I am back from  a few months break from blogging. It was good to have a rest, and not worry about trying to document all the stuff I was doing. Well the hiatus is over, and its time to start blogging again.

There will be a few old posts that will be posted soon, and a few projects where I will only have images of  completed stuff instead of the entire build.

so thats whats up.

Happy 2011

Random Posts

• August 11, 2009 -- Bedouin Tent v1.0 You have to start somewhere (9)
• August 30, 2009 -- Tir Righ Summer Investiture 2009 (2)
• February 14, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet v1.4 Cartoon Time (0)
• November 12, 2009 -- Monkey Jaw (0)
• October 18, 2009 -- Turkish Garb v1.2 Entari (1)
• June 29, 2009 -- A.T. War 2009 (0)

Another good weekend has passed me by. I spent the majority of the weekend in the dusty depths of the wood shop. One major item I got off the list was making a set of Pal Mall mallets. It would have been easier to buy a set, but the commercially available set have such ludicrously short handles on the mallets. Longer handles = win.

I also got to play around with my axe, lathe and froe.  I cut up stump I had in the shop and turned a half round into a bark rimmed bowl. I had thought of Poll Lathe turning it…but I was lazy. I also used the froe to break of a thin strip of wood, and then tried planing it down to a flat board. That’s a skill I need a whole lot of work on.

Months ago, Morweena gave me a number of pine shelves to use in my evil plans. They sat there mocking me for months. I finally showed them whats what and cut them down and trimmed off the rounded edges. Now I have a bunch more room where the shelves had been living and a bunch of ready to go 1×3.5″ boards…. Woot.

I also got to move around a lot of plantage. The mulberry tree is starting to grow, ruhbarb has transplanted, and new bark mulch was installed in all the areas that needed it.

I also got some work done on the up coming games tourney, The mini siege engines got some more work done on them, and I started to read up on what it would take to make a siege engine company.  I need to start making armor that’s for sure. Dose it make me a bad person if I am late period English, dressed in Ottoman Turk Garb, and Fight in Japanese armor?

Good Weekend.

Random Posts

• October 17, 2009 -- Turnips with Chestnuts and Sage (0)
• October 12, 2009 -- Sauteed Aspargus (0)
• March 14, 2010 -- Daffodil Carpet Sample (0)
• May 11, 2009 -- Turned Bed Frame v1.8 Paint is Dry (4)
• May 10, 2009 -- Leather Shoes (0)
• June 29, 2010 -- AT War 2010 (4)

Inside the box was a gift pack from Yurt Alert. A while back I found a listing on the kickstarter web site for a Crochet Yurt Project.  Kate Pokorny was attempting to make a self supporting crochet yurt. She was fund raising money to buy the 500 lb’s of wool she was going to need. The deadline was coming up, and she was so close to her goal, I decided to anti up some cash for the cause.

Well the gift box had a minture crochet yurt, a picture of a sheep, and some fleece.  Awesome… The whole thing  just makes me laugh.

I also did a quick runner to LeeValley. I picked up a carpet boules set for this weekend. A story tape measure that Lee Valley released as there annual Aprils Fool prank. I am super glad they decided to make real story tape measures to sell as they normally don’t produce there pranks. I have plans.

The big score was the red ochre pigment. I had searched there site last week looking for their pigments only to find they had discontinued the product. Well, there they where sitting on the clearance bench. I am kicking myself for not buying the yellow ochre while I was there. May have to go back next week, but knowing my luck it will be gone <sob>. I am using the red ochre with linseed oil on the eric stands.

Random Posts

• February 8, 2010 -- Status Update (0)
• December 30, 2009 -- Houndstooth Weaving (0)
• March 16, 2009 -- Curdled Milk (0)
• March 4, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.5 ~ More Cartoons (3)
• August 16, 2009 -- Bedouin Tent v1.3 Too High to Be Low (0)
• January 4, 2011 -- niddy noddy v2.0 (0)

Sherbert the Entari is slowly chugging along. Its possible it will be done for investiture, but I am starting to doubt it.

I didn’t kill my Mulberry Tree over the holidays. It is starting to bud in the carport. This means the Silkworm project may be only one more year away. It all comes down to how much growth I get this year. I really should get it in a bigger pot soon.

I am working on a turning project for my mom. It involves hundreds of pencil crayons being glued together. I have turned alot of stuff thats been laminated together, but never anything quite like this. It just might kill me =D.

I am building a game board based on a version of Hnefatafl, but it reminds me more of the Irish game Fidchell. I am calling it Boot Licking Toadie in tribute to the whole weirdness of the C______ War politics. The bootlicker with the help of the Toadies have to avoid being captured by the significant Minority all the while trying to suck up to the assorted senechals living in the corners of the game board.

Working on a Pilgrim Badge cast in a stone mold. Stove broke, so I am stuck for the moment.

