The Making of a Tournament

Commemoration walk

2010-07-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a long break for the blog but the weeks are now counting down and we haven't been idle! In fact, there's lots of news to share, starting with the exciting events of this weekend. Members of the English Tournament Society, joined by locals and press walked (and rode!) from The Griffin Pub in Chipping Warden to Trafford Bridge, the site of the fiercest fighting duing the Battle of Edgcote. A wreath was layed in rememberence to mark the anniversary of the battle and red and white roses were thrown into river. This was followed by a walk back across the battlefield, passing various points of interest. It was both a reminder of the impact the battle had but also a great opportunity to see the beautiful countryside surrounding the site.

New Crests!

2010-03-31T03:07:00.000-07:00

English Tournament Society members Payson Muller and Chris Tandy have been working on leather crests for this years event. Payson is a carver and mason at York Minster and Chris was one of propmakers for Jorvik so the modelling was no problem. They have adapted instructions from Cennino D' Andrea Cennini’s "Il Libro dell' Arte” a sort of 15^th Century Readers Digest DIY book for renaissance artists.

The crest is first modelled in clay and a two part plaster mould is made from this, using tough dentil plaster. Two pieces of leather are soaked in water then then pressed into the two halves of the mould. Cennini suggests filling the leather with sand to hold the shape until the leather dries out.

The two halves are then sewn together and gessoed with rabbit skin glue and powdered chalk and then painted and oil gilded with 23ct gold leaf. The example shown was stuffed with plummers tow which caused some distortion of the leather, so we are looking at alternatives.

Two leather halves sewn together

Finished version!

Crone of the Month!

2010-03-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

Please vote for you favourite Crone of the Month.

Crone A

Crone B

Crone C

Crone D

How to build a tournament...

2010-03-23T02:03:00.000-07:00

Eight strong men. 100 metres of fabric. 300 sheets of gold leaf. 4 tonnes of wood. 200 mortise joints and a large dose of willpower. Building an authentic tournament arena is no small task. Yet that's what the ETS decided to take on last year, with the aim of staging a fully functioning 15th century tourney. Here's a simple guide to how it was achieved:

Step 1: Find some willing volunteers, suitable
tools and clear the area.

Step 2: Build a wooden frame.

Step 3. Add an arena fence.

Step 4.Put in the finishing touches.

Step 5. Add raucous crowd, heavily armoured knights and gratuitous amounts of violence for finished product!

This year we've decided to go one step further and add a complete tilt yard, guided by the Beacham Pageant illustrations. This is an example of what we are aiming for:

Looks like being a busy few months....