The Inexorable Mouths of Snails

I am teaching 3 classes at the Known World Costuming Symposium in October. This is a sort of public service announcement, as my class descriptions on the KWCS website are incomplete. This is a public post, please feel free to spread this around.

 Bliauts, Broad Skirts and Belled Sleeves: Making the Court Dress of 12th Century Western Europe
Class Description:         An overview of elements of court styles, the basic cuts of male and female court dress, with handouts of sample cuts and a demonstration of appropriate layers and period cutting methods.
Length of Class:  1.5 hours with a half hour optional q&a period during which I will help students measure for garments    
Class size? 15 students
What supplies/equipment should students bring to class, if any?  Measuring tape and notepaper and pencil, if help with measuring is desired.
There will be a handout fee of $1 requested per person (to cover printing costs), handout packets will contain multiple pages.


Adventures in Dagging: 14th Century Dagge Manufacturing Techniques from Archaeological Examples
Class Description:         A workshop during which students will get the opportunity to make their own sample fulled wool (or synthetic felt*) dagges using various scissor techniques.
Length of Class:  1 hr     
Class size?  10 participating, up to 5 additional 'auditing' (viewing as a demo only)
What supplies/equipment should students bring to class, if any?  Scissors, notepaper and pencil
*limited quantities of synthetic felt will be provided for those who are allergic to wool.
There will be a $5 materials fee for the materials and info packet. Handout packets will be multiple pages, all materials for workshop participation are provided. 5 extra handouts will be brought, and a $1 fee to cover printing costs is requested for those who do not wish to participate in the hands-on workshop.


 Serpentine Braids or Straight as a Scabbard: Women's Court Hairdressing in 12th Century Western Europe
Class Description:         Informal workshop with handouts. Primarily a demo of braiding techniques, accessories (tapes, jewelled  weights, veils and circlets) and covering appropriate styles. Handouts will include short instructions and ideas for making some accessories yourself. Demonstration volunteers gratefully accepted, but our time is short so I can only do two or three ladies (if no volunteers, I'll be demoing on a wig stand).
Length of Class:  1 hr    
Class size?  10 (slightly flexible)
What supplies/equipment should students bring to class, if any?   Long-haired attendees who wish to volunteer for styling demonstration should bring their own combs and ribbons. Ribbons should be 3x as long as the hair to be styled.
 There will be a handout fee of $1 requested to cover handout printing costs, handout packets will have multiple pages. (I'm still writing them up, but it's looking to be about 8 pages right now)

My handout fees are calculated to cover the copier fees of 10 cents/page. Most handout packets will be 10 or more pages. All handouts will be included in the symposium proceedings, provided I get them in by the end of this week.

Yesterday, my mom and I did the monthly Episcopalian Church Women's dinner, and our theme was "a Chaucerian Feast". We dressed up, did the tables in a "u", lit the place wiht candles and mom gave a talk on the socio-politico-religious climate of the time, including how the Lollard bible came out of the same household (especially significant to our church). There were background minstrels-in-a-box: the Dufay Collective, I beleive. It was effectively a demo in the form of a dinner.

Mom and I served, and we seated the vicar and his wife at the 'top' of the table, above the salt.

Our menu was as follows:

A pottage of pulses (yellow peas and red lentils) with onions and pork, served over bread.
Round pies (not made in piepans, rather more like 7" round raviolis) in two flavors, spiced sweetened ground pork with raisins and chopped apples, and cheese with leeks (ricotta cheese).
A sallet of sausages, celery and parsley.
Cheese and fruit (we chose 'farmer's cheese' as it's close to a period short-maturation cheese)
Ale, cider (non-alcoholic), and mulled wine served with water.
Finally, we finished the meal with hedgehog-shaped cakes - essentially a shortbread shaped into little hedgehogs, with slivered almond spines and caraway eyes.

Unfortunately everything was eaten before I could photograph it. The hedgehogs were darling. I was only the "assistant cook" in that mom planned everything and all I really did was roll out the dough and serve.

My dad performed several period instruments, and gave his usual talks on early music.

So it went well, and everyone was quite impressed. I don't think anyone was expecting medieval food to be Really Good :)