#mysca

(1995-1996)

The Barony of Adiantum (Eugene, OR) created a Jacobean style tapestry to gift to the Kingdom of the West depicting a "Tree of Life" showing the kingdoms and principalities of our organization as they branched out from the first kingdom, the West. It was presented at the SCA's 30 Year celebration event held in An Tir (1996).

All of the yarns used were hand spun and dyed using natural and period dyes. An army of 50-60 volunteers spend about a year carefully stitching the tapestry itself. It was an incredible project to be a part of. These photos are scans of film photos taken to document the project.

Annathea Yarnspinner spun most of the wool yarn we used.

These show a day-long session of dying the spun yarns. First picture shows Catriona of the Fields preparing an indigo dye bath. Next, as yarn came out of the bath it was hung on a line to dry. You can see yellow yarns (done with onion skins) and blue done with indigo. The green was achieved by overdying indigo on the onion skins yellow. Pictured are: Catriona, River, Baranne, and Annathea.

Here are some of the variety of colors we achieved for the embroidery of the tapestry. We had a very impressive color palette to work from.

Here is one of the MANY group embroidery sessions. This is in Madelynn's living room. Pictured from closest and clockwise: Fearga, Annathea, Marian, Alys, Raven, River, and Meagan.

All total there were probably hundreds of sessions like this with 50-60 people working on it overall. It was taken to various events and people would work on it while other things were happening (such as court). I think we all got at least a few stitches into it.

Here is the finished project as it was being prepared to be presented. Then baron and baroness Ambrose and Marian presented it with much ceremony to the king of the West. He was moved to tears (the good kind) when presented with it. It still resides in the Kingdom of the West.

THAT'S A WEARABLE ITEM!!! Now all I have to do is hem the edges!

At this point, there will be some more divergence between this hood as it exists for the competition and the extant garment. The original garment has a small amount of decorative stitching and embellishment. However, I still want to dye this hood and do more work to turn it into a garment that I can continue to wear for years. To that end I've made some samples of the decorative stitching that will be displayed alongside the hood and will be added later.

Also, the extant hood is ONLY hemmed with a simple blanket stitch, not even turned in. For the competition I will do that, but after I dye the hood I will turn in the edges and add a tablet woven band for strength and decoration. I think I may use my woolen Dublin Dragons pattern, or potentially one from my Finnish Iron Age book.

I've also been learning bobbin lace, this snake is the second 'lesson'. I'm learning through the local lacemaking guild with another SCA friend, the goal is to get good enough that we can then teach ourselves more period methods and patterns. The guild is super welcoming, I'm glad we have access to them. All my gear I got through them.