feast-decor-msg - 4/10/01
Ideas on decorating the feasthall. Lighting the feasthall.
NOTE: See also the files: feasts-msg, feast-menus-msg, p-menus-msg, ME-feasts-msg, feast-serving-msg, feast-ideas-msg, headcooks-msg.
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Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: mchance at nyx10.cs.du.edu (Michael Chance)
Subject: Re: Feast decor
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 93 18:38:08 GMT
Branwynne of Seagirt writes:
>Help!!!! I'm in charge of decorating a large Norman feast and
>have completly run out of ideas. If anybody out there in the big
>wide world haws any ideas or suggestions please let me know.
A few suggestions:
- Banners. Lots of banners. Use the barony's arms (and badge, if it
has one), the kingdom arms, the personal arms of the baron and/or
baroness, and make simple banners using the main elements from these
arms as design motifs. Or, simply hang long drapes in the baronial
livery colors.
- Play up on the theme of the event. If it's just "generic Norman",
see if you can get a local artist to do a simple painted wall hanging
in the Bayeux Tapestry style (it doesn't have to be extravagent). If
it's tied to a holiday or feast day, find out what the symbols
associated with the festival were, and use those.
- If you're planning table decorations, make them approriate to the
season. Assuming that your feast will be held soon, this means using
evergreens rather than summer flowers (unless you're doing Sicilian
Norman). If you plan on providing candles for the tables, have them
in the baronial colors.
Mikjal Annarbjorn
--
Michael A. Chance St. Louis, Missouri, USA "At play in the fields
Work: mc307a at sw1sta.sbc.com of St. Vidicon"
Play: ab899 at freenet.hsc.colorado.edu
mchance at nyx.cs.du.edu
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: ARCHER at utkvm1.utk.edu (T. Archer)
Subject: Re: Feast decor
Organization: University of Tennessee Division of Continuing Education
Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 21:07:22 GMT
>A few suggestions:
Assuming an evening feast: period-esque lighting! Candles lamps and torches.
A fireplace. Slay the evil incandescent/flourecent beast. Caution: check
with the fire marshall. Stay safe. Mr. Fire is our friend, but we must
respect his power.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Mail to PA142548 at UTKVM1.UTK.EDU. Mail to ARCHER at that address will
bounce.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Feast decor
From: amethysta at eric.stonemarche.org (Amethysta of Kensingto)
Date: Sat, 04 Dec 93 23:23:51 EST
Branwynne writes:
> Help!!!! I'm in charge of decorating a large Norman feast and
> have completly run out of ideas. If anybody out there in the big
> wide world haws any ideas or suggestions please let me know.
> Blessed Be! Branwynne
When I visited Ruantallan, they had a really nice banner. It was a copy
of a section of the Bayeux tapestry done up on a piece of material about
the size of a sheet. They took the material (probably was a sheet),
traced the outline of the figures in pencil, then painted the figures.
Very nice effect. They even used very similar color to the original, or
at least similar color to the photographs of the tapestry (yea, like I've
seen the original. sheesh)
Good luck!
Amethysta of Kensington
From: jab2 at stl.stc.co.uk (Jennifer Ann Bray)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Feast decor
Date: 13 Dec 93 13:27:39
Organization: STC Technology Ltd., London Road, Harlow, UK.
>Help!!!! I'm in charge of decorating a large Norman feast and
>have completly run out of ideas. If anybody out there in the big
>wide world haws any ideas or suggestions please let me know.
I agree with whoever banners, as many as possible, If you're
really short on time get coloured bedsheets make a huge stencil of a
suitable heraldic device and use a can of spray paint to get instant
banners. Sounds tacky but looks good. For a norman feast you could try
the dragons with knotted tails shown on the bayeux tapestry.
If you have folks with spears and shields you can cross spears tie
them securely and hang a shield from the crossing point. This works in
halls that will not let you nail things to the wall and looks fairly
atmospheric. It doesn't work if you're so short of space that people
keep knocking them over no matter how securely tied!
(Spears are good for hanging banners aswell if you're not allowed to
tack them directly onto the walls)
If you can't get real shields you could spray paint cardboard cut outs
and hang them up, keep the lights dim enough and they look effective,
again if you have a stencil you can turn them out quite fast. Make the
design asymmetric and you can turn it over to get pairs of mirror
image shields.
