2023 was an amazing year. I was able to attend several events and basically took way more orders than I could handle (thanks to everyone for their patience!) and am wrapping up last years orders, looking in to planning 2024.
I took the family out to the Shannendoah valley to participate in the Diggers Revolt , Memorial Day at the Frontier Culture Museum, Staunton VA. I had a BLAST portraying a group of rebels and militia, painting a picture of “diggers” that were rebelling against one of many enclosure conflicts that were a staple of the history of England that intensified in the lead up to the English Civil War.
Peasants really didn’t like it when nobles enclosed land used to grow food so they could ‘enclose’ pasture land for sheep to make money of the high quality English wool that was driving the English economy in the 15 and 16 hundreds. (Pics below)
With the wife preggars and a new baby that came in September (super cute of course and doing well), we did not make it out to many other events this year.
Some snaps of book work from 2023
We did make a visit to Jamestown… here’s a few snaps of a of the Exercise of Arms on display at Jamestown, with some arms there too, and one of my copies in process of the same book.
Made a few trips out to Henricus and down to Williamsburg, but didn’t really make it out to another organized event before the Henricus Christmas Through the Ages event, which was also a ton of fun for myself and my daughter. We both showed up the day before to help a prep a little, we just swept and raked some leaves but it felt good to be out and to contribute however much we could.
My last historic deed for the end of the year was to make my kiddo a ball. I sewed two leather scraps together and stuff a small ball with them. We had a lot of fun, but we immediately lost it our first time out! So, ball 2.0 was designed to be a bigger, easier to throw and harder to lose design. I patterned it off of an Elizabethan football, again sewing leather scraps together and stuffing with more leather scraps (it took SO MUCH). It’s about 6″ in diameter. The original Elizabethan ball was a leather casing around a air-filled pigs bladder, so much more like a modern football (soccerball).
Thanks again to all my wonderful friends, fellow reenactors, history buffs, preservationists and family that have fueled the flames of my passion for history and love of the lord. Thanks too, to all of you that wait so patiently for your orders to be fulfilled as I squeeze things into an increasingly busy life. Hope you had a great 2023…