Abbey Festival 2024

 The BIG show for the year!  10,000 people a day (and the online tickets sold out inside of 36 hours!).  They tried something new this year - a 'Family Fun Day' on the Friday (as well as the usual event which runs on the Saturday and Sunday) which ran for about 4 hours and was for folk who found the main event daunting or difficult to get around - families with young children, disabled folk, neurodivergent folk who don't handle crowds well.  It was a good (part) day and was well-received by the attendees and most of the re-enactors :-) and after our visitors had left we finished setting up for the main event on the weekend.

I'm not usually an early riser, but make an exception at events, usually because the toilets are sufficiently far away from my nice warm bed that by the time I get back I'm no longer sleepy and so I arc up the fire and make myself a coffee... the kitchen first thing in the morning is my Happy Place :-)  I have it down to a fine art LOL - put about a cup and a half of water into my tiny little copper pot, light a Flaming Cupcake (a sort of a candle made of sawdust and wax with a bit of rope in it as a wick) under it with a couple of pinecones on top and some kindling, and once it's caught add a couple of small bits of hardwood - and I have boiling water inside of about 5 minutes :-)

We set up early this time - the kids helped us load on the previous Saturday and we set up the tent shells on the Sunday and then Rob and I stayed over (the kids rejoined us later in the week before the event) and it rained and rained... by the second day the doorway into the kitchen was so boggy I had to skin a couple of firewood logs and use the bark as a door mat LOL.

People still came though, and seemed to have a fantastic time :-) even though the site got muddier and boggier - lots of comments about how 'authentic' the weather was LOL.  All the bits and pieces we'd made over the past year or so came together and I must admit I was pretty proud of our encampment :-)

The Pavilion (a.k.a. dining room) and the Wayside Chapel:

All our stripey-roofed tents:

The Grumpy Old People's tent (Rob and I):

My spices display in the kitchen tent:

Needless to say it's not really the done thing to run around with a camera/phone/modern item while the public are there because it spoils the whole feel of the event (evidently... something about immersion... don't get me started...), so a lot of the photos I have of the event are yoinked off facebook because they're by the very talented official event photographers... credits for them appear as a watermark on the photo :-)

The kids playing tavli:

One of my textile workshops (I did 6 over the weekend...):

A really nice photo of my tent - please excuse the loom on the altar LOL, I was setting up for a workshop...

Nat's new wall hanging:

Lyra playing with the mini-tent:

On the Sunday afternoon after everyone had left, the lovely people from the Birds of Prey group let us hold their eagle and take photos :-)  Such a big bird was remarkably light weight - I guess they'd have to be or they wouldn't fly LOL.

We started packing down on the Sunday after the public had left, but did most of it the following day - an encampment that takes a good couple of days to set up isn't going to come down overnight ;-)

Did I mention how muddy it was?

AROW24

 AROW is the Abbey Reenactors-Only Weekend and usually occurs on the May Day long weekend.  Aside from a chance to camp and socialise, it's invaluable as a practice set-up for the Abbey Festival (10,000 people a day!) and to test that all the new gear and ideas that emerged over the summer period actually work...

Sam got to test out her new tent:

Nat got to set up her new Scribe's display:

I got to test out the cardwoven fence and the new sign:

We set the new Kids' Tent up and it was very well received :-)

Our first-aiders had an inservice with the new kit.

We all had a play with the flint and steel, and the kids made tiny fires (in the fire tray...)

Rob set up his axe-throwing target and some lovely viking lasses joined our girls throwing for most of the afternoon :-)

We had some rather charming visitors when it came time to pack down and head home :-)

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! 

ABBEY!!!!

The big day finally came - the group's first public show, at the Abbey Museum Tournament. We arrived there late afternoon last Friday and set up the tent, the carpets, the hangings, the lamps... as it was getting dark by the time that was done I decided to leave setting up the actual display until the following morning, so we set up the camp beds for the girls and left it at that. Dad had the good sense to book a motel room for the weekend, so we had dinner with him in the restaurant attached to it (Sam had the biggest eye fillet steak I've ever seen!) and then returned to the festival site to do some socialising.

I hadn't been to an Abbey tournament for about 5 years, and the difference in size was immediately apparent - this was going to be a HUGE event! The other thing I noticed was that there was a distinct lack of the bitterness and enmity between groups that used to plague the movement, and the general atmosphere was friendly and welcoming. We spent an hour or so wandering from campfire to campfire and chatting with folk - lovely to renew old acquaintances! - and then headed off to bed about 10ish...

