Mistress Roslyn McLaren (Meridies)

Border Raids was hot, too hot for me anyway. Mistress Caitlin and I spent a good part of the morning Saturday sitting at the torches, makin' beads and having a good ole' time. Unfortunately, we only had two or three people stop by to watch during that time. The afternoon was just too hot to be melting glass, so when Their Majesties of the Middle and Meridies came by to visit, we were pretty much sitting around like slugs roasting in the sun. Her Majesty of the Middle Noelle seemed impressed by the Artisan's Row concept, and of course, Her Majesty Letherenn was as gracious and beautiful as ever.

Magistra Cassandra Eleanora di Milano (Middle Kingdom)

Though hot, I felt it was successful in that I know several people "saw" my stuff and seeing is half the battle or better yet, gives one ideas. Maybe they can't do much that day but neat stuff seen sticks in the mind... and then someday when they are cool and comfortable...(evil cackle).

If I had thought to ask about camping in Artisan's Row (which is a fabulous idea) hubby and I would have been glad to and we actually would have been more comfortable and able to be more sociable. We've gotten our pavilion and it's contents to all look period and I think it would be an asset. Ditto with the idea of sharing a meal, an excellent idea I've never encountered before.

Actually you all were working pretty hard for the heat and it spurred me on to do what turned out to be a scroll blank. Left to my own devices I probably would have gone the lazy route and just sat there, LOL.

The placement of the A-Row was excellent, people couldn't miss it.

I learned a lot and am excited about trying some of it up here in the Middle Kingdom. I also hope (keeping fingers crossed) I can finally attend my first ever Gulf Wars next year and be part of the Artisan's Row there.

Overall I wanted to say you are the NICEST bunch of people, I look forward to our next trip to Meridies whenever that may be.

The Honorable Lady Serena da Riva (Meridies)

I would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome to the Row. I throughly enjoyed the weekend and look forward to doing it again.

After getting set up in the morning Marie de Ceo and myself set about redacting 2 of the 4 rissole recipies we had to demo. We had several people stop by and make rissoles. Some individuals staying for an extended period of time. We had people making and eating rissoles as well as people pounding on almonds in a mortar and pestle - assisting in making one filling.

We might have looked more busy than others because we had many friends stop by and hang out for a time throughout the day. I believe this was because of my charming personality ;) but mostly because we were one of the few places where there was a reliable breeze.

We began preparing supper around 3 o'clock and it was then that people bagan coming up to discuss Calligraphy & Illumination - of course! Most of these individuals were coming because of my kingdom office - but I encouraged them to look at the beautiful display of books and bragged on my fellow artisans.

As always we prepared too much food, and everyone got fed. It was a joy to prepare and I now feel more confident about cooking in a more primitive environment. If we are to do this again it would be best to have a better idea of how many people we would be feeding and have provisions to seat everyone properly. I personally do not care for the "buffet" serve yourself style - but you make do where you can.

I hope this is what you are looking for in a report. The basics would be: We had a great time and around 10 - 12 people participated in the presented demo. There was much in the way of chatting about period food and I believe everyone learned something. I personally learned a good little bit about wood carving.

It was too hot....next year, I will pay attention to the weather report before committing myself to going. The heat was such a detriment that I think the participation at Artisans Row was very low because of it. Having the A&S class tents there with us was the main draw to the attention we got other than folks drifting by to the rapier fighting and hounds coursing.

I was told the merchants didn't do well either. The fighting field was about a half a mile away across a hot pokey-stubble hay field. Didn't see any of those folks until court actually.

I demonstrated wood carving. The most interested party was Roz. There were three others that I actually gave a demo to and gave 2 handouts to, and a few others that engaged in conversation about woodcarving. I didn't get much carving done really.

I loved having my camping tent right next to the demo tent. Even though I slept in my little camper very close by. Having my food and clothes and stuff there was very convenient and comfortable.
The food from Serena and her crew was amazingly welcome, tasty, and undeniably the highlight of the weekend. Much appreciation and many thanks to them. Her cooking demonstration was busy with interested parties all day long I might add.

I have been watching the weather reports for that area since my return, and they "cook" there on a regular basis. It has been 98 degrees there this week!

Caiterina ingen Ruaidri (Meridies)

I would first like to thank those who did stay at Artisan's Row for their understanding in my situation. I regret that I was unable to fulfill my obligation to stay at AR, but I felt better being in camp giving my husband beer and Mike's Hard Cranberry Drink in our successful effort to flush the evil kidney stones from his system.

I taught Sprang the first hour. Although I had only one student at that time, two others did come by our camp. One was a lady whom I met at Arts of War during a Sprang class, and we worked on completing her project. The one in class and the second one were both new to the craft, but did seem to enjoy the possibilities. I did hand out the usual items: frame and accompanying items as well as hard copy of brief explanation, documentation, history. After the numbers I've had at other events, I was a bit disappointed, but perhaps it being the first hour made the numbers so light. I'm just guessing here. It could have been that some were still setting up or hadn't arrived on site or were involved in something else...

I was scheduled to teach beginning knitting in the afternoon, but instead 4 of us ended up in a round-table discussion of history, projects, and general discussion of "could they have done...." The four of us actually stay past the ending time. Although we didn't have refreshments, it could have been a Knitters' Tea, perhaps a Knitters' Water. We did discuss the lack of beginner participation and felt the heat was a problem.