ROMANA SUM

Judging A&S

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

I have done just a smattering of judging. The current three A&S Champions (including me) chose winners informally at Yule. I sat in on judge deliberations at Kingdom A&S. I judged, using formal sheets, at both Stromgard’s and Dragon’s Mist Championship.

It’s hard!

Really hard!

Part of me loves absolutely everything, but the perfectionist in me always sees the cracks in the finish. The tricky bit is to tease out good from bad, while encouraging future growth. If people only ever tell me how great I am, I will never understand that my tunic is on backwards and my necklace is a forbidden color. Finding the elusive perfect way to constructively criticize – while helping the artisan feel good about the amazing job they did – is tough. I’m working on it. I have to admit that right now I tend to hold everyone (myself included) to too high a standard, and I am attempting to deliberately rein myself in.

Eulalia wrote a terrific piece on judging – intelligently informed by her experiences as a teacher – and her approach is my goal as a judge.

Posted in Competitions | Tagged Stickies | 2 Comments

SCA bling, Roman-style

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

In our kingdom, An Tir, we have lots of Norse / Viking personas, who love to hang their awards and momentos on necklaces… usually lots of them! While it’s fun to be able to “read their resume” at a glance, I knew that wouldn’t work with my Roman persona.

I’m extremely pleased that I came up with an idea, and even more excited that the talented Fjorlief InHaga (acorncottageartisanry at gmail.com) was able to bring that concept to life!

I designed some tiny round enamels, to be used as gap-sleeve fasteners. They are about half an inch across. We settled on pins rather than buttons for ease of laundering. I feel okay about the anachronism (the originals were sewn-in buttons) since the artwork isn’t Roman anyway.

regalia buttons These are the Golden Torc (a service award from my beloved Barony of Three Mountains), phoenix (symbol of a champion of 3M), the Arts & Sciences window arch & candle, 3M, the An Tir populace lion, and my personal heraldry, representing my Award of Arms. Sadly they don’t show in the portrait shot, but I’m including it for context of the stola strap.

Posted in Jewelry, Recreating history | Leave a comment

Kingdom A&S

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

Last weekend was An Tir’s Arts & Sciences and Bardic Championship.

My dear friend Eulalia took 2nd place in the overall, triple-entry competition. See her blog for the documentation on medieval pies, women’s work in York, and scribal illumination.

I went with a single entry on Roman Sexual Imagery. I plan to polish it up, based on feedback from my judges, and offer it again locally. It was a challenge to display, given that in our culture body parts are considered offensive / shocking / not for children’s consumption.

Next time I’d like to set up inside a tent.

My oral presentation was a disaster… I suddenly got nervous, spoke too rapidly, and missed some of my major points that I wanted to make. Trying to use only scholarly language, after speaking more colloquially with my friends, was a hard shift to make on the fly. I should have practiced more, but with the sudden housing upheaval I’m lucky I got my display done!

I’ll do better next time! 🙂

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Writing Documentation

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

In a previous post, I addressed some research techniques and questions to ask while researching. Today, I want to talk about writing up what you found.

I strongly recommend you use an outline. That’s the best way to ensure that your flow makes sense, that your sections are organized, and that you don’t leave out anything important. An outline is simply a plan. Here’s one example of an outline for a typical SCA object entry:

Continue reading →

Posted in Research & Documentation | 1 Comment

Three Competition Experiences in 2014

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

I’ve been asked to write up my experience competing in the Three Mountains A&S Championship. I figured I might as well cover three events that were important to me.

1) Kingdom A&S: I went to this as a wide-eyed gawker. I took a billion pictures. I was impressed and inspired and (over and over again) blown away by the complexity of people’s entries. Learning moment: On my first pass through the rooms, I dismissed some entries as not to my interest. When I had some time to kill on the second day and went back to look again, I found something fascinating in each one. Sometimes it was the way they wrote their documentation, or some history I was unaware of, or a delving into a technique that I’d just never thought about before. I sat in on Eulalia Piebakere‘s entry, which gave me an opportunity to see how the presentation and judging worked. And to top the weekend off, my Roman role model, Julia Sempronia, asked me to be her student. I remember it like a romantic proposal! Continue reading →

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Heraldry ornament

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

For Yule this year we’ve been asked to make ornaments of our heraldry to decorate the tree. This is my quick-&-dirty attempt the night before. It’s painted linen. Romans didn’t use heraldry in the SCA/ Medieval sense, so I co-opted a common* theme for Imperial Roman brooches, a rabbit with two young inside. I suspect they were worn by pregnant women or those wanting to be pregnant. Twins were highly prized and considered lucky in Rome. Although it’s a little later than ideal for me, this image is perfect for Tullia’s device, since she’s a midwife! I chose red and gold as the colors of the Roman Empire… but made the baby buns black so the mother wouldn’t look like she had holes punched in her. The device was approved Nov 2014, as Gules, a rabbit courant contorny Or, two rabbits couchant respectant sable and my badge is a sable rabbit courant contourney,so if you see some feastware or a chair decorated with a black running bun (facing right), it’s mine!

