"In Readiness for the Expedition..." (...or a First Person Immersion Event- Preparation)

There is nothing like preparing for a first person immersion event which you will be attending stag (meaning without my usual group of folks with whom I camp) to illustrate what you are missing from your kit. I have been fairly lucky that the group with which I typically camp works cooperatively very well. Meaning I don't have tons of cookware- mainly because Mrs. Fox does the cooking and has tons of cookware. She enjoys it, I don't as much. Instead I sew her clothes. It's a symbiotic relationship.

Finished pomatum, almond cakes wrapped in linen, and my
jar of sugar.

I have many of these relationships with the folks in our group and it works to advantage for all of us. However, when it's time to attend an event out of our normal sphere where it's pretty much just me- well, those things are notably absent from my living history storage shelves. (Yes, these are a real thing- mostly in the basement but also in my sewing room and other random parts of my home. See below.)

One small section of my storage.
Don't judge.

Thankfully, the things which I knew I would need I was able to borrow from the fabulous folks I am blessed to call friends. For me, this included a brazier, extra blankets (Nat wasn't coming, and I get cold at night), tinder box, and (of course) food. My friend Stuart pretty much helped me out with everything but the food (including a lap writing desk and other neat things which he collects). The food was made possible by Alix helping me come up with things which I could make or collect in the rather short preparation time I had available (basically less than a week.) This along with coordinating with my housemates (who were the best housemates I could have wished! We made a lovely family!) made for plenty of food and none of us left hungry.

The rest of the things I needed, I prepared myself the week before the event. Many of these things were items I needed to make/remake anyhow, but I was a little anxious of time and getting them finished for the event.

I needed fresh powder, and I needed to make some more pomatum but put it into a pomatum pot this time, instead of my ball jar. I also needed to make some waxed linen (not enough time to get bladders) to cover my crocks.

Fresh jar of pomatum. Yum.

Measuring my starch and grinding up some cuttlefish.

Sifted and scented!

Almond cake... YUM. It actually turned out pretty nice.

The preparation for this event was cathartic in some ways, allowing me to finally get around to changing out some things I had been meaning to for some time. It also helped to point out some areas of need for us. For instance, I ran out of crocks for food storage. We definitely need more. However, I had plenty of pitchers and actually ended up using a pitcher as an impromptu storage crock because I needed the space.

As we were actually staying in an historic home, the other thing I realized was that I don't really need historical transportation storage for my clothes. Lugging trunks and whatnot isn't really necessary with an event like this. The young girl I was interpreting lived in the home and probably never really traveled outside of her town. All of her things would have fit nicely into the storage in her room and not in seven trunks and a portmanteau. This doesn't negate my still wanting some portmanteaus, mind you, but I don't think they are needed in this context. 

I packed my clothing into my (very modern and awesomely collapsible) Thirty One bags and you know what? It was pretty great. I was able to unpack and fold up my bags and leave them in the car/in the storage closet with no signs that I was not a native inhabitant of that house. In another context a portable chest of drawers or even a portmanteau would work, but for me this time it was nice to keep my furniture carrying weight down and still have wardrobe choices available. 

I would have liked some pegs, but we made do with
bed rails and drawers.

Aside from the physical prepping for the event, I don't want to forget to mention the mental preparation. The young girl whom I was portraying for this scenario had but a few lines which made mention of her in Mr. Martin's journal, leaving me to form deductions regarding her character from what few details I had. This led me to scouring other sources for mention of similar young ladies so that I might draw from them something to be known of her, but also drawing from the vast expanse of the human experience. Overall, she was a flighty thing with not too much deep thought of the troubles around her apart from the fact that they inhibited her own experience and desires. Which, I actually think is fair. 

Preparing for this experience really caused me to focus not on those items of fact from the period which "we should know" but rather the ones which we shouldn't. So many of us, even today, have but a vague understanding of the political atmosphere and a very narrow scope of fields in which we are truly knowledgeable. I think it is important that we do not forget that people of the past were probably much the same way. A young twenty-something in a small town with a mean education may not be particularly tuned in with why things are the way they are, only that she dislikes the effects of things as they are. Her personality might also change how she approaches the world around her. So much affects the people we are and to what we pay attention.

This can be liberating in first person. I don't have to know super important battle details by rote. I might have heard of such and such a battle or such and such a person- but perhaps not in detail. How much would I truly know of army life? Probably little, but I might be rather inquisitive of the soldiers to find out. I think sometimes we make first person more than it is by feeling the need to know too much. It is key to know what it is we do not know.

