The Armour Archive

Black Swan Designs

do you have any links to imagery or are there text descriptions?

For my money, it doesn't get much clearer than this one, which I cited in my first post:

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

Ah. 'Rare and specialized' even given all the examples in Testard? Hmm. Can't say I would draw the same conclusion, but what do I know.

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

I just skimmed through this after a couple days away- Chef, are you saying that a sleeveless/collarless thing to hold up hose does't exist? I'm trying to get a sense of what's been said but it's eluding me.

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

Thomas, you MUST put your hose in the dryer!! Your hose are stretched out 6 ways from Sunday, and are making my eyes bleed. Wash them in the machine and dry them in the dryer, just like the care tag says to. I put that care tag in there for a reason. I guarantee you will not wind up with action man ...

Black Swan Designs

Oh, and we don't pre-wash the fabric- once the fabric is saturated with glue it becomes plenty malleable enough.

Black Swan Designs

You can have anything you like so long as it has a crescent in silver and is red. Sounds like Henry Ford's 'you can have any colour you want, as long as it's black'. So no St. Michael, huh? I've been lobbying for St. Michael. Oh well, I'm sure it will be gorgeous whatever you boys decide. The 'raw ...

Black Swan Designs

Split hose won't stay up by themselves, they have to be tied to something, so the shirt by necessity goes inside the hose. Beyond that, some guys tuck the shirt into their underwear, and some leave the shirt hanging out. We left the shirt hanging out for the photo. The shirt outside the underwear te...

Black Swan Designs

By 1370 you should be fine wearing split hose, which provide significantly more coverage. They are basically full hose with each leg separate and no codpiece. http://historicenterprises.biz/bmz_cache/2/2347f9460a9e432e1de9f766cc4b005b.image.317x550.jpg http://www.historicenterprises.biz/misc/refpics...

Black Swan Designs

I keep writing responses to this thread because I sympathize, but keep deleting them because I live in fear of repercussions.

That Radio Shack experience sounds painfully familiar, if you substitute clothing for electronic parts.....

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

Oh the stories I could tell......

This is a weird and sometimes thankless business, but most of the time people are great, and the business relationship works both ways.

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

Gavin- No, Azizz will not be at Pennsic. I know because I just spoke to him at the local SCA War last month. From what I'm hearing, there are a lot of people who won't be at Pennsic this year, or who have dropped Pennsic from their circuit completely. I think there will be many new vendors on the ro...

Black Swan Designs

We used pottery cups and candles, like the image in Rene. We had a (awesome, cool, totally kick a$$) 2 tier chandelier like this for our tent.

*sigh* the tent, the bed and the lantern are the only thing I really miss about my reenactment days.

*sigh*

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

A good sports bra can really help disguise your shape, if you're not up for using linen bandages to bind your chest down. Bandages do have the advantage of allowing you to adjust the girls to minimize cleavage. Cleavage pretty much rules out leaving your collar open, but if you distribute things pro...

Black Swan Designs

Thanks for the votes of confidence. The bones are good, there are just some bugs (like the clickable photos and inventory) which still need to be worked out. Please feel free to send me comments if you find a glitch- it will help us get them all fixed a bit quicker. We finally have a search function...

Black Swan Designs

Hi All- Our old website finally succumbed to old age, a few days before the new website was to be complete. We had no choice but to go live with the new site, even though there are still a few things left to do. The biggest issue is inventory-- right now the site shows items we don't have, and doesn...

Black Swan Designs

hey Murdoch-

I'm sending a friend of mine from Australia to you for a pair of those bear paw shoes. His name is Dean, he's in Brisbane- See if you can help him out, will you?

Thanks-

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

Thanks for the help guys. I think this is going to turn into a 'make it ourselves deal' after all.....

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

We're looking for plastic or plastic type helmets. The helmets need to look like real historical helmets (no fantasy) and be wearable. Can anyone suggest a source?

Thanks!

Gwen

(Yes, we *could* make them ourselves, but would prefer not to)

Black Swan Designs

The idea of looking at the costume books is to get an idea of the sort of style she might like.

Black Swan Designs

This is another excellent one, probably #1 on my list-

The Evolution of Fashion: Pattern and Cut from 1066 to 1930 by Hill & Bucknell

Black Swan Designs

The wedges can be taken apart and reversed (\/\/\/\/\/) to form a rectangle. Any shop that handles canvas covers can do that pretty simply.

Just a thought.

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

Have you considered looking at period sources at all? That might yield some clues. If you're not fluent with period sources, I have found costume books which give a clear 'timeline' in line drawings helpful for people who don't know anything about historical clothing. A couple you could try: A Picto...

Black Swan Designs

Actually, the horse's owner tacked him up. I assume she put the saddle where she felt it was best for him.

Black Swan Designs

Saddles change, leg position adapts to the saddle, but I don't know of any riding discipline that asks for anything but heels down.

Black Swan Designs

Shows Jeff's footwear and stirrup pretty clearly.

G

Black Swan Designs

Ah OK! No worries, you just confused me there for a while! I understand though.

Gwen

Black Swan Designs

There is no 'internal structure' specified for the shaffron and crinet in Rene'. Did you mean the hourd under the caparison in Rene'? If so, the answer is no, Jeff did not have a hourd. The hourd is only used in the melee, not for jousting. Jeff's caparison has no padding of any sort, it's just the...

Black Swan Designs

I haven't heard much about the tournament Lee, so I couldn't say. All I know is that Jeff was pleased with his performance. He's never ridden Mutley and said he was quite a handful, but that Jeff liked him a lot. I imagine I'll hear more about things when he gets back. Here are some pictures of Jeff...

Black Swan Designs

Fred Piraux won the tournament. Jeff scored 1 point less than Fred and came in second. Dominic Sewell finished third.

Black Swan Designs

Not a stupid question at all! We get asked that all the time. His name is Mutley, and he belongs to Nicky Willis at Tournament Stud in England. The organizers hired Mutley and other horses for the visitors to ride. It is the obligation of the event organizer to provide horses for any of the internat...

Black Swan Designs

I've put up some images of the event here Photos from IJL Hackaland event

Photo of Jeff and Mutley, the Gypsy Cob stallion he's riding in this event:

Black Swan Designs

The Hackamores are putting on a big IJL tournament in Seraing, Belgium this weekend. Here are a few images of Jeffrey Hedgecock from that event: Jeff (left) jousting against Jarek from Poland on Saturday: http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v4650/201/28/1134303318/n1134303318_445184_5062987....

Black Swan Designs

Yeah, his life sucks, doesn't it? 'sOK, I don't begrudge him his trips. He puts a fantastic amount of effort into his hobby, it's no wonder he gets invited. He just finished a shaffron and crinet from Rene's Book of the Tournament for this event. He got it done the night before he left, and didn't e...

Black Swan Designs

Jeff H is off jousting in Belgium sans internet, so I'll answer for him. Short answer- he rides in turnshoes or 15th C. riding boots when he's doing medieval stuff. He wouldn't dream of using anything else. I just asked him and the same for Luke. Woulter ad the others have covered the reasons, so it...

Black Swan Designs

See our Fabrics pages for a rundown on fabrics and colours, including hi-res images of fabric. [img]http://www.historicenterprises.com/misc/refpics/weaves01.jpg[/img] Because a computer screen may not display colours the way they are in life, we also offer a Natural dye sample folio [img]http://www....

New website for Historic Enterprises

WTB- Plastic helmets

Photos from the IJL Hackaland event