August 2025: This Glitter IS Gold
August Goals
Garb:
Bea’s Pelican Hood
My stunning medallion on her own official chain!
I know having exactly one goal for August set the bar low, but I think it was a smart plan. Bea’s hood has been such a fun project to work on, but also a demanding one. This is the most ambitious goldwork project I have ever taken on and I knew going into it I needed to give myself as much time as possible to accomplish it.
The hood itself was an experiment on a couple fronts:
The pattern. This hood is has a curved back seam that follows the curve of Bea’s head, hopefully to help hold it in place better than a more basic half circle only design like some of the previous hoods I’ve made. I’m pretty pleased with how that part turned out and how it sits on my head form.
Large scale goldwork. It may be a hair self serving, but boy I have learned so much about couched goldwork in practical application from this project. I got to experiment with materials, find some sources for stuff, and get to know a new water soluble pattern transfer material. All of this was a great support for the hood itself, but will be just as useful when I start on Juana’s sobresaya, hopefully in October.
Faux fur. I’ve never worked with faux fur before so learning how to handle it required several YouTube binges and some Google rabbit holes. Also, shopping for faux fur was a lot more complicated than I anticipated! Finding an acceptable stand in for ermine was a challenge, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
The hood project as a whole took 41 hours and 35 minutes over 25 days to complete.
Also on the list this month was catching up on a couple other projects that have languished for a while. I added a chain to my Laurel medallion, which I love. I’m so excited to wear it for the first time to an event for Battle on the Bay but also a little weirdly nervous. It’s a weird feeling that I can’t articulate better than “weird” right this second, but I’ll get there eventually. At the same time, I also added some of my remaining fresh water pearls to the three remaining Laurel wreaths from the Laurel tranzado for a lovely personalized set of Laurel jewelry. I still need to get a chain and some earring hooks for them, but that’s in the works.
Trestle legs, right after applying the gold. I cleaned that up, I swear.
For my birthday this year, I had gotten myself a set of trestle table legs to bring to events. I spent part of last month and a chunk of this month painting and varnishing them so they could be used outdoors. Turns out, I don’t particularly love spray painting furniture and I doubt I will again and will probably stick to a good, old fashioned paint brush next time, but they turned out beautifully. Evan helped me use gold oil paint and cool capillary action physics to fill in the carved design on the pieces before we varnished them and I love how they turned out.
I’m not much of a woodworker (and don’t really ever plan to be) but it’s nice to know that when there is something I want, that I can figure my way into it somehow. I ended up doing a two part top to this table, that is in two pieces 12 inches wide x 36 inches long. These piece have latches on the bottom so that they won’t separate when weight, be it things or people, is put on them. At some point, I may add some stabilizers to the actual trestle bars as well, but that’s a problem for another day. It’s not a period practice, but it sure does the trick for what I need them to. This table desperately needs a storage container or bag of some kind, so I may add that to my September to do list.
I’m about ready with my Grabby Hands class, which is a lovely place to be. The hand out is where I want it, the slide deck is created, I’ve done a quick test run, and now it’s just wait until University time. I’m looking forward to this class- it’s a lot more relaxed in some ways than my more academic offerings. It feels like a fun change of pace. My first script run through sat comfortably at 30 minutes, which should be just perfect to allow for questions and an ending Q&A session after the slide deck is complete. I do still really want to do this as an in person class sometime, but I’ll wait for the right opportunity to present itself.
I also spent a solid amount of time this month and last working on a submission to the Compleat Anachronist, which I am hopeful will be published in September. It’s given me a lot to think about for re-tooling a couple parts of the Foods That Built Spain handout and class, so I may end up re-recording that in the near future. Which of course got me thinking about some of the other classes I have done in the past that have not been revisited like the Monochrome Embroidery From Around the World and Spanish Women’s Undergarments. I’ve decided to slow roll re-vamping both of those so I can give one or both at Winter Uni (maybe one each day? Something to think about) and then get them on my YouTube channel.
September is going to also be about garb for other people, which continues to be fun. I get to make Sof’ia her own version of the Persona Pentathlon outfit! I’m so excited for this, I think it’s going to be absolutely adorable.
September Goals
Garb:
Sof’ia’s Spanish outfit (camisa, gonete, vasquiña, cofia if I have time)
Prep a muslin of the sobresaya pattern so I can start embroidering that in October
Start my rabbit hole project on hair nets for a traveling project
Classes:
Record and post the Grabby Hands class
