This weekend is the Ashville Viking Festival, despite it's name, it is really just a small medieval, renaissance and fantrasy festival and not strictly devoted to Vikings at all. The festival runs the weekend only, so it is not only small, but a short festival as well... But still good and lots of fun despite it's size.

It's in the small town of Ashville Ohio, which is about a 20 minute drive south of Columbus. I think this will be the fifth year of the festival, and the fourth year that I have attended... Pretty wild considering I have only lived in Columbus for just over two years. This year, Jessica and I are going to do things a little differently, not only are we going to remember the camera this time, we are probably going to bring the camcorder as well...

Anyway, I think that is all I am going to write on the matter for now, I'll probably post something of a detailed account of my adventures after this weekend..

So Monday (Labour Day) I went back to the Pittsburgh area Rennaisance Festival. I had such a good time there last week, and I really wanted Jessica to have a chance to visit as well. Mike (not me, another Mike) came along as well, which was great, it's always merrier with more.

Everyone seemed to have fun. I finally got the last wall panels to Trish and Shannon for their tent (that I made for them). I showed Molly her almost completed Stays (which she seemed to love).

Silly me, volunteered to be a part of a show.... And I was pinched on one cheek (the one on my face you dirty....) while I was licked on the other cheek (again the one on my face!) for my efforts as a volunteer. All good clean fun...


So many funny things through out the day, far too many to relate.... But towards the end of the day, someone cracked a joke about Shannon trying on a corset. We'll being Shannon, he couldn't resist the opportunity for silliness, and so he went across and got fitted and laced into a nice little leather corset. The silliness didn't end there.... He wound up in bed with Jack Sparrow and Wil Turner, I think there was also an incident with Shannon still in the corset and Prince Valiant and Prince Charming, but I missed that one.... Things just get so rediculously funny with Shannon around... Too much fun.

So I had a great time at the Pittsburgh Area Renn Festival. Met some new people, got a chance to get to know some people I have met before, and even got to meet someone from far away that I kind of know through a forum I am on.

The tent turned out great. Although it was almost cathedral like in spaciousness inside (the ceiling turned out taller than I expected).


It was a bit of a pain to set up, but between Trish, Dan, myself and some help from Molly as well, we managed to get it up.

I sat through a couple of shows, which were hilarious, and managed to not spend any money on frivolous things (a true oddity), or anything for that matter. In fact stopping at the pub for a drink and making a donation to the hats of the shows that I watched was all I spent.

I'm hoping I can get back to the festival again soon....

And off I go...

This weekend I am heading off to the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival.

It will be my first time at this faire, I'm going with some good friends, which is always a good thing, but it is for the most part a new adventure for me. The road to this faire has been strange... Some friends who run a booth mentioned a few months ago they needed a more "period" looking tent for the festival, and well, having made a few period tents, I offered to help.

So the tent is pretty much finished (I'm just taking a short break from a few final touches), and tomorrow I drive out to the festival to help the new masterpeice get set up for the first time. It's a square pavillion style tent, with a few design modifications to make it more condusive to browsing, but still very nice and Renn-looking.

I'll also get to wear and use some of the new accessories I picked up at Pennsic... I only wish I had finished sewing my steinkirk (cravat) in time to wear it as well, then my outfit would be complete... But the tent is the priority, so there is no time to work on accessories for me when a peice so important to a friends business need finishing.

Pennsic this year, while fun, had it's ups and downs. The weather (rain) was against us for most of the time we were there. One of the battles I really wanted to fight in was rained out, and due to tight schedules, it was not able to be rescheduled. :( But it was great to see many of the people I know again, and of course make some new friends and acquantances as well.

I also managed to squeeze in a couple of classes this year at Pennsic, which was great. In the previous years I have gone to Pennsic, I was either too lazy to go to any classes, or the classes I was interested in conflicted with other activities (but mostly it was I was too lazy or too busy being social to go).

Of the battle I meant to fight in (I only fence in the SCA, I haven't tried armoured/heavy combat yet, and I am not sure I ever will get into that), the first conflicted with a class I was VERY set on taking, so I chose to go to the class instead, the second and third battles were rained out, one of those two was not rescheduled, but the other I found out about the rescheduled time too late and by the time I got onto the battle field (I was practically snuck onto the field in mid-battle) the battle was pretty much over, and all I got to do was hover around the back of the lines. But the woods battle (which was also originally rained out) I made it too and had an awesome time with. The side I was fighiting with was easily outnumbered 3 to 1 (or possibly even 4 to 1 or 5 to 1)... And since I wasn't there to win, it made for a great battle, tons of fun. Fortunately it was a battle that alllowed for resurections (go back to the muster point and then you can rejoin the battle). Needless to say, I died and resurected numerous times, as I imagine most of the people on the side I was fighting with. Fortunately the battle pretty much stayed within a short distance of our the muster point and it wasn;t too long of a walk. The poor guys on the other side, had quite a trek back to their muster point so I hear.

Well I guess that is enough rambling for now... Maybe I'll post more again soon. 

My new sword guard

This is a bit of a me rambling on, completely geeking out and obsessing about my latest acquisition.

I had a new guard made for my fencing sword.... It is fashioned after a 1690's hanger/cutlass sword guard. The guy that made it for me did an awesome job of it. I have posted the pic of the original that this reproduction is based on in my photos section, in the "swords album".

Since my fencing blade is sooooo short (a mere 28 inches), the full cupped guard I had originally bought (with my 30 inch sabre blade) was a bit heavy for the 28 inch blade. That and the cup guard is really more of a late 18th century design, and I am trying to keep my garb as consistantly late 17th/early 18th century as possible (1670 to 1720s). This also means that once I carve another wooden handle, and get a correctly fitting pommel nut, I will effectively have two fencing blades.... One that fits within SCA heavy fencing standards, and another that meets SCA Cut and Thrust standards, and I can trade parts between the two swords at will.

On another happy note, I did manage to get to do my SCA fencing authorization test this past Wednesday, and as I expected, I passed. So while this may not be big news unto itself, it does mean I get to fight at Pennsic this year! And I'm a little bit more than happy about that. Only 7 days until I leave for the first weekend of Pennsic. I'm getting a bit excited.... It will be nice to see some of the people I have met there again, as well as some people I don't see too often as well (whether from Toronto or where ever).