More research on the Turkish Rug. I think I have my design sorted out except for the center element. Still looking, and thinking of dying my own wool. I have to figure out a rough estimate of the wool I will need, and then figure out if I have enough capacity to dye everything at once. If I can I dye, if not maybe not. Don’t want to thave the colors change mid carpet.

Still going to give the orange turmeric dye one more shot, then I will share the good and badness of my recent dyeing stuffs.

etc….

• January 18, 2011 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.9 Yellow (1)
• January 18, 2011 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.8 Mordanting the Wool (0)
• February 7, 2010 -- Day of Dance / A&S Defenders 2010 (3)
• July 28, 2009 -- Flora & Ash update (0)
• July 12, 2009 -- Purple Heart Dye (0)
• June 6, 2009 -- Mulberry Tree / Silkworm Project (2)

This is going to be a long and rambling path .

Looking Back

Web Site Stuff:

In the last year I have had over 10,000 hits & the top three topics where $35 yurt, Bedioun tents, and Trestle tables. I am allready predicting that next year will have home made indexing jig in the top three. Lots of recent traffic.

Things I built that kind of Rocked:

Turned bed frame

Emily’s Highchair

Folding Aumbry

Bedouin Tent

Table Trestle

Back Stool

Make things 1st’s:

Milk Paint experiments

Barley Twists

Weaving

Playing with cooperage.

Best Things / memories from 2009:

My niece Emily was born

May Crown in Avacal with Mistress Agnes (the wind baby…the wind)

Hanging with all the aprenti

Being way more social

Vancouver Film Festival (sans broken ribs)

Podcasting with Marina & Dale

Meeting new super cool peoples (Safiya, Elenor, Tristan …etc)

Looking Forward:

Things I am planning to do (or at least hoping)

More Camping

More Hanging with the aprenti

Make more period items with out huge amount of SCAism’s creeping in.

Games…Lots of Freaking Games

Turned table base for my brass turkish tray

More Weaving

Upgrading the webpage with better bio, bibliography, better organization…etc

Watch Way More Movies!!!!! (Is it wrong that I am counting down the days till next VIFF)

More Playing with medieval science (magnetics, paints, optics..etc)

Improve my carving skills

Use pole lathes more than my electric lathe (build a camping lathe)

Music boxes / Automata

Make an Inlay German Crossbow

Learn to brew

Possibly merchant again (must build portable periodish market stall)

Pipe Dreams:

Building an Alachigh style yurt (boobhaus)

Gypsy Wagon

Wagon construction (wheelwright)

Cooperage

Random Posts

• March 18, 2010 -- Daffodil Tourney 2010 (8)
• May 18, 2010 -- Cone Tent v1.2 – Painting (2)
• January 29, 2010 -- Mystery Game Board (2)
• August 7, 2008 -- Cock Shield (0)
• August 7, 2008 -- 1st Tudor House (0)
• June 23, 2009 -- Folding Aumbry Cupboard v1.3 98% done (2)

Uber happy over my new set of mortise chisels. I have a very cheap and nasty set of inexpensive, old, and inherited rust buckets. These look like they could weather the nastiest of jobs.

I also got a live center kit. I completely forgot that Mom had bought this while I was at KMS months ago. It was a good surprise. My lathe came with the one live center, and had no interesting attachments. Gawd I love gadgets.

Emily seemed quite happy with her chair, but she seemed to want the proparatzi to just go away.

Happy Festivus, and Snow Flake day.

Random Posts

• January 18, 2010 -- Wool Weave (0)
• July 9, 2009 -- Wool Combs (0)
• February 23, 2009 -- Lock v1.0 (0)
• January 4, 2010 -- More Weaving (0)
• October 12, 2009 -- Sauteed Aspargus (0)
• January 8, 2010 -- New Old Loom (3)

It’s going to get a little quiet around here for the next few weeks. I am working on a single item entry into Tir Righ A&S championship. Normally I would blog about the day to day menusha of what I am doing, but after consultation with my laurel, I’ll be holding off intil the event is over.  I held a poll on what I should build for the championship, and Furniture won. I will be attempting to make a conjecturally acurate 1380-1420′s sawhorse style trestle table.

Add to that, the Vancouver Film Fest is also the first two weeks of October.  Hoping to catch `25-30 films again this year. Go Asian Cinema.

Radio silence baby. I am sure I’ll pot periodically but low volume.

Mary O

• May 2, 2010 -- May Gamers 2010 (1)
• March 14, 2010 -- Daffodil Carpet Sample (0)
• January 3, 2011 -- Ouled Nail Bedouin Tent v2.3 Final thoughts. (0)
• August 19, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.7 The Math (0)
• August 11, 2010 -- Ouled Naïl Bedouin Tent v2.2 Wooden Bits & Rope (0)
• August 11, 2010 -- Art of Seagirt (0)