Today the Barony of Bjornsborg participated in the Tejeda Middle School’s History and Culture Fair from 10-4. There were 36 different groups participating. The Barony has been doing this Demo for many years. Our group is the largest at the fair. We had fighters and rapier demonstrations. Our Baron and apprentice set up a blacksmithing shop and made nails for onlookers. Our A&S mistress set up a pavilion full of gaming boards that she made. Her 18 year old daughter , a new recipient of a Sable Thistle for nalebinding, assisted children in making brass rubbing’s provide by the school. Another Lady displayed her many dolls for the children to droll over. One pavilion had a net-making frame set up and a demonstration of net-making. There was fun with marzipan also. Haraldr set up our tent with a Viking bed and various tools, games and other artifact of the Viking age. He also did a demonstration of card weaving on one of his looms. There were other various displays of art and banners throughout, along with our fair Baroness sitting in state. I kept busy the entire time, with one 5 minute break when my tiles ran out, with a mosaic tile making project. I thought I was done at 1:30 with no more tiles, but then a suggestion was thrown out. It was suggested that the kids could use the backs of the wood pieces that the cowboy was giving out. He was doing brands with a hot iron on wood. I had gone through 40, 4×4 tiles and then about 20-30 more wood pieces. Then the last leg of the day about 5 kids did Popsicle stick mosaics. (I had the large kind, that we used to apply the adhesive/grout.) Luckily the school provided the demonstrators with a portable feast or there was no way I could have gotten out to get something to eat. I kept busy with 6-8 kids at a time and they just came constantly. I also went through almost my entire supply of mosaic pieces also. I bought 5 sets of the small tiles that come together in a 12×12 sheet. I took them apart and cut each square into 4 pieces. I also got a bag of polished pebbles, one of tiny shells, and a large container of small colored ceramic pieces. The one bag of glass tiles, I gave out one for each child as those were the costlier of them all. I think that was my record of teaching about 60 to 80 people in one day. I think my last record was 25 at Pennsic, the year I did 3 classes, but that was over a few days. I ended the day at Tejeda dehydrated, sunburned, and looking for a bathroom!!

I presented my commissioned feast gear to the Baron and Baroness of Bjornsborg. I made two goblets, two bowls, two salad plates and two dinner plates. I had to put the Baronial arms on the plates. I decided to do a Byzantine design. I researched Byzantine pottery and decided to do them in scraffito. The designs on the plate come from different designs that I found. The bears are a compilation of various animal forms that I found from shards of byzantine pottery. I combined the elements and came up with the bear design. I had to make a compromise when it came to glazing. I had to do the glazing in the colors of arms. I left the outer rims in the Byzantine way, just a clear glaze over. I was also asked to do something for a prize for the event that I presented the plates. (Ursae-Lyons Event) I made another set of three in a Byzantine scraffito design and glazed them in just a clear glaze as they would have done.

I started a clay night in Bjornsborg. The first night was today. I had three people come and I have others that will join the club next Tuesday. The first class learned how to wedge clay and center on the potters wheel. I discussed the different clays and what would be used in period. I showed them how to center the lump of clay on the wheel. Debra, Madelena, and Katerine attended. They all had a chance to wedge and center the lump. We had fun and got dirty. Yeah! Next week when more people are scheduled to attend I will be teaching hand-building techniques. I also volunteered to do a class last minute at an event on Saturday in Bryn Gwald (Austin). I am doing a scraffito tile class. I ask them to preregister. I am now up to 13 Bryn Gwalds and 3 of our Bjornsborgers. I am getting tired of wedging and making all those tiles.I made 6 yesterday afternoon, during a call from Nicole. She is starting her teaching job in Olympia High School on Monday, finally. Yeah!