Persona and Kit

What is a Kit?

When I talk about building a kit for the SCA, what I mean by kit is the set of equipment that is necessary for you to be involved in your chosen activities in the SCA. All kits will involve garb, as every person is required to make a reasonable attempt at medieval clothing. However, there are other objects that can also be included in your kit. The particulars will vary on these as an armoured fighter's kit will involve armour. A rapier fighter's kit might also involve some armor (like a nice gorget and gloves) along with their swords. An Archer's kit might involve a bow, quiver, period arrows, etc. Those who don't do any of these activities but camp a lot with the SCA on the other hand, may find that for them a kit means a tent, camp furniture, etc.

Choosing a Persona:

The first step in putting together your kit is to identify a particular place and time that you are interested in portraying. For some this is relatively general (14th century France) for others it is highly specific (Swabian landsknecht from 1560). There are several factors worth considering in choosing your persona. The obvious ones are whether you have a particular interest in a certain place or time and whether you want to fit in with a local group that tends towards a certain period (like the 14th century mafia in Atlantia or Calontir's anglo-saxons). However, when attempting to keep costs down, it is important to consider the balance between looking good and having the resources to achieve that look. In general, the later in period you go, the more complicated and fitted clothing gets, the more difficult the armor gets to make, and as a result, the more time or money it will take to make your kit.

The "One True Century":

This last concern was the reasoning behind my first baron's explanation of the popularity of the 14th century mafia. The SCA minimum armor standards essentially require rigid joint and head protection, however early medieval armor doesn't provide this, while later medieval and renaissance armor involves a greater degree of more difficult to make plate armor. During the 14th century, however, historically accurate armor meets SCA standards and also can be made to look good by someone with minimal skill. Meeting SCA minimum standards with earlier period armor relies on hidden sport armor, while later period armor simply requires more complicated work. Garb also follows the general trend that the earlier in period you go, the less fitted the garments are, and so the easier they are to pattern. pre-14th century, you can make pretty much everything out of rectangles and triangles. By the 15th century, much of the clothing requires fitted curves in order to achieve the right shape. This is not to say that later periods are impossible, just that they are harder. For those whose primary interest is not in making things, it may be advisable to choose a persona for which it will be simpler to make and acquire the basics of a kit rather than to choose to portray a persona for which the appropriate gear will take a greater degree of determination. For the purposes of this series, I'm avoiding the assumption that anybody wants to make their own things, but rather I am assuming that the reader understands that they may need to make their own things. I will attempt to keep things simple for that group.

Things to Consider Including in your Kit:

Garb: This will include not only clothing, but also footwear and accessories as well. I will make a post about accessories in the future, but suffice it to say that without appropriate accessories and footwear, most SCAdians simply look like they're wearing some weird pajamas. For inspiration, take a look at the Armour Archive's 2013 show off your "soft" kit thread: http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=158437 (Soft kit usually refers to garb, as opposed to armour which is hard)

Armor: Matching garb and armor in a single kit gives you greater flexibility in terms of which clothing you wear to an event and allows you to stretch the number of outfits you have. It also helps your armor fit better, because often, armor was made to be worn with a particular kind of clothing. Keeping your armor pieces consistent with each other and consistent with your clothing is the most straightforward way of looking awesome. I recommend taking a look at the Armour Archive's show off your kit thread here: http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=160509&hilit=show+off+kit

Feast Gear: For the most part, my instructions for feast gear will be to pick up some cheap wooden salad bowls at good will, but an authentic feast gear kit can really help build the medieval experience at feast.

Tools: These are going to be discipline specific items such as archery equipment, musical instruments, puppets or other props for performance arts, etc.

Camping Gear: This would include tents, camp furniture, beds, cooking gear, day shades, etc.

Miscellaneous: There are probably things I have forgotten, however banners displaying your heraldic device are a common thing to have in the SCA and might be something you want to help make you, your encampment, or your day shade look pretty.

