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Pennywise Projects
Period projects for pennywise peasants
by Scott Perkins
Like so many other pastimes, Ren faire can be as expensive as you want it to be. That doesn't mean you can't do it well if you don't spend a lot of dough, just that there are plenty of people out there more than willing to sell you expensive ren toys if you're willing to fork over the dough.
I - for one - am not. At least not usually...
If I can make it as good or better and pay less doing so... how can I afford not to grab a saw or a sewing needle and set to?
I make my own buttons, my own plumes, my own garb, my own camp furniture and even my own pavilion. I don't pay a lot for my materials, and I never pay someone to do something I can do myself for less money. I am the pennywise peasant. Care to join me?
The Pennywise Peasant is dedicated to helping members of St Brigid's Hearth and the rennie world at large get started at ren faire without going broke. If you start here, there are limitless possibilities ahead of you. Not everything you find here will make you period-perfect. We're not about that here. We're about getting to faire, presenting ourselves in a period manner and evolving into period perfection without the devolving into penury in the process. Just because we play peasants doesn't me we want to become one.
Because it's the easiest place to start, we'll begin with Garb...
Garb
Buttons
Appropriate buttons can make or break an outfit. They can sell the authenticity of your costuming or they can belie the social status you are attempting to portray. Though every fabric store in creation now sells period-appropriate metal buttons, what peasant would have the coin to spend so much for their fasteners? None. But fear not, good people, simple buttons are as easy to make now as they were then and the Pennywise Peasant can show you how!
The Button-making posts linked below come to us courtesy of the costuming blog "Garb For Guys" written by our very own Pennywise Peasant, Scott Perkins. NOTE: Though the title might indicate otherwise, these button-making skills are equally applicable to both gender's garments.
Covering delightfully peasanty button making skills using only the fabric your garment might be made of...
Covering a slightly higher-class of button utilizing wooden bases (beads really) covered in various designs of matching or contrasting threads...
Hearth and Home
Barrow Wright (a Pennywise Wheelbarrow) NEW!!
Lighting a room
A period oven
A "hornbook"
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Page contents Copyright 2006, Scott W Perkins except where noted
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