Protect Yourself!

Got your attention?

I really am talking about protecting yourself, but not from anything more sinister than splashes, spills and (my favourite word) schmegglies. What am I on about? Aprons. Yessiree, step right up and check these out.

Those are two of my favourites but I've been a busy little bee and there are plenty more where that came from. Detail shots (money shots?) below. I've been working on some matching potholders and oven mitts as well but those are not as well established a pile as the aprons are.

I don't know about you, but I need an apron. Well, perhaps need is a relative term here - if I wore one all the time, how would I know what to purge from my closet if it weren't for the sploodges and stains adorning all those clothes that didn't get protected by an apron? Making new clothes is one way to keep the fabric stash under control but it's not a favourite one.

Here's the story. A local shop (I won't name names but the owner is related by marriage) opened last year and I went to support it and do some shopping. Strolling around the shop, cute and kitschy abounding, I saw a rack of aprons. Thinking perhaps I'd bring one home, I riffled through. Horrors! First, they were badly made. Really badly made. Cute at 10 ft but wouldn't manage the washing machine more than twice. Second, sticker shock!! $50. Holy frog legs! Hrm, thought I, I wish she'd asked me to supply her. We'd both make healthy margins and both be excited to share with others. More importantly, they would be quality goods. That is something so important to me it sort of makes me irrational at times. Your goods represent you, the maker/owner/seller. Crappy goods says crappy maker/owner/seller. Your reputation is hanging on that poopy thing! Does that not make you squirelly just thinking about it?

It's one thing to say 'customers are our most important people' but without quality goods you are half way to proving that false. I'm from Winnipeg - I love a bargain just as much as the next 'Pegger, but at the same time quality and value are a part of that hunt. Your stitching should at least match up, be secure, look good even!

So, after I left the shop with my sackful of reasonable kitsch, I went home and looked at my stash. (If you are a sewer/yarn worker you'll know the deep satisfaction that this can bring!) Looking at the colours and fabrics it hit me: make some anyway. If you feel this way about it, someone else does too. Of course being a total newbie this rather looked a lot like jumping in at the deep end and waving/drowning but it went. I teamed up with a fellow craftswoman and we coordinated efforts and took our wares to a small, seasonal boutique. Just as I thought, we were selling stuff! It felt good to have that vindication. Then I looked to Etsy. I put a few things up on my storefront (not the aprons) and made a sale and had some contacts. The aprons languished. There were new shiny things and they were set aside temporarily. Now they are back - full frontal! I'm working on the photography as we speak but I'm going to put them up anyway. They really are so very cute.

One of my classmates at the pottery studio was complaining about getting dirty while she was working and that she needed an apron. Suddenly my ears perked. An apron you say? Well, have I got a deal for you! (Ok ok, I wasn't that cheesy - I just said I still had a few on hand if she'd like to see them) She did. She bought one. She loves it.

If you think a getting a glurg of olive oil out of your t-shirt is hard, try red clay. Damn near impossible. 'Near' impossible is just code for the shirt disintegrating in the wash before the clay stain comes out. She bought the only other apron like this one. Protected AND pretty. How can it get better?

Scyths and Romans and Normans, Oh My!

As some of you may know (or not!) I have a costuming business that keeps me occupied full-time (but on a part-time basis). Crown and Castle Clothing is my baby. The business focuses on meeting the needs of historical recreationists in a variety of time periods. I have undertaken custom work in later period stuff - think Elizabethan - but my real passion lies in bringing out the very best in the Anglo Saxon and Viking ages with a healthy side of Roman and perhaps a dash of Norman. These are not the clothes that most people consider flashy, there is a general lack of bead-encrustation, purpose-built undergarments and so on, but to me they are the most elegant and certainly under-appreciated to a great degree. (If you agree with any of this, please consider joining the C&C fan page on facebook!)

The great thing about this period is the variability and diversity of the fun things: accessories.

Indeed, in considering this week's post, the hat came to mind. And then there were too many hats...so this will be a multi-part series over time. Today, the Phrygian cap.


This classic little number has had the longest run of any hat style that I can think of. It first comes out in western art in the early Roman period, associated with the Scyths. They were a tribal race 'from the east' as the Romans say - which usually meant something like 'we have no clue about these dudes, man can they fight, damn troublemakers'. There are examples of this hat on Trajan's column, in some dashing marbles and the odd fresco. Let me show you.

A bust of Attis, sporting a Phrygian cap likely from the 2nd century CE:
This fresco from San Apollinare in Ravenna (early 6th century) shows the three wise men trekking out with their goods...AND wearing some snazzy phrygian caps.