The Catch

In my last post I claimed that you can put together a good kit for the SCA inexpensively and I'm sure you thought to yourself, "What's the catch?" Well, the short answer is time. The classic project management pyramid demonstrates the need for a balance between three main constraints; time, cost, and quality. As noted in my previous post, our goals are to keep costs down and do things well, so we should expect that this will come at the expense of speed. In our case, putting together a nice, cheap kit is going to require us to spend more time doing research, shopping for deals, and probably making things ourselves. However, you should not be left feeling like you cannot play until your kit is done. For that reason, this post will be focused on what to do until your gear is ready and a few tips for getting your kit put together more quickly without sacrificing quality or spending a lot of money.

Loaner Gear:
A lot of newcomers feel uncomfortable borrowing garb/armor/camping gear/etc from other people (who may be relative strangers after all). I think this largely stems from the value that our mundane (modern) society places on being self-sufficient, however your local group can in many ways drive this feeling as well. When I joined the SCA as a 22-year old first-year graduate student, my local group was made up of a group of married adult professionals who were approximately 30 and who had been playing SCA for a decade (or more). In general, this group had all the stuff already and were established enough in the SCA to take care of doing their own thing. Taken together, I very much was left feeling that I needed to take care of myself, and in retrospect, this isn't an approach that I recommend for newcomers, particularly if they are on a budget.

Most SCA groups (and some individuals) have garb, armor, camping gear, tools, etc that they don't use or don't use frequently that they are willing to loan to newcomers in order to help them get involved/put their kit together. As I mentioned in the introduction, putting together a good, cheap kit is going to take some time, so the best way for you to get involved while you're working on your kit is to borrow garb to get to events, borrow armor to wear at practice, etc. Remember that this gear is meant to help newcomers (like yourself) get involved, so don't feel embarrassed/weird about borrowing it. However, there are some expectations that you should keep in mind, and even if they don't state them explicitly, you should follow:

1) Be responsible for what you borrow: It should go without saying that you shouldn't trash other people's stuff, but you also should be sure that you are using and maintaining their gear appropriately. For instance, if you borrow a tent and aren't sure about how to set it up or how to pack it, ask. Some people are very particular about how their gear should be used and sometimes the care of equipment may not be straightforward (such as needing to air a tent out after use or needing to avoid using soap on cast iron)
2) Make progress on acquiring your own gear: Loaner gear is meant to help newcomers while they get their own kit together. At the point where you decide that you are going to pursue the SCA/an activity in the SCA, you should make progress towards acquiring your own equipment. Remember, there may be someone who needs that gear more than you do.
3) Pay it forward: A lot of people in the SCA who have been playing for years (or even decades) got their start as proverbial 20-year old poor college students like yourself. I'd bet that they remember that experience fondly and that many of them will be more than willing to help you out. As a newcomer, you'll find that there really isn't a good way for you to pay them back for their help (it isn't like they need a T-tunic), but that isn't really what they are expecting. If you stick with the SCA, someday (and it might not be that far off in the future, really) you'll be in a position to help another proverbial 20-year old poor college student put together their first kit, and you should do so because that's really what makes the SCA awesome.

Ask for Help:

One of the coolest things about the SCA is the wide variety of skills that are represented within our group and the general willingness of people who have such skills to teach others. In terms of our goals to make a high quality kit cheaply, getting expert help can save us quite a bit of time and money. While help with making things is the most obvious way we can get help, consider asking for help with your research as well. It is likely that more experienced craftspeople can point you towards appropriate sources for what you are trying to make and many will loan you books and source material if you ask. Furthermore, if you are't familiar with how to do research in the first place, you may even ask someone to teach you how. In my local group, we are awash with librarians who teach people how to do research as part of their job. There may be people who are able to help you with your research based on their mundane skills/professions even if they aren't particularly familiar with the time period/crafts that you're trying to do (librarians, scientists, writers, etc).

