michaelsbagley

Click on the "My Controls" link at the top center-left of your screen on the pub. That will take you to your profile editting screen. On the left hand side about two thirds of the way down there will be a link for "Edit Signature"... The rest should spell itself out. You of course are responsible for graphics or finding someone artistic (which there are TONS of) on the pub to make your graphic... One can use plain text as well, most just prefer the pretty pictures or graphics. As a general courtesy, it is best to not create monster signatures.... Personally I try to keep mine to below 200 pixels tall, or even below 150 tall in most cases. Cheers

Original post deleted, because it was just too scatter brained. The Pike River Rondezvous has been the last weekend in July or the first weekend in August for the last few years... Which means it is close enough or on the same weekend to cause a possible conflict for those considering, Beaufort (if Beaufort happens this year), Pirates in Paynetown, Pennsic (for them that do Pennsic), the Michigan Pirate festival (which I know nothing about outside of it exists and happen around then), and I am sure there are a few more around that time... Late July/Early August is nasty for too many decent events that one must choose between.

Unfortunately we did not take any photos of Jessica all taped up in the pattern... But here are links to photos of the drafted pattern. Card Stock trial stays and yes that is hot pink duct tape. The one panel is from a shoe box as it was going to take a hair more card stock than the one sheet of bristol board that we bought for the purpose, so I do recommend buying two poster boards to do this. One we got the card stock stays to fit correctly, we then traced the pattern onto brown craft paper, and added seam allowances to the parts that will get sewn together, you might be able to see the black lines on the paper pattern where I traced the core pattern and see where I added the little bits for seam allowances. Paper pattern traced from card stock pattern.

Wife and I booked our hotel room yesterday evening, so it seems out attending is now pretty much set.

Ahhhh beeeerr.... Mmmmmmm To my knowledge neither of these recommendation can be got outside of Canada... But "Amsterdam Nut Brown" brewed in Toronto is awesome! If you ever get to Toronto, many of the local pubs carry it, but if that fails you can go to the brewery itself which has a pub attached down on King Street (near Peter Street? Or is it John street? I always get those confused somehow) Churchkey brewery makes many great ales, but they are hard to find even in Canada. Best bet is usually the nearest LCBO store. Now for something that is imported to the US in small quantities is anything made from Unibroe out of Quebec. I'm most partial to "La Fin du Monde" (that's "End of the world" in English) or "Maudite", but I have yet to meet a Unibroe ale or beer that I didn't like! Oh, just so there is no confusion, "Unibroe" is the name of the brewery and not an out of control lower forehead hair growth.

Funny story about raspberry mead... Okay, maybe not funny, but interesting... well maybe not interesting... but it's a story, albeit a short story. A friend of mine from back in Toronto and I pitched in together to make a 5 gallon batch of raspberry mead, and it was really good (probably my second favourite!). Anyways, so we buy dozens of pounds of raspberries to make this batch of mead, and after fermenting, there is all this seedy pulp left. My friend being the very artsy type starts playing with the extracted pulp and seed mixture rather than throwing it into the garbage like it was supposed to. Well he starts forming the pulp into a small statue. He presses the pulp and seeds into a small mass and starts to form and manipulate the gunk until it comes out looking somewhat like a statue of his own head, flipping haircut and all. He still has that self portrait of himself made with the raspberry pulp from that batch of mead... And we made that stuff about 6 or 7 years ago! I should try and get him to send me a picture of the statue and post it for a laugh.

Bump... Any of the fellow mead makers have any new tastey tales to tell? I'm just about ready to bottle my cherry wine (I know it's not mead), and the blueberry mead should be ready to bottle by Feb. or March.... I also have a batch of peach mead that should be ready to bottle at the same time as the blueberry. Now to plotting what to make next... I promised Stynky some mead for next PiP, judging from what he was drinking this past year, I think a straight mead (no additional flavours except honey) is in order...

Forget this game, I going to eat some BUNT cake.

