...ars sine scientia nihil est...

If you have come looking for information on medieval Korea, be sure to visit my website where things are hopefully grouped together coherently.

http://www.medieval-baltic.us/korea.html
http://www.medieval-baltic.us/kortea.html is about the history of tea culture and ceremonies.
http://www.medieval-baltic.us/korot.html for information about mid-Joseon period womens' dress.

If you're looking for information about medieval sign lexicons, and language, see:
http://medieval-baltic.us/msl.html

Short, but very interesting PDF with drawings and photos of glass slickstones (those linen smoother-things) from the Viking age to the 18th century.
http://www.romanglassmakers.co.uk/pdffiles/linensmoothers.pdf

This entry was originally posted at http://pearl.dreamwidth.org/358433.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

From: http://recyclelacma.blogspot.com/

On January 14th, 2009 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced that it was deaccessioning more than 100 items from its costumes and textiles collection. Once carefully collected, catalogued, and cared for, these items have now been cast back out in to the world. What will happen to them? Like any other useless item, they will need to be recycled or disposed of.

Recycle LACMA is a project of Los Angeles-based artist Robert Fontenot. At three separate auctions he purchased over 50 items deaccessioned by LACMA and is now trying to find new uses for these otherwise unwanted items.

Although each item has not yet been used, each item can have a use.

( My rant... )

P.S. If Robert Fontenot is reading this, after following links back, feel free to comment and please tell me that you are cutting up damaged and unrepairable items for their fabric. Not well-cared-for items of vintage clothing.

Did everyone else know that Boston Bun is an Australian and New Zealander thing, rather than a Massachusetts thing?

Next the internet will be telling me that Mississippi mud cake is Australian too... oh, fruitloops!

Comment "WORDS" to this entry and I will comment back (probably next week) with five words I associate with you. Then you post this in your journal elaborating.

Words provided by holyschist are: Korea, research, SCA, tea, botany.

( Read more... )

No photos, but expect them soon!

( hanbok update )
I'm not 100% happy with how this outfit has turned out, but that's one of the pleasures of making historic outfits-- you always learn something new. I just occasionally wish I wasn't so fascinated in things very few people seem interested in, because then I'd have more people to exchange ideas with. :)

Some frigging idiot took the time to get into our water meter pit and turn the water off.

But I think we have concluded, a long time ago, that this neighbourhood is all sorts of shades of crazy.

The list of pre-17th century Korean clothing has been updated, hopefully with more stable links (although I doubt it), and more links to things like sandals, and different types of male clothing.

Anyone around Footscray know what sort of temple(?) is being built in between Footscray and South Kensington stations?
There is an amazing golden statue, but he(?) is wearing a flat hat like an emporer (but I didn't count the bead strings, so it may not be an emporer).

Anyone in the area seen it, and know what it is?

Who needs Snakes on a Plane, when in real-life there are Cute Baby Raccoons in a Vending Machine!!
http://www.yahoo.com/s/1088163

The Met's Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400-1600 exhibition is ending in a few days, (but the exhibition catalogue/book is said to be very very shiny and cool), but the website still has some exciting bits and bobs.

Like... Gisaeng!
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/KoreanRenaissance/literati_essentials.aspx?id=09

And other women!
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/KoreanRenaissance/worship_paradise.aspx?id=33

Hooray!

The 'stay at home if you're sick' and basic hygeine/manners posters are out in force at uni.
Yes, even with the Coughs and Sneezes Spread Diseases headline.

(Of course, the idea now is to use disposable tissues that can be immediately thrown away instead of a hankie that sits in your pocket, but the basic principles haven't changed.)

Eung-Tae Lee, was a Joseon male who died in the 1580s.

I've been going mad trying to find *any* information about shoes, and was finding vague references that he was buried with shoes. As I kept digging (and discovering an Antiquity article I need to wait a few more months to access) I found out some more stuff.

Namely, his shoes were sandals, and were part of a folk remedy at the time as they were woven from a mixture of hemp and his wifes' hair! She also wrote a letter to him, mourning his death (and it looks like it is written in hangul.)
http://bugo10.com/bbs/viewbody.html?code=board5&page=9&id=10032&number=10032&keyfield=&key=
http://www.withoutwax.org/Without_Wax/Blog/Entries/2008/11/14_16th_Century_Love_Letters.html


Edit: Beautiful, very high-quality looking photos of the letters and a shoe in Korea Magazine (8)5 2009 pp.35-39 (The linked page links to a very very large PDF file. 8.3Mb)
And a folding fan! Woo! (I read *somewhere* that folding fans were male-specific, but it is still cool.)

Edit, again: photo of the shoe pair. They're called mituri (미투리).

The SCA's Grand Council (who advise the Board of Directors, who write all the serious and important *stuff*) writing about the lack of a 'start date' for the SCA's range of interest, and how there never seems to have been one, ever. Just the end date of 1600 CE.

http://grandcouncil.sca.org/gc_rpts.php?y=2006&m=April

...wow! where exactly do all you people come from?

And, secondly, I'm sorry to the Viking-age people for the lack of Viking-age-related posts. I'm pretty sure things will settle down in about a month.

P.S. Still recovering from the wisdom tooth being removed.

Thank goodness! It's getting done! Can't stop using exclamation marks!

So, wig, wristlets, under-jacket, jacket, underskirt (which I now suspect is wrong), and overskirt are done!

( Photos here )

The collar is too narrow, I've put in underarm gores in the wrong fabric,  (it should match the body, not the edging) and all of the colours are probably unlikely, but hopefully it doesn't look  too bad. To anyone except for me, who is convinced that I suck at sewing anything. But that's because I'm hyper-critical of myself, and that seeps into sewing projects too.

To finish the outfit, I still need to make socks, overcoat, veil and hand-covers. If I have time, I'll make the two pairs of underpants too.

The Meiosis Square Dance!
ETA: A better quality version of the song, with subtitles, and some swearing.

If only I could find the right angle triangle song to the tune of 'Waltzing Matilda'...

For hometime: This book is at the NLA. Korean Jeogori, 2000 years. It appears to have some linedrawings and photos from it used here.

Secondly, there is an SCA-Korea yahoo group (I didn't do it). And they seem to be both in need of members, and knowledge. Go visit them if you're interested in pre-17th century stuff.

I haven't forgotten about all the translating stuff I plan to do, but the problem is that it takes more than a few hours to knock over, while smaller projects are easier.

But, would it be at all interesting for people if I put up some more information about the difference in cut between modern and pre-mid-17th century jackets/jeogori?
(The first reply to this tribe post has got me thinking, that it mightn't be so obvious that there are differences.)

I was planning to put up my plausible pattern anyway, it's the comparison to a modern jacket that I'm thinking about adding. Is it needed? Is it obvious that they should be cut differently, like pretty much every other modern national dress?