In terms of making things, getting help from those who are familiar with whatever craft you are attempting can save you time and money and improve the quality of your kit. More experienced helpers can provide guidance that avoids wasted materials, point out reasonable shortcuts that can save you time, and sometimes provide you with tools and workshop space. The right tools can save you a lot of time and make it easier to build a good-looking product. Furthermore, there are some objects which really can't be made without certain tools. As before, remember to respect the help that you are given. Take care of any books/tools that you borrow or use. If someone invites you over to their shop, follow their rules, bring a 6-pack, and be courteous.

Hunt for Bargains:

To a certain extent, putting a kit together cheaply means buying as few items as possible, but sometimes you can find some great deals on items that you need which can result in you getting a nice object cheap and quick. For starters, at many events there are what I like to call "SCA yardsale" merchants. These are typically people who have been playing for a while and have realized that they have no need for the 15 sets of garb, 3 suits of mismatched armour, 5 sets of wooden feast gear, and various candles and baskets that they have acquired over the years. These sales are good places to pick up wool and linen fabric, no-longer needed garb, armour bits from peole who have upgraded their kit, and books. In the past year, I've picked up a pair of knee cops for $20, a pair of rapiers for $25 each, a pair of rubber band guns for $15 total, a whole bunch of wool (some of which was free), and a few other sundry items for only a few dollars. When you are just getting started, these types of sales are probably the best place to pick up some basic feast gear (wooden bowl, tankard mug, wooden spoon, knife) for only a few dollars (usually less than $5 total) as well. These merchants are usually just trying to get rid of stuff, so they are also typically willing to haggle, especially if you are taking several things off of their hands.

Most other merchants at events and online are actually trying to make money, but you may find that you need to purchase from them at some point. If you do, be sure to pay attention to their clearance sales, etc. At most major wars there is typically a "midnight madness" event where the merchants have special sales. Several of the "major merchants" at events like Pennsic have clearance bins where they are selling seconds, discontinued products, surplusses, and one-off pieces at drastically discounted prices. At last year's Pennsic, for instance, my little brother managed to acquire a pair of well-made period shoes and a leather sutton-hoo pouch for about $50. The last day of such events is also a good time to hit up the merchants for deals. Many of them would prefer to sell their product for a slightly lower price than pack it up and haul it home. Also remember that even though these merchants are a bit more formal than the SCA yardsale types, they are still often open to a bit of haggling, especially if you are buying several objects.

One last piece of advice when looking to buy things is to do you research in advance. Know what sorts of objects would be appropriate for your persona so that you don't need to replace them later, and get feedback from other people about the seller. At a major event like Pennsic, it is worth asking more experienced SCAdians to guide you around the merchant area to help make sure that you buy the right thing from the right person at the right price.

SCA on a Budget

Introduction:

The up-front costs of getting involved in a historical group such as the SCA can be pretty high. As a newcomer, you will, at the very least, need garb, but you will furthermore need armor if you want to fight, tools if you want to get involved in crafts, camping gear if you want to attend some events, etc. The costs of these things can add up quickly, which by itself can be stressful, but this is compounded by the sense of urgency of feeling that you are behind or that you cannot participate until you have acquired all of these things. This time crunch often compels newcomers to buy or make things as quickly and as cheaply as possible, but this is a mistake. Such early purchases are often quite wasteful, resulting in the acquisition of gear and equipment that isn't pretty, isn't medieval, and sometimes isn't even useful.

I have created this series of web posts in order to help newcomers to overcome some of these initial hurdles. One of the greatest strengths of the SCA is that members love to help out newcomers, but this help can be a two-edged sword. Newcomers are often overloaded with information by their local group, by members of online forums, etc; however they typically do not have a good way of determining which information is good and which information is bad (And plenty of it is just plain bad). I found that combating misinformation (provided by very well-meaning people) was quite frustrating and decided that I needed to put together a comprehensive, straightforward, and high-quality resource to help guide newcomers through putting together their first garb, armor, camping gear, etc. To be clear, the goal of this series is not to contain all of the medieval crafting knowledge ever. Instead, the goal is to simplify the process of researching and assembling a high-quality, but simple medieval outfit. In other words, when a newcomer comes to me and asks, "What should I do about garb?" I want them to be able to follow the instructions on this site to make an outfit that they can be proud of, that will look and feel medieval, and will last them for several years.

