Stitches: Long and short, split, chain.
Materials: Gold torsade #3, gilt pearl purl, silk pearl floss, linen ground.
Inspiration: Pelican panel #3, Aberdeen Beastiary ~13th century.

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/comment/35rbirdf.hti

The cloak is styled after a short cope and is made out of 19th century cotton velvet. I had some legacy fabric on hand and its been waiting for a project such as this. It is pieced in 6 pieces as the fabric I had was very long, but only 20 inches wide. The panels are attempting to mimic the diamond pattern from the beastiary. They were held to the fabric via lightweight fusible web and then appliqued down. Gold and silver gilt is being applied around the applique. It will be lined in linen.

There will be more posted about the cloak as it continues to be built.

Documentation here: Confections

So bare with me on the sugar projects for just a week or so more.  More costuming type things are in the pipeline.  I promise.

~Alesone

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From humble beginnings as medicine to the grandiose sculptures of molded sugar, confections have a long held an important role in our society.   However confectionery and pastry arts as we know them today are relatively new inventions.

In the late 19th century, Augustus Escofier formalized the modern definitions for pastry staff. Workers were no longer segregated by specialized skill set, but combined into teams, unified under a single head chef.   It is from him, we get the terms pâtissier (pastry chef- head of the pastry/desert team), boulanger (baker) , confiseur (confections) and décorateur (show pieces).1    These terms are still in use in kitchens and bakeries all across Europe.    And while each discipline is an art with a specific set of skills, there is much more cross-pollenization among workers.

Of Escofier’s classifications, the confiseur and the décorateur are probably the most visually well known. The confiseur works the chocolate and poured sugar sculptures.  The décorateur makes specialty cakes. Television programs like “Ace of Cakes”, “Food Network: Extreme Challenges” and “Cake Boss”, have exposed many of the confectionery tricks of the trade.  A wide range of the population now knows what goes on under the pretty covers of modern pastry.  Words such as gum paste, fondant and support structures have become part of our everyday vocabulary.

(I need a transition here.  I will write one eventually.).

Confection 2
1.    any sweet preparation of fruit, nuts, etc, such as a preserve or a sweet
2.    the act or process of compounding or mixing
3.    anything regarded as over elaborate or frivolous

Confectioner 3
1.    a person who makes or sells sweets or confections.
2.    synonymous with the term, pastry chef.

In looking at modern definitions, we see little acknowledgment of the role of confections and confectioners have played in our society.  It is easy to see why people to equate confections with desert. But this was not always the case.

(Moving on to medieval definitions.)

Root-[Latin: confectiō a preparing;  conficere to produce]

End notes:
1. Gisslen, Wayne. Professional Cooking. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print.
2. “confection.” Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers.
3. “confectioner.” Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers.

What is a Confectioner
Modern term

Why is this important

Period term
Cooks vs confectioner
The apothecary connection

Basic history
Sumptuary Laws
Guild system

Specialized ingredients
Sugar

Flow of sugar
Growth of refining
Italy to England

Tragacanth gum

Properties
Grades
Availability
Tragacanth vs Arabic

Sugar paste
Medicinal
Sweets
Sculptural

Armatures
Functional

Bibliography

Recipes

Period
Modern

So I poked around a bit.

It appears the confectioners were generally the folks who had access to this chemical. And the confectioners were usually attached to apothecaries (who controlled the sugar and the chemicals). It was not uncommon for the sugar artist to be a sculptor or come from the local apothecary. For example, in 1574 a banquet was held to woo Henry III of France as he passed through Venice on the way to his coronation in France. The sculptures were based on designs by sculptor Jacopo Sansovino and executed by local apothecary Niccolo della Cavalliera. In late fifteenth century England, the official title of the King’s apothecary was “Serjeant Confectioner”.

Which of course lead to the all important question, why were sugar artist coming out of the apothecaries. A little digging later… and things make a lot more sense.

The key is the term, confectioner: a person who confects. Confect: to make up, compound, or prepare from ingredients or materials. Sugar was originally used in medicinal compounds. The age old adage of a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.

Robert de Montpellier, spicer-apothecary to Henry III, supplied powders for hypocras, electuaries, spices, medicines and confection to the court in the mid 1200s. In the 1300′s we get the disputes in Italy between the grocers and the apothecaries over who could confect medicine (and subsequently sweets as medicine and decorative food stuff). In 1432 Duke Albrech II decreed in Vienna ” merchants shall not bring any confections from Venice, neither shall they nor the shopkeepers sell them; but the apothecaries who reside here shall make such confections and trade in them.”

This is right around the time period where confection started taking the dual role of medicine and the emerging craft of sweet making. It is also when the guild status of apothecaries become solidified.

It is also right around the same time period where Europe begins to refine its own sugar. Italy was one of the first countries to refine white sugar for general consumption. Thus starting to break the Middle East’s hold on sugar importing. It is also one of the reasons Italy is where we find many of the first sugar paste recipes. The flow of recipes and raw material starts there and then migrates west.

So confectioner is not a new concept. The application of the art of confections simply, changed.

I am going to do one project, in three categories.  I have amassed quite a bit of information about the origins of sugar paste and cutting it down into 3 digestible pages of “documentation” would be problematic. I was already docked on this last year by going over a page or 2 from this limit.I will be entering research paper, heraldry and I’ve asked to be judged under confectionery (it doesn’t exist, but it probably should, or apothecary). It will probably get moved to cooking, but I can ask.

The main goal is to produce something that resembles an English Galleon.  Not necessarily  the Golden Hinde, but it is one of the more famous ones that the public would have had access to.  The ship will be 1/2 half of the Robert May “account” of a 12th Night subtlety.  I will be using SCA heraldry.  My patron is the Sabine de Kerbriant, Baroness of Bhakail.  Her naval Captain is Griffith Davion of the Argent Tyger, who has a letter of mark from Kronrad I.  This gives me the armory,colors and placement of the heraldry.

I will put the recipes, glossary and bibliography in as Appendices. Judges can look at them if they want to, but they do not have to. Since I am not “cooking”, the recipes and ingredients are not as critical to the overall project.

I can pull all of the history of sugar paste,connections to apothecaries and why cooks didn’t work in sugar paste, into a separate document. I can focus on heraldry specifically in it’s own document.  And I can tackle the actual build on it’s own.

Well that is the plan as it stands today.

This is what I was greeted with.

It started like this:

The entire piece crystallized. You can see parts of the colored sugar and lines because of the flash. Due to this, I elected not to pour a top coat for the Salamander piece. I entered this into the A&S competition anyway. I wanted people to see what can happen to sugar when it is left to the elements. The chess pieces that went with the board poured nicely. But they were also sealed with varnish after they were dry.

The piece ended up being a great conversation starter. And I think people learned something.

Seamstresses: Barry the White, Ysmay de Lynn and Alesone Gray
Weaving and brocade: Lianor de Matos
Belt buckle: Muin maqq Minain

Photos by Cateline la Broderesse.

The bodice for the swabian gown has been appliqued,beaded, pieced and stitched.  All that remains is to attach the pleated skirt and hook/eyes. And to trim all the little thready bits.