[Nfb-krafters-korner] (no subject)

Mon Jul 26 15:08:08 UTC 2010

Can one of you explain what a sca is, please.  Is this a religious group, craft group, a group that holds a craft fair, I have no idea?  What does crafts have to do with fencing. I thought fencing was a sport?

Terry Powers

-----Original Message-----
From: Jewel S. [mailto:herekittykat2 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2010 11:26 AM
To: List for blind crafters and artists
Subject: Re: [Nfb-krafters-korner] (no subject)

I'll kinda stick my big nose in here. I was a member of the SCA for 5 years. I have been considering if I would be capable of returning to the group. After I lost my vision, I found it very hard to participate, as very few people were willing to show me around and even if I learned the layout of a site, it'd be different the next time based on tent set-up. The only site I can count on being fairly similar every year is Pennsic, but...that's at the same time of year as the National Convention, which I plan on attending next year. Can't do both...way too costly. I have considered doing an every-other-year schedule between the two.

When I was in the SCA, though, I was an illuminator. A pretty good one, if I do say so myself, and my Award of Arms and other awards given because of my work as a scribe agree with my assessment of my talent. After the injury that took my site, I was lost...scribing was my whole life in the SCA! Most of my Scadian friends are scribes, and I spent most of my time at events working on scrolls, seeing that scrolls were ready for court, doing last-minute scrolls, or displaying my work in competitions.

Now, I know there are other crafts I could do in the SCA, like basketweaving, garb-making, woodcarving, and even embroidery (though it wouldn't be the same for me, who did freehand embroidery based on how I thought it would best represent fur, feathers, clothing, etc)...but it is hard for me to imagine the SCA without scribing.

>From my experience, the SCA is a hard place for a blind person to fit
in. Most of the attendees are not disabled, though there are some people using motorized scooters. I have not seen a single blind person in the SCA in the five years I participated. The layout of sites is absolutely a nightmare for the blind person. Tents are placed according to size and space, not in any special layout, except for the vendors, ropes and stakes are sticking out everywhere with only an orange tie to warn peple, and travel to activities may be across a field, a field and a road, through the woods, or any combination of landscape.

If my health improved, I would love to return to fencing (I gave it up after trying because of chronic pain and fatigue), but the problem with a blind SCA fencer is that the combat area is rarely flat, often has holes that fighters can twist ankles or fall over, and fencing is done in a 3-D fashion, not the back-and-forth of Olympic fighting.
When I tried it before, I found I couldn't really wear my glasses under the fencing mask, so I was very impaired in my vision before, but I also often fell over holes in the ground, rocks, and lost sight of my opponent, who may have retreated quite a distance.

Now, I'm not saying the SCA can't become a place that blind participants would be welcome. I am only saying that it will be a difficult road for anyone trying it now. They have silent heralds (deaf interpreters) who are rarely used in Atlantia (the kingdom I live in), but I have yet to see any accommodations for blind participants. Some of the indoor sites (like schools for University) did not even have Braille to mark the doors and I was scolded for standing at the schedule book for too long (I was using my handheld CCTV to copy my schedule, given to me in small-type print, onto another paper with a 20/20 pen since, at the time, I had enough vision to see that).

That is just my experience with the SCA. I would love to hear about your experience, Terrence, and anyone else who has tried the SCA.

~Jewel

On 7/24/10, Marianne Denning <mdenning at cinci.rr.com> wrote:
> Terrence, what is your role in SCA?  I have been interested in SCA for 
> many years but have never pursued it.
>
> Marianne Denning
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Terrence van Ettinger" <terrencevane at gmail.com>
> To: <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2010 10:50 AM
> Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] (no subject)
>
>
>> Hello, all,
>> Just thought I'd go ahead and give you all a bit of an intro, having 
>> just come on board last night.  I do a couple different crafts, 
>> mostly things I've taken up in the SCA over the past 3 years, some of 
>> which I practice fairly regularly, others I sort of dabble in.  My 2 
>> most frequent craft types are kumihimo braiding and lucet, though I 
>> am trying to pick up inkle
>>
>> weaving more consistently.  I also have a coiled basket that I've 
>> been working on sporadically for some time now, and occasionally do a 
>> bit of leather work.  I think I've leaned toward the cord-making 
>> methods so much because of their portability.  For a while, I was a 
>> woodturner, before I moved to take my current job, but that didn't 
>> work out for a number of reasons.  I have also dabbled a bit in Origami, but it's been a while.
>> It's something I mean to pick up again at some point though and learn 
>> a few more designs.  I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone and 
>> perhaps picking up some new ideas.  And if anyone has questions about 
>> anything I've mentioned, I'll be more than happy to explain/answer 
>> anything.
>>
>> Terrence
>>
>> Twitter: www.twitter.com/terrencevane Kingdoms Live Code: bgc5a6 
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