Introduction
This warp-weighted loom was a joint project for my Peer and myself. For the most part, he provided the expertise and woodworking experience, while I provided the general design and materials, as many of the new tools as we needed, and a helpful apprentice hand when he needed something held or braced.

It took us several weekends to ( Read more... )

Executive Summary & Table of Contents
This is documentation for four different projects, all being entered in A&S Faire this year. The first three categories listed are to be considered for the Divisional Championship in Division II; the tablet weaving is a separate entry. The categories are:

1) Costume: Single Component   
2) Spinning  
3) Weaving: ( Read more... )

Introduction
These notes are still evolving, as I gain more experience with the various fibers I am playing with. The inspiration for this class was a desire to learn more about the fibers I have available to me, and an interest in finding others who are equally curious about the possibilities for spinning that surround them.

The Fibers: Mechanical ( Read more... )

“After your wool is thus mixed, oiled and tummed, you shall then spin it upon great wheels, according to the order of good housewifery; the action whereof must be gotten by practice, and not relation”
- Gervase Markham, The English Housewife (1615)

In The Beginning
The most basic form of spinning is done by holding a small clump of fibers, drawing a ( Read more... )

“To speak then first of the making of woolen cloth, it is the office of the husbandman at the shearing of his sheep to bestow upon the housewife such a competent proportion of wool as shall be convenient for the clothing of his family; which wool, as soon as she hath received it, she shall open, and with a pair of shears (the fleece lying as it ( Read more... )

[This is being put online as a historical document. It has been several years since I taught this class, and the document has not yet been revised to take into account revisions to the Criteria and new practices recently introduced.]

Lady Fiadnata ó Gleann Àlainn, APF, OW, ODH
Deputy MoAS for A&S Education

This article is designed for the person who ( Read more... )

Summary Description:  The belt you are examining here is a tablet-woven belt, made of a warp 60 cards wide of 30/3 weight wet-spun natural linen.  The thread was purchased from Robin & Russ Handweavers, and the two shades of yellow are their “Light Yellow” and “Orange Yellow”.  The cards were threaded with alternating S and Z threading and were ( Read more... )

Lady Fiadnata ó Gleann Àlainn, APF, OW, ODH, OE
Deputy MoAS for A&S Education

This article is designed for the person who hasn't judged before, but who is interested in becoming a judge within the Middle Kingdom Arts & Sciences Faire system. It will cover a typical day as a judge, an in-depth look at how to use the Criteria to judge a piece, and how ( Read more... )

Midrealm Arts & Sciences Criteria for the Entrant
-- how to use it to your greatest advantage when
preparing an entry for an A&S Faire

THLady Fiadnata ó Gleann Àlainn, APF, OW, ODH, OE
Deputy Kingdom MoAS for A&S Education

While the research you do as you create your entry for the A&S Faire will be the most important reading you do for your project, you ( Read more... )

DIVISION V:  Domestic Arts and Sciences
Cooking, Single Dish:  “Pomme dorryes”

The Original Recipe:
Farsur to make pomme dorryse and othere thynges. Take the lire of pork rawe, and grynde it smale. Medle it vp with eyren & powdre fort, safroun and salt; and do therto raisouns of coraunce. Make balles therof, and wete it wele in white of ayren, & do it ( Read more... )