In all, I felt relatively well prepared for the event. I think everyone's hard work paid off and I can't wait to share with you the details of my weekend. Alas, as this post is much too long already I will save those for tomorrow.

To encourage you to read my forthcoming exploits, (or avoid them as you may choose) things will get rather *ahem* intimate in my next post as I delve into my day as an 18th century young lady in Milltown, PA and leave all modern amenities behind. 

An Event in Which "Dame Fortune Had Been Kind..." (...or a First Person Immersion Event- Introduction)

If you've been following my updates on facebook, you know that I posted some last minute projects for "something cool coming up." Well, that something happened and now you get to hear all about it! Last weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in a first person immersion event at a local site which kindly hosts a number of living history events in my area. While the site itself is primarily an early 1840s site, our group was actually portraying a portion of the memoirs of Joseph Plump Martin (which is somewhat fitting, as his memoirs were first published in 1830- somewhat full circle, eh?)

Martin was a soldier in the American War for Independence and his recollections are considered a pretty cool find in regards to contemporary accounts of the average soldier during the war. They were thought lost for some time until a first edition copy popped up in a museum donation and Voila! lots of happy historians.

Anyhow, our goal was to recreate some of the people and interactions from the winter of 77/78 based on Mr. Martin's writings. Oh- and to stay in first person for the duration of the event, which went live at 9 p.m. Friday evening and officially ended at 10 a.m. Sunday morning.

That's right. All first person. All the time. Potential for disaster- definitely present. But, happily, things turned out pretty well, and I think everyone had a really good experience. I'll be penning a few posts in regards to a variety of aspects relating to this event (preparing for full immersion, the experience itself, reflections afterwards, etc.) as I think it would be far too much for one post alone.

I will say that my experience was a positive one and that I would certainly undertake an event of this nature again. I leave you, dearest readers, with a small glimpse of my chest of drawers on Friday evening and the promise of more to come.

Powder, cap, puff, brushes, housewife, stockings, shaker,
bum, neck handkerchief, and shift are just a few of the
items populating the chest awaiting their use
the next morning.

One Must Travel, to Learn...

For me, this often means physically travelling to workshops, conferences, and historical sites relating to my wish to better portray history. These last two weekends I have done just that, attending a B&T polonaise workshop (of which I have zero personal pictures- we were very industrious and I just didn't think to snap a shot! Check out their facebook page for pictures of the class.) and the Colonial Williamsburg Wigmaker's conference (for which I also have a sad few pictures to show.)

Both experiences we valuable to me and I learned so much, met some really great new people, and spent time with friends whom I don't get to see in person very often. That alone made both trips priceless.

I was fortunate enough to see some wonderful items pulled from storage relating to the wigmaker's trade and am looking forward to applying some of the techniques, tips, and tidbits I gathered from the various presenters.

Samantha from The Couture Courtesan did an amazing presentation on ear irons which, even though it's not my primary period, was truthfully one of my favorite talks of the weekend. I hope she publishes soon!

Friday evening was the opening reception, and guests were encouraged to attend in "our finery." I wasn't sure if I was actually going to dress in my historical clothes for this (more to bring on the plane) but ultimately I decided why not. I wore my (not quite finished) Italian gown and made up a new wig to blend with my own hair.

Overall, I was happy with the look, but of course there are little things I'd like to fix- you know, like finishing the gown and cuff hems and playing with the hair style a bit more. But, no blog post is complete without pictures, so here are the few I was able to manage of myself for my future reference and for your entertainment. =)

Using a flat iron to set papillote
curls. 

Curls set and ready for frizzing/powder.

Front selfie.

Side selfie.

Hair close up 1.

Hair close up 2.

I always learn so much when I got to these types of events and can't wait for my next opportunity. On another note- I just found out today that my topic proposal was accepted and I will be traveling to St. Charles, IL at the end of January/beginning of February for Military History Fest to give a talk on getting started as a living historian. More on that to come, I promise!

New Dress Form and Other Things...

So the school year has begun, meaning my long stretches of radio silence have, too. Once I finish the bulk of my master's courses this summer I hope for that to change. Until then, I have created a Facebook page where I'm much better about updating on projects, workshops, etc. on a much, much more regular basis.

