Frilled veil workshop at the Ronneburg

Already some time ago (is it three weeks already?! yes it is!) Deventer Burgerscap attended the '100 Jahre 14tes Jahrhundert / 100 years of 14th century' event at the Ronneburg near Frankfurt-am-main. It was the second time we went and it was wonderful again! The setting is just beautiful and of course it is always a pleasure to see and spend time with old friends.
Together with Sahra Hirschfeld from Germany and Mervi Pasanen from Finland I organized a 2 day long frilled veil workshop. On Friday evening we had three lectures focusing on different aspects of frilled veils. Sahra focused on the evolution of the frilled veil througout the 14th and early 15th centuries. Mervi had very thoughtful things to tell about the use of frilled veils in historical reenactment. I did a talk about the archeological finds of frilled veils, and what we know about the construction of frilled headwear both from these finds and from written sources.

A beautiful setting for lectures. Photo by Ilona Reiniharju 

Meet our audience. Photo by Hugh McDonald 

Exchanging ideas with both the other 'teachers' but also our wonderful audience was a great learning experience. Talking about this kind of subjects with other frilled veil geeks really helps my own thinking process. I feel like I urgently need to write some new articles about this subject. Time is the only problem.

A honeycomb frill sample made by me. Photo by Ilona Reiniharju

Mervi and me getting ready for our talk. Photo by Ilona Reiniharju

Most of what has been published so far is written from an art-historical perspective, rather than asking questions about construction. Especially how construction was interlinked with the type of frilled veil, changed over time and differed from place to place has not received much attention. Work to do!

Mervi demonstrating different types of frilled veils. Photo by Ilona Reiniharju

Mervi also made a blogpost about the workshop and weekend. Go read! However, be aware of the fact that she really goes overboard with putting me on a pedestal. While reading, please keep in mind I am just a normal person. Really. I'm serious. Honestly.

Mervi and me hemming, hemming and hemming. Photo by Ilona Reiniharju

Sahra's beatiful woollen frilled veil. Photo by Hugh McDonald 

Me doing talkses. Photo by Hugh McDonald

Another details of Sahra's veil. Photo by Ronald Frank Vetter

Mervi doing talkses. Photo by Ronald Frank Vetter

Some results of the workshop. Photo by Viktoria Holmqvist

Because we spent so much time hemming, hardly any of the participants managed to make actual frills during the weekend. Viktoria was kind enough to share this picture after she got home. So nice to see the results!

So, I'll keep thinking about frilled veils (I don't think I think about much else anyway) and hopefully I can squeeze in an article sometime soonish. Don't strangle me, please, if it turns out to take more time ;-)