only going to be able to use two colors. Using all three would make the pattern HUGE. So I cut it down to a yellow with bits of red, green, and blue mixed in. Sunflower, I believe it is called. And also the sapphire blue. Both were hand spun, one on my ashford, the other on my antique flax wheel.

I wanted to knit it in the true diamond pattern that was on the actual bag and as tiny as was on the bag, but because I wanted to felt the bag, I didn't want the whole thing getting lost in the felting, so I stuck with making it a little bigger and making it straight. I couldn't diamond because... well... knitting is difficult to diamond and I'm not -that- good of a knitter.

So here is an update as to how far I have gotten in 4 hours of knitting:

I will say I plan on the pattern repeating once more to make the bag longer. After felting it, I will be finger loop braiding the draw string out of red Egyptian cotton as well as making the tassels out of it. I plan to line the inside of the bag with silk, as well. Hopefully it goes over well. I'm thinking of what kind of trinket or three I can throw inside, even if it is some hand mixed home grown spices or something.

There are so many things I learned doing this project and so very many things that this was a first for me.

This was my very first color work in knitting. All in all, I think it came out pretty well (this is pre-felting):

This was my first time doing finger loop braiding. I had to teach myself using diagrams and reading instructions and a lot of trial and error since the videos were not working well for me. I used, of all things, fingerloop.org and made the simple purse string from it. Go to the links section for a link to the proper technique I used.



This was also my first time ever making tassels. You would think, how could this be your first time? Tassels are simple things! Yes, well, they are. And I've made yarn dolls, so I knew what to do, but this was my first time ever doing it. And when attaching the tassels to the bottom corners, I used a huge needle and drew it through the wool and silk alike to the inside of the bag but no knot would keep it in. So my ingenious idea was to take a small metal bead and tie that with the cord thread and now it stays with no problem:

So, in the end, the bag ended up being: a merino blend (hand spun) for the yarn knitted in sunflower and sapphire blue. A crimson egyptian cotton (purchased) that was then finger loop braided for the drawstring and also wound for the tassels. Two clay beads for decoration (purchased). And last, but certainly not least, a silk lining for the inside. Here are a few pictures of the final project:

For a little more technical information:

The yarn was spun to about 25-30wpi.
I knitted using a pair of circular size 2 needles.
Felting shrank the bag by about 15%.

Dancing Bears

At one point, as I sat searching for something very specific, I came across a snippet of a story that, no matter how hard I looked, didn't have any further information. What I cam across was the first documented moment of folk dance and music in medieval Russia which dated back to 907. Now, the reason there isn't much here is because most things found in the beginning sections of the Chronicles are more or less just anecdotes from the earlier periods. The Chronicles were originally a history of Russia from 850 to 1110 that was complied in 1113, but many additions were added through the years.

In either case, this small snippet told the tale of Grand Russian Prince Oleg who, at a large celebration in honor of his victory over the Greeks at Constantinople, was presented a group of dancers. There were 16 male dancers dressed as bears and 4 bears dressed as male dancers. When the dance, and the feast, were over, Oleg commanded the bears to be released and the dancers executed.

That is about all the snippet says, though further research shows that Oleg was thought to be partially blind and perhaps took the dancers to be from a tribe in the North who owed him 100 tiger skins in tribute. Now, the thing that I find to be interesting and what originally caught my eye and made me say 'there is a story in here somewhere' is that the story doesn't well describe whether he wanted the dancers executed, or the bears dressed up as dancers executed.

One of the other interesting things the Chronicles tell about Oleg is that he was known as The Seer. He had a prophetic vision of his death which did, in fact, come to pass. But that is another story.

This story has been sitting on the back burner for almost two years, waiting for the perfect inspiration. Where that inspiration finally came from was my decision to compete at King and Queen's bardic and they requested that the first round piece be documentable and about 12th Night. Now, I don't really know much about 12th Night, but what I -do- know is that Russians celebrated every event they could with dance. And what story would be better than the first story of dance in Russia. So, using some creative license, this is the story I came up with.

Let me tell you a story that happened on the night of the epiphany many years ago. On this night, Great Russian Prince Oleg had a strange dream. In this dream he was offered bears as tribute. But instead of being pleased with the gift, he drew his dagger and leapt upon the bears, skinning each where they stood. Out of those wound poured not blood, but gold and rubies.

Oleg awoke, confused. He began questioning his advisors what such a prophetic dream could mean. None could give him an answer. After months of this, even the Boyars began to call Oleg a fool for holding on to such nonesense. So Oleg pushed aside the dream and instead worked on mastering the art of war.

It wasn't long before Oleg had brought his armies to the border and conquered Tsargav, the great city of Constantinople. A grand feast was prepared in Kiev on the anniversary of his dream, that night of epiphany. Boyars and Boiarynias from far and wide came bearing gifts fit for their prince.

One tribe from the North gave their sons skins and instruments to bring to Kiev so they may entertain the prince. Upon arriving at the hall, the musicians were sent inside so they may set up while the rest of the men spoke with the captain of the guard. As they dressed in their skins, they explained to him their plan and asked he announce their arrival before they enter. The captain seemed amused with the idea and was happy to enter the hall ahead of them.

"Behold! A grand tribute for Great Prince Oleg!"

Into the hall loped sixteen bears on all fours. The people gasped. Oleg was delighted.

"A glorious gift! Skin them."

The bears gasped. The captain wasn't certain he had heard Oleg correctly.

"Gozposhin, skin them?"

"Yes. Skin them. Do you dare question me?"

To save his own hide, the captain approached one of the bears, but his eyes were wide with fear. The bear appeared to offer the guard desperate instructions, which appeared to calm him. Carefully he drew his dagger and even more carefully he eased the furs off of each creature. Suddenly the sixteen majestic bears transformed into sixteen scrawny peasants. Oleg was not pleased.