I'm also considering a couple of new dress forms, in the manner of my 1812 one. Now that I'm entering the 1780s with some of my interpreting, I'd really like to create a form with my 1780's pair of stays. I also have some ideas for better arms this go around. More to come on that front probably around semester and holiday breaks.

Until then, I'll be spending the rest of this week getting ready to leave Thursday night for the Polonaise workshop and the Head for Fashion conference the weekend after that. Blog posts to follow, at some point, but instant Facebook updates for those of you like me who like the more instant gratification. =)

The Lard That Binds... (Or My First 18th c. Pomatum)

As you saw in my previous post Mrs. Fox dressed my hair Sunday last and we tested out my "new" pomatum and powder. It worked pretty well, all things considered, and I'll be making up a new batch this week as I seem to have left my large tin in my friend's cooler Sunday evening. Whoops!

The back of my dressed hair

I was introduced to the art of big hair at last spring's Burnley and Trowbridge workshop and since that point I've been fascinated with wanting to improve my 18th century hair. I've been scouring all available resources for primary documents and thankfully the internet is full of them, some can still  be purchased online, and I may be able to find more once I have access to my library at work.

But here's the skinny on my foray into the fat underbelly of pomatum. (Okay- I confess that whole sentence was pretty awful, but I just couldn't help myself...)

First things first, I needed to pick a receipt from all of those sources I had been browsing. There were tons of options. Pomatum was so common and scents could be chosen by the maker based on any number of sweet flowers (lavender, orange blossom, whatever you wanted really). I knew that I already have a particular fondness for clove and citrus, so I used oil of clove and lemon for my pomatum. I'd like to try scenting the pomatum in the 18th c. manner with flowers sometime, I'm just not there yet.

Not having every single ingredient for any one pomatum receipt- I improvised. I used the basic amounts of lard and mutton suet from a pomatum receipt in The Cookbook of Unknown Ladies and substituted lemon oil for bergamot and thyme. The three ingredients I didn't have on hand included alkanet root, beef marrow, and virgin wax.

On a side note, although the blog lists the pomatum receipt indicating use for hair, I'm wondering if it's actually supposed to be a lip salve. The alkanet root is what makes me question. I haven't seen it used in an explicitly "hair only" pomatum but is frequently used in lip salves. There are definitely red pomatums in other sources. For example, The Toilette de Flora  says "white" pomatum says can be used "in the same manner as other pomatums" while the instructions for "red" pomatum are a little more general in just saying to "set it by for use."

The New London Toilette lists a red pomatum with alkanet root with instructions to be "...made up into a paste and rubbed over the face..." to give it a reddish color. So take that for what it is.

Either way, it seems that pomatum in general is made up of mostly lard with a variety of other ingredients being thrown in for good measure (or good fragrance), so I felt okay using this ratio as the base for just a simple pomatum for my hair. We're constantly being reminded in the manuals, though, to not mix anything noxious to the hair into our pomatums and powders. We're way too smart for that, ladies!

Anyhow, here's what I did:

Measured out my lard. You can see how soft the lard is on my spoon. Once it was thawed I was able to scoop it out pretty reasonably into my dish.

 Lard in my bowl and on my spoon.

 The mutton was a bit harder. I ended up "cutting" it with a butter knife (more like scraping and stabbing- semantics!) and it took longer to melt.

Not as soft as the lard...

 Once I had everything measured out, I set to slowly melting it on a very low heat.

It was slow... very slow... but we made it eventually. You can see the mutton
chunks in there.

Once I was done melting, I added my clove and lemon oil to my liking and then poured into my containers for storage.

Left: three four oz ball jars for overflow (and to give to friends.)
Right: a large candle tin to store the majority of my pomatum.

I forgot to take a picture of it once it cooled, but it basically looked like the lard in the beginning. The scent does mask most of what there is of the "lard smell", especially once it's in your hair. It goes on really well and the scent stays for 5-6 days- the clove lingers longer than did the lemon. Overall, I can't wait to try the process again.

I have ordered my virgin wax and a few other ingredients and I am ready for round two. I am feeling a little more confident now that I have a bit of experience under my belt, and I'll be sure to post again with my second attempts.

Until then, I will leave you with my list of alternative literary lard loving punned titles that were almost chosen for this post. Enjoy and feel free to add your own in the comments. =)

P.S. No promises that these are PC, but hopefully you'll find them somewhat humorous.

