Oooo! Another GREAT collection of Appliquéd Tent Pictures!

http://www.rugtracker.com/2013/05/khyamiya.html

Go look!

Things I learned from looking at Tents!

I really did come back from Turkey (sigh) and if you've been waiting for pictures your patience is about to begin to be rewarded!

I didn't spend as much time in the Military museum as I had hoped, but I was there long enough to learn some very important things:

Scale

The main support poles of the tents really are tree trunks. Easily 14" or more in diameter and TALL!

This example is only a portion, possibly half, of the eventual height of the structure. I love that you can see the broken end which would go into a connector piece (up at the top) and that they had a connector and final on display also.








Look at the size of the hole the pole would insert into.




And to give some idea of the scale of that finial...




I also found it interesting that some of the double polled tent that I expected to be huge were quite moderate in scale, maybe 7-9 feet high, while some of the viewing pavilions were easily 18-20' or more! (Talk about making a person feel,insignificant.)


Sewing

This example was fully appliqued over every inch of the interior, but only on the edges of the exterior, lovely! Most interesting, the exterior was assembled from a great many strips of fabric, probably about 7-8" wide running from top to bottom. I also love the patching!







And then there is the visible stitching. I think I could relax a bit about my work. :)




Details

I noticed that the red tent had side poles. And that they ran in a channel in the walls and thus didn't show either inside or out. I didn't notice side poles on any other tent, so I can't claim it is common, but it is such a nice idea!

And then there were the netting windows with large decorative knots worked in another material (I think it was leather)



and the lovely grille work on the opaque window on the Sultan's bath tent



And the worked cord loops for stakes

The Maybee's are going to Turkey!

In my real life my Clarence and I (April) work in Academia and he has just had a paper accepted at a conference in Istanbul this fall. I am so excited for him on a professional level, but for me it means I get to celebrate my birthday in Turkey this year *and* (drumroll) spend about a week poking about the Military Museum studying their tent collection!

I really don't think I could be more excited!

I admit I've also been thinking about doing some shopping, particularly for oyas to use on a late period partlet, but first things first. Time to learn to speak a lot more Turkish. :)

Squee!

More on Turkish tents

The Turkish Cultural Foundation has a page on mobile palaces with a bit of tent history and...more pictures!

http://www.turkishculture.org/pages.php?SearchID=753

Amazing how the web changes in two years!

Eye candy: Images of tent appliqué

Well, thinking about getting back to work on my Pavilion has gotten me back to poking about the Internet to see what I can find...

And the second site I looked at has the most wonderful tent walls!

http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2006/06/real-appliqued-tent.html

I don't know how old these are, and I don't really care at this point. Just...oooooh!

And here is the interior of a 17th century Egyptian tent

http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/islamicart&CISOPTR=119

http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/islamicart&CISOPTR=120&CISOBOX=1&REC=1

Blurry, but how a want a fancy liner!

And the there's this lovely Pinterest board:

http://pinterest.com/jennybowker1/tentmakers-of-cairo/

And another blog with Egyptian tent makers:

http://multicoloredpieces.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-weekend-in-cairo-part-2-tentmakers-of.html

It all rather gets my tent-making energy flowing again!

Hmm...this blog is almost 2 years old and I haven't finished my Pavillion

Maybe I should get back to work on it!?!

The new apartment is far more condusive to sewing than the one we rented for our first year in Indiana. And with winter about to settle in I think I will have plenty of time to sew.

Best of all, I've discovered we have a local tent company. I've been thinking that a professional machine that was accustomed to canvas might be able to handle the harder seams I have coming up in my assembly plan. I haven't contacted them yet ('cause I don't want a potentially negative answer!) but they say they do custom work so I am hopeful that if I get my parts ready they will put them together for a fee.

Hmmm...

I know where the bin with this project is living. I guess I'll go pull it out!

Clearly, I don't spend enough time doing research.

I just discovered that many of the Venetian museums have pooled their artifact collections together into a single, searchable, database at: http://www.archiviodellacomunicazione.it/Sicap/opac.aspx?WEB=MuseiVE&LNG=ENG

I searched for "tessuto" and found this!


