Practicum Projects

It has been almost a month since Practicum, one of my favourite arts and sciences events. I’m still feeling a bit of a glow. I didn’t take any classes myself, but I taught (or co-taught) three, and did a crafty children’s thing.

My first class was on board games, which was pretty straightforward as I simply set out a selection of games and people were welcome to come and play. I ended up getting thoroughly skunked at nine-men’s morris by a bright young man of about 10. Shove groat turned out to be his sister’s favourite.

Next up was a round table discussion with the Dark Ages Recreation Company about how we do historical interpretation. As usual, we hadn’t gotten ourselves terribly well organized in advance, though Darrell had put together an introductory slide show. As usual, we bounced off each other seamlessly, talking about how we developed personas and have worked as a group so often that our stories and our real-life personalities blend together into a common history, which adds to the authenticity when we present.

My last class was the history of slave uprisings in the Americas before 1600. This is still such a big topic that I struggle to keep to time and not lose anyone in the details, but I did manage to make a rudimentary map to show key locations and the questions led to some really interesting discussions. I had just finished reading a biography of the first well-known English slave trader, so I also had some new insights that I will go back and add to my post on this topic.

My craft activity of the day was building a little wagon. This had been a children’s activity at the Pelican vigil of my friends Martin and Emma. I had been unable to attend because of multiple COVID exposures the week before their elevation, so it was lovely to spend time with them.

Wooden wagon made of stir sticks, pulled by a wooden horse. There is a small wooden person inside the wagon, holding the reins.

It was also the day I handed over a net bag I had made for the Ealdormere gift bag going to Gulf Wars. It has been ages since I did any netting, so it felt very satisfying.

Netted green and yellow bag with a braided drawstring

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100 Things to do With a DeadAnimal

Tonight, I got to do one of my favourite things – I spent an hour with a bunch of youngsters, sharing my love of medieval things. It was at an overnight church camp on a medieval theme. My audience was to be mostly girls between the ages of 7 and 14, many from low-income families. I was doing the demo on my own.

My solution was to pack up my Viking age kit (a sea chest, a basket, a stool) with a variety of items to show everyday life of a Viking woman. Over the years, my demonstration kit has evolved to highlight my interest in cooking, carving, fishing, and textile arts. Coincidentally, this means that I have a variety of tools and items made from bone, antler, wood, horn, hair, leather, wool, linen, hemp, and a bit of silk. I have lots of plain things and a few colourful bits. Since I also have a big interest in reducing waste, and reminding kids of where our food comes from, this has become known as 100 things to do with a dead animal.

Back row – wooden cup, spindle with a soapstone whorl, onion-skin dyed wool on a wooden stool; hemp fishing net with a wooden shuttle; woven basket with spindles with pottery, soapstone, antler and (medieval) metal whorls, undyed white and black wool, wool dyed with madder, purple loosestrife, Queen Anne’s lace, woad-dyed silk, undyed linen, and a pair of wool combs; bone line winder with a hemp fishing line and metal hook.

Front row: hemp netted bag, soapstone oil lamp, bone pin, bone lucet with some madder-dyed wool luceted cord, two bone buckles (one on a leather belt, one on cloth), a raw bone so kids can see what I started with, horse and cows tails, goose feathers – some made into quill pens, naalbinding strainer made from horse and cow hair sitting in the wooden cup; wooden plate holding two horn sausage stuffers and a horn spoon, wooden bowl and wooden spoon.

To complete the demonstration, I had a linen dress and underdress, naalbinding socks and leather shoes, a necklace with glass beads and a bone cross, linen cap with linen braid ties and trim, a whetstone, metal snips, my wooden-handled eating knife, my bone case for holding metal needles, my antler carving knife, my bone comb and case, a bone ear spoon, and my metal toiletry kit (tweezers, earspoon, toothpick and mysterious object).

To finish off the evening, the kids were each allowed to try writing with the quill pens – a messy but fun experiment. I really enjoyed all the questions and interest in touching the different items, and demonstrating spinning and how long it would take to make a single shirt. Kids are always fascinated by bone and horn especially, and how many different materials could be used for items that are made of plastic today.

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Teaching

Last week I taught a class on netting at Practicum, a local arts and sciences event in Caldrithig (Ottawa). I am inspired to get back to working on the net lace project I have on my challenge list. It is to replace a failed experiment begun over 20 years ago, using net loops that were too large to embroider. I’ll be teaching the class again in my local group. It turns out the best teaching aid for this is my fishing net, as people find the scale large enough to practise on. This is perfect, as I am getting some work done on the net in time to take it back to l’Anse aux Meadows this summer!

Today I gave a little lecture on how to plan and budget for a feast, and run a feast kitchen. I drew heavily on the article Dame enid and Dame Tsivia wrote for the 1985 edition of the Known World Handbook. It has stood me in good stead since I first got interested in cooking feasts. I’ll post a copy of my notes shortly.

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