Empire Player Event: "The Little Mother's Ball"

Photography stuff

Very last minute, but on Wednesday, I received an invitation to attend the Little Mother's Ball ("LMB") as a photographer. There were openings where people had to cancel or whatever, so I was delighted to attend in general, but also to challenge me and my fourteen-year old camera kit with indoor, low-light shooting. Note, I don't have the 50mm fixed/prime lens, so extra challenges there, as the lowest f-stop my lenses allow is f5.6. I'm also grateful that my hands are relatively steady, and I can hold a 1/30 second shutter opening with almost no shake.

Thankfully, there was a second photographer with photographer kit almost as limited as mine (I think theirs was better), which means I now have a few clearer images of Skywise Seppa.

Role play stuff

I got to play up some of the shaman aspects as I handed over Ieri's red canvas herb bandolier to Florina, with me shouting back at my ancestors who were telling me to not hand over the bandolier. I also had a couple of fellow orcs to interact with and Seppa didn't have to feel quite so anxious and isolated. Redhand Gezzar and Stormcrow Rork were my fellow Imperial Orcs.

The ball itself consisted of a buffet feast, bards of various nations, dancing, trading, and an auction of various goods to raise funds for the Empire's orphans. The location: Sarvos, the League.

I showed my nails, which had the pinkies done in sparkly varnish, the rest were plain, I said that it was the Freeborn children doing my nails. My use of gold eyeliner also provoked a little bit of attention from the Freeborn in attendance. Seppa's earrings also drew some attention, as one of them has a tiny tassel on it.

Oh, and I rode in the taxi in my mask; the driver asked to take my picture. No idea what he ended up doing with it...

The location that I listed for this post is where on Earth the event took place.

Some pictures

A selfie taken before the taxi arrived.

I'm slowly figuring out Seppa's appearance.

I'm grateful to Samantha Carrington for their pictures of Skywise Seppa. I did trim their photos to exclude other participants, partly because I was trying to focus on Seppa's kit, and also to minimise me accidentally sharing someone's face who might object to being on my blog.

Photographer: Samantha Carrington
I did trim the original photo to focus upon my character.

I usually don't mind sitting on floors, it challenges my flexibility and works my body. I put up my hood because the neck gap was bugging me. I really need to come up with a better neck cover that won't overheat me.

Photographer: Samantha Carrington
I did trim the original photo to focus upon my character.

I confess, I like seeing my characters from the back and sides, because I always wonder how those areas appear.

Photographer: Samantha Carrington
I did trim the original photo to focus upon my character.

Conclusions

I lasted well with my mask, but I did need a face time about 3/4 of the way through the five hour event. I am struggling to keep my hair from peeking out of the eye holes. Yes, I'm growing my top-scalp hair so that I can pin/braid it back, but it's too short for either restraint. I saw Redhand Gezzar using a wig sock/cap, so I might have to look for one for myself. Also, I physically struggle to get the mask back on when I've taken it off for a face time; it's like the neck shrinks or my head swells, I need to discover why this is so.

I'm starting to think that I need to redo my coven symbol, to a smaller size, and also stitch the panel to the coat. The current one is too large for me.

Also, I went with two layers again, the tunic and the coat; I started with the scapular and skirt as well, but quickly discarded it, as the hall was so warm.

I'll do another post about costume, but I wanted to make a post and include pictures of me in costume. I'm also kinda pleased that my glasses disappeared in these photos.

Seppa's coin pouch

Here's the promised post about the belt pouch for coins.

I caved and purchased Tandy Leather's 'Winsor Belt Bag' kit; which comes with naked leather precut and hole-punched pieces, some black waxed thread, a large-eye needle, and a short black leather thong. I discarded the black thread and leather thong, because I didn't want that much black in Seppa's kit.

It does take some tricky counting to correctly make the bag. Also, we came to the conclusion that double-needle sewing method would be quicker and easier. Also, the thong wants to be longer if one wants to have some beads hanging from the thong.

