January 15, 2012

the wheelwrights’ yard

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On our free afternoon, several symposium attendees made their way to the wheelwrights’ shop to meet the artisans and see what they were up to.

On this day — and for quite a number of days lately — they were splitting white-oak logs for spokes. Several big trees had come down on Williamsburg-owned land during a recent hurricane, and the wheelwrights were the lucky recipients of this unexpected bounty. There are so many logs that they will apparently have enough split wood to last through several years’ worth of spokes.

They explained to us that they use white oak for spokes and ash (from the center of the logs) for hubs. Once split, each piece of wood has to dry for one year per inch of thickness, so a twelve-inch chunk of ash must dry for an astonishing twelve years before it can be made into a hub.

In the lean-to next to the wheelwrights’ workshop is the blacksmith’s shop, and we were able to peek in there as well.

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January 14, 2012

our free afternoon

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Yesterday morning featured several fascinating lectures, which I’ve summarized on Twitter (here).

During the morning’s breaks, everyone gathered for snacks and drinks and another stroll through the trade fair.

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Bowman Leather (Dan and his son Jacob) have a display of their lovely harness, and these handmade bits

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Louise Ellis makes beautiful jewelry from antique buttons, bridle rosettes, and poker / game pieces ... and braided horsehair (shown here)

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After the morning’s final lecture, we all had a free afternoon to visit the Colonial Williamsburg stables and the Historic Area and its trade shops.

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On my walk to the stables, I passed these 18th-c. men playing a game of horseshoes

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this Landau was built by Colonial Williamsburg in 1960; it was used (driven by Richard Nicoll) for HM The Queen's visit to Williamsburg in 2007

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this Demi-Landau was probably built in Philadelphia sometime between 1818 and 1840; it can be driven by a coachman or, with the coachman's seat removed, by a postilion

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... a close-up of the Demi-Landau

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the Riding Chair was basically just that: a chair on wheels

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in the harness room, I met this sweetie, who was lying on top of a bucket full of towels

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detail of a driving bridle in the harness room; I assume these bridles go with the Landau above, as the squirrel on the panels (below) is repeated here on the blinkers

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the Landau's squirrel

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in the aisleway of the stables was a display with information on Colonial Williamsburg's important rare-breeds program, including a live appearance by this, and one other, Leicester Longwool sheep, and several rare breeds of chickens

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After leaving the stables, I walked through town to the wheelwrights’ shop. I’ll post photos from that visit tomorrow.

 

January 13, 2012

the anniversary party

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Yesterday evening, we gathered for a dinner / party to celebrate the CAA’s 50th anniversary …

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some of the lovely food on the impressive buffet tables at last night’s party
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After dinner, Colonel Davis and then Ken Wheeling and then other members stood up to recount stories and tell everyone what they have enjoyed most about the CAA; Richard Nicoll (shown here) shared a funny story of how he was apprenticed to Tom Ryder

 
 

January 12, 2012

the first day is done

Posted by Jennifer under CAA/CWF Symposia | Tags: |
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As you’ve gathered by now, today was the first full day at this year’s International Carriage Symposium.

Rather than try to recap today’s outstanding lectures, I encourage you to review some of the highlights here. Or, better yet, follow me on Twitter! Then you’ll be able to keep up with my “live tweeting” during the remaining two days of the symposium.

Just a couple of photos from this afternoon:

Mark Schneider wins the award, I think, for the best entrance of all the speakers so far. He’s an interpreter here at Colonial Williamsburg and he usually portrays Frenchmen. To begin his talk, he strode dramatically into the room (in costume) and, just as dramatically, began his introduction in fluent French. He was speaking about a 1744 book called Le Parfait Cocher, or The Perfect Coachman, and he was clearly channeling the book’s eighteenth-century author. Immediately, a multitude of cell-phone cameras started clicking, and Andres Furger (a fellow speaker) stood up to record the proceedings.

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After the day’s final speaker, everyone gathered in the trade fair room, first to admire and then to queue up for a piece of cake, which the hotel had kindly provided in honor of the CAA’s fiftieth anniversary.

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everyone admired the three-dimensional wheels on the chocolate carriage

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January 11, 2012

having arrived …

Posted by Jennifer under CAA/CWF Symposia | Tags: |
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… we’re faced this morning with a mostly empty room in the Williamsburg Lodge. Most of the tables, etc. are in place, and we (and others) will be setting up trade-fair booths, the registration table, tonight’s welcome reception, etc.

And I realized, late last night / early this morning, that I totally neglected to post anything yesterday. Sorry for the lapse.

Yesterday was a rather full travel day for several of us. Katharine and I drove to our little Lexington airport, waited for our flight, flew to Charlotte, ate a late lunch and waited some more, flew to Richmond, and then waited for Ken to arrive on his later flight, as he was the one who’d rented the car. We had a fourth person joining us for the drive, plus all our luggage, of course. And that’s when we started playing “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The first rental car that we thought was ours, parked as it was in the correct space, was probably big enough but wouldn’t open. The car next to it, which kept flashing its lights as we tried to open the first car, turned out to be the one we had the keys for. But it was much, much too small … the largest among our pile of suitcases wouldn’t even fit in the “trunk.” So we got a larger car, and all four of us and all of our luggge fit into that one. Success! And away we went.

As I’ve mentioned, today is set-up day, and the symposium begins in earnest tomorrow, with the first lecture at 9:00 a.m.

 

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