"Arte spagnola
Tessuto Velluto chermisi tagliato ad un corpo con applicazioni in raso di seta prodotto dall' orditura di fondo in seta gialla e da una trama di fondo verde Tessuti
XVI 1500 1599 inizio
Ca' Mocenigo Centro Studi di Storia del Tessuto e del Costume "

It's very like the applique work I am doing on my pavillion and it's giving me some great pointers for how I can use the couched thread for detailing overall.

I'm such a happy camper!

Back to work...

on the Pavillion!

Maybe it's the fall weather but I'm getting the itch to get back to work and finish my pavilion before the next SCA Camping season. It seems like forever since I worked on it but the break has been good for me. I thought my way through the quandry caused by finding the roof panels which I had misplaced.

I'd re-envisioned the sections I had at hand into a completely different style of pavillion (a Bell Wedge instead of round) and finished enough of the hand work on the rest of the pavillion that I really didn't want to go back...but I don't have too! I've been wanting to make detachable walls to convert one of the awnings into a bedroom and I think I can dismantle the extra roof to use for some of the parts of the bedroom walls.

Yippee! Now to implement the plan....

So, about that Pavillion...

It's past time that I admitted to you that I will not be able to complete it in time for Pennsic XL.

It's not just that the deadline is only a week away, or that I've had to prioritize our move to Indiana. The biggest problem is that while I was packing up the house for our move I discovered that I actually had completed a third section of roof panels...way back in the dark ages in California.

So now what do I do?

Since I actually have all 12 pieces I could revert to the original plan and make a round pavilion...or...
I could split the third section in half, connect each half to one of the sections of 4 pieces I was planning to use for my bells, and thus have a larger bell/larger tent overall...or...
I could come up with some really brilliant third option.

Sigh...

So right now I am stuck, and crazy busy. I'll get back to the pavilion after our move..

The World, Such an interesting place.

Last night I went to a farewell reception for a colleague and ended up talking with a friend about the presentation she had attended at a recent conference. Ordinary enough for academics, I suppose (I should, perhaps, mention that one of my hats is 'Faculty Wife') but the subject came up because I mentioned that my summer plans include attending a two week long medieval camping event, for which I am making a tent and she had attended a presentation on Byzantine texts discussing tents.

So there I am at a work related cocktail party, talking about byzantine tents. I love my life!

Thru this conversation I have just discovered the existence of The Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. Not my field, but super cool!

My friend presented at the SPBS Spring Symposium (April 2011) and also attended Margaret Mullett's session "Experiencing the Byzantine Text" I'm writing to Ms. Mullett in the hopes of getting permission to link to the handout from her session. Stay tuned!

(I know, I'm a wicked tease.)

Hmmm...it's time to face facts!

Fact #1 - It's June. It's already JUNE! Since I need to have a working pavillion, I need to get my butt back in gear and finish the tent.

Fact #2 - I also need to finish quite a lot of stuff for the encampment, the folding table with its chains, the savonarola chairs, the chandeliers...

Fact #3 - Ditto the wardrobes for both Boen and I. Much needs to be done. So why oh why am I suddenly contemplating dong the lace for the collar and sleeves of my IRCC camicia in Punto en Aria? Really, WHY!

I'm starting to wander towards the conclusion that...

Fact(?) #4 - I might be crazy!

But oh the two inspiration patterns I found are *so* pretty...and all the local lace is dreck...and really, how much harder can it be than crochet?

(Such a silly, silly girl. Sad really.... (Walking away shaking head...) )

OK. Back to work

My honey is away for a couple of days so it's a good time for me to buckle down and get back to work on the Pavillion. After I stitch the dragon panel for the front I am planning on assembling that side of the tent and finally committing myself to a plan for extending the bottom part of the bell on each end.

I've been saving some of my blue/green fabric to try and extend the banding on the bell too. We've yet to know if there will be enough to finish all the remaining spots where I'd like to use it (the mottoe on the bell ends, the bottom banding for the whole pavillion, and the dragon panel for the back of the pavillion) so my back-up plan is to visually weight the bottom of the pavillion by using black banding if it looks like I won't have enough.

