Projects before a Festival

[MadMike]

Whew! Been busting my behind making some products and ordering others for our local pirate festival (and activities at the local library). Here's what I've done over the past three weeks-

1. Made a wooden quadrant loosely based on those exhibited on the Greenwich Maritime website (it's accurate to within a degree).

2. Leather covered powder flask attached to a cord, worn around the neck with a leather pouch.

3. Two replica grenades such as those found on the Whydah and suspected QAR wreck. Totally inert, used some pool balls (will have to order wrought iron fence post balls eventually).

4. Constructed a trades good box/personal camp box much like that exhibited on Foxe's Period Seaman picture website (1700's traders).

5. Made leather belt pouch much like that recovered from the Whydah and the Phipps Expedition wreck.

6. Helped local library with a public display, provided replica artifacts including gold bars (small and large as per Atocha wreck), cartridges, gold chain, replica reales and doubloons, and several pic's from Johnson's "Pyrates".

7. Ah yes, the gold bars... what a pain! Obtained data from a website picturing ENRADA gold bars and chiseled a mould from some scrap wood laying around. My electric lead smelter crapped out the second day, so built a fire on the patio to melt two pounds at a time. Made small and large bars, stamped them with doubloons to give the impression of mint marks (could only do so much). Spray painted with a metallic gold paint, the results were great.

8. Constructed a cat-o-nine tails using stout cord 24" long knotted every two inches- attached to a 1 1/2" dowel (that one got everyone's attention) .

9. Hand sew'd a roughly 3'x5' flag made on the Worley pattern. Skull and crossbones were painted on by hand both sides using oil based paint. All edges hand sewn (not whipstitched).

10. Read "Pirate Jam" to the local kid's at the library (what humiliation). Managed to avoid the "Drunken Sailor" sing-a-long.

Got an activity June 9th and then that's it for several months...

Will try to post pic's.

Yours, &c.

Mike the Exhausted

[Fox]

Well done Mike! and I'm glad the picture collection has been useful to someone.

I can see this being an ongoing thread. Over here were all going all out for the Trafalgar celebrations (even if the French have complained that it's not PC), and the biggest event of the whole year, the International Festival of the Sea is only about 3 weeks away now. The trouble is that I'm the only person in the group who's ever done Nelsonian living history before. So, in the last couple of months I've:

1. Made a complete "undress" captain's uniform for my father

2. Made a complete master's mate's uniform for me

3. Made new trousers to go with my lieutenant's uniform

4. Made 3 complete sailor's outfits (coats, waistcoats, trousers, and painted top hats), and 3 spare coats

5. Been to no less that 4 meetings at Portsmouth dockyard

6. Done minor moderations to make my skiff authentic for 1805.

7. Embroidered and made a sword knot

8. Researched and printed the words and music to 20 Trafalgar era sea-songs.

9. Portrayed one quarter of a crowd and Nelson's flag lieutenant in a TV documentary.

10. Made a complete lady's outfit (dress, jacket, hat)

I am also in the middle of:

11. Making a 4th sailor's outfit

12. Making a second complete lady's outfit

13. Making a midshipman's uniform coat and waistcoat

14. Fitting a bracket to the stern of my skiff to take a flag so we can row Nelson round to inspect his ships in the dockyard by water.

15. Having a nervous breakdown.

By the time it's all finished I estimate I will have used up 25 metres of navy blue wool, 10 metres of white duck, 6 metres of assorted linen, 5 metres of assorted wool, about 60 metres of lining fabric, 4 complete reels of thread, 5 skeins of embroidery thread, 198 buttons (aaarrgh, I have nightmares about button holes!), 300 pints of coffee.

And this is my HOBBY?!?!

Mike, do you think we could start some sort of country retreat for people like us to go and recover?

[MadMike]

Foxe,

Outstanding work! I hand sew'd a period shirt several year's ago, took about 30 hours. Anyone who is a tailor or seamstress making period garments has my admiration (whether they work by hand or machine).

A country retreat sounds like a great idea, maybe we should start a foundation/retirement home for pirate reenactors.

Yours, &c.

Mike

[Gentleman of Fortune]

Not so fast Guys!

Post pictures please!!! I would love to see your stuff/projects.

I have been working on a short sailors jacket. I am kind of burnt out now but have been fumbling through the process. I have the lining and the shell, I just need to sew them together and hand sew about 35 button holes.

I will post a picture when its done though!

GoF

[Hawkyns]

Well Done, Foxe!!

Getting ready for the Trifle-Jar celebrations, are we?

BTW- Love the King's Colour with the bombs. Any provenance?

Hawkyns

[Fox]

Yeah, we got some groovy "Twatting-the-French" events on his year, apart from Festival of the Sea we're doing a couple of other small events plus Sheerness Trafalgar weekend (where Victory was moored on her return from the battle) and hopefully the actual Trafalgar weekend on HMS Trincomalee. Early next year we're doing Nelson's funeral events in London. Busy time ahead, plus of course it's the 400 year anniversary of the only honest man in Parliament in November.

The flag is that of Thomas Anstis which is described as a Union flag with flaming balls in each quarter. The grenadoes are my interpretation of "flaming balls"

[Captain Jacob Badger]

Blimey Foxe....ye have bin a busy man!!......Can't wait t' lighten ye orf yer skiff mate....hurrr hurrrr.......best keep it well guarded .......three weeks an' countin'....arrrr......

[Fox]

I was going to wait until after the International Festival of the Sea to start posting photographs, but I'm just too excited...

My father as Captain Sir Sidney Smith

And me as Lieutenant Hanchett

I'm sure I'll have a million and one more photos after IFOS.

[Rumba Rue]

Hey, your dad looks great.

Oh and so do you.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

As soon as I get a full night's sleep, I'll compose and post my own list. I cannot believe the number of things I accomplished in preparation for this year's season of Civil War reenacting and (more urgently) my first public Pirate event.

But -- great outfits. Really great.

[blackjohn]

Good show!!! Bang up job that!!! This is the kind of thing I need to see to inspire me to do stuff. Thanks!!! :)