Bristol Ren Faire Part Deux & Trois!

 

Brother Jason & I visited the Ren Faire in Bristol on two more occasions this past summer. Click on READ MORE! for pics. Here's the link to our first visit in July.

 

Incidentally, at the end of the day, there's a pow-wow where everyone comes together and dances for a half an hour. Check it out.

 

"Merry Meet! Merry Part! And Merry Meet Again!"

 

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Bristol RenFaire whores. 2013.

First outing at this year's Renaissance Faire in Bristol, WI. Same costumes as last year, I know. Check out the video of Brother Jas and I as we toss the battle axes. First me - then Jason.

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The art of Kevin Dillon.

I purchased these really, very gorgeous pieces at Irish Fest in Milwaukee Friday (no - wait, one was an early birthday gift...thanks, Jen). $40 each/framed. That's a steal. TOP:  "May you always find three welcomes...in a garden in the summer, at a fireside during winter & whatever the day or season, in the kind eyes of a friend." - Gaelic welcoming prayer. BOTTOM:  "Leave room in your garden for the fairies to dance."

Good luck on the last one...have you seen my garden lately? Rather than me go on about these pieces, read this:

...Celtic artist Kevin Dillon has rediscovered the same mediaeval techniques used by these monks. Using a mortle & pestle, Kevin crushes semi-precious stones - lapis lazuli, cinnabar, azurite, orpiment and malachite to make his paints. Using a dip pen or goose quill, the letters are meticulously applied by hand to the calf skin vellum. One at a time the colors are applied - first blue, followed by the reds, then each remaining color in turn, The final illumination is achieved using 24K gold leaf. The artist's seal, a stylized design of his initials, is imprinted into a molten, charred wax at the bottom of each piece...

Click on READ MORE for a couple detailed photographs. You can purchase more of Kevin Dillon's artwork here.

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Chapter 3 - "Jack"; Notes from Lost Man's Lane Cabin, by Richard Le Breton.

"Hey! That's my "jack", Jack!"

The leathern jack dates back to the eleventh century and was the most convenient means of hiking a cool beverage to your mouth, because being made of leather, it will not shatter like glass, dent like tin or pewter or dry out and crack like wood. Yet, they were firm enough to be of assistance for a clout, cuff or buffet in a bar room brawl.

Jacks were so-called because the French, during the Napoleonic Wars, saw the British drinking from these large leather containers and thought they were drinking from their jack boots. Such tankards were called Blackjacks because they were dyed black as shoes.


Tankards came in all sizes, with all sorts of marvelous names like "fiskin" and "furkin" and "bombard" and "gill" cup, although such names may have been arbitrary and not scientific in their distinctions. The jack pictured above was a gift and is a bit larger than a shot glass.

Jacks and tankards were made by Cordwainers, or shoemakers, when they weren't making shoes. The body of the jack is made of sole leather stitched at the handle through four thicknesses using an awl and a boar's bristle needle or steel needle and flaxen thread waxed with bee's wax. The bottom is of leather or sometimes of the same wood the shoemaker used to make heels. The dye is shoe dye and the finish is applied as one would shine one's shoes.

Use the tankard long and well.

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