The Armour Archive

Charlotte J

ETA: Forgot one. I like this one because it shows some sort of split or seam up the front. m Did you see what else it has? A peek inside the top layer dress, showing that the white purfelle (or fabric trim) cuts a right turn and heads up into the shoulder... thereby heavily implying a square-neckli...

Charlotte J

Tasha:

I found a Flemish example of the style, which might provide some more detail.

The Wise and Foolish Virgins

[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Wise_and_Foolish_Virgins.jpg[/img]

Charlotte J

This thread is aptly named, for the English hennin is a puzzle, and every idea is a piece to solving that puzzle. Bob, I think perhaps you mistook what I meant. As I said, I believe that the styles are related, perhaps in a sort of evolution. I think it perfectly appropriate, nay, wise to look at ho...

Charlotte J

I resorted to what I always resort to when I'm stumped over something tailoring/shape-wise. I broke out the scissors and napkins. Brilliant! I was poking around a bit, looking for how big my veiling will have to be, and noticed this. If the idea is correct that the later English hennin structure ev...

Charlotte J

OK, I got it done fast in Visio: http://www.cottesimple.com/armourarchive/proposed_wire_structure.png The thick lines are the proposed diamond structure, while the dotted lines are the rest of that diamond structure yet not portrayed on the brass. The thinner solid lines with circles at the end are...

Charlotte J

I have a suggestion - can you take one of the images that shows the diamond you're talking about, and use Paint to draw a red line where the diamond is? I think I know what you mean now, but it might be more clear for those who haven't been following along the whole way.

Charlotte J

azure d'or wrote:
That's what I do, with the aid of a good hair pin, that runs through the hat and into the hair.

Ok, Gwen, since Tasha's sucking you into her project, what are YOU working on? I'm being totally lazy right now, so I'd love to be sucked into what you're doing.

Charlotte J

I cut out my foundation dress from the dark brown wool last night. I sewed it mostly together, flat-lining the torso portion with canvas for support help, and found that my pattern was a wee bit too small. I now have to sew discreet slivers into the side seams to give me a fighting chance of being ...

Charlotte J

I like the baby-bouncer idea, and it would tie into the lift that the extended hennin-prong (for lack of a better term) seems to do in some of those images. However, my big mystery is the back. Am I seeing a diamond-shaped cage of wire with see-through veiling draped over it in some of those images...

Charlotte J

Well, I think that the "cap" or "coif" itself could be cylindrical, since it's so far back on the head, but that the wire arrangement may have evolved from the earlier cauls. I think this falls into the more than one way to skin a cat category. I am seeing looped wires coming str...

Charlotte J

Page 295 of Dress Accessories has a silk-wrapped wire with a loop or hook on one end. I wish there were other angles of it, it's terribly difficult to tell the shape. It might not tell you much, or it might be an important clue. I think I would look at brasses from the few decades before this, and s...

Charlotte J

ULTRAGOTHA, are you one of the women I chatted with for some time on Sunday? If so, nice to meet you in person! I didn't make the connection, then.

(Mom to the two little boys in the nasal helms.)

Charlotte J

* Eleanor says that a French term, atours , which means "finery", was likely the word used during this period to describe what we contemporary folks are calling a "hennin". Being that French wasn't really the first language in England by the late 15th century, however, I'm wonde...

Charlotte J

Tasha McG wrote:Gwen -- She sounds like a good resource, indeed. Any web presence? Or would this be someone you could put me in touch with one-on-one? If the latter, please PM me or email me with info on how to contact her. Thanks!

Ditto this!

Charlotte J

Hope you don't mind, I'd like to post a direct link to my most recent class slides. I still intend on doing an extensive article with all of the "speaking stuff" surrounding it, but the slides give an idea of where I was going. This class still isn't linked to my webpage. I'm also focusing...

Charlotte J

It certainly brings up an interesting question about whether the black showing in her bodice is a placket of some kind or another dress layer under the red one... The lifted skirt only reveals a silk chemise -- no sign of a black dress. Hm. And then there are the ones with a different color on the ...