So, who is this guide for? Well, obviously I'd love it if every newcomer would have the chance to read it (at least, once it's finished), but I think the primary audience is people with little historical costuming experience regardless of sewing experience. My goal for many of these guides will be to allow people with almost no patterning, assembly, sewing experience to follow them. The other audience that I hope will give these guides a chance are people who have minimal interest in historical costuming and sewing, such as the stereotypical "stick jock" of the SCA. For those individuals, I hope that this guide will show them how cool medieval clothing can look and that it will demonstrate that accurate clothing is neither harder nor more expensive than medievaloid alternatives. Finally I hope that these guides will demonstrate how accurate medieval clothing (and armor) works better in many cases than modern alternatives.

With these objectives and target audiences in mind, let us begin by discussing our design principles. In project management, there's a saying, "You can have it cheap, fast, or good. Pick two." This is certainly true of putting together your gear and kit for the SCA. However, in many cases, we emphasize the first two principles (cheap and fast) over the last one (good). The effects of this should be obvious, shoddily constructed gear that doesn't look medieval, doesn't hold up to wear & tear, or even worse, simply doesn't work. So, my first admonishment is to instead strike a balance between these three design principles when you approach making/buying your gear.

Keep it Cheap: I should state here that purchasing all of your gear is certainly an option, but in general it is cheaper to make things yourself. There are caveats to this of course, as some things require special skills and equipment that actually make buying them a better option. While I will be focusing on tutorials throughout this series, I will also include suggested merchants who make quality products at a reasonable price. The  main ways to keep costs down are to shop around and look for sales, avoid wasting materials, don't buy things you don't need, keep things simple at first, and finally, to borrow tools and expertise when possible.

Do it Fast: The focus of this series is on tutorials to help you make things for yourself, so I should state outright that this is going to take some time. I often tell my friends to avoid sewing on a deadline, but I think this is true of most crafts, especially when you're new at them. Rushing through projects is a good way to waste materials, to spend a lot of time with a seam ripper, and to end up with mediocre stuff. So, instead of rushing, we will focus on planning. This series will keep the time-cost as low as possible by pointing out short-cuts, keeping the projects simple and modular, and by prioritizing more essential pieces. Finally, in some cases, striking a balance between time and cost will cause me to recommend the purchase of key pieces of equipment.

Make it Good: At the end of the day, the SCA is in many ways a medieval dress-up party, not a reenactment group. However, what's the point in a medieval dress-up party if you're not wearing medieval clothing? Fortunately for us, accurate medieval clothing doesn't have to be hard, it doesn't need to cost a lot of money, and in most cases, we can replace skill with power tools (sewing machines are really good at making evenly spaced stitches). The tutorials in this series will show you how to dress like a medieval person using layers of simple, well-constructed garments and appropriate accessories.

Before you get started, it is worth putting together a plan. Such a plan will include the following steps that will help you to determine how to balance between the three design principles of cost, speed, and quality.

Determine Your Interests and Budget: It is important to start from reasonable expectations and with a full understanding of what you will need. Obviously every SCAdian needs garb, but if you're interested in fighting in armor or rapier, shooting archery, playing music, etc those interests will change the amount and type of the gear you need. Furthermore, your finances are going to determine how much you need to make yourself and what you can buy. If you just need garb, for instance, and have a budget of $500, you can probably just buy what you need to look super spiffy (As long as you make good choices. You can spend a lot of money on crap.). If your budget is more like $100, we might need to get creative. Furthermore, it might be the case that you have to consider budget over time. You might not have $150 cash right away, but could set aside $20/month for a while. 

