More on Pent

So I have thought some more on entering Pent, and I think I will, however I have refined what I thought I will do for the entry, now I am considering:

Category III Technological Sciences

Weapon Making - atlatl making and using

Woodworking Construction - making and using a pole lathe

Category IV Studio Craft

Bookbinding - Coptic Binding

Pigments and pens - do a comparison of various inks on various papers

Category V Domestic Arts and Sciences

Wine/Mead/Beer/ale/lager - Period beer brewing with a beer bread made from the remains.

The pigments and pens instead of a calligraphy was because I was researching for doing calligraphy and decided I'd do home made period paper and home made period ink, and in researching ink recipes I discovered that there are a number of factors in choosing the right ink for the right paper, so a straight out comparison would be interesting, since I couldn't find such a comparison I decided to do one myself.

Contemplating Pent Entry

I am considering entering Pent in the 2011 Kingdom A&S. Now I know don't have a hope in hell of winning, but I figure it could be a fun experience, plus get me working on more A&S. Pent is an arts and sciences competition where you enter five arts and sciences projects covering a range of categories.

You cannot enter more than two entries in any one main category, and only one per sub category. The categories are:

I. Performing Arts  

• Bardic recitation  

• Dance: Middle Eastern  

• Dance: European  

• Dance: Original Choreography  

• Dramatic Performance  

• Juggling/tumbling  

• Musical Performance: Mixed ensemble  

• Musical Performance: String Instrument  

• Musical Performance: Voice  

• Musical Performance: Wind instrument  

• Music Composition1  

• Poetry1  

• Prose/Playwriting1  

• Research1  

II. Textile and Needle Arts:  

• Costume accessories  

• Costuming: European pre 1200  

• Costuming: European 1200-1351  

• Costuming: European: 1351-1451  

• Costuming: European: 1451-1600  

• Costuming: Non European  

• Free-form embroidery  

• Lacemaking  

• Counted thread work  

• Miscellaneous needle work  

III. Technological Sciences:  

• Armour: cloth/leather/Horn  

• Armour: mail/plate  

• Ironwork/tool making  

• Miscellaneous crafts  

• Musical Instrument making  

• Scientific Instruments  

• Weapon making  

• Woodworking: construction  

• Wood, Horn and bone carving  

• Animal Husbandry  

IV. Studio Crafts:  

• Calligraphy  

• Ceramics/pottery  

• Drawing  

• Decorative metalwork  

• Pewter casting  

• Glasswork  

• Illumination  

• Lapidary  

• Leatherwork  

• Miscellaneous crafts  

• Painting  

• Sculpture  

• Bookbinding  

• Pigments and pens  

V. Domestic Arts and Sciences: 

• Wine/Mead/Beer/ale/lager  

• Cooking: illusion foods  

• Cooking: multiple dish  

• Cooking: single dish  

• Dyeing  

• Knitting  

• Knot work  

• Spinning  

• Weaving  

• Miscellaneous crafts  

Quite a wide variety of categories eh! This is what I am considering entering:

Category I
Research - A paper on beer and bread

Category III
Woodworking: Construction - Making a Pole Lathe and using it to turn bowls

Category IV
Calligraphy - Do some Calligraphy Scroll work
Bookbinding - Do some Japanese bookbinding or Coptic bookbinding

Category V
Wine/Mead/Beer/Ale/lager - Well I am becoming known as a mead maker so what would an A&S entry from me be without some mead. My idea is to find as period a mead recipe as possible (preferably sixth century Irish to fit my persona if I can) and make that.

In any A&S competition there are three levels, Advanced Intermediate and Beginner. Generally speaking Pent entries don't stand a chance unless they are all advanced, but I am not entering Pent to win, am entering Pent (assuming I DO enter pent) for the experience, as such I probably won't be entering every entry as advanced, though the mead would probably have to be advanced since I am gaining such a reputation as a mead maker (even if my mead isn't up to the same level as others). Most entries will probably be at the intermediate level.

Forward Into the Past

So Forward Into The Past was this weekend, and I think it is perhaps my favourite event I have gone to todate, even with the fact that I taught, for the first time, Intro to Mead Making. I think the class went well, and the students seemed interested, especially when I informed them they'd have a bottle of Mead to bring home to finish fermenting.

Other than teaching I learned some bone carving, a little more on Ogham and Runic texts, some shoe making, and much more. If you are reading this and have never heard of or been to Forward Into the Past I highly recommend going to it next year.

For those of you from FITP who attended my class, as promised I am posting the class notes here in PDF format. The notes can be downloaded from google documents here. If you did not attend the class feel free to download the notes anyways.

Introduction to Mead Course

So I have decided to offer a course at fool on the basics of mead making, well actually two separate courses. One in which myself and the participants will make period fireside mead using a variation of the weak honey drink recipe from Sir Kenelme Digbie's Closet which was published in 1669, the recipe is a very period method of making a weak mead which would have been common throughout Europe for many centuries. The other course would be a course on making more modern mead, and hopefully we can make individual bottles of mead for each participant.

I have to go to the wine shop I frequent and ask if there is airlock for such small batches in order to do this, but I think over all it could be a very popular course. Faye (Marguerite) says she is pretty sure no one has ever attempted to hold such a course.

Shield Making and other stuff

So I worked on a shield, not Lilley's, but rather the loaner shield I will be donating to the shire. The reason I worked on that shield and not Lilley's is because Lilley wants to paint her own shield, or at least help. This makes sense and is fine by me. So I figured I'd do up the loaner shield and Lilley can use it until such time as her own is made and ready.

In addition I made a device which should help me make some pretty cool torcs, arm bands, circlets and other such jewlery. Once I play with it some and get some stuff out I'll post pics and details about how it works. But it is extremely simple to make and could make some real impressive stuff if it works the way I hope it does.

Torc Complete

I finished work on my first torc. Its gold twisted wire. A little small and one finial is a little wrong, but it's not bad. If I can get some pictures of it I'll post them soon. Once I have perfected the method I will also post them here.