A Common Man's Doublet

©Travis Abe-Thomas, June 2024

Finally!  I actually finished another project, and in time to debut the suit at the second ever West Kingdom Crown hosted by Oertha.  This is the white hemp canvas doublet I have been plugging away at for the last two years, to be paired with the black wool round hose as a "working" suit which would age and develop what we're going to call "character"...also known as stains and hopefully wear patterns.

When designing the project, I knew I wanted a fairly simple outfit from the end of Elizabeth's reign--round hose, and a fairly plain doublet.  As working class people aren't the most popular subject for art (unless accompanied by quaint villages and beautiful scenery as in my Low Countries Research), I eventually found what I was looking for in Samuel Pepys's Cries of London.  

Demystifying Documentation; How to Infodump with (some) Organization

Full Notes for the Class, taught June 22, 2024, West June Crown A.S.59

From Biblioteca de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, Spain, c. 14th century AD

About a month ago during a conversation her (current) Highness of Oertha, Mistress Elena Verch Ryse suggested that I actually teach a class on how I do write-ups and documentation for my projects.  I thought about it (getting heavily distracted from my book as I essentially gave the lecture to myself), and decided that yes, this was something I could do and would schedule for West June Crown--a fairly major stepping point for me as I have thus avoided lecture style classes and stuck with more hands on ones where I didn't have to talk as much. 

The class went off with a small handful of brave souls--not as many as I would have liked, although there were two other classes going on at the same time, as well as something called "dinner".  As though a meal is needed after grazing all day... Still, it was a good class and we mostly stayed on topic, with a bit of perusing my library after. These are the class notes with everything I remember discussing; while my outline has been published before on this blog, I didn't discuss my theories in depth at all.  This particular class does not focus primarily on writing for competitions as most articles on the topic seam to, but more for writing to document it for your own personal gratification and to educate those who come after.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage 2; Frans Boels

Frans Boels, B. 1555 - 1596, most of his paintings are of the landscape variety, often with Biblical scenes.  He was trained by Hans Bol, his stepfather.  As such, only a handful are of use for this project.  However, as the paintings are accurately dated for the most part, they are particularly useful as they likely show /current/ fashion in the peasant class for the 1590s, unlike the more romanticized versions by the Brueghels for instance. 

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage 2; Frans Verbeeck

Aaah, Frans Verbeeck, born 1510 and died 1570.  Or at least his studio/family, since we don't know in most cases as to which Frans Verbeeck, and it wasn't uncommon for their paintings to be unsigned.  Their style is...unique, although likely inspired by Heironymus Bosch, and have similar forms of exaggeration and satire.  Even so, not all of it is useless for this survey.  I am not a fan of the artistic style, tbh.

GUEST POST: Preservation of Leather Artifacts in Archaeology

That's right...a rare guest post on Matsukaze workshops; my Apprentice's partner wrote out this gem, and I offered to host it until (and if) he creates his own webpage, as it's useful and well written information--plus it's far easier to share a webpage than a document.  Factors for preservation for organic materials is something which I have regularly needed to reference when recreating or discussing archaeological finds.
        Maistre Bran

Preservation of Leather Artifacts in Archaeology

Leather artifacts bear crucial information on past civilizations, craftsmanship, the norms of society, and daily life. However, organic materials, mainly leather, are prone to several problems that hinder their preservation at archaeological sites due to their sensitivity to environmental conditions. The scarcity of preserved leather at archaeological sites poses enormous challenges to historians and conservators. This scarcity is not by chance, but by a combination of environmental conditions, including the composition of the soils, moisture levels, and the practices of burying artifacts. This study will explore some of the factors controlling leather preservation at different archaeological sites. It will give insight as to why leather items survive across the timeline versus other perishable materials. This study reinforces these factors as the best-understood contribution of environmental and human influences to archaeological survival by comparing extant examples from the Birka, York, and Vindolanda archaeological sites. Through this research, we aim to shed light on the complexity of ancient leather conservation, which will be the first stage in a journey to acknowledge the selective nature of leather discoveries.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage 2. Joachim Beuckelaer

Next up is Joachim Beuckelaer, born 1533, d. 1574, and most active through the 1560s.  His artwork focuses on markets; meat, poultry, fish, and veggies, and this can show an insight into some of the tools of those various trades as well as different foodstuffs in Antwerp.  He was a nephew of and possibly learned to paint from Pieter Aiertsen, who was the first artist on my list; I think you can definitely see some stylistic similarities between the two.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Stage 2; Pieter Bruegel the YOUNGER

 Pieter Bruegel the Younger was born 1564 in Brussels as the oldest son of Brueghel the Elder.  Despite being the son of a famous painter and copying his fathers work, he was not directly trained by him, as Brueghel Elder died when Younger was only 4-5 years old.

The usefulness of his work for this survey varies, like that of most artists; much of his opus is out of period and shows it, others are direct copies of his father's work and was covered when I analyzed Elder's paintings (others of these are survived where Elder's original did not), and, of course, others are allegorical and just too funky for inclusion.  Additionally, he produced /many/ copies from his shop, some of which are referred to as different names--several times I managed to dig up a painting I thought was new only to find I had already covered it.  Often, they are undated and I have to guesstimate the period they're showing--when I go and finally get to do posts regarding individual garments, I will attempt to chart a timeline of style development. 

I decided this time to include my additional commentary from the Facebook posts I have been making daily; while there isn't much focused interest in those and I don't discuss them much, I figure it could help people searching for examples of random items in these paintings.

Ten Years of Matsukaze Workshops

    This will probably be a relatively short post but....Valentine's Day was my 10 year anniversary of the Matsukaze Workshops blog.  As such, I wanted to try talking about some of what I learned, and go over some of my most popular posts of all time.  As well as some of the ones I am most proud of (the two aren't necessarily the same), and what needs work. 

Sorry about the white edges...it wouldn't let me edit those out for some reason.

Peasant Fashion in the Low Countries: Part Two. Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder.  One of the first artists who come to mind when you think of this genre of painting, and the one this project was named for.  He was born between 1525 and 1530 near Breda and died in 1569, after living primarily in Antwerp then Brussels.  His early work is mostly in engraving and drawings, with the majority of his well known paintings came after 1555.

• Parable of the Sower.  1557.  https://www.wikiart.org/en/pieter-bruegel-the-elder/parable-of-the-sower-1557 
• Only guy
• Hat is black and mostly shapeless, although there does appear to be some kind of brim.
• Outer garment is grey and only hip length.  Sleeves are rather poofy, with a separate closer fitting pieces at the forearm.  In the left (as worn) sleeve, you can see a slit.  The garment may be lined in red, and may have a crossover front.  
• Doublet, not really visible, except as more grey.
• Hosen are of the knee length breeches style in a lighter shade of grey.   No details are visible as to whether there is a codpiece or not.
• Netherstocks are a grey inbetween the breeches and jerkin in colour.  You can see slight bagging at the ankle.
• Shoes are low, and slip on, but do enclose the foot completely.  Leather is black.
• He is clean shaven, and short haired...and appears to be black.  There may be sideburns going on, but I am not sure.