Decide What You Want To Look Like: Ultimately, looking good while dressed as a medieval person is about making choices and the first big choice you need to make is what you want to look like. I recommend choosing a persona that strikes a balance between what you want to wear and what you can afford to wear (money, skill, time). Likewise, I suggest that once you pick a persona that you stick with it (at least until you have the money, skills, and time to change it). This is for three reasons. First, having a complete and coherent look is the most important and easiest way to look good. Mixing and matching clothes or armor from different time periods looks more Mad Max than medieval. Second, it is ultimately cheaper to stick with a single period. Eventually you'll end up wanting more garb, especially if you end up going to something like Pennsic. It will be cheaper to make more clothing from the same period, because this will allow you to mix and match outfits as well as re-use accessories. You don't want to find yourself needing shoes for when you dress Tudor, another for when you dress Viking, and yet another for when you dress like a Crusader. This gets expensive fast. Finally, as you work within a single place/time period, you'll start to understand its aesthetic. This will help you in future projects and will allow you to phase in increasingly better pieces as your gear wears out, stops fitting, etc. 

Decide What You Can/Want To Make: The big question here is what are you realistically able and willing to make, and what do you need to buy? For the most part, making things yourself can save on cash, but time is also valuable. If you hate sewing, it might be worth your money to commission someone to make you clothing. Likewise, some pieces of gear, especially armor, either cannot be made at home (like rapier swords), require more tools than you realistically can get, or will require skills/time that you don't have. The precise balance of these factors will depend largely on your budget and other resources. As an example, I will typically recommend that newcomers who want to fight heavy simply buy a helmet. Most helmets are going to require some welding, so that's not a reasonable thing to expect to make on your own. Furthermore, I also recommend that newcomers simply purchase elbow and knee cops. They aren't terribly difficult to make, but they are also not terribly expensive to buy, which means that the time and effort spent making them is probably worth simply buying them unless your budget is super small or you're really interested in making armor. When it comes to clothing, shoes are a similar example. Typically leather needs to be bought by the hide, and shoes require a few different thicknesses of leather, so you'd end up buying 3 hides of leather in order to make a single pair of shoes. Furthermore, shoes are a bit complicated and poorly fitting shoes = pain and suffering. At the same time, you can get a reasonable pair of period looking shoes for around $60, so for most, it's a better choice to simply buy them. 

Plan Ahead: Once you've decided what you're going to make, it's time to plan out how you're going to do it. Figure out what materials and tools you will need, and make a plan to acquire them. You'll probably end up needing to buy your materials, but you can often find other SCAdians who are willing to loan you their tools or allow you to come over to their house to use them. Keep in mind that many projects end up using the same materials, so sometimes it is better to buy in bulk. Furthermore, when buying things on the internet, consider buying all of what you need from the same place at the same time to save on shipping. White linen, for instance, gets used not only for shirts/under tunics, but also for braies, coifs, linings, padded arming garments, etc. You should calculate what you need and buy that all at once to save on shipping. Some places also offer bulk discounts when you order fabric by the bolt, for instance.  Knowing what you need and when you'll need it will allow you to shop around, look for sales and discounts, and help you put your gear together in a reasonable time frame.

A few youtube videos for your viewing pleasure

Last night at practice I promised Master Eldred a few youtube videos, particularly this one with a lesson on fencing with a buckler.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxCsoAFMNO0
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxgVcCbEO0M&feature=related

A lesson on gaining the blade & mechanical advantage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij2D4NRXyH4&feature=related

Italian lunge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiA6kOZbIGg&feature=related

These are fairly basic lessons that I think are pretty good. There are a few videos of Tom Leoni I found while getting these links that I'll have to check out and write about in the future.

A project list

Well, it seems I've finally gotten past the post-Pennsic not working on projects phase.

My current project is my first landsknecht outfit. I've started on the shirt, and we'll see how the pleated collar goes. Its proven a bit more complicated than my previous shirts and I'm trying to decide whether to finish it with a neck band or a cable stitch. I suppose I'll get lots of practice with these because I've promised to help Jlona make her shirts/chemises and the Hungarian shirts seem to work the same way.