Too late, it WENT south.

And the great transformation of Mission into Paris Hilton begins... Within days he'll be blandly spouting "Thats sooo hot!" about everything that catches his interest. Stynky how could you do this?! Yeah but can he keep the brown hair? I'm not seeing him as a bleach blonde, after all her is really more of an autumn than a winter.

Okay, DONT go there...

That would be easy enough to change... (I was focusing more on the United States,... and just added "English" Canada as an after thought....sorry) SO... How did Canada split into English and French? Well, going with the "spirit" of historical parody... Originally in "real" history, Canada was colonized by the French and then the English came... In "real" history England didn't take over until the F&IW (late 1750s), so in the "altered time line" it could just be that England never took over the French portions, and hence the two seperate Canadas always existed.... If you want to really throw back, they were originally called Lower Canada (French area and what would be modern day Quebec and Labrador) and Upper Canada (English areas, Ontario and most of the Candian Maritime provinces).

Sounds great! But can I make the suggestion of including "French Canada" as well? It seems kinda odd to have "English Canada" without there being any non-English or any other type of Canada... Other than that, I love the concept.

Uhm, wow.... I found a neat little quip about privateers, and this thread seemed to be the most appropriate(?)... Not a lot of insight to be found in this passage, except for maybe the names of the ships and as to how the shares of the prize are doled out. From the London Gazette - Oct. 17th, 1713 Facsimile of the entire page can be found on this link I have attempted to clean up some of the bad OCR translation, but pardon me if I missed anything.

Image dated to 1652, some decent details visible of common Dutch garb of that period...

So over the last few days, the wife and I have been plotting some new period clothing stuff for her, and getting about starting on them. Yesterday we drafted the pattern for a new set of stays... Although she is happy with her RH patterned stays, I kind of pushed the plan of making a custom set based on a self developed pattern. Essentially, I used Stays Pattern Generator, although the web site calls it a corset generator, but the results are stays and NOT a corset in my opinion... But not everyone is as much of a stickler for terms as I am.... Anyways, I used that as a base, and then added elements from the bodice portion of the bodiced gown from Arnold(? might be Waugh, I don't have the books, only photocopies of the key pages of the books from the local library). I did draw on the RH stays pattern a little for the tabs, but in all honesty, the custom generator and the Arnold(?) pattern are the prime resources. The reason we went with the addition of the Arnold(?) pattern elements was for the solid straps, rather than the ribboned straps as suggested in the RH pattern. Maybe wife will post some pics of the progress, as she will be doing the lion share of the work... I think my doing most of the work on the pattern making is going to be the end of most of my involvement on this project. So far we have drafted a paper pattern, and then we traced the pattern onto stiff card. Taped the stiff card pattern together punched some holes and laced them on and adjusted the fit as needed (and very little adjustment was needed). Having tried the Corset (which is actually stays) Pattern generator now, I am very impressed at how easy it was to actually draft the pattern using the generator, and more than impressed at ho little adjustment was needed to fit the pattern. Of course I have the advantage of having made 2 or 3 sets of stays already using the RH pattern, so that may have helped with my understanding of the web generator's pattern.

dang it...i keep meaning to look at your blades...and keep fergittin...most be the green fairy... I thought you had a good look at it back at Beaufort?.... Oh wait, maybe it was Rats... Either way, I'll bring it with me next time we see you (maybe to return your weapons bag?) or probably no later than Reenactor Fest. The main problem with this option, is SCA (and SCA style makers, tend to be a pain in the butt about making custom stuff. Either they want a King's ransom for the work (and I'm not saying it's not worth it) or their waiting lists are insanely long, or both... The one guy I know who's waiting list isn't long has been making movements to get out of the business (or perhaps only take a very long hatus), which leaves my blade and it's mate (which Nick bought) as the only two that really match up... Because they are a bit lighter than the Chen's/Armour Classes, and a hair heavier than most standard SCA weapons.... (They were designed for stage combat and not SCA fencing and as such are technically too heavy to be considered SCA fencing blades).

