Avacal Arts & Science Championship

Finished pair of nålbound mittens

I’m super-excited to share some really happy news – the recent posts I shared were all leading up to a really big announcement:

I won Avacal (my SCA Kingdom)’s Arts & Science Championship!

Silk Road garb (Part 6 – Necklace)

Necklace for my Byzantine costume

After I had completed most of the Byzantine costume, I decided I really wanted to make a necklace in the style of one I saw on Pinterest. While the example is from the 7th Century, and my costume is based on an 11th Century style, I still thought the style was nice, and that I could accomplish something with the same shapes with tools I’m familiar working with.

Viking Knit necklace (Appreciation of Skill)

Completed chain with toggle clasp

In my previous post I mentioned that I’ll be stepping down as Montengarde’s Emerald Rose (The Arts & Science champion for the barony of the SCA I’m in) and part of that step-down is finding a new champion.

At the request of some of the population in our kingdom, I got permission to open up the competition to people who will not be trying to become champion – but would like the chance to compete anyways. I hadn’t originally planned for that, but I thought it would be great to have a gift to give to the “runner up” – regardless if that person is or isn’t a member of Montengarde.

Linnaniemi, Hämeenlinna hoard necklace in person

Linnaniemi, Hämeenlinna hoard necklace and other items from the hoard

Linnaniemi, Hämeenlinna hoard necklace in person

In my previous post I showed the display of silver necklaces from the museum castle at Hämeenlinna. Today I’ll go into further detail on the necklace they had on display – the Linnaniemi, Hämeenlinna hoard necklace.

(I realized only after the fact, that I had a lot of up-close photos, but not many whole-necklace photos… and unfortunately, the one above was the best one!)

Warning… this post has a LOT of detail, which might not be interesting to my regular readers!

Hämeenlinna necklace artefacts

Necklace display from Hämeenlinna

In November I visited Hämeenlinna (the castle Häme in the town Hämeenlinna in Finland) and pretty much near-exclusively visited in order to see the necklace artefact that I based my A&S project on when I made a necklace inspired by it.

Quotes are taken verbatim from the display – there are some grammatical errors, but I’m just pleased that there was an English explanation to begin with!