It seems that more has been happening for me in the past 3 years of my A&S journey than had happened in the previous 20 years combined. I have always been passionate, committed and hard working when it came to the arts and sciences. I also always put research at the center point of all my projects, so looking back I have to wonder what has changed for me? I don't have to look far to find the answer.
One conversation I had changed everything for me. That conversation was the one that helped me find my focus, and once I found out what I should focus on, everything else about my A&S work immediately fell into place and the path I needed to take became very clear to me. The funny thing was, I never knew that not having a focus was the problem that was holding me back.
Many years ago I asked my good friend-and Medieval Aunt-Aurelia to help me find someone to apprentice to in the SCA. I wanted to take my sewing and embroidery to the next level and I felt stuck. I didn't know how to get deeper into research and being self taught I felt I wasn't getting any better on my own anymore. This was before Facebook and I was really discouraged by the Yahoo groups, I hated asking questions on them since there were always some unhelpful people who dominated the group. I was at the time more active in Acre than I was in the SCA and I didn't know many East Kingdom Laurels. Aurelia and I though we should focus on my work on Middle Eastern garb and we were not able to come up with anyone. We decided to let the matter rest and the both of us would keep our eyes and ears open and we knew the right person would eventually be made known to us. At the time my son was just a toddler and then we moved to a new state and I wound up taking a few steps back from medievalism.
About 5 or 6 years ago I really was able to become more active in A&S again and I went to a University event that my Auntie Aurelia was also at. She introduced me to Lady Caterina and told her I was looking for guidance on my A&S work. That day I had attended my very first Athena's thimble meeting and I confessed to her that I had been too nervous to panel the embroidered favor I had made. She made me feel comfortable enough to show it to her and she gave me some very nice feedback and encouraged me to panel it in the future.
After that first meeting our paths crossed often, and the more I talked with Caterina the more I found that we had a very similar approach to A&S and even though she was more skilled and experienced than me, I found it so easy to talk to her about it. I found myself often seeking her advice, and it was her advice that she gave me about 3 years ago that changed everything for me.
We were at a New Years Eve party and we were talking about the first A&S project and my problem with deciding on what to do next. I was unsure if I should work on a garb project or an embroidery project. She suggested I should focus on my fiber arts, She said that was my strongest art and my biggest passion. That statement made so much sense, yet was not something I could have seen myself. I was still thinking about this conversation for days afterwards and suddenly I had a very clear plan in place. I had several A&S project ideas as well as classes that I could teach based on each project. I had always struggled with the fact that I liked to do so many different crafts, but when I looked at it from the perspective as a fiber artist, they didn't seem that different at all. Suddenly spinning, sewing, embroidery and knitting were all just branches of the main focus of fiber.
It was not long before I had decided that my next project would be the period fiber study project, which was really more of a research paper that had some handspun and woven visual aids. I also realized I was so much more confident about my fiber work and it was so much easier to talk about it to other people. Once I realized that fiber study was at the core of what I did it all became so clear.
I knew that I had found the teacher for me, but was I the student for her? She had only recently become a Laurel and I didn't want to push the idea of her taking me on as a student. It took another year of getting to know each other for both of us to realized it was the right thing for both of us to do. I could not be happier with the decision and I feel studying under Padrona Caterina is exactly what I needed to move forward. Together I think we will do some great things.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Fleece to Frock-Black Welsh Mountain sheep -project Wrap up
The last time I updated this project was during the Pennsic 42 Display post, but I wanted to give my final thoughts on the project. Now that I have started working on the follow up to this project I am finally going to put this project to rest.
I hesitate to call this project a "failure", even though I was not able to achieve my goal of creating a dress from raw fiber.
Many mistakes were made in the execution of this project, but in the long run I cannot consider it a failure because so much was learned in the process.
Here are the obstacles I encountered that caused the project to be abandoned. These lessons were learned the hard way and of course now looking back it seems that I should have known better. At least I know the same mistakes will not be made next time.
1. I really underestimated how much fiber I would need to create the yardage needed to make a dress. When I started this project I was not a weaver and had no idea how to calculate the yardage needed for a warp and weft. I also had no ide how much yarn I could get from a single Black Welsh Sheep's fleece.
2. Fleece quality varies A LOT from sheep to sheep and from flock to flock. Wool from fleeces need to mixed together BEFORE you spin if you want to get a homogeneous yarn. I tried to spin more yarn from a different fleece and the quality was so completely different from the first one.
