Post-Pennsic Dreaming - String, Stringers & Enamel, oh my

I was lucky enough to get to make the grand journey to Pennsic a second year in a row. For those who may not know, Pennsic is the largest SCA event in the world with I believe somewhere upwards of 10,000 people descending on a farm in Pennsylvania from around the world. And I really mean around the world. There are people from Japan, from all over Europe. I hung out with the Australian encampment one night--they're a lot of fun. Anyway, this temporary small city, complete with post office, springs into being for about two weeks. I got to go for 8 1/2 days. Bwahaha.

It is, technically, an SCA war. But the battles don't interest me. I still haven't seen one. What I go for is Pennsic University which offers hundreds of classes on all medieval topics imaginable. I even taught one this year on Pictish Women. My personal highlights for the year:

Enamel! Wow. The beautiful art of glass on metal. I've wanted to learn for ages but it always sounded cripplingly expensive and very very hard. I got to make two pieces on site! One was applied to an etched piece and used a kiln. The other was cloisonne - using flattened metal wire shaped into the areas to enamel different colors. And that one I got to heat on a map gas torch! I had thought only much thinnner layered enamel projects could be done on a torch, not cloisonne, but I have an enamelled goose to prove otherwise now! I've come home itching to enamel everything in sight, but I've got to obtain some supplies first.

Needle binding - ok, yes, I learned how last year. But I found my favorite teacher again and learned two new stitches from her. One of them didn't make it into muscle memory, so I'll have to hope I can re-learn Coptic stitch from her handout. Asle stitch wasn't on the handout so I made sure that was the one I practiced. Now I'm about 3/4 inch towards having a pair of wool socks. Ok, yes, it's slow. But hey, it's fun, it's pretty, it's period, and it can be darn close to waterproof!

Glass beads - more fun with molten glass. I've done these before, but not in a couple years so this was a crash course straight into making twisties and stringers and using them for more complicated beads. I learned more about segmented beads as well which is fun since I know of some Pictish finds of segmented beads as well as the swirly ones that necessitate twisties and stringers.

Brass needles - gotta love a class that requires BYOA. Bring Your Own Anvil. Luckily I knew about this before leaving and secured permission to bring & borrow my husbands small five pound anvil which is plenty big enough for making a brass needle. I blew out three eyes before I successfully created a working needle, but it's very cool. I can't wait to do mad things like embroider something using wool I spun myself and the needle I made myself. :)

Harp - didn't expect to take the harp technique track, but I did. Very cool. Sadly, my desire to pick the teacher's brain at great length was curtailed by a violent thunder storm. But I have learned more about proper harp technique that should hopefully help me move forward without injuring myself in pursuit of actually playing this lovely instrument.

I must be forgetting things. I took lots of awesome classes. I sat in on the beginning of bookbinding, but I'd re-sprained my wrist so I couldn't play hands-on that day. There were cool classes like Anglo-Saxon Archaeology with an archaeologist and Viking Civil Engineering, again with an actual academic.

Now I feel all fired up to go make cool things!