My Blog
Home sweet home
Well. It's been entirely too long. Update. Let's see, we have two new kittens to fill the voids left by the passing of Booger and Cleo. I really need to dig out the pics of Cleo I took, that way I can post them. And the pics of the boys too. Woof and Darwin. They've been getting along reasonably well with Ding & Ling (the kittens) though I have to constantly remind Darwin that the girls aren't chew toys. I also posted a pic I took last week of Kohl, my rat snake. I was sitting here minding my own business when the hair on the back of my neck stood up, I look over and there he is staring at me. I pressed my finger up against the side of his aquarium and he promptly tried to swallow my finger. Couldn't get his dinner thawed fast enough for him... He's reached one of several awkward sizes, too big for fuzzies, not quite big enough for full grown mice...The big news though; we're working on buying our first home. If this pulls through we'll be here in North Carolina for at least another 20 years :). That would be the longest we've ever lived in one spot. I'm tired of moving around anyway, it will be good to have a home instead of a house to live in. Three bedroom, two baths, family room (my sewing/dancing room), fireplace in the living room. Best of all though, huge fenced back yard for the boys to play, and run, and be gay in!!!
That and as soon as they have someone hired and trained at work to replace me I'm going to morning shift!!! I'll be loosing my shift differential again but there is the potential for making that up in overtime.
Frame & Book
Ah, it is done... Well, actually it's been mostly done for a few days now but thanks to Grea we now have a camera and I was able to geek out last night snapping pictures. Thank the gods it was a digital camera otherwise I would have gone though a dozen rolls of film! I've posted the clearest ones so here are the details:The first one is of The Booger. The Booger is my Supreme Goddess of all that is Feline in the world. Booger celebrated her 18th birthday around Valentines day and is still existing off the brains of the rest of us mammals in the house. I know this because Darwin keeps getting dumber each day. More picks of the kids coming soon. (I really need to find out how I can get more space for picks...)
Now, for the items I've been cracking out on for the last two months or so...
The Sprang Frame
Let me begin by saying "It's all Oddny's fault!" Oddny's Page
Dear, sweet Oddny who came up with the plans for a pvc frame that was so easily adjustable and portable. It spoiled me. I was able to create, with just a few dollars worth of PVC and a hacksaw, a frame in which ever size I needed.
Granted, it was what we call in the SCA as "Mundane" looking, ie, not at all what they might have used in the middle ages.
Seeing me work on that contraption Sir Randall decided he would make me something more period looking. Using two different sized dowel rods he made me a small frame. He had originally intended to make the frame collapsible but it had somehow slipped his mind in the thrill of working with wood. I still have this frame, it is good for smaller projects and is quite sturdy, but, I needed something that would be more adjustable for different sized projects.
Wondering in Lowe's one day I had an epiphany in the plumbing department. There, past the PVC, were copper pipe fittings. "Ooh, pretty." thought I. "But a frame made of copper would be sooo heavy." thought the wimp in me. "Ah! But if the limbs of the frame were of wood! A good strong oak would not be too heavy!" So after gathering handfuls of copper couplings, caps and T connectors I staggered happily to the wooden dowel rods and bought 3 which I cut into thirds. Back at home I assembled the frame and Ta-Dah! slightly more period looking collapsible frame.
But I just couldn't keep it simple... No, not I...
I have a rather substantial hoard of copper wire... thanks to a fellow who used to work at the same place I'm employed who kept giving me the stuff they were going to throw away. It was all of various sizes, so, I took the really fine stuff and braided several strands. Then I took more and cut about 300 total 3'' sections to be coiled. Following a couple weeks of braiding, coiling, fights with solder that wouldn't adhere, Krazy gluing my fingers to the copper, I had decorated the copper pieces.
And I couldn't just stop at that... No, not I...
The wood was somewhat easier... I did burn myself on occasion but some of the decorating was done with a copper template normally used for paper embossing. For the lettering I used Microsoft Word. Under Insert-Symbol is the entire Arabic alphabet, and you know what, some of the letters GREATLY resemble the Latin used in English, some not so, you need some imagination...
Anyhoo, I typed out two phrases "Property of Sahar al-Nur" and "This end up Stupid" hit the Print Screen button and copied the page into Paint. I then rotated the image to where the letters were reversed and printed the image with a laser printer. A print from a laser printer, when applied with heat, acts as an iron on transfer. After transferring the print to the dowels I used a wood burner and more permanently applied the letters. (I have since done similar with the frame Sir Randall made for me.)
That's about it for the frame. I want to put more phrases on the frame, poetry about sprang and such, but that will take time. The frame is now in the testing phase to ensure stability. Some of the dowels were loose but dipping the ends in water caused them to swell some and they are now snug in the copper pieces.
