I had heard this well before my first Pennsic… “The shopping! OH MY GOD, THE SHOPPING!”
And my mental response was, “um, great! For what?”
(I never actually asked this, mind you. Ever since I was a wee ‘hooty, I always preferred to think first, observe later, and only ask questions as a last resort. Long before I ever heard it articulated as such, I subscribed to the “better to be silent and thought an idiot than to open one’s mouth and prove it” philosophy. This has been proven to make me appear less ditzy to friends, but less interesting to professors. Meh, I am the original Happy Medium.)
Like most of Pennsic, it is hard to explain the shopping scene. Let’s just say that at Pennsic, I have more places to shop, and for more interesting and higher quality stuff, than I have in the town I currently live in. Not that that’s saying much given my podunk place of residence, but it’s a start.
My very first shopping expedition was a couple of days into my first Pennsic (I do believe this experience has been documented, but in less detail). Someone in camp (I believe it was Scoundrel) asked, “have you been shopping yet?”
I answered, “No.”
I didn’t even know how to get TO the shopping. Seriously – had not left camp yet and had been led that far by Brother and his Truck. (Three years later, I’m still not very good at getting around much of Pennsic outside our neighborhood. Like I have said before, Blood Moon = Slacker Camp.) Regardless, I knew I needed STUFF. Most notably, a belt. I was currently borrowing one, and a pouch, from Ashlyn. She will prove to be one of my best Pennsic friends EVER. The Belt and Pouch are the Purse (or Murse) and Wallet of the Medieval world, respectively. Your Pouch holds your ID (important for parties)…your credit cards…your money…your lip balm…your sunscreen…your odds and ends that you need wherever you go. Your Belt holds onto your body said Pouch…your mug (also important for parties, as well as coffee, and water, and…believe me, you don’t know how much you need a mug AT ALL TIMES until you’ve been to Pennsic)…your camera (a perfectly acceptable form of Creative Anachronism)…your knife (steel is a generally accepted and envied form of accessory)…your cell phone (if you’re one of THOSE – I am now seasoned enough that it is no longer jarring to see a man in a tunic talking shop on an iPhone)…and anything else you want to carry around.
Clearly, until you have a Belt (and, to a lesser extent, a Pouch), you aren’t REALLY at Pennsic.
So…I go to the cheap leatherworker’s tent. I buy a belt. It is the cheapest belt possible – a thin, long strip of leather with a ring at the end of it. But it works. And will continue to work for another year. Basically, I no longer feel nekkid. And return the (much nicer) borrowed belt to Ashlyn. I keep the pouch, though, because pouches are EXPENSIVE. I can’t quite wrap my head around what people are willing to spend for something they only use once a year. Also, a member of our clan is teaching me to crochet, and I am determined to crochet myself a pouch. (Which also works for another year.)
Thus begins one category of Pennsic vendor: the leather guys. No, not Leather Guys…these are guys who make useful things out of leather. These guys make belts, pouches, armor, accessories for belts, scabbards, sandals, and pretty much anything you could ever want out of leather. Some of them also sell just plain leather. Leatherworking is a popular Pennsic pasttime because it is slow - Slow crafts are especially well-suited for two week periods with very little responsibility.
But I am getting ahead of myself. My first trip to the merchants, I am on a mission, and then just browse. I don’t REALLY start to shop for a few days. During the Wednesday of the second week of Pennsic (also known as War Week, since this is when all of the battles occur), Midnight Madness happens.
Midnight Madness is pretty much what it sounds like – the vendors usually close up shop early in the afternoon and reopen in the evening, in order to stay open until the wee hours. Sometimes they have special sales, but (like most of the special things that happen at Pennsic) this is really just an excuse for a social event. People put on nicer garb, because basically they are going to Town. We fill our mugs with something tasty and sip as we browse.* Certain items, such as jewelry, are not bought at Midnight Madness because you can’t really see them in the lower light. But you Scout.
My very first Midnight Madness…I bought a very small cow made of stone. And possibly some small pewter badges. Not much. But I had so much fun! Some of my favorite pictures from that first year were taken at Midnight Madness. I still fondly remember trying on silly hats, ogling the aforementioned pewter badges (they are authentically Period, but rather risque…they would certainly make certain gentle readers blush. I bought more this year!), and ordering Turkish coffee from a man pushing a cart. The sensory memory of that coffee is intense. This…THIS is where I start to get that OH MY GOD THE SHOPPING!
