ren faires, sewing, the blizzard
Dec. 16th, 2009 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newmoonstarSo I'd entirely given up on going to a Renaissance Faire this year, since once winter hits, that's it. There just aren't any more. But imagine my surprise when I open up the local paper the first weekend in December and find there's one here in town the next day! What the heck? But I figured I'd go down there and check it out.
It was an indoor faire, so highly cheesy cardboard trees and walls painted like castles were part of the bargain, but the vendors and music were surprisingly excellent. There was a harpist who played and sang songs in Gaelic, which was really lovely, and there wasn't a single booth selling sparkly fairy wings or necklaces made from candy-colored plastic beads like you usually see. (Although I seriously question the taste in allowing the local S&M shop have a booth there when it was supposed to be a family event and there were children present!) There was nice pottery and actual period-appropriate jewelry (I kind of wish I'd have bought that Spanish galleon ship brooch!) and a really great booth that had all kinds of pewter stuff, brooches and keys and toy soldiers and coins at reasonable prices. I myself bought two of the little soldiers to put in my dollhouse, and a reproduction of an 18th century English shilling. (Squee!) They have a website, Sheldon Pewter, but unfortunatley they only have a fraction of their wares actually available on it!
Anyhoo, going to another Ren Faire sadly re-enforced for me the fact that the average faire-goer only understands Tudor and medieval clothing. Whenever I go in my cute little Italian Ren 'Titian dress', I always feel like the odd duck. NOBODY else wears anything but Elizabethan or medieval. People take one look and me and they have this sad pitying look like, "oh it must be her first faire, she hasn't quite got it yet!" And I repress the urge to tell them that no, this isn't a very sorry attempt at Elizabethan, it's just Italian! Maybe I should wear a sign that says "1510-20 Venetian" on my forehead, but I really think it isn't such a bad dress that no one could figure it out! I suppose it isn't terribly impressive though, since it was made to wear at an outdoor summer faire, so I made the simplest dress I could, without any sleeves even, in order to beat the heat. And it looked better in photos to have a simpler dress when surrounded by a profusion of brightly colored flowers in a garden. But that faire is now defunct, as far as I know, so I suppose it's time to give in to Elizabethan!
And I should have plenty of time to do it, since The Blizzard hit last week, and there's snow two feet deep on our lawn, and snow plows pile it up taller than me on the sides of the extremely icy roads, so you take your life in your hands every time you leave the house. So I've been home a lot and I've actually been patterning and toiling stuff. I think it's Nature's way of telling me "Get Sewing Missy!" ;-D
It was an indoor faire, so highly cheesy cardboard trees and walls painted like castles were part of the bargain, but the vendors and music were surprisingly excellent. There was a harpist who played and sang songs in Gaelic, which was really lovely, and there wasn't a single booth selling sparkly fairy wings or necklaces made from candy-colored plastic beads like you usually see. (Although I seriously question the taste in allowing the local S&M shop have a booth there when it was supposed to be a family event and there were children present!) There was nice pottery and actual period-appropriate jewelry (I kind of wish I'd have bought that Spanish galleon ship brooch!) and a really great booth that had all kinds of pewter stuff, brooches and keys and toy soldiers and coins at reasonable prices. I myself bought two of the little soldiers to put in my dollhouse, and a reproduction of an 18th century English shilling. (Squee!) They have a website, Sheldon Pewter, but unfortunatley they only have a fraction of their wares actually available on it!
Anyhoo, going to another Ren Faire sadly re-enforced for me the fact that the average faire-goer only understands Tudor and medieval clothing. Whenever I go in my cute little Italian Ren 'Titian dress', I always feel like the odd duck. NOBODY else wears anything but Elizabethan or medieval. People take one look and me and they have this sad pitying look like, "oh it must be her first faire, she hasn't quite got it yet!" And I repress the urge to tell them that no, this isn't a very sorry attempt at Elizabethan, it's just Italian! Maybe I should wear a sign that says "1510-20 Venetian" on my forehead, but I really think it isn't such a bad dress that no one could figure it out! I suppose it isn't terribly impressive though, since it was made to wear at an outdoor summer faire, so I made the simplest dress I could, without any sleeves even, in order to beat the heat. And it looked better in photos to have a simpler dress when surrounded by a profusion of brightly colored flowers in a garden. But that faire is now defunct, as far as I know, so I suppose it's time to give in to Elizabethan!
And I should have plenty of time to do it, since The Blizzard hit last week, and there's snow two feet deep on our lawn, and snow plows pile it up taller than me on the sides of the extremely icy roads, so you take your life in your hands every time you leave the house. So I've been home a lot and I've actually been patterning and toiling stuff. I think it's Nature's way of telling me "Get Sewing Missy!" ;-D