The Book
For some time I had wanted to have something of a notebook for my Sprang projects. Constantly I had been carrying around my Collingwood book and I feared for it's safety. (Darwin recently pulled the book off the shelf, peeled the dust jacket off carefully then proceeded to gnaw on the spine. He still lives, only because my aim is off when I'm upset.) I decided to try my hand at bookbinding.
To make a long story short, (TOO LATE!!!!) following some on-line research, and the loan of The Family Creative Workshop: Volume 2 from a friend, I bound a book in the Coptic style, pages hand stitched together with waxed thread.
Practical Binding
Coptic Binding
I then used some leather given to me for the project to bind the cover in a fashion used in Medieval Arabic books.
Islamic Medical Manuscripts
15th Century Manuscript
The ornamentation of the leather was done by pressing a hot tool (in this case a Wood Burning pen) into the leather. This is known as Blind Tooling and was generally used to produce patterns in earlier books. Later in period presses were used to tool the leather and apply gold leaf to the designs. The patterns were made with embossing brasses, one was purchased from Michael's and has a rather detailed patterning on it, more so than one I bought at Walmart for the pages of the book. (I had already embossed the pages with the brass from Walmart otherwise I would have used the one from Michael's. I looked more like the designs from period.) The center of the"Sun" in the middle of the covers has been left blank to accommodate my Heraldic Arms when I get them passed.
Notes were put in the book beginning after I stitched the pages together. Typically a book would have been completely penned then stitched together, but, due to this being a notebook for me to jot down what I needed to remember for projects I'll add as I go along.
I used a Arabic style script that I developed from several different sources. The style of the letters are derived from several different period Arabic calligraphic scripts. I used a dip pen with India Ink, acrylic paint, and Chinese watercolors to apply the calligraphy and ornamentations. The script is also written with the margins to the right side of the page to better resemble Arabic and the book reads from what a European would consider the "back" of the book to the "front".
All in all it was such a wonderful experience and I learned much about papermaking and bookbinding from the research. I had hoped to be able to take them to KASF to enter into the Pentathalon but I was unable to attend. Ya Bey, there is always next year...
Men & Middle Eastern Dance
Many a time I've heard it said, "Belly Dance (Or Middle Eastern Dance) was a dance performed only by women for women in the Harem." This attatude has been spread widly by those who would like to exclude males from ME dance. Their reasoning is varied, from the statement above to wanting the women in the class to not feel uncomfortable. My husband was asked to leave the vacinity of a class this last year, so that the ladies could perform unhindered. I have even heard the statement, "Men don't dance in the Middle East. It's considered unmanly."Though such statements have a portion of truth to them. Women did perform for women in the Harem's, but there were also Eunich's there. Men who's job it was to safeguard the ladies of the Harem. It is known that the Eunichs frequently dressed as females and danced to entertain the ladies there.
Wikipedia
There is also the indication of male musicians visiting the ladies. The Tehran Museum has a interisting collection of miniatures on line and some of them depict dancers. One is of a group of ladies dancing in a circle around a man playing an Oud.
Oud Player
The muscian in this picture is definatly in motion. It is common in the Middle East and North Africa today for muscians to move in a rythmic fashion while playing their instroments.
The Tehran Museum also has another rather interesting miniature of a man and a woman dancing together shaking the belief that men and women didn't dance together.
Couple Dancing
These are just two miniatures that depict dancers, male and/or female that can be found in various books and collections in the world. Though some in the Middle East view public professional performance as a woman's domain, there are some rather sucessful male performers.
BBC News Article on Male Dancers in Istanbul
US Male Dancers
Historically there have been instances when female dancers were banned from public performance, such as Cairo in the 19th century. At those times men came forward and performed.
For historical recreation such as the SCA the best option for those men who are interested in dance would be to learn the basics of Belly Dance from a teacher willing to teach males. In liew of this videos may surfice. Habi 'Ru has a series of videos that I highly recommend. They are great workouts, even the warm up and feature John Compton who is one of the top male dancers in the US.
Habi 'Ru
There are also traditional dances performed by men in the Middle East. Most of them involve combat related activities, such as the Tahtib of Egypt. The Tahtib is believed to date back to Pharonic times and is one of the oldest martial arts known. Performed with sticks, the dancers stirke and parry at each other or imaginary targets if solo, in beat with music.
As weapons evolved so did the style of combat dances, changing from spears and shields to swords, then firearms.
Other less 'violent' forms usually involve courtship rituals and include women. With the Bedouin are two seperate courtship dances. In one a unmarried girl is given a stick or a sword and is placed in a circle of men. The men dart forward and try to tuch the girl, who inturn keep the men at bay. In another, a man holds a dagger on a length of rope or chain and tries to slip the rope/chain around the neck of the girl of his choice while she dances and spins about. (International Enclycopedia of Dance)
There are countess forms of dance that a man can perform for Middle Eastern dance from dressing as the opposite sex to performing macho dances with a sword. The choice is up to him.