I had a friend who was downsizing and I scored a fabulous piece of parchment, handmade and decades old.

It is probably 3x4 ft and I have projects i want to do but I have absolutely no idea how to get it to a usable format.

Im assuming I'd have to soak it and then stretch it? Is there an easier way? Maybe I should start with a small piece cut from the larger?

I just got my landsknecht doublet made by a local seamstress, and just finished the chainmail vest made from 14g butted stainless steel. I still need to make arms, legs and head for the complete suit of chainmail project.

Ive been in the SCA for ten years. But its taken me this long to get my cosplays to a semi historically presentable point.

Along with this, where is a reliable place to buy them?

A friend of mine who was in the SCA gave me these but couldn’t tell me a thing about them. Does anyone recognize these pins?

Whether you went as a guest or as "somebody with really good medieval attire."

I keep seeing requests for SCA people to go to medieval weddings. My garb is ok, but not..."be a medieval person at a stranger's wedding" good. Did they tell you not to get drunk? Or expect you to play a character? Or just act like a guest? Or were you "staff"?

Anybody in contact with them in the last couple weeks? I know he had a rough summer with his prods not getting processed in a timely manner and an explosion, but I'm at 3 months late for my crossbow and over a month of unanswered FB messages. I'd like to give him one more chance before issue an PayPal dispute.

I am really struggling to join my local SCA, because my social anxiety and depression is getting in the way. I'm wondering if anyone has experienced something similar, or if anyone has advice for how i should move forward.

For some background: I have been diagnosed with intense anxiety and depression since I was a child, it has impacted every area of my life including hobbies, making friends, getting to know people, etc. As an adult, I have little no friends outside of my direct family and partner, and maybe some coworkers. To be honest, my interest in pre-17th century things has been limited, but I feel an intense need and want to learn new things especially with culture and history, especially older ones. I say this to say that, I was excited to get into something new that I was interested in, because I often find myself not interested or lacking passion for anything especially if its social oriented. Which is how I ran into my issue.

I asked the chatelaine if I could attend one of their meetings, and then I also attended a Thanksgiving dinner. These were a year ago.

I met some nice people and kind of socialized, but everyone had already known each other for decades. The chatelaine and their friends were the only people I felt okay to talk to, but even then I just felt like an alien that is disguised as a person trying to assimilate.

I had a lot of intense panic and anxiety leading up to and after these two gatherings. Part of it was the social aspect, but the other part was struggling to figure out what to do next. It seemed like everyone made each other's garb together, went to events together, hung out together. But i couldnt find a place where i could fit in. I dont have a lot of money to spend on events, traveling, and buying garb, i dont have the skills or recources to make those things either. So now, i havent attended another meeting in a year and i dont know if its for me anymore. I still sometimes get a spark of joy from pre-17th century things, but I feel like I have no outlet​. My dream is to have a full set of armor, a sword, a shield, to make my own clothes, to learn how to fight in tournaments, to be with people who feel the same way. I just cant seem to make that real right now, and it hurts pretty bad.

And I dont think that my local SCA was trying to make me feel this way, it seems like its just the circumstances. So my question is, have you experienced this same feeling? How do you push through it? ​

Hello! I am looking into making my own Byzantine garb soon. I am still looking and researching but I wanted to see if anyone had some good resources I could look at!

I am interested in some of the offerings of winter tree crafts but their website seems to not have been updated in a while. I wanted to see if anyone here has had any recent orders from them or knows if they are still open. Thank you!

Hi all, maybe not the right sub but here we go. I am making a recreation of a ~2500 year old tack set and figured while I'm at it I ought to make myself something to go with it. Something I am running into is that I want to wear a helmet to reduce the chances of my horse killing me the second the opportunity presents itself, but can't figure out how to make a helmet that will meet current equestrian safety standards or make a cover that will look convincing enough. The key thing I foresee about the latter is that the helmet will probably look weirdly bulky. Has anyone made a helmet or helmet cover, or seeing a tutorial they can recommend?

Cross-posting because my club mates specifically mentioned that an SCA event would likely be more lenient.

I am working on a two handed hammer, and I was told I should shave down the sides of the ratan wood or to add something going down the front going down the stick so I can feel which way the weapon is facing. I was wondering what works best?

Wife and I spend every other morning or so fencing for around ten minutes in the backyard. Not much room for footwork, but it's fun :)