My name is Caitlin and in the Society of Creative Anachronism I am known as Scolastica Capellaria.
To get in contact, feel free to email me at:
About the SCA
The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an organization wherein folks reenact aspects of medieval life. We wear medieval clothes, eat medieval food, and do medieval things. There is combat and wars, but also dancing, singing and games.
To me, the SCA is about exploring history with people of mutual interests. It is about chivalry, and not the kind on the battle field, but the kind that is in our hearts and shown through our courtesy. It is about inclusivity, learning, and exploration. It is about camping and cooking and laughter.
To learn more about SCA click here https://www.sca.org/
How did I get here?
My interest in medieval art and architecture began when I was about 5 years old and I watched the Hunchback of Notre Dame for the first time. Less than a year later my parents took me on a trip to Europe to visit my father’s family in Holland and I visited castles, cathedrals, and road on boats in Holland, Belgium and France and fell in love with what I saw there. There are few buildings in the world that speak to me like Gothic cathedrals.
In 2009 I started Kent State University as a Crafts major with a focus in metal work. I loved the process of creation, but I knew right away I was more interested in the process, techniques and historical replicas than creating unique works of my own design. After one class with Dr. Diane Scillia I switched my major to Art History with a focus in Medieval Art. I wrote about Borges Cathedral Façade, Thomas Becket enameled caskets, Visagothic Belt Buckles, The Wilton Diptych, and wrote my senior Honors Thesis on Ivory Mirror Cases. My interests were always focused on items that fell into the “craft” category of art historical objects, rather than those hauty “fine art” pieces.
After undergrad, I was determined to become an Art History professor and attended Indiana University to pursue my Master’s degree. While there, I decided that academic scholastic research was not quite for me, and while researching the legal side of museum acquisition practices and working part time in a law office I decided to switch career fields entirely to law. I have been a paralegal ever since.
In 2019 I discovered the Society for Creative Anacronism (SCA) and discovered there was a space for me to explore my love of history and my practical interest in the process of recreating historical items. I immediately dove head first into creating my own garb based on historical techniques and learning new styles of embroidery I didn’t know existed.
Goals
In 2022 I became an apprentice to Elizabet Marshall and she presented me with the quest of find a focus for my work, and rather than chose a specific area of study, I chose to focus on three words: Precision, Tension and Accuracy.
These three tenants guide my work through recreating historical clothes, headwear, and embroideries.
In 2024, after attending my first historical immersion event in the fourteenth century, I added another tenet to my goals: Immersion. Something that I was already doing, but had not realized how important it was to me, was to create a head to toe look from a particular time and place.
What am I doing?
Recreating Historical Clothing: Few things bring me the same joy as wearing historical clothing. I think garments have the ability to unite modern life with historical life. By wearing a garment we can understand how people moved, walked, played, cooked in the past.
Furthermore, by recreating a full look from head to toe we can create a more immersive historical experience.
Hats, headwear and hairstyles: Hats and headdresses are often the first thing you see when you look at a person, and therefore are very important to recreating any historical fashion in history.
Similar the way a large skirt changes the way you walk, different hats, headdresses, and even hairstyles change the way you move your head and interact with your world.
Embroidery: My first love will always be needle and thread, and I find nothing more enjoyable than stabbing a taunt fabric to create a beautiful decoration. I enjoy recreating historical pieces of needlework.
In 2021 I spent a year exploring different embroidery techniques that were used during the middle ages. This project opened my eyes to new techniques and styles popular in different centuries throughout western Europe.
My largest piece is a replica of a German Brick Stitch embroidery that can be seen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 2024 I recreated a shirt from the 1540s for the King Consort of our Kingdom. The piece used new to me techniques such as insertion stitches, double-sided blackwork embroidery, and was made entirely by hand.
The Inevitable Scadian 