Up early the next morning: into costume, setting up the display, grabbing pancakes for breakfast (the pancakes stall opened at 6.30am to feed the re-enactors, bless 'em!); Dad arrived a bit before 8 and helped set up and we were ready to go well before the public turned up an hour later.

We felt singularly honoured to lead the grand parade, as 'Brisbane's newest re-enactment group' (although it probably had more to do with the fact that I was scheduled to give a lecture on medieval textile production at 11 o'clock, shortly after the parade), and for the rest of the day had a steady stream of visitors to the tent, a lot of whom stayed quite a while, reading the display. I also ran a spinning class each day, which was nicely populated by about half a dozen people who seemed to get the hang of it and will probably turn out to be good spinners (with the ever-necessary bit of practice!).

We all took time out from 'tent-sitting' to have a wander around the fair, and the girls bought trinkets at the medieval market - stacks of stalls this year! - and had a good time. Dad was happy to watch the to-ing and fro-ing of the people - re-enactors and public - and answer odd questions about the display; the rest of us were more energetic and wandered around the place, but are paying for it today with sore feet and stiff legs - haven't done that much walking in ages!

Our little stall was a moderate success - didn't sell much of the medeival bits'n'pieces (wooden spoons, needlecases, odd bits of brass), but the cardweaving kits went very well - the kits are designed to teach the basics of cardweaving, and it seems people are interested in learning new skills, which is great!

I was very chuffed to receive so many compliments on the display - the nicest from Michael and Edith, who organise the Abbey Tournament and run the Abbey Museum; none of the other re-enactment groups displays in this way and I was trying something 'new' for the Brisbane re-enacment circle, so I'm glad (and very relieved) it was received so well. To explain: most groups set up a living history encampment, to show how people lived in the era they're re-enacting. They have tents, tables, campfires and such and they spend their time demonstrating skills of the period to the public: fighting, cooking, textiles, crafts, medicine... you name it. I've found, though, from doing this sort of re-enactment in the past, that the public are often unwilling to ask questions and will stand back and watch, and sometimes be puzzled about what's going on. My display, as you can see from the photos, is mainly textual with a lot of models about what the text is talking about. The display cover a variety of areas - Dad's Benedictines (the Public Service of the day providing education, medical care, record-keeping, and care of 'unfortunates'), textiles (including spinning, dyeing and weaving), clothing and cosmetics, food and utensils, games, music, medicine, and a smattering of other odd information. Where possible I include illustrations from the period, and models of whatever the display topic is talking about (a scale model upright loom, a medieval bed, crockery and so forth). The aim of this is to provide background knowledge of the period in easily-digestible, 18pt font chunks which will hopefully allow a greater appreciation of the living history seen in other encampments (some of the work that goes into these is incredible - hand-beaten pots, carved beds and tent-ends, beautiful costumes - an enormous amount of work!)

All in all, it was an enjoyable and gratifying weekend - now we just have to wash and repack stuff for the next show, History Alive, in just under two weeks....

Test run

I've been spending the last while on the display boards - much researching, writing, precis-ing, re-writing... Having beaten them into something brief but still informative, I then sent the pdfs to Dad who printed them out (on 'parchment' paper or card) in glorious colour; they were then stuck to boards (stained and varnished earlier) and given a couple of coats of matt varnish to protect them from the ravages of time, packing, and sticky fingers...

An aside: you'd be amazed what The Public will poke and prod at. I learned a lot when I was re-enacting a few years ago as I also had a display then (although not as neat or as comprehensive as my current one) set up inside my tent, and at every show I would have to ask people not to damage it - the two old biddies who were attempting to bend a bone needle it took me half an hour to make, to see if it was plastic (I'm not sure how bendability or snapping it would have proved that); the young couple who placed my spare loom weights (threaded onto a loop of leather) over their child's head like a necklace and walked out of the tent, and made a great show of surprise when reminded that the object actually should stay with the display; the constant poking of fingers into the spice bowl (part of the tableware display) - most of the fingerprints were adult-sized (!); and the constant banging on drums, twanging the harp, strumming the lute, despite there being signs everywhere requesting the displays not be touched (and a rope a metre out from the displays!) - I had to re-skin a drum because of the amount of grease and something else (I think it may have been satay sauce) deposited on the head by one curious person.

Anyway, this time I decided that as public 'interaction' with the display was inevitable I should design the displays to be touched and make them as undamageable, or easily replaceable, as possible. The musical instruments, as ever, will be a problem...

