Group Members: Elaisse de Garrigues, Randulf of Oakheart, Uhtred of Oakheart, and Wulfric of Shyreburne.
Location: Oakheart, Calontir
About Elaisse’s Brood: I have played in the SCA for about ten years (with a long break in the middle as I changed kingdoms), and I hope to use this challenge to draw my family more into my SCA life. The boys (13yo Wulfric and 10yo Randulf) enjoy youth combat, archery, and thrown weapons, as well as blacksmithing and making pottery. My husband, Uhtred, has only been to a handful of events, but has enjoyed Cut and Thrust fighting, brewing mead, and blacksmithing. I am primarily known as a musician and bard, but I am also an experienced costumer and I dabble in a wide variety of arts and sciences. I expect this project to challenge all of us in many ways as we delve into skills that are nearly or entirely new to us.
Their Project: Our goal is to produce items that will better enable our whole family to participate in future SCA events. We plan to create a set of four outfits reminiscent of what might have been worn by upper-class Anglo Saxons in the eleventh century that would be comfortable and practical at a typical SCA camping event. We have wide-ranging and ambitious ideas about various “accessories” that we might attempt. It will be exciting to see which ones we get to and what kind of progress we make. Possibilities include: tooled leather armguards for archery, quivers, arrows, belts, pouches, shoes, mead, cheese, butter, bread or other food, youth combat armor, feast gear, knives and sheaths, a crossbow, an Anglo-Saxon lyre, and an Anglo-Saxon geteld canvas tent. These are all projects that I have intended for us to tackle for some point, and if this challenge provides the impetus to get a few of them done, that will be quite a triumph!