Pavilions, garages, cars...

With the threat of impending downpour hanging over me I finished waterproofing the red pavilion yesterday afternoon. A good thing to, because today is looking distinctly cloudy. I managed to find a couple of places in Portland which carry Canvak. My spray waterproofing technique has improved greatly, and the side I did yesterday looks pretty good. The side I did on Sunday has a few areas where I put the Canvak on to thickly and it looks a bit splotchy or has some runny paint look. I need to see if there is a way to rub that in or thin it. But on the whole, since the whole thing has some weird patterns of sun-fading on it anyway, it doesn't look too bad. And I am going to paint it, which should help matters quite a bit. Now I just need to sew on the sides, waterproof them, and paint the whole thing. I am going to do a gold design based on various rectangular Froissart pavilions. Plus I need to make a new frame for it. The frame should be the easy though, and I do have some time. It did have a garage style frame with wooden legs, but hauling around all the poles and joints was a pain. The new frame / poles will be a 20' ridge pole with three support poles (one at either end and a center pole) and five side poles that will be guyed out. My goal is to have it together by A&W. Not that anyone is actually going to A&W, but it will be cool to have a nice camp even if it is just for Jamie, Hank, and I. I suppose that I could always try to get it done for Lionhearts or July Coronation since people will be at those...

I am going to use the garage frame joints from the pavilion as parts for my semi-permanent cover for the glass furnace project. I am going to get heavy duty conduit to use for the poles and bury the legs in the ground with some sand or concrete to help keep the whole thing up. I will make withey fences around the bottoms of the sides, and then have some drop down sides, or canvas that can role up around the upper halves. We may even attach metal roofing rather than canvas to the top.

I have a new car! Well, I am not yet in possession of it, but that should happen today assuming nothing weird happens. It is the same model and a year newer than my old car, and 60,000 miles less used. And a horrid gold color. But it runs very nicely, and my mechanic says it seems like a good machine, which he wouldn't feel bad about my buying. It will be good to have wheels again. Even if it means I am in debt 3K to my parents. :-P Maybe I can sell my old car for parts and make some of it back (crosses fingers).

Ran into a woman at the V&A

During my first visit to the V&A when I lost Hank and was wandering aimlessly looking at marvelous textiles, I ran into a woman who was sitting next to an exhibit embroidering something amazing. Since I wasn't going to find Hank any time soon I took out my endless embroidery and we sat and chatted about textiles for a while. I really don't know who she was, but she did awesome work, traveled a lot, and knew a lot. She was quite impressed that I was using the "correct" stitches for my sleeves. At any rate, when we parted, she gave me a V&A note card with the website of this place as a source for thread: http://www.renaissancedyeing.com/threadranges/elizabethan.php If you haven't been to this site, go! And if anyone has ordered from them before, please tell me about it! I am planning on getting their color swatches as soon as I get off my but and actually set up a paypal account (yes, I know, I am in the dark ages - appropriate isn't it?).

I have the car!

And ironically my new car comes from a scadian that some of you probably Kneau, but whom I had managed to not meet before. We definitely had one of those, "Your in the SCA?!" moments.

Side note: My red tent is officially waterproof! The lawn mower is parked under it and perfectly dry! :-) Now it just needs to be me parked under it at an event.

After picking up the car I drove over to the apartment in which Annie is living and she was actually drawing! Yay Annie! She dragged us out for fondue and then we made a trip to art media where she got more art supplies! Woohoo! She must be hooked! :-) Of course dragging me to an art supply store is very dangerous. I remembered all these things I had been meaning to get at art media: nice drawing paper for making books out of, some silk screen supplies, art magazines... DOOM!$$$$$$$$$ But oh so good...

Glass Show and Tell

I already posted this to a ton and a half of mailing lists, but in case it somehow missed you and you are interested:

As some of you know, I recently traveled to England to visit the Roman Furnace Project ( http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/ ). I am inviting all who are interested to attend a show and tell night at my house in Newberg, on Tuesday, June 6th. It will start at 7pm, and probably continue for a few hours. I brought back some glass I made at the project, and a bunch of pictures and notes. In addition to talking about the visit and showing pictures, I would like to start planning our own glass furnace project, and I am making a list of supplies we will need. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP so I will know how many people to expect and I will send you directions. My email address is elfa@havene.org. I also invite anyone who has recent glass projects to bring those, and any books you have been dying to show people, so it wont just be me sharing!