"Is this some kind of trick, captain?"

The musicians, seeing their friends in trouble, called for music. As the tune filled the hall, the captain looked expectantly at the former bears who, in turn, looked at one another.

"What do we do now?"

"We follow through with the plan."

"But we were to dance as bears."

"Then we will dance as bears. Our lives may depend on it."

Suddenly each man leapt into the air, twisting and spinning like bears in battle: strong and graceful. The room filled with laughter. A man called out, "What a miracle!" A miracle that Oleg was all too quick to accept as his own.

"Behold, boyars and boiarynias. Did my dream not tell us true? For this is my true gift. More valuable than bears. More precious than jewels."

Oleg was happy. The people were happy. The captain was happy. But none were more happy than the bears.

On this day the Barynya, the bear dance, was born. All of Russia praised Oleg's name in gratitude for the gift of dance he had given to them.

And never again would any doubt Oleg's prophetic dreams.

Prince Ingvar

While listening to a lot of Russian folk music, a tune that is reminiscent of more than one piece began to sway in my head. It was so sad and dark sounding to me that I knew exactly which poem to pair it up with. The story of Prince Ingvar:



Prince Ingvar Ingvarevich was a kind and righteous man who helped to
rule his father's land of Riazan. One day his father called to him and
asked him to travel to Chernigov as a diplomat of Christianity. The
city was in ruins and in need of cleansing. So Ingvar traveled to
Chernigov and in his father's name, he helped to raise the churches
and brought peace back those who dwelt there. The people were so
thankful for Ingvar's dedication that they gifted him a great tithe to
bring home to his father, the Great Prince Yury.

When Prince Ingvar Ingvarevich returned, he found his home destroyed
by the Mongols. Within the city, he found the body of his mother,
Princess Agrippina, and those of his brothers' wives. On the battle
grounds, he found the bodies of his brethren, killed by the hateful
Batu. All the best souls of Riazan were lying on the barren earth in
the frozen grass, covered with snow and ice, and no one cared for

them. Surrounded by his slain brethren, Prince Ingvar fell to his
knees.

Oh my treasured lives

How could you close your eyes

How could you leave my sight

Oh my treasured lives

Won't you speak to me?

Why won't you talk with me?

Why won't you look at me?

Oh my treasured lives

You faded too early

You lie on deserted land

Watched over by no one

Oh my treasured lives

Where is your power

Who renders your honor

Your days of glory at an end

Oh my treasured lives

You ruled many lands

Now lie on this barren earth

Faces darken from decay

Oh my treasured lives

If God hears your prayers

Pray that I might join you

No more shall we share our joys

Oh my treasured lives

My tongue does not obey me

My lips close and strength ebbs

Oh sorrow of my soul

Plique A Jour

I will begin this journey with mentioning there were two reasons I wanted to do plique a jour. One was that it was a type of enameling done by the Rus starting around 600ish. But the real reason I wanted to do plique a jour? It has a 90% failure rate. Anything that has such a high failure rate HAS to be fascinating, so I needed to give it a try.

A little back ground: Plique a Jour is describe on Wikipedia as being "a vitreous enamelling technique where the enamel is applied in cells, similar to cloisonné, but with no backing in the final product, so light can shine through the transparent or translucent enamel. It is in effect a miniature version of stained-glass and is considered very challenging technically: high time consumption (up to 4 months per item), high failure rate, requires psychological strength to start over. The technique is similar to that of cloisonné, but using a temporary backing that after firing is dissolved by acid or rubbed away.^[1] A different technique relies solely on surface tension, for smaller areas."

Now, as far as I have come to understand through reading various articles and books, there are three different ways you can do this form of enameling.

1) Create a fanciful framework of wires that make shapes and designs, often soddering wires together, to create a very thin and fine work.

2) Using a main frame work, wires can then be laid within the area that the enameling is going on.

3) Using a sheet of metal, cut out holes in order to later fill them with the enamel.

This last style is the one we decided to use as it seemed it would be the easiest with perhaps a higher chance of success than balancing the glass in the wire networks we could have woven. That, and it took a lot less time to punch and cut holes than create a whole mass of wire.

So, this meant a few things. One of which was me creating a design that I then got to, for the first time ever, use a jeweler's saw to cut out. I decided to go with a slavic design with a few artistic licenses. My over all idea was to do a temple ring. Simple, easy, but could plausibly look elegant. It would only be one, so I would probably just make it into a pendant at some point in time.



In either case, the design was chosen and I cut out the holes. The next step was to choose and filter the color glass wanted.

Now, in the book, we read that the class should be sifted through a 325 hole per inch filter. Whatever makes it through you can mix with the solvent and fill the holes, being careful to keep the sides clean. I think that was the hardest part.

Once the glass was in, we let it dry a little bit, but honestly, it wasn't needed. It could dry with the torch. The hard part was heating up the metal away from the glass before getting to the glass. If the glass heated up too quickly first there was a likelyhood of it not taking to the metal and dropping out. Once you figured out how to do it, as nerve wracking as it is, it seemed easier.



A thin sheet of glass and another pile went on. Honestly, once you have a good base to start with, you can pile the glass on pretty high to create a rounded bubble. It goes a LOT faster that way, although they really suggest doing it one thin layer at a time. The trouble is, I wanted to be done in one day as opposed to taking months. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I just wanted to get a taste of it.

After both colors and both front and back were raised, I ground everything down with a stone so that it would be flat and get the glass off of the edges. One last burn to flatten everything out, polish the copper, and I was done.



I really enjoyed making it and would like to do something a little more intricate next time. But there you have it. Plique a jour, a success!