In preparation for the time traveling we all planned to do, I held a craft night. Only two brave souls dared join me in making faux flower head garlands. After one slightly giddy, longer than expected trip to the dollar store down the street, we were prepared to do battle with ribbon, floral tape and pipe cleaners.
The end result turned out great. The process was sketchy at best. The participants, deeply in Bremen. (Originally derived from the story The Musicians of Bremen, the use of this word actually has nothing to do with the story. My college roommate's father coined this phrase. One is said to be in Bremen when they are over tired or have been concentrating for a long period of time and begin to talk to themselves or giggle at things that aren't really that funny.)
Behold, the product! Kara named them all, let's see if I can remember them.
This one is "Put A Bird On It".
This one was originally dubbed "Secret Admierer", (I think) but at the 11th hour it was switched to something more randy like "Sultry Mistress". (* * This just in..the original name for this piece was "Virginal Maiden" and the second name was actually "Secret Lover". )
This one was called Princess something or other.
I ended up taking off the large flowing and threading in silver star wire instead.
You can tell that the large flower is eye-poppingly large.
So, off to yore we went. Some in full costume, most not. One of my friends bought a horn. A real horn that was touted as being useful "for drinking and blowing." I'll just let that sit there for a minute. It had a cap on one end and then could be used as a large cup. If you took the cap off it could be used as a hunting horn. He was going to 11 about it. I love when that happens. He said he'd been waiting for that moment for thirty years.
One of the best parts about the Ren. Fair is that you can never tell who is there on their own, playing a part, being part of the show instead of spectating. Which of these revelers is being paid? Which are not? For instance: The shirtless guy with the huge log. I'm not kidding. It's a big piece of tree. Taller than him. Some kind of bizarro Log Lady? There were kiss marks all over it, but I never saw a girl getting near it. I did see a few try to avoid eye contact. I saw a few recoil. He was pretty attractive, shirtless man. But he becomes creepy when you can't tell if he's just there, or if he's getting paid.
There was also a man dressed as Jack Sparrow. OK, there were like thirty of them, including Black Jack. But, this guy was just running around, through stalls, crowds, hiding behind trees, jumping off rock walls, all like Johnny Depp. He looked and moved exactly like him. I didn't get a picture because he never stood still long enough. It was amazing. We made a lot of jokes about how it was actually Johnny Depp who came to random Pirate Week Ren. Fairs dressed in character just to eff with people.
Two of the husband's siblings came with us. It was a fun time. Here are the sibs decked out in the flowered headband I made, a tooled leather bear mask, and a cheap pirate hat. You can't imagine the amount of authenticity some people put into their costumes. I had boot envy.
Stephen bought the place out. His gorgeous purchases included a hand thrown commemorative mug with this years crest, a tooled leather bear mask, a fairy door and candles.
Here he is getting a Traditional Celtic Reading. I had no idea the Celts did readings and I have no idea what makes it traditional. I think it was a bunch of melarchy.
BTW: They had wine slushies. Just sayin'.
So, In Summary:
The Crafters Of Bremen
Horn of Plenty And Then Some
Depp's New Gig
Bearly Shopping
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