My rabbit’s legs should be stretched out more in a run, but it’s not bad for a last-minute slap-up.

*I have a pretty good collection of pics of these but I won’t bore you with all of them. 🙂

Posted in Recreating history, Roman history, SCA specific | Tagged heraldry, Roman Empire, Roman history, SCA | Leave a comment

Stone “charm” bracelet

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

The original: “Roman gold and hardstone amuletic bracelet. Eastern Empire, circa 1st-3rd Century A.D. – The gold bracelet in the form of a bangle, oval in section, each end wound spirally along the hoop, with seven amulets or beads, including an amber bead, a carnelian phallic pendant with gold mount, a spherical banded onyx bead, a pointed agate pendant suspended from a gold loop, an amber bead with drilled detail, a rock crystal pendant with gold mount, and a haematite pendant. | Bonhams ” Sold for $9,406!

Left: Original Right: My copy

Click for a bigger view. Both have adjustable sliding coils, and both have 7 stones. Mine has three strung directly instead of four because I had three appropriate stones that slid onto the wire 🙂 but they both alternate pierced directly vs. suspended. I couldn’t do the pretty gold end caps, so they are strung on wire like the original center stone. Hematite, turquoise, onyx, rock crystal, agate, and tiger eye (supposedly carried by soldiers for good luck according to some undocumented websites, but I have not been able to verify that). I used gold-plated wire. This was made as a prize for the 2014 Tri-Barony Yule Champions Choice A&S Competition.

Posted in Jewelry, Recreating history | Tagged bangle, bracelet, jewelry amulet luck, roman, stone | 2 Comments

Survey results! A Directory! Classes coming!

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

Here are the survey results in their entirety: A&S Survey 11.21.14COM

Thank you to everyone who contributed! I saw a lot of repeating themes.

1) Many people feel they don’t know how to do research and documentation. I will actively increase the number of classes and informal opportunities to learn about that. Our first will be a panel discussion on documentation / “ask an expert” booth for the February 3rd 3M social night. Milwaukie Oddfellows Hall 7-9pm. 10282 SE Main St., Milwaukie, OR, 97222. You can bring food in (including from the pizza joint next door). Garb is optional. No site fee. 🙂

2) People want more guidance in general. I will try to facilitate that with classes and our shiny new A&S Directory! Fill out the form here to participate. Please, don’t hesitate to ask when you have questions. The vast majority of SCAdians love to talk about their projects and their processes… honestly you might have a harder time shutting us up than extracting information.

3) People have issues with feeling rushed by deadlines, or with their own procrastination. I suggest working on a project you love, and then entering it in the next appropriate display or competition. There will be a lot more opportunities in the future! I hope to have an A&S component at each event. Yule’s Champions Choice competition will have a Beginner category (as well as Intermediate and Advanced). 12th Night will have two displays: One regular and one themed “To Err is Human” where you can offer up a mistake, show improvement with a before and after, or get help with a current problem.

If you can teach or judge something, please let me know! I will be maintaining a list of people to call on. I promise not to abuse you too often and you can always say “no” when I ask.

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The 2014 Tri-Barony Yule (Yulenage a’ Trois), Saturday, Dec 13th

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

For those new to the SCA, let me explain. Three local areas (baronies) are getting together for one big party. We have LOTS going on at this event – food, fighting, arts & sciences, court, kid’s activities, brewing competition, dancing (with lessons!) – so it’s a great opportunity to poke your head in and see if the SCA is interesting to you.

(The enormous description of everything that happened at Yule is now deleted, for the sake of blog readability, but it was EPIC and I’m going try to contribute to Yule 2015 being even better! )

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Basic Research

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Sharon Rose, LAc, MSAOM

The handout for my Beginning Research class is here.

No matter if you want enter an Arts & Sciences competition, or just up your game, you have to begin with documentation.

First – Remember that ideally we are doing research (investigative learning), not just documentation, which is writing up what you (think you) already know.

In general, think about answering the 5 Ws: What, Who, When, Where, Why (and How).

WHAT: What is the object? Is it a reproduction of an existing historical piece, a design based on similar period pieces, or an item common to the period using period techniques and materials?