Anja's Quest

Games and other news 7-7-23

Hi, folks!

I ran across an awesome article on the Smithsonian website about games and that led me to a book title.

The article is here – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-games-ancient-world-180974094/ It has some great photos and nice blurbs about the games that it mentions. …and then the book.

Games of the World : How to Make Them, How to Play Them, How They Came to Be by Frederic V. Grunfeld, 1975, Publisher New York : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Isbn 0030152615 – This is a good resource, and seems to have good information. I have a copy on the way, and I’ll take a hard look and post when it gets here.

In other news: summer is demo season for me. We set up a display for House Capuchin at the Glastonbury/Greenwood Faire in Toledo Oregon a couple of weekends back and had a great time. Some photos follow. It was pretty standard for the House, embroidery, toys, games, hats/headgear and a “sciences” table. Lots of folks interested in the history. One of these years I’d *love* to do a live cheese-making display, too…. Fire regulations are an issue with most of that.

A couple of House members sitting the displays

Embroidery

Sciences – brewing, Galileo Thermometer, Balance, Shepherd’s dial, book, bucket

Embroidery at the back, toys to the right, sciences to the left

The House banners above the games

Toys in front. Hats behind

We have two more coming up, the Lane County Fair demo at the end of July and the Shrewsbury Renn Faire in September.
In ministerium autem Somnium,
Anja

Some Game stuff 3-30-23

I’ve been pecking away at updates on the site, but hadn’t done any notes in awhile. I just found two really interesting articles about a chess set from Poland. how cool!

Medieval chess set DNA tested

Sandomierz. The mystery of Sandomierz chess has been solved. DNA testing revealed what bones they were carved from

It’s been awhile 9-19-22

It’s been awhile. I have started and apparently abandoned multiple posts over the last couple of years. That doesn’t mean the blog has been idle. There’s been quite a bit added and edited in the toy sections and some of the others. I’m not going to try to post anything profound, just say that I had had the various blogs that I work on in a rotation for quite some time and the Plague broke that, quite!

May 2020 Plague

A Byzantine Chessboard (owned by Loren Shadwydpere o’Moerlande

We can hope that the plague is losing its grip on the country, but while we’ve all been locked down *lots* of classes have been happening! I’ve been greedily sopping up any and all information that I could. One wonderful thing was a games symposium put on by Honorable Clover and Kalbardr Gyllir that ended up with a lot of recordings. I’m updating the games page today, about 1/2 done. Only the Youtubes will play from this page, but copy/paste links to see these wonderful classes.

Combined cookery and game geekery! This is from our Winter Feast back in February.

In other news, lots of blackwork has happened over the last year and lots of cookery. Otherwise teaching’s been down since I can’t drive any longer. I’ve gotten inspired by the online classes, though, and I’m hoping for a working computer camera, soon! When I have one, you can bet I’ll be turning some of this info on this site into recorded classes!

Spring 2019

Life has been interesting for the last few months. All three of my friends and fellow apprentices have been elevated to the Order of the Laurel. I couldn’t be happier for them. I got to see all three of the ceremonies.

I, on the other hand, have resigned as a journeyman, and made it clear to my Laurel that I’m no longer going to be on that path. It would break me. I have too many obligations to be able to fulfill the duties of a Laurel. This last couple of years of trying to fulfill the obligations of an apprentice and then a journeyman have proven that to me.

It doesn’t mean that I won’t continue to teach and share my knowledge, but I’ve had to face the fast that I’m getting older, too.

I’m no longer able to drive myself to events, much less to camp out, or really even to get to most events, since I work weekends for most of the year. Keeping up with House stuff is about the best I can manage.

So, I’ll get to events as I can, teach when I can, and share my information online as best as I can.

Thanks for being with me on this journey!

12th Night is upon us! 1-7-19

I need to do a proper post and will, after this coming weekend. I did two more collar and cuff sets for shirts over the last few months (one of which is being used at a Laurel elevation at 12th Night!), have been working on the recorder book and a kit design for Mab’s Creations, but I’m right in the throes of the Spanishe Coat outfit. There’s a new page on that in the menu bar, but the page is very much still under construction.

My ceiling *leaked* on my smock! I’ve gotta wash it before more sewing!

