I have just spend a few hours shuffling stuff around on Syridian.com; making a better space for projects and adding some of the old projects. Check it out if that sorta stuff interests you.

Yay!

It seems picking your battles works really well.

Yet another A&S competition entered… yet another bell for my trophy box. Here’s a pic of the entries finally, I wanted to keep something as a surprise. Sorry about the slight blur, I need to do some research into how to light shiny things to reduce the shine, and also work out the optimal focal length for my crappy camera.

OK, so personally I think I cheated with this competition, but my opinion isn’t the one that matters as I did everything correctly. Why do I think I cheated? Pewter casting is something that is quick and easy, and can produce a fantastic result with a minimal effort. It also has a large amount of WOW factor, people aren’t aware of how easy it can be to produce reasonable looking tokens.

To put it into context, lets examine the process of this entry. There was a hell of a lot of procrastination involved in just starting it. Even to the point that a friend had to hassle me to start it. Once started, it took around 90 minutes to carve the initial mould, that includes the design on paper of what I wanted it to look like. Once to a point I could pour, there was a few sample pours, to test the mould, and tinker with it to get it pouring correctly. This process took about another 60 minutes, probably less. Then it was just a case of pouring 20 odd castings, filing the flashing off, tinkering with a couple of the castings to work out how to finish them, and even doing an after pour, to create a sample of a casting straight out of the mould. All that took yet another 60 – 90 minutes. So all up to get the 23 tokens that were sent down to Polit, it took me a total of about 4 hours, then there was another maybe 2 hours in preparing the documentation. If I started on a Sunday afternoon, I could be finished for dinner.

OK, so winning competitions isn’t what doing all of this is about, but I can’t deny it’s certainly fun. The fact that I am picking the competitions I enter has a great deal to do with the success rate I’m having… Which kinda goes against the whole idea behind A&S competitions, which I believe is to encourage people to attempt stuff they haven’t done before. So does me actually knowing and admitting to this actually mean I might try and change my ways, maybe enter different A&S Comps? Probably not, but it helps me to understand that my three wins for three entries isn’t anything to be hugely proud of. After all… that’s only 3 entries in about 18 months of being involved in the SCA.

Item: Pilgrims Badge Award token for the Baronial Bits box. An Entry in the Politarchopolis Baronial Championship A&S Competition.

Made By: Sveinn inn kyrri Grimsson, mka: Steven Worthington.

Documentation: Many Pilgrims badges have been discovered along the Thames river in London since medieval times, frequently being dug up by kids and adults alike looking for something of value. Over the years these treasure hunters became know as Mudlarks and have been frequently seen trolling through the mud on the banks of the Thames and between the grounded barges at low tide. The Thames Mudlarks have uncovered many thousands of pilgrims badges over the years, showing us a huge variety of designs and styles.

For this competition I wanted to create something that would be useful to the Barony of Politarchopolis as an award token, as well as utilise my pewtercrafting skills. A Gryphon’s wing token seemed to me to be the ideal token, and after a little research I discovered that there were indeed outstreached wing tokens made. Though these tokens were suspected to be part of a larger multi-part token for the Blessed Virgin, the individual parts were discovered seperately and it’s not inconcievable that they were possibly used individually.

Materials & Methods:The period technique for creating pewter tokens was to carve a mould from a small grained stone of some sort such as mudstone, slate or soapstone. Having access to soapstone I opted for this medium. Using tools that I created from small bits of steel wire shaped into various small carving tools I slowly and delicately carved out the shape of the wing. During the carving process the artist needs to be constantly aware that the shape of their finished product will be the shape of the missing bits in the mould material. The mould is also a mirror image of the finished product, and if left to right direction is important, then this needs to be right to left on the face of the mould. Whilst this example contains no text, if text were needed it would have to be carved as if mirrored so that when cast the text is readable.

After carving out most of the mould, I took the opportunity to cast a sample piece, however it is possible to view a representation of the finished product by pushing some blutack or playdough into the soapstone. The process of sample casting allowed me to test how easily the mould accepts the molten metal, as sometimes the flow of the metal into the mould is impeeded by air trying to escape. During carving it is often a good idea to concider how the flow of the molten metal will navigate the intricacies of the mould details. A smooth flow of metal is desired as this will prevent the metal setting and preventing further metal from getting into the mould. Tweaking the details of the mould, and adding more detail such as feathering help to produce a cleaner and more detailed pour. When the casting process was consistantly producing the required results, a casting run of 23 castings was produced.