Charlotte J

Post some of your resource links to get it back going.

Charlotte J

Actually 16 would be about normal historically speaking for Atlantia, and on the large side for what our crowns have been recently. Also, some of these folks aren't actually fighting, but just have letters in. A week or so ago the rumour was that there were only 6 entrants, so obivously things chan...

Charlotte J

Bernhart von Bruck wrote:Chello!

Ah, but Charlotte, that was why it was a joke. Could there possibly be any layman less randy than St. Thomas More who wore a hair undershirt?

I know.

Mostly just responding to Donal.

Charlotte J

Part of the joke about the deformity is that More talks about the fact that someone with deformed shoulders (one higher than the other) is known to be promiscuous; St. Thomas (More) himself had one shoulder higher than the other. (Looking at shoulders) Erm . . . Almost everybody I've ever fitted fo...

Charlotte J

That merchant didn't happen to have a website? I can't wait to see how it turns out. You're going to look splendid! I wish I remember who she was. It was at an EK Crown and I think she was selling fabric and other things together, but I know it wasn't that lady who usually sells fabric up in Canada...

Charlotte J

From a merchant in Quebec in May 2006. I got it for $10 a yard, though it was worth much more, IMO. It has an almost matted fur-like pile and doesn't feel or look anything like the modern mixed velvets we so often see advertised as "silk velvet". I showed it to some textile experts in La ...

Charlotte J

Sean Powell wrote:The SCA takes itself WAY too seriously... but that has more to do with the BOD & Royalty, adherance to rules about no grapling, not competing with cut & thrust rules, creating and enforcing award structures, abolishing water-bearers etc.

This. A thousand times, this.

Charlotte J

Books, while useful, are not really where scholarship works and debates. You really need periodical articles. The problem is, finding these articles can be an effort. I would suggest you taking a look at the International Medieval Bibliography (IMB). Published since 1974, the IMB is a specialized i...

Charlotte J

Mind wandering the other day ( after watching the OLD animated Return of the King ) and I wondered.... If in an attempt to be taken seriously by other re-enactment groups and academics has the SCA started taking itself too seriously? I do enjoy the challenge of the research and all, but sometimes i...

Charlotte J

Got back from France Monday night. I have pics to post of armour, castles and some interesting pictures from Bordeaux. It was a good trip but too little time in Paris (3 full days is not enough). I will try to post some pics this weekend but then I am gone for a week to Morris, IL and East Chicago,...

Charlotte J

If you're basing that on the "B" on the card, a "B" in Cyrillic is actually a "V" sound.

But if you're basing it on some other knowledge, I got nuttin'.

Charlotte J

Excellent suggestions given to you so far.

Also:

Christopher Dyer:
Making a Living in the Middle Ages
Standards of Living in the Middle Ages

I haven't yet read his Everyday Live in Medieval England, but I have it, and I like his other books.

Charlotte J

Ah, ok. Just wondering if you had some secret lightweight construction going on there.

Charlotte J

Tasha McG wrote:Drat. I'll be in Virginia that weekend.

Me too. I wish I could be in two places at once.

Charlotte J

Charlotte J

But, I think the secret to a comfy hennin is lots and lots of hair. Some of the images show ladies with a high, long ponytail. If you braided and coiled that on the top back of your head, you could set the hennin right on it. *V-8 moment* By Jove, I think you have it. A big fake bun also solves the...

Charlotte J

It makes a lot of sense when you look at this picture:

Charlotte J

I am at the brand-new beginning of a clothing project for the Tournament of the Lily in November -- a 1475ish noble lady's outfit, head to toe. The last time I did this era I was still making costumes with no regard to research -- over ten years ago now. ... and I remember the hennin hurting like h...

Charlotte J

Beautiful pictures, and what a beautiful daughter you have!

I love that because of her youth, she can wear her hair long and loose like that, and just look so right and splendid doing so. Congrats.

Re: too seriously? ( SCA )

Re: Back from France