News and some updates

I’ve gone to post 4 times since the last post at the end of last summer and never managed it once! It’s been that kind of winter. I’ve spent quite a lot of time over the winter doing more research, and bits and pieces have gotten added to various pages, but nothing is complete.

Last fall, into the winter, I worked on a project to do the embroidered trim for a pair of Elizabethan shirts for the Princes of the Summits. Those were finally finished in early March and worn in late May. There’s a gallery here: https://mabscreations.wordpress.com/project-gallery/shirt-project-for-their-highnesses-as-lii/

I feast-cratted the House Capuchin Winter Feast this past February and a lot of energy went into that. After that my Laurel made me promise that I would not take on any new projects until I’m finished the tasks for this Quest. …and then made me a Journeyman as she feels that I’m done with the learning, I just need to finish up!

The last two tasks are the Elizabethan Spanishe Coat and the recorder book.

The coat outfit is waiting for a 2-week block of time when I can just sit and sew and not have to pay attention to anything else. I have fabrics and trims and design and pattern (from Margo Anderson’s Historical Patterns, pic at right) , what I just need is time.

The recorder book, otoh… wow… well, what I’m trying to do is a companion to the Oak Publishing Recorder Guide that has period music, but is tagged to the difficulty levels of the Guide as you progress, so that beginners aren’t playing “traditional” tunes, but actual period music, much sooner than they otherwise would. That means I’m taking pieces and grading them by difficulty and arranging them in order. I’ve been working on this seriously for about 6 months and I’m pretty sure it’s going to take all next winter to finish… if I manage it by then.

Tourney Season winding down 9-14-17

We’re almost to the end of the summer and a lot of things have been happening, but little brought to a conclusion.

I got to wear one of my houpellandes at my oldest boy’s wedding, was one fun thing.

Another was an impromptu at my shop where I showed a youngster and his Mom how to make balls and then heard later that he’d taught a class at school about it.

Also, Vindolanda dug up a couple of toy swords! I updated the Weaponry page to reflect that.

I did the Shrewsbury Faire demo this year and took both blackwork and balls. The balls were a real hit this time. I think that was because I was telling people about the process.

Balls, the tins below them are the fillings.

A display case, which also got the marbles

Mostly, other than that, I’ve been pecking away at pincushions all summer. I’ve gone through 4 crocks of pincushion filling and now I’m doing emery strawberries. 🙂 Craziness! Here’s to getting back to some real sewing (the Spanishe Coat) soonest!

Getting places 6-6-17

I was beginning to think that steam enough to get underway was just not to be had, but I’m finally up and doing again. Over the past month I got House Capuchin to make a set of the pool noodle stick horses and Loren and I worked out how to make lances and swords of the same stuff.

Also during the last month, I got good at making a new type of cheese, did a write-up of the foodstuffs in the Domostroi (here: http://wp.me/p8ngGY-vs ) and updated a list of period cheeses. (here: http://wp.me/p8ngGY-5W )

Of course, our shop business picks up in the summer, so it’s hard to keep up with things, but I’m going to keep pecking at it. I have a couple more arrangements transcribed for the recorder book, a piece of fabric pulled out for another coif, a hand-stitched apron worked on, a ton of pincushions made and gifted on and some new designs come up with, even some more pins put in the ruffle for my smock!

Here’s hoping for more progress over the summer!

Back to the Quest 5-4-17

His Highness, Tjorkill and His Majesty Styrkarr look on while Her Highness, Alina, gives me a hug with the scroll in my hand.

Wow…. was that a gymkhana or what? Fifteen months of doing only minimums on my tasks has been kinda hard on my nerves. …and then I had to catch up with mundane life tasks. So now, I’m kinda starting back in.

Yes, the Summits Arts & Sciences

Championship got held. This is the write-up, a showcase of the folks who entered,

His Majesty gifting me with a coin from his hand.

plus my being made a Jewel of the Summits and startlingly to me, given the Lion’s Strength. http://wp.me/p8ngGY-bN

The most I’ve actually done on the quests was to get some more toys added to the list, mostly the Noisy Toys and the War and Military toys. Here’s hoping that things get underway better, soon.