CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--GUEST AUTHOR JOYCE LAVENE ON TAPESTRY WEAVING

The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry

Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, best-selling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook and Ellie Grant. They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, Amazon, and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. Learn more about them and their books at their website. Today Joyce stops by to tell us all about tapestry weaving, the craft featured in their latest Renaissance Faire Mystery series.

Tapestry Weaving

We have incorporated a craft in each of our Renaissance Faire Mysteries because our protagonist, Jessie Morton, was working on her dissertation: Renaissance Crafts in Modern Day. Each of the themes have been a craft that was used during the Renaissance: basket weaving, glass making, swords and daggers, hats, and toys.

In the sixth Ren Faire Mystery, Murderous Matrimony, Jessie is the new director of the Renaissance Village Arts and Crafts Museum. She is two weeks away from marrying her longtime beau, Bailiff Chase Manhattan.

Murder upsets her plans, and the ghost of her nemesis, Wanda Le Fey haunts her, but she still opens the museum on time. Her first exhibit features a tapestry weaver.

Traditional tapestry, from the old French, tapisserie, is rectangular and flat-woven.  Tapestry weaving is woven by shapes or colors as the design progresses. It is a form of textile art, woven on a vertical or floor loom.  Most weavers use a warp thread such as linen or cotton. The weft threads may be the same, but may also include silk, or metallic threads.

The accessibility and portability of a tapestry is what made it so successful as an early art form. The rich could transport tapestries, and use them as needed to show their birthright, wealth, and power. Churches displayed them on special occasions. Tapestries were also used as decorative insulation on castle walls.

Though tapestries have been used since the early Greeks hung them in the Third Century BC,  they didn’t become popular until the 14^th century in Europe.  And while the craft has expanded worldwide, the basic tools remain the same.

Today, tapestry weavers and their art can be found everywhere. Tapestries, depicting every form of life in their multi-colored threads, hang in cathedrals, mansions, and every day homes.

Murderous Matrimony

In less than two short weeks, Jessie Morton will marry Chase Manhattan at the Renaissance Faire Village and Marketplace. But so much can go wrong in that short time. A man is murdered in Jessie's new Arts and Crafts Museum, and her assistant is being scrutinized for the deed. Chase's brother and parents have arrived and are still against their marriage. Wanda's ghost is busy making Jessie's life miserable. The Ren Faire wedding of her dreams may never take place. Can she talk Chase into eloping before it's too late?

Buy Link

CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA - GUEST AUTHORS AND CRAFTERS JOYCE AND JIM LAVENE

I'm turning over our Monday craft day today to Joyce and Jim Lavene, co-authors of bestselling mystery novels. They've written and published more than 60 novels for Harlequin, Berkley and Charter Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. Their current novel is Treacherous Toys, book #5 in the Renaissance Faire Mystery series set in Myrtle Beach. Learn more about them at their website. 

Joyce and Jim are offering a copy of Treacherous Toys to one of our readers who posts a comment. Be sure to stop back on Sunday to learn if you're the winner. -- AP

Making Wooden Toys for Christmas

Our protagonist, Jessie Morton, in the Renaissance Faire Mysteries takes on a different craft as an apprentice with each book. Of course, murder isn’t far behind, but she is genuinely interested in what she’s learning.

Jessie is working on her thesis, The Proliferation of Renaissance Crafts in Modern Times. She’s learned arrow making and archery, sword making and sword play, hat making and weaving baskets, among other efforts. She’s not always the best at what she learns, but she works hard.

In the fifth book in the series, she is learning to make wooden toys at Renaissance Faire Village. Her mentor is Father Christmas who is a little on the devilish side but a master toymaker. Her apprenticeship may be one of her shortest yet when he's found dead. Unfortunately, there's a long list of suspects – Chris Christmas liked the ladies.

One of the things Jessie learns about Renaissance crafts is that you have to develop patience. Craftsmanship wasn’t rushed hundreds of years ago. A master craftsman lived or died according to the time and effort he put into his work. His reputation was everything.

Toys were very simple, meant to appeal to the child’s imagination. This might include toy swords, bows and arrows, hand puppets, whistles, wooden stick puppets, wooden cup-and-ball toys.  Today’s Father Christmas might create wooden trucks, animals and bendable toys. These would be brightly painted but very basic.

The Renaissance Faire of the 1500s was very different from today. While our modern faires and festivals seem to be a hodgepodge of foods, rides, characters and shows, they do have some order. Early faires and festivals were spots for people to come together, maybe once or twice a year, and could get quite rowdy.

Craftsmen, like Father Christmas, would be at these events – hopefully not with such tragic consequences as are found in Treacherous Toys.

Watch a video that shows how to make a wooden toy train.

Thanks for joining us today, Joyce and Jim! Readers, if you'd like a chance to win a copy of Treacherous Toys, post a comment. And don't forget to check back on Sunday to see if you're the winner. -- AP