These kids had no fear of the horses or of the tricks. They were doing all sorts of things, including handstands and backflips, all on top of a trotting horse. This black horse didn't do as well as the other one, because this was its first show. But the kids were great.
After that, we decided to start looking around at the booths. One of the most impressive things to me is that there are people who keep certain traditions and skills alive. The first of many that we saw was a potter. He had some chairs set up around him for people to sit and watch. At first I was going to walk right on by, but I actually love watching pottery being handmade. We sat down and as soon as he started spinning that wheel, I was totally mesmerized. I remember my siblings and I took a pottery class one summer a long time ago, and I remember how the clay felt soft and slippery as I molded and shaped it. I loved feeling the earth in my hands like that, and I especially loved getting dirty. I could almost feel the clay in my own hands while this potter turned and turned the lump of earth into a tall and elegant pot. If I hadn't been worried about time (and that Linda was bored out of her mind), I would have stayed and watched him for the rest of the day. I was hypnotized.
The next few booths had people with all different skills and hobbies. There were a couple of guys who knew all about armor. We saw lots of chain mail yesterday. They even had chain mail ties, bracelets, earrings, and watch bands, which I didn't think to take pictures of.
There were these two women singing Renaissance-y folk songs. That weird instrument is called a hurdy gurdy, and it's almost as annoying as a harpsichord, or a saxophone. It didn't sound anything like them, but I think that harpsichords and saxophones are obnoxious and sound horrible. But I do think it's cool that she not only has one, but she knows how to play it, and the type of music that was originally played on it.
There was a basket weaver.
And violin makers. I had no idea that there was a violin-making school in Salt Lake. I never really thought about how some instruments were made; I guess I just assumed that there were more machines involved. So I was really amazed to find out that it's all done by hand. The finished products are beautiful!
There were some falconers. I didn't even know this was a job. These guys legally go find falcons and other birds to sell to private owners instead of zoos. They had some very impressive birds. The first three pictures are of a golden eagle, and the fourth is of a peregrine falcon. There were more birds, but they were in the tent taking a break.
There were a couple different woodworkers using different kinds of machines. I didn't take a picture of one of them, but it basically was like a saddle on top of a block of wood, and it had a clamp to hold down whatever the guy was working on. This is from the first guy:
The second guy was making a chair leg. The machine was pretty simple, but I'm not very good at explaining how machines work... it was like there was a string wrapped around the wood, which was attached to a bungee cord on top, and a foot pedal on bottom. So when he brought the pedal down, the wood would spin one way, and then he'd release it, and the bungee cord would relax and it would spin the wood the other way. Does that make sense? Whew, I hope so! It was a nifty machine, in any case.
There was a guy who looked like Benjamin Franklin (not his costume, but his face) with a printing press. Apparently there's a museum in Provo with a real Gutenberg press. This is from their website, "Currently, no other museum in the world has a fully working authentic Gutenberg Press with a complete set of the actual movable type made in the same manner as in the 15th Century Gutenberg Print Shop." And it's right here in Provo! Who knew?
There was a guy there writing things out in calligraphy.
And for some reason, there was a Chinese guy next to him writing people's names in Chinese. I don't know what that has to do with the Renaissance, but whatever. He didn't speak English, so there was a lady there that would take your name, and then they would discuss how to translate it into Chinese. Since there's no "r" sound in Chinese, the closest they could come up with for my name was "Elin." Close enough.
There was another guy next to them who had a few posters up about family crests and things like that, so I went over to him hoping that he could explain what the colors and patterns represented, if anything. What ended up happening was seriously disappointing. My roommate and I sat there for like 20 minutes while he rambled on and on about how to draw the outline of them using a compass and angles... This is what I ended up with:
Seriously, why would anyone choose the very least interesting part about family crests and ladies' lozenges and talk about that? See, now you want to know what a ladies' lozenge is, because I just mentioned it; now let me tell you about its angles and how to draw it with a compass. That's how I felt the whole time talking to him, that he never explained what the stuff was or what it meant in the culture at the time. My roommate and I were both dying to get away, but he just kept drawing and talking about angles, and we felt obligated to stay.
Later I came across another booth where the person actually talked about the meanings of what the crests meant and could look up ones of your family. This is the Leue's:
The lion stands for bravery; the sword for military honor. Red indicates warriors or martyrs; yellow indicates generosity and elevation of the mind, whatever that means. I think the leaves are oak leaves, which would mean great strength. The helmet denotes wisdom and security in defense; strength, protection, invulnerability.
See? Isn't that much more interesting than how to draw it?
There's still so much more that I saw at the fair, and so I'm going to break it up into another post as well. More to come!
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