Period castings show little signs of being post-worked, ie; filing, and removal of flashing. The competition entry piece, and the 20 pieces provided as a gift to the Baron and Baroness have had minimal flashing removed to maintain a period look, however 2 samples of what can be achieved with post filing and polishing have been provided purely as a sample of the differance of a basic casting, and a post-worked piece. All post-working was done by hand with a file and sandpaper, though to speed up the process one could use a mechanical means of abrasion.

Source: Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges by Brian Spencer. Page 7 – Information about moulds and metals. Pages 159 to 161- Information on the Winged Piece [Item 177].

Yes, that is part minus 1… Why? Cause I have a week to get something down there, and I still haven’t worked out what I’m doing…

So, the Competition is a trinket for the Baronial Bits Box… Something they can give out as a token of thanks I’m guessing… Though it could also be a token for one of the Baronial awards I guess. I just can’t seem to decide on a particular award or token…

It needs to be something that it very much Polit… Which in my mind leaves me with a Grifon, or a grifons wing. A grifons wing would be far easier, but there would need to be alot of detail. I have found a nice wing token in Pilgrim souvenirs and secular badges (Item 177). It will be the starting point and referance for my Polit tokens which I shall possibly start work on tonight.

Documentation has never really been my strong point, so I think I shall attempt to do a better job on the documentation for this entry in practice for the November Crown Entry.

Syridian.com is the reason that my LJ when viewed directly is very very basic. I have wrapped my LJ and various other web resources into one website that allows me to access everything from the one place. Check it out if you are interested, or just stick to having me in your friends list and you will still get all the LJ goodness that I occationally add. ;)

Welcome to the world Marley!!!  I hope life is a little easier than your birth was.  

A hunting we will go… And such wonderful hunting it was too… The Polit Hunt was a great event set in the majestic hills of Torlyon, it seems that those Polit huntsmen are so good at what they do, that they needed to expand their hunting fields to just beyond their own borders.

Getting Friday afternoon off, I headed down to Polit first, as I had been invited to join the lovely Bella and her friends for a wonderful Jigzag gig at the polish club. The band were fantastic, and getting the chance to spend some time with Bella was even better. She’s such an amazing woman, just wish I lived closer. After the gig, we did a quick trip to Bell’as place to grab the rest of her stuff, and then headed out to the site at Crossroads, getting there after 1am, it was a case of each of us just hitting the hay for the evening.

After getting a bit of a sleep-in in the morning, I awoke to a quiet and blissful ex-festival site. A surprizingly green and lovely ex-festival site, however I have no doubt that the site will be just as dull and yellow by Easter 2008, after a blistering hot summer. The morning was slow, with most people not turning up until around 11ish, at which time we set off for a roving target shoot. Shooting at representations of sins and bad things we were riding the weekend of bad things… It’s a good thing we only wounded sloth, as I felt fairly slothful all weekend.

A picnic lunch was prepared at the end of the roving shoot, and general relaxation was in order for the Archers whilst the Fencers took to the field, and showed their prowess. I myself retired back to the Guild hall to get out of the sun, and found that Master Crispen, seeing that I was booked to attend, had brought along a wonderful book about Pewter, lead and tin toys discovered in and arround London. Whilst most of the really interesting finds were post period, there were some that would scrape in, and others that were well within period, and almost achievable… worth attempting anyway. ;) I had also brought along my two pewter books (the intirety of my research library), which I shared with him.. Much discussion was had, and it was most wonderful to discuss things with someone who shares my interest.

As those still out and about headed back, they discovered an infestation of bunny’s that needed irradicating before they ate the place clean and dug holes everywhere. several wave of these bunny’s kept coming, however in most cases they were successfully peppered with arrows, and salted with spit, as some of them were terribly hard to shoot. This was a magnificently fun shoot, and will most likely happen more frequently.

The feast was amazing a beautifully decorated Guild Hall was the location, and with Lady Sabine’s stunningly painted wall hangings made for the event, and the Hall prepared by a dutiful group of polite Polit populace. Master Crispin’s feast was amazing, lots of wonderful flavourful food that filled everyone to the point that there were people turning away more food. Discussion, song and drinking went on until well into the night, with jokes and filks and the promise of Grue-some tales that Lady Sabine would suppress just with a simple threat.

Sunday was a very slothful day for me… not for any reason other than I just didn’t feel like getting armour on. But those that did, headed off up the hill to the forrest behind the Lyon camp, and ran various senarios. They were hot and exhusted when they returned for Sunday lunch, and much discussion of the mornings senaris were had. I had some more interesting conversations with Crispin about pewter casting.

After lunch a few heavy bouts were organised, and some packed up, or tinkered… I helped Crispin by collecting rocks for a dry rock wall he was building. But got sidetracked discussing Crossroads, the plans, the potential, the membership and the vision. I’m actually concidering joining, I guess we will see…

So that was my wonderful weekend… in far too much detail.

