For the past week or so I’ve been foolishly obsessed with an early-modern pastime called The Game of the Goose. It’s a silly game, dependent entirely on dice rolls, and requires no skill whatsoever. It can be played as a race game or as a gambling game. Fortunately hunting down period game boards and making printable versions is much easier when ( Read more... )

Over the past year, we’ve had a couple of discussions on creating mini-PPFs, or events-within-events, to explore a specific bit of history.
One of the things I’d like to do at West Collegium 2013* is “Lunch with Cardinal d’Este’s Retainers”. In her book, The Cardinal’s Hat, Mary Hollingworth uses the records of Ippolito d’Este to reconstruct what ( Read more... )

I'm thinking of teaching a class on basic feast planning and organization at A&S, or maybe at the next West Coast Culinary Symposium. If you were thinking about volunteering to cook your first feast, what would you want to know?

Tentative class description: An in-depth discussion on the necessary steps to plan and execute an SCA feast. Topics will ( Read more... )

For the upcoming food collegium, I'm teaching a class ambitiously titled "The Medieval Cook as Physician and Priest: the effects of medical theories and church rules on food and beverages. Lecture class on the theoretical aspects of medieval and renaissance cooking. Possible topics of discussion: overview of humours theory, application of humour ( Read more... )

For those of you who missed the "perfectly period" feast at collegium, I'll be teaching a class for the Queen's College on Saturday at June Crown. I hope it will be about 4pm, but I'm not sure where. If you were a carver at the feast, I may try to conscript you for a chicken-varving demo. 
There will be 15 class handouts, bring a cup and dish if you ( Read more... )

The A&S ministers have been kind enough to allow a last-minute added class by Lady Cynthia. It will be in the last time slot on Saturday, 3:45 - 5:15.

Class Title: Working with a Janet Arnold Pattern
Instructor: Lady Cynthia Barnes, Cinbarnes.googlepages.com see "Compleat Costume Companion"
Class Description: In this class we will examine one or two ( Read more... )

3 days before the last of the ceramics for the Collegium Feast/Class must be painted and turned in for kilning. 12 days before March Crown. 47 days until Spring Collegium. I still have no actual plan for dancing or entertainments at the feast. The stage directions are not done. The class handout is not started.
But the benches are done, or at least ( Read more... )

For those of you wondering, the Artisan's display will be on the second floor, (So make sure your art can fit into the elevator, or you are willing to carry it upstairs) in the Gateway Foyer of the DoubleTree hotel in San Jose. Here's a handy link to their hotel map .

Once again, a Saturday afternoon Artisans’ Display is planned for The West Kingdom's 12th night.  (http://www.thewestermark.org/12thnight.html). This is not a competition; this is a chance for artisits to display thier work (and works in progress). It is also a chance to schmooze and be schmoozed by other artisans of the kingdom. Artisans of all ( Read more... )