Creative Pay-it-Forward 2014, item #1

On FB a few days ago I signed up for a Creative Pay-It-Forward, the sort of thing where you comment on someone's status and they'll make you something, and in return you post the same offer and make something for the first five people to comment. I figured most people who'd respond to my post would be SCAdians (I was right), but since this isn't an SCA exchange per se, I'm not necessarily bound to SCA standards, and thus I can branch out a bit and have some fun. I'm also looking forward to using up some of the random left-over assorted stuff that I have (though for one project, I also had no problem going out and buying something new to use as the base).

Funnily, the first person to comment I knew almost immediately what I was going to do for, and since I had all the materials on hand was able to get started right away. I made three things, and since she's not on LJ, I can post pictures now even though I won't get it in the mail until tomorrow:

• A silver wire ring (using .5mm wire) with black glass beads:
  
  
  
  
  The style is that of the Anglo-Saxon rings that I've been making, but with the addition of the black beads because I thought they'd be pretty. It was a bit tricky forming a nice circular spiral while keeping the beads from falling off.
  


• A copper wire bracelet (using 1mm wire; I just ran out while making the clasp, but we went out to the hardware store yesterday so I could getmore) with orange+flowered glass beads:
  
  
  
  This is 100% out of my head in terms of design, though strongly influenced by this bracelet that englandbound made. These aren't necessarily colors that I'd wear together, but I rather like how this turned out. The beads are ones that I'd gotten in a box of beads that I bought of another SCAdian who was looking to clear out her clutter (whereas I'm looking at re-populating my bead collection with metal, wood, and glass, rather than the plastic I'd accumulated as a kid. Those will be coming out of storage for Gwen in a year or two!)


• A gold-and-orange silk pouch lined in orange cotton broadcloth:
  
  
  
  
  
  This is fabric that was left over from the sari that my friend Jyoti brought me from India that I could wear to my cousin's wedding in 2007. That sari came with enough extra that you could make the appropriate under shirt garment, and I'd bought the broadcloth to line it. The scraps from this (all very small) have been sitting in my fabric stash since. I sewed the lining to each piece, and then blanket stitched the two lined pieces together with orange linen embroidery thread from Sweden, which I think I picked up at kingdom university 2010.

surfacing, aka, another good weekend

There was a point while working on my Ph.D. where I felt like I was just waiting, waiting for my life to begin. There was a point in the glorious year after I finished -- 2010 -- when we were both employed, I had a generous travel grant and was traveling all over, sometimes to the same conferences as Joel, and I paused and thought "This is what living is like; my life did finally start after finishing the Ph.D." And then the next year we had Gwen, and again I feel like for two years my life was on hold again. Oh, we still did things and went places, but for the most part it was a lot like the final stages of a Ph.D.: You're just surviving and the only way things will get better is to keep doing the same thing day in and day out no matter how tired you are and how sick of doing it you are, and eventually you'll finish the thing you're working on and can move on to something else.

Joel and I have both felt that it's been in the last six months or so that we've finally surfaced again and been able to doing more than work, sleep, and take care of Gwen. This weekend was another instance of a good weekend at home, which we've been having more frequently than not. Yesterday we ran errands in the morning and got/did almost everything on our list. We stopped for lunch at a Vietnamese place we'd never been to before, and the food was fast, cheap, and good. We had no major meltdowns (though more potty-training accidents than we would've liked), Gwen slept until 7:00 both mornings and took decent naps. Today she and I made a cake, and she was actually helpful: I had her stir while I measured out the dry ingredients, and she did a good enough job that I didn't have to finish up for her. And over the course of the weekend in addition to finishing off my first CPiF item, I was able to start and finish one of the things on my "things I want to do" list, namely, some 14th-C-esque headgear. A few months ago I'd found this excellent blogpost with lots of pictures, and decided to make something using two of the images there, both from the Manesse Codex, as my guide:



I decided to do a fillet + veil like the one on the left, but then add a bit of edging to the front of the veil inspired by the embroidery on the one on the right, in order to provide a bit more framing and a bit more color, and also to try to mimic the drape/shape of the one on the right more than the one on the left. (I don't want a barbette, I find them terribly annoying).

I finished it up right before supper and thus was a bit hurried in terms of braiding up my hair and pinning everything together, so when I actually have time to do it carefully it'll look nicer, but nevertheless I'm pretty pleased:


View from the front (sadly out of focus)

View from the side

View from the back


Now I've got at least sort of appropriate headgear to wear with my cotehardies! And in time for ID coronet in a few weeks.