Lard of the Rings
Lard in August
The Pigslayer
Journey to the Center of the Pig
Lard Times

I would entertain song lyrics, also...

Summer Afternoon

Last weekend was spent in Kenosha, WI at an event that is one of my favorites of the year. It is set right on the beach of Lake Michigan and always has some beautiful weather (including the occasional summer storm on the lake). It's an event at which we always have fun as we are able to play with some of our friends and not take ourselves terribly seriously.

Our traditional beach picture. Mrs. Fox is in Regency to
accommodate her baby bump. 

This year's fun consisted of a duel on the beach on Saturday and a trade agreement gone wrong at the Black Horse on Sunday. While I was able to watch my husband in the duel,  I regrettably missed Sunday's scenario due to the fact that Mrs. Fox was dressing my hair.

I was delighted to try out my new pomatum and powder (which I made the Wednesday before the event- post coming soon!). So far, I'm very much loving the combo. It wears very well and leaves my hair feeling great.

Front

Side- at first I wasn't sure about
the dip between the front and
back, but then I remembered the
print of the camp laundry from our
workshop and you see a similar thing
going on beneath the cap of the
woman standing up. 

back

One last exciting thing that came out of last weekend (teaser!) was the beginnings of a new project within Engaging History (check back to the EH blog for more on that soon). So much for which to be excited!

All's Fair: LBCC 1772 Cold Cream (or Pomatum for the Complexion )

In preparation for this review, I have been using the LBCC 1772 Orange Flower Cold Cream for the past six weeks. While some of you may be familiar with cold cream and its uses, I've found for many people the concept of cold cream is a somewhat vague notion of "something my grandmother used in her day." So, before I continue with my review, let's talk a little bit about cold cream. 

Dating back to ancient Greece, cold cream has been around in some variety or another for a very long time. At its core, it's a blend of water and oil. Its simplicity also makes it a very versatile product. It has been used for everything from shaving cream to body lotion. Traditionally, it's used by women as a skin moisturizer or make-up remover or even as leave on deep conditioning mask. 

I don't really do deep conditioning and don't wear a ton of make-up, but I did decide to use it as my daily facial moisturizer. Actually, I also ended up using it a few times as a body moisturizer for my legs and arms. Here's what I found:

Photo courtesy of LBCC. I was going to take my
own, but I've used mine pretty well so it's not as
photogenic as a new jar!

Cost: $18.00

Product Description: A cold cream based on the 1772 Toilette de Flora receipt of the same name. According to the website it is thinner than the 1901 style cream and is a great moisturizer/historical make up remover.

Uses: I used it as a facial moisturizer after showering for six weeks. I also used it occasionally as body lotion.

Pros: It's a nice sized container. You might think that it's small and won't last very long, but after six weeks of daily use I've only used about 1/4th of what's in there. A little goes a very long way. Also, it was nice when traveling to throw in one container for my face and body, instead of a tube of moisturizer and a bottle of lotion. I really enjoyed the scent (orange flower).

Seriously. I use about this much each day for my face.
Maybe a little less.

Cons: I got nothin'. The container worked for me. I even dropped it a handful of times on my tile floor and it was fine. No negative reactions to ingredients. 

How well does it work: I couldn't really document this product in photographs, but I can tell you what I experienced. I have normal-ish skin with a somewhat oilier "T-zone". Overall, my face feels very soft and supple. Softer even than with my moisturizer I used before. My face typically breaks out somewhat in the summertime (extra heat=extra sweat and all that) but this summer I haven't had a breakout nearly as extreme as usual. In fact, I've gotten maybe two little zits total (not the many small bunches near my hair line like normal.) 

Yep. Here's my face sans everything.
No sleep, no make up, and (thankfully)
no zits!

Modern Counterpart: Hmm... I've never used today's cold creams before, so I don't know that I could say how it stacks up (that's a hint to any of you out there who use modern cold cream to try this one and give an in depth report! lol.)

Recommended for: Daily moisturizing. Guys can use it, too, and the citrus smell makes it less girly than a rose cold cream! Score! I didn't use it as a make up remover or mask but it could be used for that as well. 

In Conclusion: I can tell you that I definitely plan on continuing to use this product in place of my modern moisturizer and lotion. For a broader perspective, I'd be interested in the experiences of someone who has really oily skin using the product, as mine is more combination. Aside from that, I really loved this one and like that it's helped simplify a shelf in my bathroom, too!