We have had a lovely experience doing a fairly big medieval market at the festival Fête Mediévale at Remouchamps, Belgium.
That was my first time really either in the past i was into fantasy battless and had a chance to taste living history thanks to my friends and made an experience in a historical movie with my lathe (Oh, how lucky or foolish i was really being still sort of freshman at that time..)
It had brought another challenge before the festival – completing a new market stall in a similar fashion like the previous two – light and with parts of some reasonable length for to be easily transportable. I have made some progress and managed to put together a structure that gives a shelter from the rain and strong summer sun too and which could be loaded onto my cart i am used to push through railway gates from train to train and pull back again out of passageways under or above the ground when i travel longer distances and in need to have more than my 80l bckpck:) We took a car for this time nevertheless. The advantage of having something lightweight proved to be useful as we had to walk half km to our spot (NO CARS ALLOWED IN THE BRIGHT AGES – yes, we all know the so called dark times can be seen through the stained glass too, don’t we). The longest stick has 180cm.
What we could see from the event:
I actually don’t do things based on design sourced from the artifacts found. It is very rare to see things out of wood from the deep past of the history but some of such findings are documented and give an idea about the culture of woodenware during the medieval period. We need to have on mind that wood disappears easily compared to ceramics and some other long lasting materials as it rottens fast if it is not preserved in environment free of the oxygen ie. under the water or in a layer of organic waste. We can hardly imagine numerous various forms the everyday personal things like bowls and spoons had. The traditions like the scandinavian one luckily continue these days and are more or less living in all parts of Europe, sometimes sourcing what is in the museums, and people are rediscovering the beauty of handcarved wood – imperfect, raw, beautiful without a layer of acryl, lacqueer or even oil.
There are not many people familiar with using woodenware on a daily basis. Either i was always thinking i make things for future most of the people think woodenware is that medieval thing for poor people mainly and we were making it clear they can really eat from the bowl, even a soup, scooping their tasty mouthful with a wooden spoon and its great, in many aspect better to steel or plastic or paper or biodegradable stuff designed and made for one use only.
So, please, make your experience and get enlightened! I know I recommend a good thing.
And you can follow and come to see us at another event for sure. We would be happy to see you finding a nice bowl and spoon for you or your friends or happy partner.
Spoons up!
Treenfolks 