[Sca-cooks] Re: Laurel issues was: 13th Century Icelandic Fish Skin Tanning Techniques

[Laura C. Minnick]

This is just a little long- sorry.

Elaine Koogler wrote:
>
> Hey, Lainie...
> Don't get depressed.  I was told ove and over through the years that I would
> never get a Laurel because I did Japanese stuff.  And guess what?  Though it's
> taken a while, I got mine...and, in a complete reversal of what was said
> earlier, part of the award was for my research and teaching of Japanese
> culture!!!  So it can happen...and despite what "people say"...it can happen for
> doing work in unusual areas!

Well...
I'm not really depressed about it, though I get grumpy occasionally. I'm
gonna do what I do whether the powers that be like it or not, you know?
Here it is- I don't Do For Reward, but being human sometimes it would be
nice to be Rewarded for What I Do! It is a real subtle balance, I think.

Sometimes I think it is just hard to catch attention and measure you one
is operating off the map. Ok, I cook. Here in An Tir it would seem that
one would have to cook a lot of big feasts, preferably somewhere
central, and to specializing in something semi-exotic. Ok. I don't cook
feasts- I know where my capabilities are and they ain't them! I cook for
oh, 8-12 in my camp and that is about as much as I can do without
melting. And I do most of my cooking from COI and Two15thC books. But it
feed the camp period food and they like it. I am happy with that. And
I'll talk the ears off of anyone who wanders in and wants to know what
I'm doing or wants a taste.

My sewing is similar, though I won't go into it exhaustively here, but I
am for clothes that are not just period, but wearable, affordable,
comfy- that look like the pictures. I figure that people in period wore
their clothes- they didn't just put them on a dummy- and that if our
clothes are made like theirs, we can understand a little more about
their lifestyles. And occasionally I do special stuff, like Coronation
clothes or the Investiture Cloaks. But really, I get more of a charge
out of having 5 or 6 teenagers drafting and cutting and making simple
period garb- bringing me a picture and saying "Auntie 'Lainie, I want a
dress like this!" and then doing it. Cotehardies, houpps, t-tunics,
bliauts, a-lines (one of the girls recently made a a-line out of ivory
brocade- it looks terrific, but very Castle Anthrax!), and it gives me
the opportunity to teach them how to do research, how to look at a
picture and understand the shape of the fabric, how to take measurements
and draft a gown, how to cut for economy, how to shop at Goodwill for
Neat Stuff like fabric and notions... and I get to teach them to enjoy
doing and wearing and being medieval. I have the respect and adulation
of this bunch of kids, and I have the heart of the tall man in the green
buttoned overcoat that I copied from an illumination, withe the simple
brown gown underneath that I copied from a portrait of Chaucer. And he
looks great!

The Canon Law stuff I do because I fell in love with it in school and
I'm obsessed with it. And I love to argue ;-). There isn't much I can do
with it though, other than teach occasional classes. I am thinking
though, for Egil's Tourney next year, to set up a booth like Lucy from
Peanuts- 'Father Abelard, Canon Lawyer- Advice 5 cents' or something
like that. It could be fun. Heh heh heh...

Is any of this Laurel work? I don't know- if you ask more than one,
you'll get more than one answer. I do get awfully tired of folks asking
me why I don't have one. I like to say "Why? Do you think I should? Have
you written a letter?" and/or "Ask a Laurel. I don't know." Or running
away screaming feels good sometimes... what gets me in trouble is
well-meaning friends trying to force the issue. Makes it worse.

But you know what? Next year, and the year after, and the year after, I
will still be here, annoying y'all, making pies in my little camp oven
and feeding the crew, helping Kelly make a cotehardie, guiding Rotrude
towards a new source for her pavilion project, and explaining to someone
in camp why they technically can't marry their long-term live-in but it
can probably be done with the appropriate penance... and I will do these
things whether I have something fancy after my name or not. And *that*,
kiddies, is what this is all about.

'Lainie