The Armour Archive

Karen Larsdatter

Only 109 fans in the past 19 hours ... if that's crashing Facebook, then Facebook must be made of pretty flimsy stuff.

Karen Larsdatter

(Wasn't sure whether to post this in Meet & Greet or Historical Research, but I figured there were probably more Larsdatter.com fans here than over on the Meet & Greet area.) In any case, I've set up a Facebook page for the larsdatter.com linkspages ; it'll feature updates and new pages, and...

Karen Larsdatter

Jonathan Atkin wrote:Can they arrest you for killing a deer/boar with a spear?

It depends on when & where (& what) you're hunting. Check with your state's game & fish department.

Karen Larsdatter

Lower-class bowman is a good choice for reenactment but a very controversial choice for SCA fighting. I dunno, I think that varies from region to region (and depends on who you ask, too). I'd rather see a really good impression of a lower-class bowman or man-at-arms than a half-hearted impression o...

Karen Larsdatter

Tracy Justus wrote:A piece of cuttlefish mold was found in London and is in the Dress Accessories book.

They also have an antler mold for making a brooch:
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/Englis ... &id=293129

But here's a useful-looking page about cuttlefish casting, too:
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/c ... asting.htm

Karen Larsdatter

http://www.larsdatter.com/painted-shields.htm

Karen Larsdatter

To ask more generally, would more pictorial embroidery be used, particularly in bands around cuffs, hems, and necklines, or would geometric, knotwork-like patterns be more common? What stitches would used? Honestly, we don't have a whole lot of extant secular embroidery to go by from this period, s...

Karen Larsdatter

m is a good resource for historically accurate embroidery for the SCA period. What sort of embroidery is your mom comfortable with doing? Has the garb already been assembled? For an Anglo-Scot c. 1150-1250, I'd suggest checking out opus anglicanum , especially the split-stitch techniques. If it hasn...

Karen Larsdatter

Me and my mom had an argument about whether Black was period for a dye or not (actually she said it wasn't available at all in Europe). You and your mom should check out m for a whole lot of SCA-period dye recipes. (There's more from the 18th century at m if you're still curious.) Each of the dye b...

Karen Larsdatter

I've got a section of books at m that I'd recommend looking through. Especially useful -- ⋅ The Tudor Tailor and also The King's Servants: Men's Dress at the Accession of Henry VIII ; they're working on more books in this series ( The Typical Tudor is next). See m for more from them. &sdo...

Karen Larsdatter

Trying to recall a picture of a medieval pack horse train fully loaded. Pack horses were a major way to move stuff back when the roads were too bad for carts/wagons and you were too far from navigable waterways. (In fact some remote places in England were still served by pack horse trains in the ea...

Karen Larsdatter

Currently, I'm trying to incorporate articles of practicality into my gear, with an interest in being able to imitate a "traveler" of the era. I have a satchel from Historic Enterprises that is about a square foot in size, and lays flat. I can fit a few items in here, but it is unsuitable...

Karen Larsdatter

http://web.archive.org/web/200709062014 ... dachs.html

Karen Larsdatter

istout wrote:In my current searches there is just SO much out there and its all a bit over whelming and confusing. Where would you all point me with regards to mid to late 14th century books, web sites and research materials? Any titles and links are appreciatedâ€¦

http://www.larsdatter.com

Karen Larsdatter

Not sure. Possibly one of these?
http://www.jazwiec.pl/main.php?lang=eng ... _akcesoria
http://www.whiteroseapparel.com/castings.htm
http://www.medievaldesign.com/eng-prodo ... _chiave=10

Karen Larsdatter

m says: The human skull, or death's head, also is borne, but not frequently. The jaw-bone also occurs occasionally. Argent, on a chevron gules, three human skulls of the first--BOLTER. Sable, a chevron between three human skulls argent--BOULTER. Paly of six, or and gules, a jaw-bone in pale azure--D...

Karen Larsdatter

I'm not much of a calligrapher, but I've found The Art of Calligraphy to be really helpful in terms of understanding how to do the lettering for a lot of different medieval calligraphy hands.

Karen Larsdatter

Yeah, but those are the next step up for me. And mine will cost a bit more cause I'll want him to take them a bit higher ( I have long legs...lol). The Revival clothing ones are a bit of a reach. The Revival.us ones are closer to my budget. But I can splurge the extra 30 bucks. Splurging an extra h...

Karen Larsdatter

I don't think the first drawing is authentic. It definitely isn't by Holbein and it isn't a drawn portrait from the 16th century in the British Museum. Umm ... careful, guys. It's definitely a drawing at the British Museum (it's acc. no. 1890,0512.158), and it's definitely a drawing from the 16th c...