Woohoo!!! My copy of Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges by Brian Spencer turned up today, not that happy with the condition of it concidering it was sold as a new item, but still, it’s in goodish condition, and I’m more interested in it’s contents.

It’s interesting to note that a lot of the pewter in period days was actually what we use today as Solder for electronics. In fact using solder would be spot on for some finds. Maybe I don’t need to worry about mixing my own. as Period Pewter is available off the shelf today.

Anyway… as much as I would like to read all afternoon… I have to head off down to Canberra for the Hunt… maybe I’ll take a blank mould, and carve a Hunt Inspired souvenir. ;)

I have had the Syridian.com domain name for about 18 months now, and in all that time, I never really had anything much hosted there.  So over the last few days I have been fiddling to incorporate my LiveJournal, My Old Blog, and various other things all under the same roof.  For those of you who read my LJ, that means that you are going to be getting a very basic view when you actually GO to the LJ, but thankfully, most of you will likely just be reading it through your friends pages. 

To fully experience all that is the fabulous of Syridian.com you’ll just have to check it out…  or not. ;)

Sorry for all the stuffed up look of the site at the moment…  I’m currently playing with the CSS to achieve a basic site that I like for a specific purpose.  Hopefully you are all patient and can wait to see the final result.

It’s really interesting when you chat to people and find out that other people have great idea’s which could possibly fit in with your own interests…

Medieval and Renaissance Book Production – Manuscript Books

By

Richard W. Clement

Is a fascinating look into the process of medieval book making, and includes semi-detailed processed.  It’s a must read for anyone who has a passing interest in the documentation of documentation.  Part 2 of this enjoyable diversion includes some details in the history of Moveable Type and the processes involved.  Have a read of this interesting well referenced document as it’s well worth a look.

Just had a wonderful dinner with great company and some discussions on Pewter casting were had with Tanw, so I need to get them down whilst I remember.

Tanw was suggesting that the issue with pouring a nice thin hollow cast might actually be that the alloy used in modern pewter isn’t anywhere near the same as what was used in period. Modern “Brittania” has absolutely no lead content, it’s usually a mix of tin (93%), copper (2%) and antimony (5%), whereas period Pewter varied greatly in it’s alloy make up, but was primarily tin and lead, as long as tin was more than 51%, it was classed as Pewter. He suggested that it might be worth experimenting with these more period pewters, as it might be easier to get a thin walled hollow casting. While I’m on the subject, my theory on the wall thickness of the period pieces is based on the fact that most photo’s I have found seem to make the hollow pieces look like ther are actually squashed flat to some degree. This would not be possibly without a large amount of pressure on the experimented pieces I have currently made.

Plumbers solder these days could therefore possibly be used as the basis for a more period form of pewter, as it is purchasable in 40T/60L 50T/50L or even 60T/40L mix, and only requires the addition of more tin to purify the pewter. Blackwood’s can supply solder sticks, as well as a pure stick of tin, which would make making a period Pewter mix easily, however I suspect that I’m going to have to purchase packs of 20 and 25 sticks… This is however now the plan, as providing a pure period example, complete with the correctly mixed alloy, would be something that I would find very cool to do. The multiple stick option gives me an easy way to experiment with mixes, though I’ll need a small melting pot that fits nicely on my burner to mix them in.

Tanw also suggested that it might be worth looking into the smelting process, and checking to see whether there are any other metals that are accidently left in the tin or lead after smelting due to the imperfections of the smelting process. This is something else I shall research, and hopefully the Brian Spencer book I am awaiting might shed some light on the metallurgical consistancy of the period examples.

Anyway.. Way past my bed time. Night all…

Yay!!!  I managed to find a copy if the book I was after, which should be turning up this week sometime, possibly even today.  It’s always better when you can buy from an Aussie source and have the purchase Express Posted. :)

Life is disappointing me…  That book I wanted is no longer available from the publisher, and that the publisher has yet to release a date when they will be.  Which basically means I have been told, that it won’t be reprinted.

If anyone comes across a copy of Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges by Brian Spencer for anything less that $90 Australian, could you please let me know.  Amazon prices are greatly inflated as the dealers now know it’s unavailable.

It seems my suspicion of how Pilgrim’s Ampullae were made is indeed correct, although not confirmed by a properly referanced source yet, Jerry Jackson’s Pewter website seems to confirm my theory, and the information contained there in; is consistant with confirmed sources. I’m eagerly awaiting the book I ordered by Brian Spencer, as from what I can work out Brian would have included a great deal of detail in his documentation of specific pieces. This will give me a rough size and wall thickness to attempt to acheive. If anyone has access to any of Brian Spencers publications, I would be greatful for digital copies of anything that is free to be distributed as such.

