On Completing A Project Somewhat

Some time ago, I posted about my hopes for the Book of La being polished and placed online. This has finally happened! It now has its own page on this very blog, even.

And now that the College War XVIII edition, past its second birthday, has finally had the typos and formatting errors corrected, I turn my gaze to the next edition. I shall be seeking out more songs to add to it, and I think a complete revision of the style of the work is in order. I may even me adding some songs of my own, if things go well.

Watch this space (and poke me if I take too long - shiny baubles may get in the way).

On My Fencing Training Plans

I have decided to use the new year as a trigger for improving my training at the noble art of defence, and I thought I would outline the things I plan to work on and hope to achieve.

Fitness

This is one of the biggest areas which tends to get ignored in most rapier training I've experienced. Most of my discussions with people have tended to work on the assumption that, so long as you can hold your sword up and keep your feet moving through the bout, your fitness is fine for fencing. This is a stark contrast to the heavy fighting community, where fitness is required and encouraged.

Is that just because we have no real need for "armour fitness" as they do, because what we wear is so much lighter?

I don't think so...

My main fitness focus this year will be leg fitness, to improve the speed of my footwork, and the range of techniques available (there are just too many positions I can't use for the simple reason that there's no way I'm getting my 115 kg out of that position once I get there). I'll also be aiming for some arm muscle improvements, but also a great deal of stamina training (as best as I can).

Technique

There is a reasonably heavy focus on technique over fitness in the parts of the fencing community I've been exposed to, and that's all well and good, but I've decided I would like to take it in a different direction for my own development.

There is a definite trend in my training group, especially among those who teach and train us, to focus on developing a broad understanding of advanced and fancy techniques. This is all well and good, in its place, but as the main area of instruction? I feel that it's coming at the expense of gaining a better grip on the fundamentals of technique.

There is a push in the local heavy fighting community at the moment to bring a greater focus on the fundamentals, as the core and basis of any fighting technique, and I believe that it would be of great value to import this focus to the fencing world.

I have several well-identified weaknesses in my technique, and I must say, none of them are "not enough advanced techniques". My weaknesses are all critical areas of the fundamentals. Attacking straight down the line. Not using footwork to position myself for advantage. Poor point control. Poor parries. Not covering the line. Moving straight backwards. Not being assertive in the fight. There's no amount of complicated advanced technique that will cover those gaps, no matter how much Italian you use to describe it.

On Project Plans: The Book of La

My previous book-related project (still somewhat ongoing) is the Book of La, a music book for bardic occasions. The first version has already been... I won't say finished, but released into the wild perhaps? But it certainly won't be the last.



The Book of La started at the College of St Aldhelm, after we developed the habit of singing at the pub after our weekly meetings. Initially, we were using the very fine The Known Words, but the problem we encountered in that environment specifically was that with so many inexperienced members of the SCA, many of the songs we would otherwise love to have sung weren't known to most (or even any), and songs are quite difficult to sing without tunes.

The solution I hit upon was to make our own book, with those favourites of ours, with the tunes included, and some other songs we thought would add to the experience, including several of the College's songs. The result was the College of St Aldhelm Book of La (College War XVIII Edition), which was put into print with funding from the College, and given out at the College War event we hosted that year. It was a reasonable success, and only a few heartbreakingly-obvious typos to point out...

My current place with the project is to fix up the errors, polish the product, and give the College a version to put on their website. That's nearly done, but I'm easily distracted, as this blog may be taken as testament to.

After that, my plans are to expand on the Book of La with more songs, as best as I'm able to find tunes for (which is really the difficulty). It may take some time before the next edition is ready, but that's inevitable.

As I'm withdrawing from the College to allow the next generation to make it their own, I had to decide whether to pass the Book of La on to the next Seneschal to improve, or keep it as a project of my own. Considering the varying workloads required of students, and the specialised techniques that went into its creation, and I freely admit a decent level of emotional involvement, I've decided to carry the Book of La project myself, removing the College labels from the next edition (though I'll keep the College of St Aldhelm songs in there... perhaps I ought gather some songs from the other Colleges around Lochac, too, for balance).