About the size of the bag:

It's not so small that I can't stick my hand in there to fish out coins, of which, I'm glad to say, Seppa now has a few. I sold the one dose of liao that I had, for a loss, but I wanted to have a few coins for player events.

The pouch's tooled flap.

The flap carries several symbolic gestures and marks. The Varushkans have animals to represent the Virtues of the Way; from those animals, one can represent them as 'runes'. The rune on the flap is the Spider, who represents both Vigilance and Wisdom. The seven little tooled marks along the bottom are the Seven Virtues; this isn't how PD or other players represent the Seven Virtues, but I opted to express it this way.

Once Galla dyed the leather, I had a flash of thought, and grabbed her pear-shader tool and randomly bashed the dye-damp leather with the shader to add just a fraction more surface texture to the flap.

The pre-cut and pre-punched pieces, after we'd dyed them with saddle brown.

The saddle brown dye has stiffened the thin leather, but I suspect that once I start using it, that it will soften some.

I appear to be rather fond of this leather stamp.

The leather button for the pouch; it's the first thing stitched, and I had used the heavy waxed black thread to attach it. That's about when I decided I didn't want to use the black thread and switched to my brown thread.

A clever use of stamps to make a tiny eye.

We used 'mahogany' dye for the tooled leather portions of the bag.

The eye of Vigilance.

The image above shows where I diverged from the kit: I used dark brown waxed thread instead of the heavier black waxed thread that came in the kit.  I also used a brown thong instead of the black thong that came with the kit.

Belt loop, flap, and gussets. I put my PID on the belt loop in case the bag goes for a walk.

The next step involved the back of the bag; where we attach the belt loop and the flap at the same time. This is followed by securing the bottom of the belt loop to the back of the bag. After that, I sewed half the gussets to the bag back.

The blue mark is where my player identity number is, which is why it's covered in this picture.

Bag front, and the pleats with the tricky-for-me counting.

We returned to the bag front and here is where that tricky counting takes place; thank you, Galla, for helping me figure that out, because I would have gotten that wrong and it would have looked all wonky, and that would have annoyed me.

Pleated leather, that's new for me.

This is what the inside of the bag front looks like with the pleat. If I were to tweak the pattern, I'd stitch a 'binding' to cover the top of the pleat to protect it from wear.

Next stop, the gussets.

After the pleats to the bag front, I stitched the front and back together and through the gussets, which at first glance looks wrong, but as one has to return the way one came, it does balance out.

Gusset, oh gusset.

I heartily recommend reading through the instructions several times, and scrutinise the illustrations. They really were helpful.

Before I turned the bag right-side out.

It did take a little bit of effort and a dose of patience to get the bag turned; however, brute force is unnecessary.

The bag mouth... almost sounds like a monster, 'bag mouth'.

Here it is with the stitching complete. The bag is still slightly damp from the dyes, but I think that helped with the manipulation required to make the bag.

Side view!

Overall, it went together fairly quick, even with me occasionally having to remove stitches or restart a section.

Thanks, Tandy Leather.

I decided to take a picture of the completed pouch with the kit picture to illustrate how they compared.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the kit.

The combination of soft leather and tooling leather works well. I still want to try the bag body in deerskin or elk (if such should come available). I would also use a slightly thicker tooling leather for the flap, as the carving knife almost went through the flap's leather. I would double-strand my thread as it seemed just a little too thin as a single strand.

I do like how the tooling worked out, thank you, Galla!

Spider.

I'm calling the pouch 99% complete, because I haven't put the beads onto the thong. Otherwise, it is complete and ready to go.

Leather belt work, the result

This past Thursday, I got together with Galla's Emporium to finish dyeing the belt. We also made a belt pouch for Seppa's coins or other small bits.

I digress, this post is supposed to be about the belt; the pouch is another post in a future date, come back if one wants to read about it.