The crystalisation of the pewter however provides a very rough interior to the container. I’m also having difficulty getting reasonably thin walled castings using this slush casting process. This is most likely due to lack of practice and I shall endeavor to practice and get to a point that I can replicate something that I am happy with.

Yesterday a book I have been waiting for arrived, and I have madly been pawing through it since it arrived. Some of you might remember when it was posted on The Shambles (The mailing list, not the TV show), by a wonderful Duchess not that long ago… Beyond Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges, is a book full of essays on pewter, lead and tin souvenirs and badges which has not only inspired me to fork out even more money for the book that this book is a successor to, it has shown me that not all period souvenirs were solid cast “tokens”. A significant amount of the souvenirs were actually hollow cast Ampullae, albeit very small ones, that were around 4-5cm tall.

This opened my eye’s to something that I hadn’t considered previously, hollow casting in soapstone was just something I haven’t even thought about. Which was strange really because when I did think about it, it wasn’t much of a huge take to work it out. Soapstone moulds are great at quickly drawing away the heat from molten pewter… however if the amount of molten pewter is large enough, it cools from the mould to the centre as a slower rate, allowing you to pour out the excess molten pewter and forming a hollow shape.

Tonight I experimented with this technique and succeeded in creating 3 hollow forms which can if needed hold fluid. Further experimentation will continue as I try and recreate a period looking Ampulla complete with decoration.

I’m not going to post the whole list… so check them out on

missg

’s blog here!

I’m a gentle soul…  It’s true.
I have my own opinions on things…  my own limits.  
I see things my way, and sometimes believe that my way is the best solution.  
I have been known to defend my perceived path, but then I have also been know to stand by and let others steamroll over it.  
I’m lazy, and selfish, and even egotistical…  
Everything I do, I do because it benefits me first and formost, however I won’t stand in peoples way if they can and must get things done their way.  
I am indecisive at times, frequently not knowing what the best way to proceed is, and happy to let other guide me.  
I change my mind frequently, usually after hearing more detail on a one subject.  
I am easily persuaded, frequently taking on too many tasks simply because under normal circumstances I can do them, and I have no decent excuse to refuse.  
My heart beats in all directions, my mind wonders there too.  
I am easily confused, easily befriended, and easy to get.  
I can be shy, and quite, or opinionated and loud.  
I can be peace-loving and warm, or as cold as winter ice.  

I know who I am….  

I know what I am capable of…  

I am proud to be me.

After being swapped from side to side, and hearing about others having the same treatment at Spring War this year, I was disheartened by the lack of pre-organisation that I have noticed during most wars.  Whilst the senarios and management of the war ran really well, I’m of the opinion that there needs to be more.  For War to be more worthy, you need a reason…  Something to fight for other than just “cause the fighting is good”.

This may just be a personal thing for me, and everyone else may actually think that wars as they are, are still fun and exciting.  For me, I need to be part of something I believe in to be able to rise to the level of agression needed to make war fun, otherwise it just seems like too much work, for no apparent reason.  Being swapped from side to side, because the losers didn’t like losing is demoralising, specially when you go to great pains to fight with friends, only to get swapped and then have to shoot at those friends.  It seems to me that they are run in some weird way that isn’t fair for anyone concerned.  Those who recieve the new recruits are going to get troops that whilst honour bound to their new side, have loyalties that will prevent them doing their best against those who they intended to fight with, not against.

There is no historic or modern reason to run the wars the way they seem to be run…  The Wars themselves just aren’t pre-organised…  Wars traditionally were built up to, there was a cause, a reason, whether that be defence of ones homes, the Kings plans, or purely for profit…   Scouts were sent out to assess armies before hand, mercenaries were purchased to help smaller sides, allies were forged.  There is no reason that we can’t do the same thing.  In the weeks leading up to a War, have the War Generals already picked out, and charge them with finding their force.  This has worked very well in the past when it has be self appointed by people such as Hrothgar, Alfar and Draco…  It also serves a secondary purpose to the stewards of a War, it basically apoints these two people with the job of advertising and organising attendees.  Not only are they Generals who are striving to pull together an army, they are respected peers who are encouraging, and giving people a banner and a cause to rally behind.  This has been shown to work well at wars in the past, and personally I believe that it’s oposite, or the lack of said cause to rally behind, has been shown to not work as well.

Anyway, this is a blog…  it’s my opinion, and I’m not trying to tell others what to think, just telling you all what I think, and giving you food for thought, so that you might think about it.