Having got the majority of the display boards and accompanying models finished, I decided to set up the tent (I only finished sewing the walls, finally, last week!) and have a test run. It took me a couple of hours to set the tent up, put down the carpets (with a tarp under them - they're expensive!), tie up the wall hangings, and then finally set the display up. By this time it was very late in the afternoon and so Dad and I did a quick critique on what needed to be done/changed/ improved, then I went back later in the evening and made most of the major changes before I decided that I was too tired to make rational decisions and should pack it in for the night.

I spent most of this morning 'tweaking' the display and by lunchtime had it to a stage where I rang Dad and asked him to come over and do some more critique-ing. There is still a fair bit of work to be done on it - I need to make a model of an upright loom and finish a couple of the display boards, and stupid little things like replacing the thin dowel that some of the hangings are on with thicker dowel, as they don't support the displays without bending dramatically; but by and large I feel I've broken the back of it and will definitely be Good To Go by early June, when our first show is.

As it stands, the display covers the areas of tentage, lighting and furniture; a quick history of Cyprus during and shortly after the Third Crusade; textiles, dyes and cardweaving; games; medicine; music; feasting and eating; clothing and cosmetics; Dad is working on a display on the Benedictine Order (including himself in it, in costume); and Nat's planning a Trade and Travel display as soon as her studies (last year at uni!) allow. So, it's fairly comprehensive but still has a lot of room for upgrading and improvements (for example, replacing the wooden model dice with bone or horn ones, when I find some pieces big enough to make dice out of!). As I mentioned in the last blog it'll run to about 25,000 words, which basically makes the whole thing a big book with a stripey canvas cover and lots of 3-D illustrations!

And best of all - it packs down very neatly into three trunks and some loose stuff!

Finished the roof!!

By 2pm I'd finished the last bit of painting (the hem) and waited for an hour for it to dry; the tent took me about 20 minutes to put up, squeezed between the lemon tree and the fishpond. The middle poles were way too large and Dad gave me a hand cutting them to size, and by 4pm the tent was ready to hose down and check for waterproof-ness, which it passed with flying colours.



The tent is basically 6 160cm squares (so, 4.8m by 3.2m), and the ridge of the roof is about 3.4m high. It has two large 'centre' poles and 10 outer poles, and the roof took 16m of canvas to make (the walls, which are yet to be hemmed, are two pieces of 8.5m x 1.8m canvas and will hook onto a rope that runs around the inner edge of the tent under the valance).



So far I've used about 150m of thread just on the roof, and the walls will use about another 105m - when I've finished this tent I will have sewn a quarter of a kilometre by hand...

Tent update...

The tent has gone from being pieces of canvas in my garage to being a huge shapeless mess on the downstairs table - I have one more piece to sew onto it before attaching the leather pole reinforcements; although I bought the canvas in late September it's taken a while to get this far - I keep getting distracted by more interesting projects (wax tablets, knives etc!) and, let's face it, handsewing a tent is a boring job...

I finally got around to doing the poles over the last couple of days - the smaller, outer poles are Tassie oak and the two large inner ones are kwila - both straight-grained hardwoods but both fairly easy to shape (although I have developed newfound respect for just how hard kwila is!)

The doing is really quite simple - mark off a line 10cm (or in the case of the larger poles, 15cm) back from then, cut a groove with a saw about half a centimetre deep (or a centimetre for the larger ones), chip the pole back to the mark with a chisel and neaten it up, finish shaping it with a rasp, and then remove the furry bits with a file.


Of course, all the ends need to be about the same size (because they have to fit fairly snugly into leather-reinforced holes in the tent and it's inconvenient to have to match up poles to holes because some are too big (in which case they might push through, or leak if it rains) and other too small and won't fit through at all.


I decided that rather than oiling them with linseed oil as I did last time, I should paint them - the Maciejowski Bible has some nice examples of painted poles. Linseed paint tends to be a bit thin and translucent so I whitewashed the poles first (or the colour wouldn't really show up) and painted the smaller poles a nice cinnabar/red lead - which, much to my frustration, has ended up with them looking, from a distance, like they were stained with a rosewood stain (from a couple of feet away you can see it's paint); the larger 'centre' poles I painted that ordinary blue one gets when combining the froth off boiling indigo with white lead...

So, hopefully, gods willing, no interruptions... I might be able to set up the roof on the weekend and then cut the 'centre' poles to the correct size (theoretically they should be 180cm - the wall height - plus 160 cm - the roof height; but because canvas is flexible, they usually need to be a little longer to stretch it up properly - the question is, how much of a little bit and this has to be a hands-on measurement and not just done with a tape measure).

Then it's just (!) a matter of sewing loops aroun the roof to take a rope on which to hang the walls, and then sewing the walls themselves - hemming and sewing hooks on 2 pieces of canvas each 8 and a half metres long...