Seppa's belt:

As one knows, we had tooled the belt with the twisting ribbons altered to fit in the width of the new belt and cleaned it up to make it easier to carve on future projects. We spattered some dyes across the leather, and dropped some tools on it to divot and ding the leather to give it that rustic effect. It wasn't completely finished, but it was sufficient for the time being, as I had two player events to get through before we could have another leatherworking session.

That's better.

We used a saddle brown dye over the top of it, and rubbed it into all the skipped areas, and allowed it to pool in the tooling to help emphasise them. The saddle brown also softened the black and red dyes we previously smeared over the belt. I'm satisfied with the result. We also dyed the sides and back, to help seal the leather a little bit more.

One knows I couldn't show off the pouch too.

I'll need to strike the belt against a boulder a few times to soften it, and rub in some beeswax, but the belt is otherwise ready to go.

Where's My Home, pt 2

Another player, who can't make as many summits as he wants to, asked for IC-mail (IC = in-character). I offered Seppa as someone to penpal with, as Seppa's in the Brass Coast for now. Send in the head of my coven, who informs me that a portion of the Winter Sun legion is helping the Freeborn in Kahraman and now I have a much better excuse for schlepping through part of the winter in the Brass Coast. Thank you, lovely!

So to amend what I say about myself when I'm at another player event, is that I'm helping the Freeborn protect their lands, and more importantly, their wealth, from marauding barbarians...

...As well as staying warm in the south, because Skarsind's a bit too cold.

I might see if someone wants to be my kin; as an extra bit of RP. But must get through E1 and see how I fare. SQUIRREL!

By the way, the history I had in my head, involved me growing up with my parents. I had forgotten that Imperial Orcs tend to send their offspring away to foster in other legions/groups. But I still think that my parents instilled a bit of bigotry and distrust of humans before I was fostered... or maybe my parents' fears were such that they didn't send me away for fostering and I've been working to break out of their conditioning since leaving them at my majority.

Wait, that sounds like my RL. Oopsie!

Might still work though. I'll have to think about whether I want to bring that ugliness into my character. I like to think that Seppa's sober, but still capable of a laugh and the occasional thrumming, thundering dance party, and capable of being around humans, without a meltdown. Courage!

"What's Your Game" kit fair haul & Night Before the Storm

This past weekend was interesting; I spent some time trying to help at Eversley and getting used to the site. Then there was the player event, "Night Before the Storm" set in either Segura or Kahraman (I will have to enquire to clarify which, I'm hoping it's Kahraman) of the Brass Coast.

Going with the notion that Seppa's spending time down in the Brass Coast, I mentioned this in an FB post, and was delighted to find that some of Seppa's legion and banner, the Winter Sun, is in Kahraman this season, helping the Freeborn with... something, I'm not sure, but we apparently have orcish troops there, so I'll incorporate that into Seppa's recent history. It also explains why I have no idea what other Skywise are up to, as we're apart until Winter Solstice (aka 'E1).

Related, was someone else's discussion about magic and mage armour, and how casting magic by orcs is tied to ancestors and objects-of-worth. So now I need to have a think.

As it is, I kinda enjoyed myself at the player event, and early the next morning, decided to go to the What's Your Game kit fair in Gloucester.

Fox, rabbit, horse...

In the above image is most of my haul from the kit fair. It includes a vintage fox stole from Amber Wolf Workshop; the fox is a Virtue animal for Ambition. I intend to fix it onto the bandoleer so the fox drapes over my left shoulder.

Metal armour pieces

The metal scales in the above, plus the Winter Sun medallion, came from Armchair Armoury. One of them is a fellow Skywise coven member, so talking to them helped me a fair bit with understanding some of orc costume a little bit better.

It's actually made of resin.

Now I need to decide where to locate the Winter Sun banner medallion and the metal scales on Seppa's kit.

The horse tooth gave me ideas.

