Thursday, March 20, 2014

Camp Furniture for the Ottoman Persona

In an effort to make camp a more period appropriate visage we tend to cover things or make furniture ourselves. While I have some skill I am not an expert woodworker. I am also not prepared to make the monetary investment for the kinds of exquisite things I see a lot of people have in their camps. I am also...lazy. I don't want to spend a bunch of time setting up furniture after I've put up my period pavilion, especially if it is just a weekend event. The other important factor is space. I don't have the kind of room in my vehicle to fit all that stuff.

Pillows & Rugs

Really that's the majority of what I have for persona appropriate furniture. You don't need much more. I have a handful of covered armless camp chairs that are useful for places where you need chairs. Sometimes people just can't sit on the ground though and that is ok. I have plans to make a  divan of sorts that could be also used as a bed in camp. I just haven't figured out how to make it portable yet.

Ladies seated on a divan

Tables

This is the real reason for this post. I wanted to talk about my table. I should say that while I had a hand in making this my friend Einarr did most of the work. This was largely because I was sewing at the last minute for an event and he was perfectly capable of doing that work for me. At my second event after moving to Atlantia I wanted to have a way to meet people and participate in the arts. I made Turkish coffee and handed it for free all day long so long as people came to my merchant booth and sat at my table to chat for a few. I also entered the coffee in the competition that day. 

My coffee table

The idea came from someone else's camp at Gulf Wars and several "Moorish" style tables. I wanted a simple design that packed flat and was easy to put together. I liked the idea of using a large tray and found one at my local mediterranean food store.
Not a super period design on the tray but it is often covered with other trays or random stuff.
The basic design is two pieces of plywood with slots cut so that it can form an X. The plywood was stained but only minimally varnished. At the taking of these pictures it is 4 years old and has been in wet grass at almost every event I've attended. I left it unvarnished because I intended to paint things on it to make it more decorative. That still hasn't happened.





One challenge we faced creating this design was how to keep the tray from sliding. Our solution was to indent the top surface leaving a tab that snugly held the tray in place.


I can put this table together with one hand and a knee. Just place the slots together (lower opening over upper opening).


The other hand is usually holding the tray and you just need to drop it into place!



Here is a closeup of the join. There is a lot of sanding involved to make it fit just right. Don't forget to make it a smidge larger than you think to leave room for varnish, it makes a difference!


Here is the arabesque arches I designed for the legs. They were cut with a coping saw. Einarr was not amused with how difficult my design turned out to be in terms of cutting and sanding.


And lastly a closeup of the bottom of the slots because I felt like it.


It is a fairly sturdy design. I would still like to paint things on it. When I decided on the height, I wanted it to be at a height that worked from my chair. This is a little higher that you can expect a period dining table to be. Most often meals were at a similar type of table seated on pillows. I want to make a dining table next but using a different design altogether. The table height has been really great for large (or ample-bottomed) adults sitting on the pillows or children on their knees playing games. All in all, I love my table and look forward to adding better ones to my collection with more research behind them.











Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Prayer Beads

Being that I am a Jew (in terms of persona) I would have no use of prayer beads in the medieval context. But beads are shiny and I like shiny. My lord who does have an islamic persona can use them as well as them making neat presents for people who need that finishing touch to their outfit.

I took a class at an Atlantian University from someone who's specialty is jewelry and prayer beads. I haven't done a ton of research into them, not serious research any way. I was presented with a handful of rules and research and went with it.

This was made from a kit I bought from the instructor. It was glass beads on silk or cotton thread. I have since had to replace the cord with heavy duty waxed string I use for sewing shoes because my lord breaks things.

Like a rosary or paternoster there is a mathematical component to your planning stage. If you want a smaller piece you need to make your beads into a grouping that divides into the number of times you need to thank your "lord." In Islam the prayer beads are known as Tesbih (other names for research purposes are subha and misbaha). They break into sets of 33 and you would say three prayers 33 times each for a total of 99.  As with any ceremonial artifact there are going to be exceptions to the rule. This is a general summary on how to create a tesbih.

My favorite way to make them is to have the full 99 with division beads (nisane for the middle and pul for the end) at each marker of 33 for the for the 99 names of Allah. Only the camels know the 100th name of Allah. I have also made shorter ones of 33 with markers at each 11 beads.

This was wood on hemp cord because my lord breaks things. Here I tied the (pul) end bead into the end with an added elephant because it is my lord's house and heraldry. So in this case the elephant knows the last name of Allah. He wears this one like a necklace.

