Adrienne Dandy is a technical writer who delights in the company of her family, friends, library, and fabric collection. In the SCA, where she's (currently) known as Katharine Townsend, she delights in her friends, good conversation, and the opportunity to justify her Tudor costuming habit.
Classes: Bodice fitting 101
               Take this bodice and...

Ann Graham owns Silver Writing, which offers writing and editing services to a variety of businesses in the Ottawa area and Europe. In DARC, she is known as Thora, a farm girl who moved to Jorvik with her husband. After he became too ill to work, she took over his stone and bone carving business. In the SCA, Anne le gris was born in 1452 at Wilton House in Somerset. After spending her formative years in Paris, she now lives with her artist husband in Venice. She fills her days with managing his atelier. Among other SCA projects, Anne is currently studying modal music composition.
Classes: Introduction to Reading Square Notation
               Why does Mediaeval Music sound different?

Brian Laxson has been a member of the SCA for onwards of 15 years and published in the role playing gaming industry. Brian Goodheart is an English born Norman in the time frame of the Hundred Years War when the King of England also has claim to the French crown. When his family were wiped out by plague, he sold his lands to enjoy being alive and not dead. His travels have taken him to trade and contact some distant peoples. Known also as Brian the Green.
Classes: Castles
               Practical Medieval Gaming

Caroline McLachlan-Darling regularly works in the Museum field in and researches more modern times for programs and displays. When not digging into the Victorian Era for work, she becomes Swannoc and happily digs into SCA Dance. She is particularly intrested in Dances from the Inns of Court and Early Period Dance.
Classes: Dance - Inns of Court
               Early Period Dance
               All Requests - Period Dances

Caitrin Ollerhead DeSantis is known in the SCA as Countess, Viscountess, Mistress, Tangwystl d'Courci. Caitrin and her husband Alfredo live on a 20 acre farm where they raise Shetland sheep, gaited horses and peacocks - all watched over by an Abruzzi sheepdog named Milton.
Class: Bodice fitting 101

Darrell Markewitz has worked as a consultant to major museums in the field of Living History. His major achievents include the creation of the 'Norse Encampment' for Parks Canada and the 'World of the Norse' for the Cranbrook Institute of Science. Darrell has worked on the Smithsonian's 'Vikings - North Atlantic Saga' and the Newfoundland Museum's 'Full Circle - First Contact'. He is a co-founder of the Dark Ages Re-creation Company. A professional blacksmith, he operates the Wareham Forge. In DARC, Darrell is known as Ketill Einarsson. Ketill, like many young Norse men from Norway, went 'a viking', and was involved in the battles in Ireland. He was fascinated with the work of the weapons smiths, and learned how to work iron, spending more and more time in the forge - and less and less on the battlefield. In his middle age, he decided to settle near Dubhlin with his wife Bera, spending his hard earned silver on a small farmstead. He now balances his work as a blacksmith with seasonal trading voyages to Jorvick and Birka.
Classes: "I'll huff and I'll puff..." Constructing a Dark Ages Bellows
               Building an Early Period Camp

David Blanchard is a technical writer, who spends most of his spare time hunting down information on Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages. Pan Volodymyr Blahuciak Esquire is a 13th -14th century Halician nobleman. Known for his esoteric knowledge and research, he is currently researching the history of the borderlands, now currently known as Ukraine.
Class: Mamlukes

Elise Kingston is a writer and actress living in Waterloo, Ontario. She has travelled extensively and studied at The American University in Washington, DC and the Czech National Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In the SCA, Wencenedl of Rokesburg is a 12th Century Scotswoman from the Royal City of Rokesburg in the Borders during the reign of David I. Her father felt it was important she know how to read, so she was tutored by monks from Kelso Abbey just across the Teviot River.
Classes: Romanesque Garment Construction - Practicum
               Introduction to the SCA

Gary Snyder is a Kitchener grandfather working for Ontario Hydro and has been with the SCA for many many years. Garwig der Waffenschmidt was born in Sussex, England just before the turn of the 10th century.   Orphaned in his fourth year he was apprenticed to a local smith from whom he learned the basics of metalworking.   Caught up by a call to battle from the local thegn, he perforce learned the art of repair and manufacture of armour - specifically chainmail.   For his skill he soon acquired the title of "der waffenschmidt" - weapon or armour smith.
Class: Building a Viking Ship Model - A Boat for the Burning

Gerry Dowswell also known as Gerrard Carpentarius is working hard on his bio right now.
Class: Life as a Child & Toys of the Middle ages

Hanna Martinsen is a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto with a focus on French Textile Printing. Her first Masters degree was from the University of Stockholm, her second Masters was from the University of Toronto, where her thesis topic was on dyeing with madder. Her earlier education in Gothenburg and Oslo included training as a textile engineer, and as a teacher of hand weaving. She has worked as an exhibit curator for several exhibits at the Canadian Museum of Textiles.
Class: Scandinavia's Oseberg Queen, Saint Birgitta and Queen Margareta: Three Medieval Women and the Textiles of their Time.

