SCA: Battlemoor!

[kellan_the_tabby]

[ My face. I look distressed. Behind me is the back of the van, which has a fair amount of stuff in it. but you can still see out the back. ]

YES Battlemoor was like two months ago, WHAT OF IT.

Anyway I admit I was kinda concerned when we left, on account of I could see out the back & when you’re heading for War that means you forgot stuff. Which was kinda true, I didn’t bring the booth, but I MEANT to not bring the booth, so.

Also I didn’t take many pictures, but more because my phone ran out of battery than anything else, welp.

There was a Storm of Great Ferocity and Note (hail version):

[ Grass, mostly green, some brown. There’s a whole lotta hail in it; the closer stuff looks to be a quarter to a half inch. Further away it drifts into piles a couple inches deep. ]

Sitting in camp, watching everyone attending court stuff themselves into the tent with the royalty, is pretty amusing, especially when you’re in a nice not-crowded tent across the street. Not that we could hear anything, but we couldn’t anyway.

I took three classes! Or possibly four, I am not sure! I learned how to make a Norse bone flute! Check it out, it looks awesome.

[ A bone flute, maybe eight inches long; it has five finger holes, then another hole further up (apparently that’s called the window). There’s an X carved into the bone above the finger holes. ]

I need to explain that I didn’t do ANY of the work that’s visible in that picture; the teacher had already cleaned the bones, cut them to length, & bored all the holes. All we had to do was stuff some beeswax into the end you blow in, to make the right shape for sound to happen.

I spent THREE HOURS messing with the beeswax. I got either no sound at all, or occasional, really breathy high-pitched whistles, which then immediately went away when I poked at the beeswax again, or even looked at it funny.

[ The flute, seen from the end. There’s a wodge of beeswax shoved into the hole; it’s mostly at the bottom of the hole, but there’s a bit up the sides. ]

… you may note that I didn’t say I MADE a beeswax flute. That’s because I didn’t. After messing with it for THREE HOURS, the teacher took pity on me & the other three people who hadn’t either gotten a nice tone or given up, & handed us perfectly functional bone flutes.

Wouldn’t even take money for materials. Bless that guy.

---

originally posted on Patreon; support me over there to see posts a week early!

Comments

[thewayne]

Very cool!

A bought a black bamboo shakuhachi at the renaissance festival in Phoenix ages ago, I can't get crap for sound out of that thing. :-) But it is purty.

[kellan_the_tabby]

SWEET. I bet I could play it. Like, poorly, but.

[thewayne]

ROFL!  There's an instrument maker in SE AZ that hand-craft all sorts of cool stuff and sell them at the AZ Ren Fest, and give basic instruction on them at the festival.  But the black bamboo was quite unique, I couldn't resist it.

[kellan_the_tabby]

I've seen black bamboo flutes, even got to play one, & they're just. Striking.