Thursday blues
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: What's next?
Topic: sprang stuff
Okay, so this past weekend really rocked!

I'm in the Society for Creative Anachronism. This is a medieval re-creation society, focusing on the best of the middle ages. We study their arts and sciences, do a little fighting... well, I don't fight, but there are lots of people who do. And we have kings, queens, etc, and it's all educational and fun and we get to wear nifty clothes a lot.

This past weekend, there was a war between the East Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Atlantia. I live in Atlantia. Atlantia won the war, but it was a very close thing. I believe that the A&S war point was the one that put us over the top. That's what I was told, anyhow.

So why am I so happy??? Because there was a tournament for the arts and sciences. It was the Laurels Prize Tourney. Basically, anyone interested in entering had to put out their display on the tables in the A&S hall. Between 1-3, we had to sit with our entries and answer questions from all those who asked, and generally show what we really knew about what we do. I got to sit beside a good friend of mine. I also got to answer a few questions about my stuff, but not that much. I was surprised at that.

So imagine my surprise when, during Atlantian Court that evening, they announced the winner of the tourney... and it was me!!! I still really can't believe it. There were so many other entries that far outshone mine, in my opinion. But the Laurels chose me. Who knew??

So anyway... I tell you that to lead into this...

I need to do more sprang. I'm going to be working on a few projects over the next few months, getting together my research, and generally ramping up my entry and documentation. The next project, I think, will be leggings. I have a plan (which I won't go into here) for the next year or so in the SCA, as far as entering or displaying my work. I'm hoping that the plan will actually happen... and I think it will. Though there's not a lot more actual book research I can do, there's a LOT of hands-on stuff that can be done, and that's the direction I'm going to take this in now. I'll keep adding sources to my bibliography, and revising my documentation as I find (or am sent) new pieces of information, but I believe, at this point, that my time can be better spent actually DOING what I'm researching, rather than spending countless hours in a library, trying to find snippets of information buried in weighty tomes about other subjects.

I've got several people who are now coming across references to sprang in the books on their subject, and they've promised to send me what info they can on it. That's all I can ask, as there's no way I can afford to go out and buy ten books on bobbin lace, just to get 2 pages' worth of documentation.

So that's the plan! Leggings next, then I'm going to work on larger pieces of material, such as for an altar cloth or household goods. there's so much that can be done, and so much that it makes sense it WOULD have been done... my job now is to narrow it down to what probably would have been done. Since there are very few extant examples, there's really a lot of wiggle room. Fortunately, Atlantia has some of the nicest and most open-minded laurels in the Known World (okay, so I'm biased -grin-), and they seem to like it when I experiment. As long as I'm trying to use period methods and materials, and as long as I don't present something undocumentable as 'period', they seem to be okay with that.

Check in periodically. I'm going to be working on this a bunch over the next few months! :)