It will hopefully end up something like this: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnMVttcBtyiY0xyM1IRgD8WS5NZw-Djyzv5wzFxmwRHBePD4WLf0r6doEUFvn3f95CpiH4JuLnJC4o9nJd5jvPtY6W1BCunTcyWXIsx6mmMNhnrbGCmkjP0AKtJCtNRT3pNcEn6HQlH8w/s1600-h/DSCF3051.jpg

My goal is to have my landsknecht kit ready for Ymir, as it will be one of the few events I might need/want to wear a bunch of felted wool. I'm partial to some of the outfits in this series of illustrations: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/3247167359/in/set-72157613230877937/

If I get particularly ambitious, I might start working on an arming doublet as well this weekend. The inside of my arms got a little chewed up by the strap at heavy practice the other day.

A drill for all ages...

I mentioned in my last post that I was looking for some drills that will be useful for new fencers and that I can use to instruct them while also improving my own fencing. Mattheu and Connor lent me a few suggestions about ways to do this that basically boil down to working on the basics while also forcing myself to use perfect form, perform perfect attacks, and keep myself perfectly safe.

Purpose: The general idea is to learn to identify both your own and your opponent's openings. For more advanced fencers, really focus on using proper form, properly gaining and controlling your opponent's sword.

The concept: If we break down the lines, we basically have high, low; inside and out. At any given time, we can protect 2 or maybe 3 of these with our rapier and off-hand, but our guard necessitates leaving one line open.

If we understand this, then we can do a few things:
1.) Identify that opening in our own guard
2.) Be prepared to defend that opening
3.) Use that opening as an invitation

We can also use this knowledge to help identify our opponent's openings which will allow us to:
1.) Identify the openings in our opponents guard
2.) Use this information to direct our blows
3.) Use this information to understand how our opponent must parry
4.) Use this information to engage in useful feints
5.) Control the fight by controlling our opponent's defense

So, we want a drill that will teach new fencers points 1 and 2, while allowing more experienced fencers to work on 3, 4, and 5. This drill is performed with the understanding that if pairs are at different skill levels, the fencers will be playing completely different games.

Drill:

A pair of fencers take their guard against each other (in armor). The first fencer (A) identifies the opening in their guard, then enlarges it. The second fencer (B) uses that information to strike. While performing this attack, fencer B MUST be sure to gain the blade, close the line, and deliver a good lunge (or pass, etc). Fencer B gets only one attack and fencer A must properly defend and may deliver a blow if B leaves an opening.

After each attempt, fencers/instructors may provide feedback before switching roles.

Variations: change the guards around, add secondary weapons/parrying devices

Newer fencers will probably be focused on finding the hole, exploiting the hole while more experienced fencers can focus on creating an invitation, feints, and on using perfect form.

Armored, sharpened, and ready to go...

I managed to get most of my armor strapped up for practice last week, but I still have a few pieces left to go (helm included). I took a shot to the thumb last week and considering how much it still hurts, I think that fighting tomorrow night is probably a bad idea, so no heavy for me this week.

Last weekend was Midnight at the Oasis, and that went pretty well. I made it to the final round in the single elim tourney, but then lost to Ilaria. Due to the number of people in the bracket, it was a 3-way final, so we did something a bit different. After the match with Ilaria, she and I took on Connor together. We ended up losing 2-1 (it was best of 3), but it was a fun bout.

After the tourney, Letia fought her prize (congrats!)

Melee in the afternoon was a pretty cool scenario, but almost everybody was wiped out from the heat. We did a few runs before people really started dropping out, and so we ended a bit early.

I talked with Mattheu afterwards about some things to work on while doing slow work drills with new fencers. His advice boiled down to making sure I'm doing everything perfectly while I fight them. One of my main problems has been actually using appropriate footwork/staying in the guard I want while fighting, and so I have been working on making sure I do that while fighting newer fencers, but Mattheu suggested I do the same with attacks and parries. That is, that I should be sure to attack safely (i.e. from their blade), force openings.

I also got some suggestions on how to simplify teaching new fighters to attack from Connor. Basically, all guards cover some areas and leave others open. Fighters should be aware of where their own openings are as well as the openings of their opponent. Perhaps for this week I'll come up with a drill to make use of that.