These are stones that look like carved pits and the nisane are carved wood. Silk cord. After creating this I realized I probably shouldn't have added the pul bead at the end. This was created as a replacement for my lord who lost the red one after breaking it. He has since found the original red one and he is only allowed to hold this one in court.
The Beads were made out of all kinds of stones, wood, seeds, and bone etc. so, you can have a little fun with making them. I've also heard tale that there are some with little carved skulls. I should warn you, these are easy and fun to make and once you start researching prayer beads you might find yourself tangenting a lot.

These are Buddhist Mala prayer beads I made for a friend in the household
And this is a paternoster for another member of the household

 A few notes of interest:

Tassels at the ends of your strand are important to ward off evil.

The closest Jews had to prayer beads were knotted shawls.

My lord has indicated that the shorter beads are great for holding his sleeves out of the way while he uses the restroom.



Mental Blocks

I am going to post here about my struggles to explain a few things about my slew of posts. I am also posting this as a note to other people who may be experiencing similar issues.

I was encouraged well over a year ago to start a persona related blog. I started by putting up new things. I had this idea that everything had to be new and fresh or it wasn't worth posting it. I post all these things on my facebook why should I recant it in a blog post? Asking that out loud makes me realize how foolish that sounds. So I'm going to answer my question: not everyone is on social media sites. Other reasons include perceptions of social media being not academic; the fact that I am not friends with everyone on FB that could see my work; FB can quickly bury your awesome post amid a bunch of cat pictures and game requests; and quite frankly not that many people take the time to really read half of the stuff they see there because they are already over inundated with other media. Being this is a post about my own perceptions of things getting in my way I feel the need to point out that perception plays a large role in how you (and your work) are received.

In a recent conversation with a friend, she stepped outside of what she knows about me personally, and she said that she couldn't point to what it is that I "do" as an art (or focus) in the SCA. I've heard this in other ways before either to me or about others who weren't being "noticed." This time it sunk in. I have always known that my work is all over the place. I am a jack of all trades. I do leatherwork, brewing, cooking, research, sewing, Viking, Ottoman, casting, jewelry, embroidery, games....you get the idea. Since switching (or settling) to my Ottoman persona in 2006 almost everything I do is toward making a better body of knowledge and expertise in everything Ottoman. If I were to be known for something I want it to be that.

Example:  I learned naalbinding because I love Viking things (and used to research it almost exclusively) but also because I learned that it was very similar to Egyptian (mamluk) knitting that lead to modern "Turkish" picture knit socks. I love socks and was afraid of knitting because I thought my arthritis problems (which turned out to be more related to a caffeine allergy) would make two sticks challenging. Most naalbinding is done with a needle and your thumb. Learning the basic stitches would enable me to attempt a more persona appropriate stitch and also give me some base knowledge for further research so that I knew what I was looking at (or for) when doing museum research.

There is a lot of method in the madness of what I produce.

Another wall I've hit is that Ottoman (and a lot of middle eastern) was not overly researched/published until recently when it exploded. I admit to wanting to be a special snowflake and adding to a body of work that would help me stand out. Similarly I could improve on old ideas that had been presented and help combat "bad" middle eastern or over generalized attempts at ME garb. So now there are a lot of people posting and it seems like everytime I come up with something that seems new and shiny someone else had the same thought and posted near identical research a week before me. I'm not looking at my research as a competition but it seems redundant to me to post about something that someone in another kingdom has already done a ton of research on. Social media has made our Known World a lot smaller these days and so to "stand out" seems to be much harder.

Back to the perception blockade from the beginning of this rant: It doesn't matter if I made it 10 years ago or yesterday. The fact is that I may have a little piece of something that could help others. I might have done something wrong that could be fixed if only there was an audience in the know that has access to this information. Just because it isn't shiny and new to me or the people around me does not mean that it won't be revelatory to a whole new audience that would really love to see more of my work or those on a similar path just starting out. Maybe my way of explaining things is the way that person x needs to hear it for it to make sense, like when my friend re explained how people might not know what I am all about in terms of arts and sciences focus.The only way that I can prove there is a focus to my research is to put it in one place.