starfire swords...and paul chen.....have had the best luck with them....so far. I'll agree with the recomendation for Paul Chen. Starfires are a bit heavy (for my taste), and a user of heavier weapons require a crapload more training and practice before they are "safe" (again my opinion). Comparable in weight to the Paul Chens, but a million miles better in quality is "Armour Class" based in England (or is it Scotland?)... But be forewared, there tends to be anywhere from a 6 to 9 month waiting list with Armour Class. For lighter weapons, I strongly recommend SCA (or SCA style) fencing blades. There are a good handful of manufacturers spread out over the continental USA. They are lighter (and hence in my opinion safer for beginners), but they are designed to take regular stress (against similar weighted weapons). They look better than normal fencing weapons, because they actually have some blade mass (unlike the car attenaes on handles that sports fencing weapons are). In fact my two blades of this nature are my favourite... They are light enough to do some great and quick stage combat, and light enough that you can swing them for hours without getting tired, but still substantial enough to look reasonably close to actual period weapons. I had my blades custom made at 28 and 26 inch lengths to better simulate period hangers, and had a custom shell guard to finish the GAoP look (see image below).

I think they are sometimes referred to as "Soulier de boeuf" if that may help you in your searches.

Actually Silas, I can burn a copy for Nick when I receive mine to save you some postage, if that plan works for all involved.

Bump... I'm suprised this one hasn't seen the light o' day in over a year! I looked back and noticed I already added my list... But my list was for men's gear.... Since I have watched my wife's gear come together, I think I will do a list for women... 1. Shoes (any period-ish shoes will do, a plain pair of leather mules is a very easy and cheap way to begin here) 2. Chemise 3. Petticote (skirt) 4. Stays (bodice, or corset or whatever you prefer in case you are not interested in the historical stuff) 5. Hat or fabric cap (depending on your portrayal and level of comfort) 6. Mantua OR Bodiced gown OR mid to late 17th century style woman's jacket/coat. 7. Eating ware 8. Pockets (or pouches/purse/haversack....) 9. A weapon - some of my favourites are the GREAT BIG HUGE frying pan (Grace), the BIG spoon (Cheeky), canon (the PiP all women's canon crew) etc. 10. Some rum to share with me!

Yeah, "Convention" is a much better word... Conference makes it sound like a bunch of suits sitting around and that is not what it is about. Pirates are a small part of what RF is about, there are Romans, Vikings, WW1 and WW2, Vietnam War, Civil War, all kinds of historical re-enactors there. The stress on RF is history, but there are no standards (not even all attendees dress up), but it is history focussed... It's an awesome event to learn, chat, network with other re-enactors (of any and every period)..... Ultimately if you are looking for a more rum and yo-ho-ho sort of event, I wiould guess New Orleans (although more expensive) would likely be a lot more of what you are looking for.

Quartermaster... This is a fun event... But it is more "conference" style than what I imagine the New Orleans event to be. The Ball at RF is awesome (if you like that sort of thing), the shopping is good, but it's better if you are into WW2.... The selection for Colonials wasn't as good as I had hoped it to be (last year). Honestly, if I had limited travel... I probably wouldn't do New Orleans OR RF, but instead go to an event like Searle's Raid, or the Hampton BlackBeard Festival, or best of all, save your money for Pirates in Paradise.... But as RF is only a 5 hour drive (give or take), I'll be there... I did have some friends try to talk me into New Orleans, but it was too much money and it runs the same time as Searle's Raid, and I am far more dead set on getting to that one this year. I'm not trying to disparage RF here, but I said it last year, and I will say it again (and always)... When it comes down to a choice of actually re-enacting, or going to a conference about re-enacting, I will choose doing it over talking about doing it every time. Fortunately, RF doesn;t conflict with any events I want to go to, so i can do both.