The Book of La itself is largely presented in a modern style, with modern sheet music, for the sake of readability and usability. It's in a somewhat large-print format, so that it can be read by candlelight or firelight in a bardic setting, or printed at half-scale for portability.

On Projects Plans: A Heraldic Treatise

"Someone should really do X..."

The above statement is unhelpful. I have a personal rule which states that it should always be followed by "...and that someone is me!" if you want to be a contributing member of society.

How is that particularly relevant? Well, I found myself, some years ago, reading through period heraldic treatises (the many results of which may be found throughout this blog), and thinking to myself, "Someone should really write one of these for SCA heraldry..."

It took a few minutes for that inadvertant volunteering to sink in.

This isn't an upcoming project, rather an ongoing project that's been bubbling away. The research phase started in earnest in July 2011, and the actual pen-to-paper (as it were) phase began in November 2012. It's currently at approximately twenty thousand words (of an estimated forty to sixty thousand), and approximately ninety pages (of an estimated two to three hundred). The length will jump quite a ways when I start adding illustrations, rather than simple text. This is just the first draft, mind, so it's not a third of the project done, by any means.

There are various areas to be covered in the treatise, including both book and voice heraldry, as well as precedence and thoughts about the society, as the period treatises I've studied have had varied topics contained within, from simple coat-armour to complex musings on the nature of knighthood and nobility, and diverse other things.

I've been away from the project for several months, because of study commitments (hmm, should I spend time writing the treatise, or my many essays and assignments?). I've returned to the project this week, and have been revising a lot of the earlier writing and choices to match the later study I've done, as a way of refamiliarising myself with the work. Some of the things I've noticed along the way have reinforced to me the scale of the project I've put myself in for.

Many of the things written on this blog will likely be a springing point (or central reference) for sections of the treatise, as various parts overlap. For instance, the court heraldry section of the treatise will likely be based largely on my Court in the Act article.

On Project Plans: A Herald's Tabard

Now that there opens something of a gap in my schedule (hello, end of undergraduate study), my thoughts turn to the sewing projects I've been putting off for one reason or another. The first of these is my own spiffy herald's tabard.

I've had possession of a great many types of tabard, from the Politarchopolis Baronial Court Tabard, a confection of velvet and brocade with a satin lining - guaranteed to make winter courts toasty warm and summer courts brief, to the standard crossed trumpets and green, both the quick cotton drill versions to the somewhat nicer appliqued damask.

So, in deciding on this plan, there are a few things to decide: Shape, design, and material.


For shape, I've found a few examples in period illustrations of tabards which are joined under the arms, just a little way, such as in this illustration, or this one. I think this is a wonderful idea, especially given the number of times I've had to herald in a windy situation. Some shaping will be required around the arm holes and shoulders, and I'll probably flare the body out a bit, to give more room for display.


For the design, I am quite set on using the Lochac royal arms - not the populace badge, and certainly not the crossed trumpets.

As for the question of using the royal arms on a tabard, the argument is simple: As a pursuivant in good standing of the Lochac College of Heralds, I serve the Crown of Lochac in all heraldic business. In period, a herald of any rank wore a tabard of the arms of the noble they served. Often the king, but sometimes other varied nobility who chose to have them in their employ. There were freelance heralds, with a variety of designs, but I do not consider myself one of their number.

The populace badge? I certainly have the right to bear the populace badge of Lochac (the royal arms sans crown and wreath) as a member of that fine Kingdom, but for a herald's tabard? That would be rather like seeing a herald in the English College of Arms wearing a tabard of the cross of Saint George. Such tabards did exist, certainly, but they were worn by crusaders, not heralds.

