Viking Apron Dress

I promised I'd post pictures of my Viking Apron dress when finished, so here's the whole costume, as well as my elder son Ryan and younger, Coleman, in their gear. The golden apron dress is made of linen, which I hand-dyed. I purchased the two Turtle brooches from Raymond's Quiet Press, who makes historical recreations (from jewelry to helms.) I already had the strings of beads, which I hand-stitched onto the apron dress, in the Viking fashion. We had a fine time at the "Good Yule" feast, with a fantastic smorgasbord of both old Norse and Byzantine food.

Now that the Good Yule celebration is out of the way, I can get back to my regular creative life, at least until Ursalmas, the next big area event from the Society of Creative Anachronism, which my sons want to attend in the end of January. At least I already have a costume made now, so I won't have to do that, although it looks like Coleman may now also be interested, so he may want to have me make a more authentic outfit.




More to come later tonight. Now that I have this out of the way, I can focus on more of the creative efforts closer to my heart!

Questions to Ponder for Writing Your Goals

OK, I'm going to be sitting down on Sunday with my Eastside SDA (Surface Design Associates) group, which was formed out of our Washington State SDA symposium which I helped plan last year.  This month, our topic is "The Business of Doing Art" and will include goal setting. 

So, I've prepared some questions for us to think about, as we write out our 2013 goals and objectives:

• What skills do you already possess?  What do you do well?
• What could you improve on?  What do you need to learn?
• What sources do you have to learn what I need (books, online, classes, magazine articles, friends, a mentor etc.)
• What are you passionate about? How can you bring some of that passion into your work?
• Are there specific projects that you want to complete?
• Is there a theme or series that you want to investigate in your artwork?
• What professional organizations do you belong to?  What do they do for you and your artistic career?  How can your participation enhance or further your career?  If you don't have any professional organizations that support you as an artist, how could you go about finding one (or more)?
• Do you want to show my work?  What sort of shows or venues?  Are there specific shows or venues you'd like to target?
• Are you organized to show?  What do you need to do to be prepared?  (Examples- how do you track your art, how do find opportunities, what do you need to ship and deliver pieces, do you have specific instructions for hanging and displaying your work?)
• Do you want to sell your work?  What is your plan for getting sales (how would get a gallery to represent you; what sort of person or institution would be interested in the kind of art you make?)
• What is the realistic projection of the number of pieces you will complete this year?
• What additional organization of your studio or workspace do you need to be more productive?
• Do you need additional tools or supplies to create what you want?  What are they?  do you have the funds to purchase them and if not, how will you raise the money?
• What will you do when it gets hard?  How will you regain inspiration or motivation to work in the face of rejection, disinterest, or conflicting priorities?

Tomorrow I'll be at the Viking Good Yule celebration from about noon until 10 pm.  For those who haven't read this before, my 17 year old son is fascinated with Viking culture and at this point is planning to study anthropology and archeology.  So we're going to a big Viking re-enactment celebration and feast.  I finished my "Viking Apron Dress" last night,  from a 10th century design.  It's amazing to me how different Viking culture was from what the stereotypical idea of Vikings is in our society (for instance, they didn't have horned helmets, although they do look pretty fun and impressive!)  I'm sure I'll have some interesting photos to post from that and I'll make sure to get one of my dress as well.  I'll make sure to also have my sketchbook in hand and work on my Salsa! designs for the Mighty Tieton show.  Make it a great day!

Viking Tunic Completed!

Last night I helped my son Ryan finish up his wool Viking tunic.  This has been a terrific learning experience.  We went together to pick out the fabric (had to be wool for authenticity.)  He made the pattern from historic sources and his measurements.  I taught him how to pre-wash the fabric and straighten the grain, layout and cut the pieces.  I then taught him the basics of using my Bernina sewing machine (winding the bobbin, threading the machine, stitch length, type of stitch, etc.) and then let him go about constructing the garment.  We did one fitting prior to doing the final seaming, where I suggested we insert some gussets under the arms, to give him a more natural range of motion.  When it was constructed but not hemmed, he asked if I could dye it... the color didn't go as well with his under-tunic as he had thought.  We did several samples to get the color where he wanted it (and because I don't have a lot of experience with wool) and then I dyed the whole tunic. 

We were down to the final steps, hemming and adding some authentic hand-woven trim which he had purchased.  I think he really wanted me to do the hemming... but I got out a needle and thread, showed him how to do it, watched for a few stitches, and then let him finish it up.  I did go ahead and topstitch the trim on for him.

What a wonderful way to be able to contribute to him.  First, teaching him the basics of sewing and that he is capable of doing it.  Next, letting him pursue his passion-not just allowing him, but supporting and encouraging him.  Finally, being able to share this time with him... going to his event with him (yes, I'll be in costume too) and letting myself be enlightened about how much this young man of mine really knows about the era and culture with which he is so entranced.

I still need to finish my Viking apron dress tonight, as the "Good Yule" celebration is happening on Saturday.  I'm excited to be doing a Viking embroidery class at the event, particularly after getting to see the Bayeux Tapistry last June.  More on that in the future!