Karen Larsdatter

Possibly the ones at revivalclothing.com; have you seen the shoes at http://home.comcast.net/~meisterdru/shoes.htm

Karen Larsdatter

http://www.larsdatter.com/mens-surcoats.htm

Karen Larsdatter

You know, other than episcopal rings, I'm not sure whether I've heard of medieval examples of rings of office. You could read what St. Clement of Alexandria has to say about rings , but judging by the rest of his writings, I'm not sure whether his teachings were exactly followed to the letter. He wr...

Karen Larsdatter

Yep. And it also depends on which particular years of the 1400s we're talking about.

You can find some examples of ruffled veils (including 15th century women from England or Italy) at http://www.larsdatter.com/frilled-veils.htm for example -- but they're mostly from the first half of the 15th century.

Karen Larsdatter

I actually meant something a bit different. If you wear your hood like it's normally intended to be worn, and then you take the liripipe and wrap it around the top of your head at forehead level, this secures the hood part of the hood to your head so that wind won't blow it backwards into the posit...

Karen Larsdatter

Well, you can always just use the search engine on my homepage -- pop in "BNF" and the name of the manuscript you're looking for. Or ... use Google. Google does a pretty good search on Mandragore. Enter the following into the Google search: site:mandragore.bnf.fr name of manuscript or ... ...

Karen Larsdatter

Great Idea, but with the number of potential interested parties, you might be better with a /raffle rather than an auction. 1-2k tickets at $1 each? You could also set it up well in advance, flogging them online. You'd sell a shitload. The only downside is the transactional administration cost. And...

Karen Larsdatter

Bertus Brokamp wrote:On Women's coifs, read:
http://m-silkwork.blogspot.com/2008/11/womens-caps.html

... or http://larsdatter.com/birgitta-caps.htm

Karen Larsdatter

Coifs sometimes appear under men's hats, at the very beginning of the 14th century -- the examples I'm thinking of are primarily from Giotto, like m (It's not an all-the-time thing. Sometimes, coifs appear with hoods, too. And sometimes there are men wearing hats with hoods. See m and m for some exa...

Karen Larsdatter

Well, these are both kinda non-specific (Germany isn't just one country in the 10th-15th centuries, nor are all Vikings from the same country, etc.), so I'm going to give some generalized recommendations ... Viking history, could be historic novels of certain Vikings heroes warriors etc.. ⋅&nbs...

Karen Larsdatter

You might look for Phillip II's "invalid chair" c1595. I looked for it with Google, and couldn't find it. I didn't get around to "Larsdottiring" it. Hah, looka' me, I'm a verb. Here's Phillip II's chair , but there's really not enough examples of pre-17th century wheelchairs to ...

Karen Larsdatter

Tracy Justus wrote:A History of the Umbrella by TS Crawford (1970) claims there are couple of depictions of umbrellas in the Utrecht Psalter but I couldn't find them in looking through the ms.

It's teensy. Check out fol. 15v, left-hand side of the page.

Karen Larsdatter

Meh, just get yourself a sundial watch.

Karen Larsdatter

Grimr Hvitulfsson Ulfhamr wrote:I'm planning on making garb for a 14th c. hunter, which I could also later on occasionally use when bowhunting. Therefore any info on books on 14th c hunting scenes would be wonderful.

http://larsdatter.com/hunting.htm

Karen Larsdatter

Reminded me of this illustration:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminated ... llID=29291

It's St. Francis making his robes, from the Taymouth Hours, c. 1325-1335.

Karen Larsdatter

Petranella wrote:Here is the link to the G63 article:

http://www.lovecalli.org/pdf/G63.pdf

Thanks, Petranella - yep, that's the one I meant.

FWIW, it shows similar garments as early as the 13th century, and then going through to the 15th century.

Larsdatter.com on Facebook

Re: C14th Infantry Pavise

Re: 12th & 13th century embroidered borders

Re: Period Dye question.

Re: Tudor clothing links?

Re: LARGE bags during the 13th century?

Re: Purses in 11th century Ireland?

Re: Mid to late 14th century research materials needed

Re: Hardware for trapezoidal/ring purses?

Re: The human skull as an historical heraldic symbol

Re: Calligraphy?

Re: Which Shoe Looks Less Wrong?

Re: Heraldry on Surcotes

Re: Rings of office?

Re: Mandragore cheat-sheet needed

Re: 14th century head coverings

Re: History books for a high schooler

Re: Fiar's Habit