And as for the trumpets... Heralds wearing the arms of the College of Arms is a distinct oddity. I can think of no real circumstances where I might, as a herald, want to identify myself as being in service to the College of Arms or of Heralds. Perhaps, if presenting College business in court, I may wish to do so. However, when going about the business of the College in the service of the Crown? That is rather like an English herald wearing a tabard of "Argent, a cross Gules between four doves, the dexter wing of each expanded and inverted Azure." (the coat of arms of the College of Arms of England).


Finally, for the materials, I am planning on having the main body of it pieced together - the field and cross each joined together at the edges - with the crown, wreath, and stars affixed using appliqué. For the basic fabrics, I believe that a nice damask or brocade, of the appropriate colours, would be the best. Each side of the field should be the same, of course. The cross would be best in a contrasting textured fabric, possibly a satin or velvet. The charges, then, all in white, would be best in a contrast to the cross (as most of them are on there). Velvet, or satin, depending on which was used for the cross.

There will also be an interlining (possibly of a light canvas) to make it drape better, onto which the other layers will likely be quilted - a thin layer of padding over the canvas would highlight the quilting to great effect. Behind this, a lighter backing - most likely black, to seal it in and hold things together.

I would also aim to have some level of affixed pearls as decoration, given my late period preferences and love of sparkly objects (my household badge, currently under design, features a corvid). Edging the charges with strings of small pearls is one possibility. The crown, in particular, could have jewels attached, possibly in the style of those of the true Lochac crown. The laurel wreath, as well, could actually be formed almost entirely of pearls and other beading, as an alternative to such fiddly appliqué.

In all, I think the deciding factor on these materials will be what I can find, and what I can afford. Given the level of work involved in making the tabard, I'd like to start from as fine a base as possible.


These are my plans, and may take any amount of time from a few months to the rest of forever to complete. I'm aiming for somewhere within a year, though, depending on other projects and available energy.

On Buying vs Making

When it comes to garb, armour, toys, tools, and any of the other items of the material culture of our lives in the SCA, there are generally two ways to go about acquiring things. You can throw money at the problem, or throw time at the problem.

Throwing money at a problem is the easiest way to do it, and in a lot of ways, more period, though it doesn't work for everything, and there's a tradeoff. For the nobles and gentles of varying ranks which we represent in the SCA, they wouldn't be expected to be the artisans of the land, making every item of clothing and piece of armour that they wore. Even among those in the artisan classes in period, they would generally specialise in a particular craft, and trade the fruit of their labour for the fruit of others' labour.

The tradeoff in this, of course, is that there are greatly limited suppliers of the varying things which you may wish to acquire, who charge commensurately high prices for their skilled crafts. Also, those suppliers you can find will often be spread all over the Known World, meaning that items which require direct contact, such as garments and armour to be fitted, can be harder or impossible to achieve.

That is not to say that throwing time at a problem is the solution either. The materials will still require some investment for most projects, and the time taken to learn the skills, and then craft each item, will also be a factor.

One of the places where this debate comes up most prominently is when older, experienced members of the SCA, who are established in the workplace and earning a relatively high salary, give advice to newer members of the SCA, usually university students. There is an understandable difference of perspective here. The older members are paid a fine coin for their time, and usually know the dollar value of their time to reasonable precision, and thus to throw time at a problem IS to throw money at it, so they quite reasonably choose to cut out the middle-man and save themselves the effort. For the younger members, however, their time is often valued much lower, if valued at all in an economic sense, therefore it makes sense for them to spend some labour on the craft, rather than spend their labour in a dreary environment to gain the money to throw at the problem. In both cases, the elimination of the middle-man is the goal, but with opposite results.

I hold a somewhat middle-ground perspective on this. For most of my work, I prefer to put my time into the effort, especially in the production of clothing (with the assistance of my good Lady). However, there are several things, such as our upcoming acquisition of a much larger pavillion, where we have decided that the increased price is worth the coin: we would be unlikely to get the task right on our first attempt, and after buying more material to repair the mistakes, and spending the amount of time to learn the art of tent-making and apply it to our canvas, we can honestly consider the purchase a bargain compared to the "saving" of doing it ourselves.