(Big flat kite shields also make quite good trays for carrying the food
round on)
If you've got any spare drinking horns they look good hung up too,
but they are usually all in use at the average feast!
If you can get candles don't stick them in wine bottles if you can
avoid it. Cut up planks of wood with holes drilled centrally work
well, and the design was in use in the tenth century (As a find from
the Gokstad ship shows) We tried this for a viking feast recently, and
even went as far as carving fancy patterns into the wood. All the
pyromaniacs had great fun making little models out of the hot wax that
dripped onto the wood.
small pottery bowls make good candle holders aswell. You can stick a
short candle in them or ideally pour your own by tying a thick cotton
wick round a pencil, dangling it into the bowl then pouring wax round
it. The wick must be much thicker than a normal candlewick, or it will
drown in the extra wax.
If you can't have candles go for murky lighting, dim lighting comes
out much more atmospheric than a bright white glare. Take half the
bulbs out and make everybody squint if you can't alter the lighting
any other way. Lights low down work better than ones high up, and wall
lights are better than ceiling lights. (If you can switch out half the
lights switching them on again is quite a good way of getting people
moving if you need to clear the hall at the end, it's like raising the
lights at the cinema everyone automatically starts moving!)
For the tables small bowls of salt, rather than shakers are good.
If you can scrounge any jugs they look better than bottles.
We usually go for a high table with rows of lower tables at right
angles to the high table. I suppose its going to be a social thing
whether you go for that or not, but if you do you can concentrate on
making the high table a flashy centre piece to add atmosphere (give
them a tablecloth and a few jugs if you can't manage to do the same
for all the tables).
Happy feasting
Jennifer/Rannveik
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 08:39:05 -0500
From: margali <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: SC - table manners
I would love to do a formal very well researched feast, but the problem
is getting servers sometimes. A small, 25-50 person renn feast in the
style of catherine demedici would be opulent, but then again we run into
the problem of sca feast habbits. Even the early period personas
decorate the tables in a hollywood manner[with a few exceptions i have
run across] little problems like the lighting[candles] on the table,
everybody having a full place setting in front of them, decorative
centerpieces and the like. Near as I have found, the earlier feasts had
the hall lit with torches, cressets and the like not on the table, the
decorations on the table may have beena fancy cloth, as i mentioned
before often they shared place settings, in the high court feasts it was
pretty much 1 server per 2 or 4 people...and about the only centerpiece
would be the salt celler, deviding the uppers from those 'below the
salt'...
margali
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1998 01:19:49 -0600
From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)
Subject: Re: SC - Price of Feasts (was butter)
We aren't in the custom, in AEthelmearc, the East or the Mid, of buying
candles--the diners bring their own or sit in darkness. For one event I
autocratted (before we had Event Stewards or whatever they are nowadays)
I did blow a bundle (private money, not event money) on marked down
pillar candles after Christmas. I put them in the window recesses, on
the dessert tables, on side tables--it looked great, added a great deal
to the atmosphere, and dis-spelled large dark areas. Those of us in the
habit of coming in a little under budget because we've learned how to
shop, and have good resources, really ought to think about buying extra
candles. Extra, not replacing the candles we still expect the diners to
bring. It adds so much to our events.
What surprised me about the Lochac post was buying space in the
newsletter. We don't have to do that--the events are each listed as a
matter of course. There may be some places that rent chairs, tables, and
cookware, but I don't know of any.
Allison
allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA
Kingdom of Aethelmearc
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 14:52:46 -0600
From: LYN M PARKINSON <allilyn at juno.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Ambiance:
Sorry for shouting, earlier, but this does push a button! I've sat
through 17 years of feasts, some well-lit, some very dark. One reason
the room will appear to be dark is that the candles which are brought are
only used on the diners' tables, at their places. At an event I
autocratted, I put the fat, stand-alone candles all around the sides of
the room and down the serving/ dessert buffet tables. It made a
tremendous difference in the sense of light, since it eliminated that
dark area surrounding the immediate feast. We've talked about so many
cost-saving ideas on this list, we should surely be able to fit a few
candles into the budget. Don't you want people to SEE your beautiful
goodies?
