Working towards AROW24

 Reenactment is one of those hobbies where there's a constant flow of things to do, whether it's upgrading current gear, or stumbling across something cool while researching and then making/doing/learning that.

The first upgrade was the kids' cups - what they has was adequate and reasonably in keeping with the period, but  I wanted to make them something better:

and because the entire family's neurodivergent in a variety of forms ("neurospicy!) I made them some in-keeping-with-the period fidget toys - metal rings and bone bead paternosters.

I came across a clay frypan in an op-shop and bought it on spec that it would be reasonably period; dug around a bit online and found it'd pass, and then learnt to cook with pottery gear as it was a lot more typical than iron pots and pans (which were rare/valued highly enough that women willed them to their daughters in some cases!)

We made up a fire-starting kit because someone at the previous show wanted to know how it was done, and the whole group is now reasonably proficient with flint and steel.

I came a cross a reference to sprang weaving and so of course had to give it a go - I can't do anything fancy, but I can make bags :-)

We put together a sunshade for the public to use, because quite often events are hot - even in winter!  We had a member of the public go down in our encampment with heat exhaustion at the previous Abbey - there's a false sense of security that because its winter there won't be a problem, but between the heat and the lack of humidity and the preference for people to dress up in costume for the event (and some of the costumes the public come in put a lot of reenactor efforts to shame - they're magnificent!) it's very easy to overheat (jumping ahead to Abbey24, it rained constantly and the sunshade was used as a rain shelter, but at least it was used).

Nat's getting a Scribe's desk display ready for Abbey24, so Rob built her a lectern to put her parchment on.

...and the blasted finials on top of the tents occasionally need re-gilding...

And we'll test out all the new stuff at AROW!

2023 - The Gathering of the Clan

 After Abbey22 I was very excited to hear that my third daughter (plus husband and 3 kids) was intending to return to Australia after 10 years overseas... and wanted to resume reenacting with us :-)  Needless to say this resulted in a flurry of activity and Making Stuff ;-)  We'd need a bigger kitchen tent, somewhere for all the kids (5 grandkids, and all reenactors!), they'd need a tent to sleep in, costumes, shoes, rugs, hangings... and they were planning on returning about 6 weeks before Abbey23.

I made more toys and the like to go into the toy basket, but the highlight was a 1:10 scale model of one of the tents that they could set up from scratch, more or less, like the big ones.

I also put together a lantern (the goatskin came from an old drum) with a tiny olive oil lamp in it, painted myself a cup, and embroidered a cushion cover for the Idiot Box (so called because it took 8 hours to make the box and only about 10 days to paint it because I was hyper and obsessing LOL)

AROW (in May) let us test out the kids' tent - reenactorlings need their own area - and the new bigger kitchen;

and I made the kids some period-ish plates.

I think Abbey23 was a bit of a culture shock, especially for the kids, but they all managed and had a great time :-)

(photo courtesy of traceydee photography)

The Great Plague

2020 started with a horror bushfire season and the Abbey Museum ran a fund-raiser for the local firefighters; a couple of us attended to provide colour and storytelling ;-) and little realised that it'd be our last public show for ages :-(  A couple of months after that covid hit the world, and we all know how that went...

 I guess the good thing about enforced inactivity is that one gets a lot done...

I wrote a book for one daughter (birthday present)

And make a coverlet for one of the others (also a birthday present).

 I spent a lot of time sorting through all of our reenactment gear and fixing and decorating things; 2021 came around and I made myself some little earrings; dyed up some silk yarn and tablet-wove a belt, then carved the fittings out of pearl shell,

and embroidered a collar (also with the silk yarn).

The plague had died down enough we were able to attend AROW, which was wonderful after such a long break; I made another trunk,  and a tent for a friend... 

and started embroidering (with more of that silk yarn...) an antependium.

We were all rather crushed when a lockdown happened 3 days before the 2021 Abbey Medieval Festival :-( but figured that we'd have some really fine stuff to show off for Abbey 22 so just kept going ;-)

2022 saw me bite off nearly more than I could chew and start weaving a kilim in very fine yarn, which I tinkered with for the first 6 months of the year and only *just* got finished in time for Abbey22; I finished the Antependium in March, then made a jewelled processional cross:

The kilim took quite a lot of my time but I finished in in June, 

and along the way also made a bell-tower and huge tapered candles for the chapel tent.

Abbey Festival 2022 was the first big show we'd had in ages and all the little bits and pieces I'd been making finally all came together and it was wonderful!