There are:
Fabric vendors, selling quality fabrics like linen, wool, and silk at prices you simply will not find anywhere else.
There are:
Vendors with reels and reels of decorative trims. JoAnn Fabrics has, like, 5. AND THEY SUCK. Trim is something else you can’t possibly understand unless you have tried to make garb.
There are:
SO many people selling pottery! AND THEY’RE GOOD AT IT! Most of you reading know that I have not one, but TWO potters in my family (one is quite Hairy…get it? Ah, to heck with ya). All of my dishes are handmade…and I am on my second set. I have a ceramic colander. I have a ceramic mushroom pot. I DO NOT NEED TO BUY CERAMICS. But I buy them at Pennsic.
At my second Pennsic, I bought my jingle goblet:
It looks unassuming, but there is a jingle bell concealed in the base. You can only ring it (safely) when the goblet is empty, or preferably nearly so.
The man selling these is genius. They look almost primitive, and come in different solid colors. They all have different prices. You do not realize until you pick them up and ring them that they are priced, not by looks, but by SOUND. I paid top dollar for the one with the best ring. It was TOTALLY worth it – if you jingle it long enough, someone will appear with a beverage in order to shut you up. Chivalry? Or low tolerance for high-pitched jingly noises? The world will never know.
I also bought my Wee Mug:
In the words of one clanmate, “Did you put mug in dryer on too high heat???”
The Wee Mug is a VERY generous shotglass. With a handle!
(Handle is concealed in picture due to a particularly shoddy hand model.)
Hell…my BROTHER buys ceramics at Pennsic. I have NEVER seen Brother buy pottery anywhere…except for one booth at Pennsic. This booth does the most amazingly beautiful pottery I have ever seen. Case in point, this year’s indulgence:
I also bought another cup with the most incredible brass patina glaze on it. This pic really does not do justice to the gorgeousness of these glazes. (Mental note: do pottery photography in daylight.) The chemist at my core giggles in glee at good glazes (say THAT three times fast), and these FEEL SO GOOD too. SPECTACULAR pottery!
These are not the ones that my brother buys…these are much more affordably priced. That’s right…It. Gets. Better! But there is not a thing in their booth I don’t drool over. GOR. GEOUS.
There are:
Jewelry vendors. My most significant purchase at my first Pennsic was my poison ring:
And thus ends my career as a hand model.
It is significant because the stone is a Moonstone. I belong to Blood Moon Clan. Get it? If they had one with a Bloodstone I would have bought it too. I still wear it nearly every day – as a chemist, I have always found poison rings cool, and this particular vendor is the only place I have ever found one small enough to not look ridiculous on my incredibly stubby, small fingers. Who cares if the payload is so small I would have to load it with botulism to make it a lethal dose??? My students ask about it regularly. The ones that ask think it is cool. I love this damn thing.
There are:
Miscellaneous vendors. This year, I spent a ridiculous amount of money at a tent that sold yarn and hand-blown glass jewelry. I spent a sensible amount of money at a tent that sold the most comfortable wooden chair I have ever had the pleasure of sitting in (did not buy) and the most awesome leather-clad hip flask I have ever had the pleasure of holding (totally DID buy):
The flask (in Blood Moon colors – red and black!) was purchased. The belt loop (which is probably a more ingenious design than the creator ever fully realized) was fashioned by Chieftain. Like I said, leatherwork is a popular pasttime at Pennsic. I now owe him a tiny crocheted monster as payment.
I’ve also been known to buy the occasional hip scarf (especially coins for bellydancing), pair of earrings, etc. to inject my persona into my garb. You can easily spend hundreds of dollars. Pirate boots? Medieval musical instruments? Puppets? Chain mail? The more you spent last year…the more you will spend this year. And so on…and so forth.
Pennsic: the original self-fulfilling prophecy.
*NOTE: Drinking in public is perfectly acceptable, nay encouraged, at Pennsic. There are occasions where you are judged harshly for walking around with an empty mug. Seriously, a man’s worth is directly proportional to the quality and the content of the mug he carries. I shit you not.
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