One of the joys of Dystopia Rising (DR) is the opportunity to craft props. Recently, my character acquired a shield built from an old sign she found while visiting the Eternal Kingdom (i.e. the United Kingdom). The shield itself was built by another player using insulation foam and duct tape,Continue Reading
I have an imaginary friend. More precisely, my imaginary character has a friend, a very close friend, and that friendship has become the most complex relationship in my imaginary life. Amari and Naran are characters in a Babylon 5 LARP I play once a month. Amari is a very capableContinue Reading
Although the general wisdom is you don’t clean coins (although I sometimes do anyway, which I will cover in a future post), cleaning Roman coins is actually a hobby in and of itself, and its one of the first things I got into when I dived down the numismatic rabbitContinue Reading
The New York Penny is a problematic term. First of all, it was called a duit, not a penny. Second, they were never made in New York. And, third, they were never even meant to be in New York. When the Dutch Republic founded New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island inContinue Reading
With all of my showcase pieces selling out last month, I’ve made a couple more. This one isn’t as over-the-top as I originally planned. I found the extra embellishments just took away from the overall piece, so I scrapped them. The Coin The coin is an Egyptian 5 piastres fromContinue Reading
My coin jewelry pieces for Reminted Jewelry have slowly been getting more complicated. The first one was never actually for sale; it’s meant for steampunk conventions (whether I’m vending or not). It’s three strings of amethyst and crystal featuring a Victorian shilling. It’s completely over-the-top, which is my usual steampunkContinue Reading
One of the things I love about art fairs is interacting with children. I’ve had very few troublesome kids. Some completely don’t care what I do, but some of them are really curious once they figure out it’s all money. Some are impressed with their age. I carry around aContinue Reading
In 2013, the author of Commemorating Augustus conducted a survey in which people on the street in Leeds, UK, were asked: “We would like to find out which Roman emperors people are most familiar with. If I ask you to name a Roman emperor, what is the first name thatContinue Reading
Wanted: Roman Emperor. Lifetime position. Unlimited benefits. Good grasp of military budgets essential. People skills encouraged. Good chance of assassination. Apply today! For all the power of the Roman emperors, they had a dismal survival rate. Only about 30% died of natural causes. Everyone else died of assassination, warfare, orContinue Reading
One day, a call from my dad went something like this: I was going through your mother’s things and found this…coin? Something round. Seems old. Roman? Figured it had to be yours. It did not, in fact, belong to me. When I was a kid, my grandfather tried getting meContinue Reading