Did you think I had forgotton this project?

Nope!

Ok, I admit it, I'm getting scared

I almost have a tent and so I'm at that phase where all I do is worry about all the things which could go wrong with it...and start other projects!

Must sew tent. Must sew tent. MUST SEW TENT!

4/24/2011 and we have dragons!

Aren't they cool?



Not even pinned down at the moment, but since the green man's body, arms and all the greenery below his hands *are* sewn on I'm not complaining.

I still need to attach his head, and all the dragon/greenery parts above the hands, then do the outlining and detailing in couched thread (black) as in the bottom section of the pavilion. Maybe another week or two of work since I currently quite distracted by the Italian Ren. Costuming Challenge. Which I am off to work on now (Red and white trapunto sleeves, here I come!)

Addendum: Photos after all

Apparently my pattern is to complain on the blog about how little I've gotten done...which then spurs me on into a burst of working on projects...and then I have something to post! I still have a long way to go but look at the roof of our pavilion!

The long view...



and a close up!

I'd rather forgotten...

how long it takes to prep applique pieces when they are full of itty-bitty curves and curliques and tendrils. Which is to say that I am still working on the front roof of the pavillion. Yes, I haven't even finished all the applique pieces. Yes, I haven't even pinned it all together, let alone started attaching the applique. Yes it feels like it is taking forever.

I started laying out the pieces I have finished because I was going to take a picture to prove that I was still working on the pavillion but right now seeing all those bits scattered in all that white space is making me rather depressed. So, maybe not.

In other news I have finished my first pair of slippers, updated the pictures on the 50 pairs of slippers project page, and started the artwork for my next pair. I find I continue to be facinated by moorish tracery so my next pair will continue the theme. I'm thinking to do an embroidered motif across the vamp of the shoe.

Something like this:

My Venetian Gondola

Ok, I was playing with this idea prior to my discovery of Sketchup 3-d, and I haven't had time to upgrade the illustrations, but since we have been discussing bow-tops or portable bender tent wagons on the Medieval Encampments list (yahoo groups) I thought I'd go ahead and post my gondola idea.

Clarence didn't like how open feeling it was, but I think it might be the perfect combination of a tent and a bed you don't have to fret about carting about or setting up. I may have to make one for weekend events...

Make of it what you may!

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B03dpx-ypMHfYTAyODg2YzgtM2I0OC00OTFmLTgxODUtOWMxNjZkYzA4YzMw&hl=en&authkey=CLujr7gM

Click or cut and paste the link above and it will take you to the PDF in googledocs.

Photo updates!

The doorways are assembled at last.

Front













Back

My darling husband says that, from a phenomenographic perspective, my focus has shifted from the doorways to the tent as a whole and that is why I am having trouble appreciating what fine doorways they are. I want the whole thing to be done!

I am progressing on the applique for the front roof. I've added some close-up pictures of the process to the feb post on the process of applique if you are interested. Now back to work for me!

Well, there's good news, and somewhat less good news...

The good news is that all of the major cream-colored canvas pieces are actually cut to fit together with the same (correct) measurements. As you have probably guessed...the blue-green parts? Not so much.

So... I've been piecing together the extra bits necessary to get it all to fit together...and sewing things into place!

Woohoo! We have forward movement again.

The doorways are finished! Well, almost.

As you know, I have been working on the black outlining for the top and sides of the back doorway of the pavilion, and the blue-green band on the bottom--or leading, depending on your point of view--edge of the awning flaps, front and back. I'm trying to get all the work I can done on each seperate section *before* I put them all together because each part will get *much* more difficult to work with as the other huge chunks of canvas get attached. (It's one of the basic rules of sewing: Finish what you can *before* assembly*) And I'm happy to report, success! By which I mean that the prep work is done...now I just have to remember how it is supposed to go together

hmmmm.....

I'm thinking no pictures today , sorry.