This same series of frescos aslo shows some splendid details of the Byzantine emperor, empress and their gangs. They are notable for a few reasons. The details are excellent, the clothing is shown in contemporary styles that are born out in other sources and context couldn't possible be better. Amazing resource.
















A slightly different permutation of the cap is shown in the Ostia mosaics, 2nd-3rd century CE.

There are other examples of course, but the short version is: later romans were into this accessory. The hat continued northwards and appears intermittently in germanic tribal contexts. Some discussions consider the phrygian cap to have informed the shape of northern helms, particularly the crested types common in England and Scandinavia in the early viking age. A plate from a Vendel era helm shows a warrior riding into battle wearing such a helm. The formation of the crest is striking when viewed along side a Phrygian cap. ok ok. I'll show you.


See the curved top and almost floppy tip of that crest? I'm not an armouring scholar but I can certainly see how the theory got its start.

Anyway, the point is, this hat persists. In fact, the Normans thought it was the shizzle as well because they also adopted it as a fashion statement.

The nouveau in-charge Plantagenets sent Geoffrey out (literally, this is from his tomb in Le Mans Cathedral - 12th century if you were curious) with his phrygian hatted-best. Indeed, from the Roman period, the hat began to evolve from simply a solid colour to more decorative and varied. Geoff's has some heraldry on it.

In Chartres Cathedral, there is another example from the same period.

I could go on and on showing off this little beauty of a cap. Suffice it to say that if you were a guy (sorry gals, in the Roman-Norman time period this seems to be only a guy thing) and liked being a sharp-dressed man, you had one of these hats on hand to dress up your melon.


In red or white, these hats bring me back to my childhood and my affection for The Smurfs. Of course that also says that classics never go out of style. Indeed, yesterday while tuning in to a little bit of the FIFA cup, I spotted a French supporter in the stands wearing a bright red Phrygian cap...yup, this hat just won't go away.

I'm making a few of these caps for Crown and Castle. If you know a guy who does historical stuff somewhere between 100 - 1200 CE he could sure use one of these hats!

Next week...umm we'll see!

Lifting the lid

As promised, this week is all about pottery. My other love after yarn and knitting. (This is a rather poor combination since working with clay is hard on your hands and working with yarn doesn't go well when your hands are scaly!)

No sponsorship deals are behind this: If you don't have a parafin bath for your hands, you should. It is the secret to my success.

My latest adventures have been in creating hand-thrown buttons. Big, lovely, unique buttons.

These came out of the kiln last week. High fire glazes are a constant surprise. You can know the glaze, know the chemistry behind it, have used it hundreds of times and never get what you expect. The red button in the bottom right corner is a green glaze. A lovely, soft jade colour. Yup. When I try to get a red glaze, well let's not discuss that...

Those button-y beauties are even now winging their way to Castle Fibers for her nefarious purposes. More are in the works, keep and eye out - I might even sell some!

Something else I've been working on are some fancy yarn bowls. Not the standard bowl that you see floating around pottery studios but something prettier. Something that would look more like a candy bowl to the non-knitter, something worthy of your side table.

Here are two views:

See the clever, worm-like cleft to allow your precious yarn escape it's housing?

Then see it from the other side and (to me at least) it looks like it holds treats. Of course it does hold treats but not the kind to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Note the red. Yup, that should be that lovely jade green. The knob on the top turned out to look so very much like the top of an apple, I couldn't resist finishing the look. The red is just as lovely, and surprising.

Another variety of yarn-holder in trials looks more like a cake stand - for a cupcake! Sadly, this one developed a crack and some warping in the final firing. Another eternal risk for the potter. The instructors and artists at the studio have these failures as well so if someone who's been doing this for 35 years still has it happen, it's an acceptable risk to run.

This kiln had a lot of my work in it and there is so much more. Some the pieces are already packed up for safety so will have to wait til next month for a public airing. My biggest piece to date emerged, glorious and huge. It's a footed bowl, like a big petaled flower on a sturdy stalk, and is just over a foot tall and at least that wide, probably more. You'll just have to come back to see it!

Here's one last piece for you to see. There is no sense of scale (bad photography - I'm still learning) but the bowl is about 8" tall. Perfect for a big fruit salad to share with friends.

The projects waiting to be fired at the end of June are so exciting. I'm looking forward to doing another pottery post in July after I'm settled in and the last kiln of the summer is unloaded. I've been working on some replicas of Viking-age cooking pots. So far, they are stunning and will be so much fun to cook in at the Hjemkomst Viking Village weekend exposition.

Next week, costuming!