The rabbit furs and wooden spoon came from Chow's Emporium. The crown pin is from PD as an IC (in-character) pin for Empire. The horse's tooth came from Amber Wolf Workshop.

Going back to ancestor items as magical foci, I'm wondering if I can incorporate the horse's tooth into it somehow.

The bone knife is a LARP-safe coreless weapon for throwing or roleplay from Epic Armoury sold by LarpInn. I'll need to get a sheath for it.

I also found Seppa's weapon from Eldritch; I like this style of mace, and the blue wrapping fits within the coven's colour scheme.

Also known as "Listen to the Ancestors!"

Overall, a good haul. Roll on LARPCon and the next player event, the Symposium of the Drowned.

Distracted other bits...

Oh and the embroidered mirror eye I put on Seppa's hooded coat sleeve? It glows greenish in the dark!

I worked in some stains on the coat by chopping rhododendrons, carrying pieces of lumber, and trying to maintain a frontier stove, whilst at Eversley.

Here're the patches all together; well, except for the white pillowcase one. Need to add more.

Inspired by Japanese boro patchwork and stitching, not sashiko.

Empire Day, the result

Now that I've had a little bit of time to think about it; it went all right. I didn't have the new glasses, and the mask needed more trimming around the eyes to make wearing any glasses comfortable.

Four layers were two layers too many. I regularly had to step outside to cool down, even after shedding the raw silk coat and the scapular shortly after arrival.

One of my Santeria necklaces died; I'm not sure if the spirit they were dedicated to was annoyed with me, or if the twenty-years+ thread they were strung on just had enough and broke. Either way, I think I salvaged most of the beads.

Overall, the clothes worked. Though I felt very fat and my trousers and the skirt kept either riding up to my bra, or trying to fall down to my arse. I have no waistline worthy of the name. Meh.

Tweaks, more tweaks. I need to stop having squirrel moments and actually fix the things that're bugging me about Seppa's kit.

Anyway, photos ahead, by Paul Wilder of Violet Illuminations, who hosted the Empire Day player event. Due to no flash and low lighting, some of the images aren't well-focused; this is not a criticism. I have trimmed them to exclude others as much as possible, in part to protect their privacy, and to focus upon Seppa's costume with fewer distractions.

These were chosen strictly for me to see Seppa's costume in ways that I otherwise couldn't know.

Rear view, because it's good to see how stuff worked out.

I do like the dog in the next picture, though I think she had difficulty recognising me with the mask on, because she wasn't sure about me at first. I like to think that she recognised my voice and scent. She wasn't so happy with some others and barked and growled at them.

Gotta pet those who want to be petted.

The satchel definitely needs some work, from shortening the strap by almost a foot, to adding some patches and stains to it, because it's very dull at the moment.

Curiously, as it currently stands, Seppa isn't much into leather, all of my efforts to bring in more leather into eir overall look has ended in failure. Pouches, belts, sure. But nope on the warskirt at this time. Maybe it'll change once I'm at Anvil and with other orcs.

Empire Day was hard, because orcs don't do things solo, and Seppa was all alone amongst the humans.

Another distraction...

This time, the distraction comes in the form of a Peruvian baby sling in the British Museum.

The colours are in the right range and it's a beautiful woven item. However, the main reason it caught my attention was due to the little carved ornaments. Which, according to the blurb, make a soft sound to soothe the infant as the carrier walks and moves.

Here're some closer looks at those ornaments. They look like bone to me, but they could also be made from shell. The blurb doesn't specify the ornaments' material.

Aren't they beautiful? I like how each one is unique, in pattern as well as their size and shape. Some look older, some newer. Some might have come off, and newer ones made to replace them. All that time spent for a baby, or maybe a series of babies, maybe the baby carrier was passed down through carrier to baby. Maybe when the textile wore out, the wearer would transfer the old ornaments to the next carrier.

So many questions, but no answers.

It gives me ideas for how a shaman might wear bones that don't look so... bony.