Fighting Laurels Prize Tourney at Pennsic

I am sooooo entering this! Now what can I bring as a prize? Oh, I know, beads! 'Cause I so need another excuse to make more beads eh? How many beads do you think would be a fair prize? Bidgie, you gonna join me?

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This is the official announcement of the Fourth Annual
(Fighting) Laurels' Prize Tourney at Pennsic, this year
held under the gracious sponsorship of Her Majesty Denise
of Atlantia. While there is in our Society an event that
has been called a "Laurels' Prize Tourney" but which is
basically an "Artisans' Display" -- Laurels may not enter;
there are no prizes (other than word-fame); there is no
fighting or other competition, this is not it!. The new
and improved Laurels' Prize Tourney features actual
Laurels, real prizes, and lots of fighting...

The event is open to any member of the Order of the Laurel
authorized in heavy weapons combat. Each Laurel will
provide a prize of their own making. Apprentices of
Laurels are also allowed to enter. The apprentice must
provide a prize of their own making. New this year,
persons who are not formally apprenticed to a Laurel will
be allowed to
enter if they are sponsored by a Laurel; these persons must
provide a prize of their own making and must have a letter
of sponsorship if the Laurel is not present. (Laurels
whose apprentices are entering the tourney or who are
sponsoring entrants are expected to provide an additional
prize if they are not entering the tourney themselves.)

A tourney will be fought (format to be determined depending
on the number of entrants). The prizes provided by the
participants in the fighting will be arrayed on tables, and
the participants each have an opportunity to select a prize
from those provided by the other fighters, based on their
rank in the tournament (with the winner selecting first and
so on...).

The prizes provided by the Laurels who are sponsoring
apprentices or other entrants are given for reasons of the
Laurel's choice -- best death, cutest armour, best fight
with an axe, etc.

Combatants, if you would like to add to the pomp and
ceremony of the list by bringing your own Herald and/or
Banner Bearer please do so. We also invite any and all
other Brother and Sister Laurels that don't fight to
attend. If you wish to bring a prize of your own making to
present to the Combatant of your choice for whatever
reason, please do so. Whether it is for a chivalrous act on
the field a spectacular death or anything else that pleases
you. It can be presented at the end of the fight that did
so impress you.

This tournament will take place on Sunday, 14 August on the
Battlefield -- check the Pennsic Book for more exact
information on place and time or contact me in the Lochac
Royal Encampment.

Laurel Tourney

It's pretty much a given that I'm not going to place well. I will be pleasantly surprised if I come in anything but dead last in fact. So instead, I'm hoping to make a good showing on the prize table. I'll be happy if my prize turns out to be one of the ones people hope is still there when their turn comes.

Following The wise hel_ana's suggestion, I will devote 3 hours to bead making and then run my entry by my laurel to see if it really meets the grade.

I've also decided, since this is a laurel tourney, I won't make a single bead I can't document (at least the form and design, colour is a little harder, and don't get me started on production method). What follows below is the first batch of beads (hour 1) and the accompanying documentation from the book that arrived in the mail today (don't you just love how these things work out sometimes), Glass Beads from Anglo-Saxon Graves: A Study on the Provenance and Chronology of Glass Beads from Anglo-Saxon Graves, Based on Visual Examination. The book is dry as all get out (mostly maps and stats actually) but there are a few pages of pictures at the back which are useful. And I'm sure I will eventually get around to reading the rest of it.

And yes, I started with relatively easy stuff. I will work up to a few really complicated show-piece beads later.


My beads, and yes, I am aware that the photo is really rather fuzzy. I just couldn't get the camera to focus on these beads today (and I took like 30+ pictures on several different surfaces, so I don't know what gives).


Documentation for spotted beads. Yes, I am aware that they are a different shape from mine. I was working from memory, because books + fire = BAD. I might try again and aim for that shape, but I don't think that shape was arrived at by lampworking. Maybe a mould of some kind. I think it might be pierced, not made on a mandrel. I'm sure if I actually read the book I'd know.


Documentation for zig-zag beads. Theirs are much nicer and much more even than mine, but I'm still learning the control required for this particular technique (you're seeing the "good" side of my beads, the back isn't so pretty).

So that's it for the first hour. Very much looking forward to this tourney!