Last Thoughts:
I have really high standards for myself. I don't put things in competition unless they live up to a certain standard. I often don't display things because I didn't have time to do EPIC documentation and my perception is that at this "level" I need to. Sometimes I don't display things because I just learned about it in a class and my stuff isn't warranted presentation. I forget that part of being and artisan in the SCA is to educate and inspire. You never know who's going to see what you did and launch off of it. Maybe the expert at said art isn't showing of his stuff that day but because you are some young artist is going to (right place/time) have that long-missing-thing-in-their-life that gets them off the couch and doing art. So I am trying to battle my perception-dragons and push onward to the next battle.



Middle Eastern Games and the A&S 50 Challenge


In case you weren't aware, the 50th year anniversary of the SCA approaches fast! In 2016 there will be a grand celebration and a lot of arts going on. Someone put out a challenge to make 50 things on a theme and present it at the anniversary event. That sounds awesome to me! When I heard about this a few years ago I was knee deep in games research and classes (both learning and teaching) because I love games and I wanted to make a games manual from the middle eastern perspective. I decided then that I was going to generalize for the sake of the challenge to just medieval games, but when possible I am putting a middle eastern spin on them.


Game of the Camel modeled after Game of the Goose
I've completed around 30 games so far (if you count variations research) and have plans for so much more. At first I thought this might be limiting. Who says I have to just make games...the dice, the pieces, the boards, cards, research all counts given the theme I went under. So now my project has gotten way out of hand. One of my dream projects is to make woodcuts for printing based on a limited set of arabic playing cards found in a museum (info here). That would be near 50 things on its own, so maybe not for this challenge unless I want to make a single set scribally. 

As for the rest of my project, I have decided to ignore uber period presentation for practicality. When I sew or take commissions for things I tend to consider things like durability and portability more so than period methods. So most of my projects are period plausible or using the research and making it a functional piece that won't get ruined by dirty little hands or drunks. With that said, I made a lot of my games in one of two styles: Roll and tie, or bag. 

Bag style alquerque. The bag can played on and the pieces and rules can be slipped inside and tied shut when done.
Fabric boards have drawstrings all the way around that can be cinched and then tied around the outside with the pieces bag rolled inside.

The whole package can be tightly rolled to the size of a small kitten. Teek shows her approval.
Materials for the fabric boards have been canvas or poplin. I will sometimes line the back in cottons or linens (of course everything has been pre-washed to make sure that there are no accidents later). I've been using a combination of cotton embroidery and crochet threads to embroider the boards. I should point out at this point that I'm am still really new at embroidery. I took a class at a University event so that would understand basic embroidery before I started delving into Ottoman embroidery. 

Game of the Camel


If you are familiar with game of the goose (if not go here) you know that there are taverns and wells and geese. I really thought the game was fun but not very middle eastern appropriate so I made my own version. I kept the numbers and spacing of things but changed the special spaces. The function of geese in the game is to move people around the board...which seemed silly to me...and it was replaced with the most iconic method of desert travel, the camel.

Space 42 is where there is typically a maze (or a really interesting answer about life the universe and everything). I decided that a mirage would suit the theme best and also made an open desert marker on space 30 (where you are supposed to move back to).

In some versions of GOG there is a bridge to move players forward 6 spaces. I replaced it with a flying carpet, because why not? I also made a tassel on space 12 so I didn't have to write down the rules to keep with the game.

Alcohol is not permitted in most of Islam (I will be writing a very long post about this generalization later) so a tavern was right out. I replaced it with a coffee pot like you might see in a coffee house. Coffee houses had a similar function to taverns as they were a place to drink and be merry.

I replaced the jail with quicksand...and there is a poorly embroidered man flailing in a quicksand amoeba. 

Additionally I fringed the edges and added tassels at the corners. This was both a decorative effort and the tassels were heavy and helped hold the board down from wind intrusions. This was one of the first games I made and is also my favorite.

Atlanbaj

This is a super fun and challenging game of Turkish checkers. I took a class on this at Pennsic and have been trying to put together more and more research on it because it's not well represented on the internet or print sources and it should be. The game is largely played like checkers but huffing rules are enforced.

The game starts is on an 8x8 board and the players start with their back row empty. 

Because lots of "kinging" is highly possible I made wooden (bead) pieces with sticks glued into them to hold "crowns" on better.

Again this is a canvas board with embroidered lines. I'd gotten a lot better at chainstitch embroidery by this point.

Other considerations for my pieces having sticks was ease of use for little hands or big hands trying to grab small pieces. 

