How to Prepare for a Circus When You Have No Skills

Well, I can kinda juggle balls and kinda spin contact staff, but the people I'll be performing with are pros. They have amazing skills. So I have some options:


  1. Practice like crazy
  2. Develop a pinched nerve in my back as an excuse
  3. Rely on my maker skills


Number 1 is a given. I've been working, but old dogs learn new tricks at a glacial pace. At least the old tricks are getting easier. Number 2 happened, but it's getting better. Gotta lay off the doughnuts. Number 3 is kind of a natural for me, especially when projects require new learning.

Up first was the day-glo costume. Now, I can sew, but my experience has been with harnesses, horse tack, and luggage. Clothing? Not so much. So why not a day-glo viking tunic? I started with a general pattern from the lovely Carolyn Priest-Dorman, who posted historically accurate instructions in 1997. On the internet. Whew. FabricLand had some cool day-glo synthetic twill, we have a sewing machine, and off I went. The pattern required some math to up-size all the dimensions (I think it was made for Gimli) and most of it came together in a day.
So I'll look a bit like a traffic cone. Sewing is fun. 

The Home Stretch

  Wow- this has gone really fast and kinda slow at the same time. To paraphrase a friend of mine, "Time is sorta sticky this year!"...