'Zoo Day 2

[hrj]

Memo to self: If you plan to use the Treo as an alarm clock to get up in time to hit the treadmill before breakfast, remember to turn the ringer back to "audible" after the last session of papers.

Fortunately, I did wake up in time for breakfast on Friday. Friday's sessions were all DISTAFF all the time. (DISTAFF is the organization that sponsors textiles & clothing sessions, including the one my paper was in.) I'm trying to remember specific details at this point. A lovely paper on changes in high fashion reflected in ivory writing tablet cases, combs, and mirror cases. My mind's going blank on the rest of the papers in the other sessions, but I shared the last session with a presentation on hook-and-eye type fasteners in medieval Scandinavia, and one on a set of embroidered Sicilian undergarments. I got several compliments on my paper and did a boisterous show-and-tell session after the papers were over, pulling out my various engineering experiements on the different styles of shepherds' purses and showing how I used them to try to interpret the artistic representations.

Dinner was a great mass of DISTAFF folks going out to a Middle Eastern restaurant, then we adjourned to a room party with much computer geeking, squeeing at books and pictures, and consumption of alcohol. The party lasted long enough for people to wish me happy birthday (and sing various incompatible celebratory songs). As I was wandering back to my own dorm around 1am, I heard the sound of singing wafting out through the night air from one of the conference rooms. Through the window, a circle of people were sitting around a guitarist, energetically (and in many cases, drunkenly) belting out "Yellow Submarine". Now, it's not at all unusual to stumble across people singing or playing music at the Medieval Congress ... medieval music, that is. But this was more along the lines of "ur-filk" -- that stage when people gathered for another purpose are just singing for the sake of singing together and running through whatever repertoire the guitarist and most of the singers have in common. In this case, the source music seemed to consist of the entire Beatles inventory, significant quantities of blues and gospel standards, and a good sprinkling of '60s folk music. I stayed and sang for the better part of an hour before toddling off the rest of the way to bed.

Comments

[loup_noir]

Happy birthday!

So, hook and eye fasteners in Scandinavia (all of it, or did the presenter focus on a particular area within that large area?) - similar to now, different, used as hook and eye or for lacing, brass....

Mirror cases!

Much envy.

[kahnegabs.livejournal.com]

Oh I do miss all those song sessions we had in my old days. (Which I must confess are darned near medieval, at that!)

The sessions sound wonderful too. I wish I'd been there.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

The thing that first struck me was how similar some of them were to modern Scandinavian sweater clasps! But it was everything from basic hook-and-eye (similar to the modern dress style, but larger) to elaborate three-part clasps with heraldic emblems. There seemed to be some difficulty in figuring out what parts of the clothing they were associated with -- both center front openings and sleeve openings have some evidence, but based both on the objects and mentions in wills, they clearly came in sets. I think the presentation focused on Sweden and one other region, but purely due to available research sources, not due to absence elsewhere.

Hooks and Eyes

[sigkit.livejournal.com]

The presenter, me, did focus on Sweden and Denmark because there was more ready access to that than to Norway (Paper was based on Scandinavian finds.) I have heard tell of a few in Germany and possibly further over. Depends on if you are looking for plain two part ones or the decorative variety. Interesting stuff.

By the way Heather, now we will all be seeing those shepards purses everywhere.... Very excellent presentation as always.

[mdlbear]

Happy b'day!

Huzzah!

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

If they had hooks and eyes in medieval Scandinavia, that's good news to me. Any source suggestions? That area wasn't exactly in the middle of what was happening.

I'm glad you are having such a good time at the conference. Not a bad way to spend one's birthday, methinks.

Re: Huzzah!

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

If they had hooks and eyes in medieval Scandinavia, that's good news to me. Any source suggestions?

I know the presenter (we often both end up at herveus's on Wednesday nights) and can find out if she has a bibliography available (esp. if there's more than what she cited in the paper) -- but I seem to recall that at least one book is quite new, only in Swedish, and she had to order it from some Swedish bookstore (via the web).

Re: Huzzah!

[sigkit.livejournal.com]

Source sugggestions - treasure hoards.

Do you read Swedish or one of the other Scandinavian languages?

[lferion]

Happy Birthday, and how fun is it that music and filk and all that can be found wherever inquiring minds are found :-)

Loving the trip report, and delighted your paper/presentation went well.

[mbumby.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I seriously wish I'd been able to come to K'zoo this year -- I wanted to see your presentation, *and* the hook-and-eye one, as well as liadan_m's one on Thursday (about the interrelation between the cut of one's clothing and one's social status and expected range of activities). Oh well.