One problem with the fat candles is that the entire surface does not
burn. The heat of the wick doesn't reach that far. You get lots of
light, gradually diminishing, until it burns itself a hole in the candle
center, light hidden by the 'walls', and eventually drowns itself in
melted wax. Paring down a front portion of the candles that will stand
by a wall can help, and cutting a channel for the melted wax, provided
you have a heat-proof, liquid-proof holder. Saucers are fine. The cut
away wax can be melted down and made into new candles, or molded while
warm into something interesting.
Allison
allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA
Kingdom of Aethelmearc
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 12:21:39
From: Micaylah <dy018 at freenet.carleton.ca>
Subject: Re: SC - Ambiance:
One thing we do to get around this AND let our wonderful choir see what
they are singing is to make a candle shelf.
Its like a picture frame without a back, made out of plywood, with shelves
in it to put votive candles (in glass containers) on it and is popped up on
an easel. When lit it creates wonderful ambiance with 20 or so candles on
it and provides alot of soft light just right for our type of events.
As long as these are put in a place (corner) where it is not a hazard they
work quite well and are reusuable over and over again.
Micaylah
Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2001 23:12:48 -0800
From: "E. Rain" <raghead at liripipe.com>
Subject: SC - Theme Menus What would you like your hall to look like?
Ratboy asked:
> Having been on the comittee for what turned out to be my third event,
> and haing recieved fairly good reviews, and a Silver Nautilus. I was
> curious what kinds of decor had been used for Themed Feasts around the
> country and beyond. I understand trying to be period correct, I even
> appreciate it. But this is a subject that I did not see
> alot of info on.
When Anne-Marie and I worked on our late period/OOP English Renn Feast
several years back we tried to go the whole 9 yards. we researched not only
what foods were eaten, (and in what order) but how they were served, and how
the hall was decorated. We then tried to incorporate as much of this into
the event planning as possible.
The hall we were using had big ugly pillars down either side of the feasting
area and I (with much help) created long paper flats painted to look like
English renn carved pillars (shadowed and everything), with a matching
border for the roofline all the way around the hall. There were fabric
hangings in the spaces between the pillars as well. The high table was up
on a stage, with velvet curtains which if I recall correctly, we carefully
pulled back to create the impression of a canopy over the high table. the
high table was also decorated with garlands and an appropriately excessive
number of table cloths. And there was a multi level cup-board to the side
of the high table stacked with flashy plates & cups etc. I wanted to rent a
fountain for our banquet course, but couldn't find one that looked right :-<
All in all though, it was pretty cool.
Eden - who really should have gotten pictures from that one...
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 08:32:26 -0800
From: Steve <s.mont at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: ... What would you like your hall to look like?
In our last Yule the Barony of Altavia had the good fortune to be using the
offices of a company owned by some long time SCA members. This allowed us
to do things not normally allowed, we half-timbered the main eating area,
hung banners and strung garland throughout the building, and replaced the
flourescent lights with chandeleirs. We also did the normal stuff of
covering the shelves and hiding as much of the mundane things as possible.
Ęduin of Skye,
Altavia, Caid
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 21:28:35 -0000
From: "Olwen the Odd" <olwentheodd at hotmail.com>
Subject: SC - Feast at University
As I have been wading through the email I came across some entitled feast
hall lighting. It put me in mind of the feast hall at Atlantian University.
The great care taken to every detail of the feast hall was most impressive.
I must say, I have not seen this level of detail in any other feast hall I
have been in. The tables were arranged in rows and draped with white
tablecloths. There were gold painted leaves and pinecones and such placed
along the tables. Adorning the walls were wreaths made up of the golden
foliage and twigs and ribbons. There were sweet blue and white planters
with blooming crocus in them placed among the gold foliage and lighted
candles. There were lots and lots of small lighted candles all crimson.
The High table was adorned with candles, gold painted leaves and foliage
with a golden stag leaping among.
There were platters of bread and something with shrimp lying along the
tables as a first course or appetizer. Servers came out of the kitchen with
bowls or trays and water was offered at least twice. The cooks were rousted
out of the kitchen so the feasters could give salute. During the feast a
harper played and sang and a storyteller gave entertainment as well. After
the feast the dancemaster gave lead to many couples on the dancefloor.
Well done.
Olwen
<the end>