Giuliana di Chambery
Atlantia Persona Challenge

Introduction

This page is to document my progress in the Atlantia Persona Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to encourage participants to expand their persona kit.

It’s been quite a few years since I have been very active in the SCA. First the move and the strains of a new job and then changing jobs again and finally the pandemic have all gotten in the way of my participation. Every time I feel like I can dive back in, something knocks me back. When I saw this challenge come up, I knew I had to participate, and the incremental deadlines was the perfect way to keep me motivated and moving forward.

When I work on A&S projects, I frequently get in my own way, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. I love research, and I frequently get bogged down in extensively documenting the historical process and striving to use only period tools, etc. The journey is the point in those cases. But this is different kind of challenge. It is intended to expand my kit. I have all of 3 outfits in the garb of my current persona (Well, 5, but one is so poorly constructed as to be unwearable and the other is too small to get into in these post pandemic days.

Persona

Giuliana di Chambery began as Juliana de Chambery from Savoy. I liked the choice of Savoy as it’s proximity to both France and Italy gave me flexibility in the styles available to me. I have always leaned towards the Italian styles though, so now Juliana du Chambery is born to a wealthy cloth merchant in Savoy but has married into a family based in Trento in Austria (modern day Italy). Born in the middle of the 14th century, she is now living in the closing decade of that century. She is not noble, but she belongs to an expanding class of wealthy merchants.

Challenge Item #1: Pellanda

Challenge Item #2: Shoes

Challenge Item #3: Belt

Challenge Item #4: Ivory Gravoir

I used a jewelry saw to rough out the shape and carving tools to carve the squirrel. The faux ivory is much harder to carve than wood and I am a novice carver, so I found it extremely challenging.