This is a roll and tie bag like GOC and can still be used to play draughts and checker variants. If you like checkers you should give this a try. When I took the class I was a little slow to catch on. I walked into class late because I'd just come off the field and thrown water at myself before running all the way from the serengeti to the games tent. My brain hadn't been re engaged yet and my partner whooped me. By the time we got to the second round I'd caught up with the game and promptly stomped him. He realized my strategy too late and was keen to point out that I was either a "shark" or thoroughly evil and and sneaky. 

Goals for the Challenge and Beyond

I'd like to make some hand carved or cast pieces for some games like shatranj and some bone dice. I am using glass beads for a lot of my games right now because it is what I have sitting around. I would also like to make an illuminated and hand bound game manual a la "alphonso x" of middle (and near) eastern games.  I will post more on specific middle eastern games as they come about. I have several games in progress towards my 50 that are not middle eastern related. 




Mini Talismanic Shirt

At Atlantian 12th Night there was a mystery ingredient scribal challenge. The event was Ottoman themed. I have really wanted to do more scribal things. I signed up. I couldn't resist. Once i've signed up for something I have a deadline which make it easier to ensure that progress is made.

The mystery challenges I'd seen in the past were fans and tangrams which seemed really out of the box and exciting. What did I get? I got paper. I was a little disappointed at first but after a week or two of thinking about it and a few synchronous research moments I had a wonderful idea: a Talismanic Shirt.

The paper was a thin fibrous paper made from mulberry bark.It looked and felt like fabric to me.
 The material and idea were married once I remembered reading that the talismanic shirts found in Persia and the Ottoman empire were made on fabric that was “paper thin.” The shirts were painted or inked by calligraphers with prayers or symbols of luck. After looking at several extant examples I noticed that in the original scale most of the writing was small and so my writing would have to be miniscule. I am not that good at calligraphy and I barely know any Arabic. I chose to do a larger scale design on a smaller scaled shirt.  I used some designs and prayers from the museum pieces and used other designs and prayers I have researched for other projects.



I believe this shirt belonged to Mehmed III. The overall cut of my project was based on this design largely because I have amazing pictures of it.


This shirt has larger designs of cypress trees and I wanted to use that.



 I had been doing side research on the talismanic shirts as a kind of dream project if my lord is knighted one day. Just based on the amount of time it took me to create the miniature version I have determined it will be a ton of work to make a full sized one. This was a kind of trial run for the bigger one. I have a lot to learn before I get there.

This one had such small mathematical charms I think I'd be reading it for a week and scribing it for years. Yikes! This style of shirt is most likely what I will use for my lord if ever I make one because he's a Berber and not an Ottoman.
I used my knowledge of Ottoman textile motifs, scribal and cultural design along with my very limited understanding of Arabic and its calligraphic nuances (seriously, they layered their words in an area to make signature calligraphed art) to make a miniature version. 

This is the finished piece with the sleeve and shoulder seams sewn.

Closeup of the sleeves

Closeup of the front before it was cut open

Shoulder seams
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Back includes cypress, tulip and saz leaves.

I started out trying to use a dip pen. I did several trials on the scraps and had no problems. I was ten minutes into my finished pieces and ripped a small hole. I did not have spare paper so I decided to use modern calligraphy markers instead. I also had a small incident with a drooling cat and one of my pens not being indelible. I covered my mistakes as best I could and moved on. Lesson learned about the paper is that it would be very interesting for watercolor if you want it to spread around and make interesting blends.  I also used gold leaf paint. It was infuriating and flaked a lot.

Once I had completed the painting and undersewing I had to turn it wrong sides together and sew it. I used blue silk thread and as small a needle as I could for the thread. I was super careful. I then turned the whole thing right side out. There were a fair amount of wrinkles which, while it might be horrible for a scroll, is fantastic for that just worn fabric look. It was tedious trying to turn  the sleeves and I had to make more than one little snip under the arm to make it move without ripping. This also made the gold leaf almost completely rub off in parts and I touched it up after the fact.


I had originally wanted to make a doll to put it on and then ran out of time because there was a death in the family right after an emergency at work (sigh). Instead I put it on a mini easel and rigged a stick to hold the sleeves up. I intend to make the doll for another project involving the persona pentathlon.

Final piece is about 10x12 inches

All in all I had a fantastic time with the project. I wasn't able to go to the event but a friend took it for me and brought me back a prize! I have a lot to learn about scribal things (this was my second scribal thing ever). I have more to learn about Arabic.