3. Black Welsh Sheep are really rare and it is super hard to find fleeces for sale. Fiber festivals really favor white sheep fleeces. Most color fleeces I found came from Shetland sheep, or Jacob sheep. I have never seen a Black Welsh Fleece for sale at the festivals I go to and the one Black Welsh breeder I met never sold the fleeces before, they just had them as meat sheep. I need to find a good source of fiber before I try to make another garment from Black Welsh Sheep (and I really do want to make another one).
4. Since this was my first A&S project I was super excited to get started actually making the dress so I started wool prep and spinning before I started the researching textile construction. BIG MISTAKE! I learned way too late that I should be using singles for the warp and weft and the yarn I was spinning was way too thick to be anything but heavy duty outerwear (or a rug). Also in the 14th century combing was much more popular than carding which was the fiber technique I had done. Now that I have several years of A&S projects under my belt I know it is much better to do the bulk of your research before starting construction. There are many important decisions you need to make before starting and often once you start working it is too late to change the way you are working.
When I was done weaving and fulling I had about 4 yards of 18 inch wide fabric which is not nearly enough for the dress I had planned on making. I am not going to lie, I was crushed when I realized the project couldn't continue. It was months before I could even think about what I was going to do with the fiber I had created. I still haven't really finished sewing the hood I made instead. I still need to add the buttons, and I will probably make some kind of pilgrims bag to go along with it.
I displayed the unfinished hood at the Known World A&S Display at Pennsic 45. I spent so much time explaining what went wrong, and what I would do differently that I decided not to display this project anymore. I have started a new dress project (I call it Fleece to Frock II ). This time I am doing the research up front. I have 6 big beautiful Jacob Fleeces washed and ready to be combed. I will be happy when I finally finish up the last bit of the hood and bag and I can put this all behind me and just enjoy the finished product of this very long journey. I am happily looking forward to starting a new project with hopefully a better outcome.
I hesitate to call this project a "failure", even though I was not able to achieve my goal of creating a dress from raw fiber.
Many mistakes were made in the execution of this project, but in the long run I cannot consider it a failure because so much was learned in the process.
Here are the obstacles I encountered that caused the project to be abandoned. These lessons were learned the hard way and of course now looking back it seems that I should have known better. At least I know the same mistakes will not be made next time.
1. I really underestimated how much fiber I would need to create the yardage needed to make a dress. When I started this project I was not a weaver and had no idea how to calculate the yardage needed for a warp and weft. I also had no ide how much yarn I could get from a single Black Welsh Sheep's fleece.
2. Fleece quality varies A LOT from sheep to sheep and from flock to flock. Wool from fleeces need to mixed together BEFORE you spin if you want to get a homogeneous yarn. I tried to spin more yarn from a different fleece and the quality was so completely different from the first one.
3. Black Welsh Sheep are really rare and it is super hard to find fleeces for sale. Fiber festivals really favor white sheep fleeces. Most color fleeces I found came from Shetland sheep, or Jacob sheep. I have never seen a Black Welsh Fleece for sale at the festivals I go to and the one Black Welsh breeder I met never sold the fleeces before, they just had them as meat sheep. I need to find a good source of fiber before I try to make another garment from Black Welsh Sheep (and I really do want to make another one).
4. Since this was my first A&S project I was super excited to get started actually making the dress so I started wool prep and spinning before I started the researching textile construction. BIG MISTAKE! I learned way too late that I should be using singles for the warp and weft and the yarn I was spinning was way too thick to be anything but heavy duty outerwear (or a rug). Also in the 14th century combing was much more popular than carding which was the fiber technique I had done. Now that I have several years of A&S projects under my belt I know it is much better to do the bulk of your research before starting construction. There are many important decisions you need to make before starting and often once you start working it is too late to change the way you are working.
When I was done weaving and fulling I had about 4 yards of 18 inch wide fabric which is not nearly enough for the dress I had planned on making. I am not going to lie, I was crushed when I realized the project couldn't continue. It was months before I could even think about what I was going to do with the fiber I had created. I still haven't really finished sewing the hood I made instead. I still need to add the buttons, and I will probably make some kind of pilgrims bag to go along with it.
I displayed the unfinished hood at the Known World A&S Display at Pennsic 45. I spent so much time explaining what went wrong, and what I would do differently that I decided not to display this project anymore. I have started a new dress project (I call it Fleece to Frock II ). This time I am doing the research up front. I have 6 big beautiful Jacob Fleeces washed and ready to be combed. I will be happy when I finally finish up the last bit of the hood and bag and I can put this all behind me and just enjoy the finished product of this very long journey. I am happily looking forward to starting a new project with hopefully a better outcome.
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