I am back from a wonderful weekend at the Cave Gladium, where I had a thoroughly nice time offering "home-shopping" to lots and lots of different groups in their camp. It was a different way to meet people and get them to know the things I offer (including workshops and courses), and I spent quite some (really enjoyable time) chatting about textiles, techniques, the valueing of textile crafts (and other crafts), and other things.

What really blew my mind was the hospitality I also received - offers of a place in the shade to take a rest, offers of drink, offers of food. It made me feel really welcome and really appreciated, and especially the offers of drink kept me watered enough to be well and happy in the heat. And hot it was - beautiful, hot, dry summer weather with blue skies, almost no clouds, just a very slight breeze from time to time and high temperatures from early morning to late at night. I tackled the heat by moving very, very slowly (assisted by a slightly hurting foot, partly thanks to an unextinguished cigarette end lying on the ground in my path, happily smoldering away) and accepting almost every offer of drink and shade.

It was a lovely working weekend, and will not be the last time I shoulder my "Kiepe" (a carrying basket to wear on your back) and take a walk!

A little bit of last-minute packing and organising, then I'll stuff all the things into the car and will be on my way to Cave Gladium. It's the first time since ages that I go to an event without my own stall or tent, and the first time since even more ages that I will offer a kind of mobile services. (Actually, it's the first try of doing the mobile salesperson for me - back in my very beginnings in going to medieval events, I'd sing together with a friend, wandering around the place.)

So I'm quite excited, and not at all sure how it will work out, and whether it will work well or okay or not-at-all, and a little anxious too. Which is... sort of nice, as it has the feel of doing something entirely new. And as we all know, something new now and then is good for us!

I'm not fully back yet, brain-wise, or so it seems - the usual morning routine has yet to re-establish itself. The list of emails has shrunk much, though, and the list of to-do items has grown, so that is normal-ish again.

This weekend is the Cave Gladium, a medieval market/event in Furth im Wald. A few years ago, I was there with a small market stall; then I did not manage to get there for a while. This year, I'm planning to go there with a little basket of goods for sale and take a walk around the encampment on Friday and Saturday.

And then, very soon, our Textile Forum will take place. Amazing how time flies by!

Just in time for the Forum, the first Forum Proceedings will come out. In case you are interested in the book (details here), I am planning to carry it in my online shop. If you want to make sure that you will get one without ordering it from Oxbow directly, just drop me a note :)

I'm back home from the event, which was a truckload of fun, a wild mixture of all sorts of weather (we had a bad storm though we were spared the walnut-sized hailstones that came down a few kilometres away), and lots of old and new friends. Oh, and delicious food. Lots of that, too.

With the stormy night and then a full-moon night both in that week, though, I ended up sleeping very, very late today (hence the late blogpost). The storm flattened quite a few tarps and tents on the camp meadow, but nobody got hurt. The little TGV held up, too - though I lost a wooden peg that connected the upright pole near my bed to the top beam, and consequently spent about an hour holding it up myself before the wind had calmed down enough so I could make an emergency construction with the two poles that usually hold up the awning. This action was followed by some creeping through the tent to take care of stuff that had become wet, and to check on the other pole, and then - blissful sleep.

I'm still feeling sort of not up to full capacity, brain-wise, though. Good thing that today was scheduled as being a day off, which I am very much looking forward to.

I'm back, the car is (mostly) unpacked, and we even managed to get everything loaded into the car dry(ish) so there's little residual work apart from the usual checking, cleaning, and storing away again.

This year's event was sort of a mixed bag, weather-wise: rain when we set up, rain on the first days, then sunshine mixed with bouts of rain again. At least it got dry and sunny enough to dry everything that had gotten wet during the first days, and that the ground reverted from muddy to firm yet bouncy again. Otherwise, it was a mixed bag as well: I enjoyed meeting with all the friends and old acquaintances once more during the event. The last years, however, have seen a trend in more and more market stalls that sell stuff I would not expect on a medieval market, ranging from cheap mass-produced spoons and wood implements for the kitchen to colourful wax candles to all kinds of jewellery (modern or fantasy) and garishly brightly coloured clothes that have as much to do with medieval clothing as I have with driving race cars. Plus there are more and more stalls serving food and drink - it's a small wonder if each of them will make profit enough to keep coming.

All this together is a development into a rather unexpected direction, seeing that Freienfels is one of the really big markets for Living History folks, and had the reputation of being one of the one-stop-shops for medieval gear. If the development continues like that, I think it will only be a few more years until it will become less and less attractive for the LH folks - I've heard from a lot of them that they are only coming to meet old acquaintances these days, because the event has changed so much. A pity, really!

Planning the season has progressed enough for me to set a few new workshop dates!

These are, in short:
A workshop in Piacenza, Italy, in English language on April 13/14;

two single-day embroidery workshops in German language in Erlangen, on May 18 (counted work) and May 19 (picture embroidery);

a two-day workshop to tailor a garment in Erlangen, October 19 and 20.

For the workshops in Erlangen, you can book your place starting now - just follow the links for more information and booking possibilities. And if you have a special project or a group of like-minded friends, why not arrange a private lesson or a private mini-workshop? Contact me per email if you are interested!

I'm back from two weeks full of exciting things to do and new things to learn and wonderful people to meet, and accordingly I spent most of yesterday asleep, catching up on the hours lost to discussions and work.

We had a small, but very intense and very successful Textile Forum in Mayen, with a dyeing experiment that surprised us all with the outcome. After the Forum, I got to spend some more time with friends that had come to the Forum from Netherlands, Germany, England and Sweden, visiting Maria Laach in lovely weather.

After this, I went to see the new abode of my friends from the Wollschmiede and helped them a little bit with their renovation. It's a lovely old house that now has a new roof and will soon be their home and workplace, with much better opportunities for both dyer and blacksmith than the old apartment could offer.

And to top off all of this, I then was part of the programme for the opening of LEA in Mayen this last weekend, demonstrating wool preparation and spinning techniques to a very interested public. We had immense luck with the weather - it rained on Friday evening and night, and it was a little cool on Saturday morning, but then the sun came out and we had a wonderful time both Saturday and Sunday.

And now I'm looking forward to a few days here to reorganise myself and catch my breath before going to the traditional season's end market - Tannenberg. This year, however, I'll have to go without the most patient of all husbands, who ruptured his Achilles tendon last Saturday and now moves around on crutches... and those are not very compatible to the uneven and possibly muddy Tannenberg grounds.