Jean Ross is a Registered Nurse. She is happily married and, unfortunately, is between dogs. You would think with all that free time, she could devote more of it to her hobby, the SCA, but there never seems to be enough. The Honourable Lady Aislinne of Alainmor is a handy person to have around. She cooks, sews, embroiders and makes lots of pretty beads. She loves teaching as the more converts she makes with beads the less obsessed she looks.
Class: Introduction to Glass Bead Making

Jerry Penner is a 38 year-old self-employed electronic design engineer specializing in the development of custom products for resale by local companies. He knits and sells chain mail in several local shops and via his website at http://www.chainmailguy.com . In his spare time he plays with things that go BANG and THUD. Gierhaerdt of Hildeschiem is a local chain-mail knitter. Weekdays he can be found in his shop building or repairing link armour for the pagans, and sabotaging armour for the Christians. Weekends he can be found drinking his profits in nearby Einbeck, where Bock beer will be invented 100 years after he dies. His hobbies include middle-eastern drumming, reading Germanic runes, and playing with things that go BANG and THUD.
Classes: Chainmail for Beginners
               Chainmail - Second Steps

Jo Duke started medieval recreation about 17 years ago, and unleashed a passion for creating historical garments. She started dyeing using the natural dyes available in the Renaissance period and from there found she needed to weave to put all that beautiful coloured yarn to use. She has been weaving on cloth looms since about 1997, and narrow weaves a little longer. Her interest in the Warp Weighted Loom was initiated by the DARC trip to L'Anse aux Meadows in 2000. Known variously as Jorunn, Jhone of Wodecott, or Joan Woodcote, a weaver or tailleur, tradeswoman, goodwife and mother.
Classes: What's on your loom? - A weavers round table
               Simple Medieval Dice and Table Games

Joanne Blumetti is the proud mother to two beautiful little girls. Joanne uses her lunch hours at work and any free time she has on her love of Goldwork whether it be research or stitching. Joanna of Northumberland is a 14th century embroideress serving the household of Edward the Black Prince and his wife Joan the Fair Maid of Kent.
Classes: Applique 101
               How to Organize your Research

Karina Bates is a part time farmer; a member of Hurly Burly (an Early Music Choir & Ensemble) and a researcher of Roma history, amongst other things. In the SCA, Keja is a 15th century Romany travelling the Baltics with her extended family, under the watchful eye of her Patron, Lord Vladimir Blahuciak.
Classes: Gypsies in Portraiture: Truth or Fiction
               Knitting in the Medieval Period

Kathy Page is an at-home mother of one very active and curious little girl who enjoys helping Mommy with her "experiments". Most of those experiments tend to include textile of some sort, however Kathy's interests wander far and wide. For once, however, she has settled upon one topic, Italian underwear in the sixteenth century, and has earned the title of Independent Scholar. One that, as vague as it is, she is quite proud of. "The Underwear Lady" as many have referred to her as, makes her first presentation at The International Congress for Medieval Studies this May. In the SCA, Caitlín inghean Tomáis uí Duibhir is a widowed Tipperary, Ireland cattle woman circa 1580. Just because Kathy has a compulsion to never do anything simply, she has a second persona - Signorina Salvatrice D'este, Honorate Cortigiane e Veleno, a noble courtesan born and raised in Venice, currently residing in Verona in the period surrounding 1575.
Class: Venetian Bodice circa 1530-1570

Lianne Maitland is a fourth-year Classical Archaeology student at Wilfrid Laurier University who, when not doing readings or homework, enjoys spending time dancing, watching movies, and attempting to become profficient at any number of the random hobbies she picked up through the SCA. In the SCA, she is known as Symonne de Brienne or Miyoshi Yukino.
Classes: Christian catacombs of Rome
               Pronouncing Classical Latin and Greek

Linda Kalusik, a Human Resources practitioner for 21 years and an HR software analyst for the last 10 years for the City of Brampton, recently retired. Mistress, Baroness Rachael Catherine McLellan is a late period Elizabethan Lady whose father is in the diplomatic corp for Her Majesty. As such, she was well schooled in religion and the arts. Rachael spent 3+ years as the Kingdom Signet and found a passion for illumination and has been producing scrolls for Ealdormere and Rising Waters for most of her SCA career.
Class: The Modern Method of Black Hours Illumination (You can do it)

Mark Patchett is a software developer and father. Count Edward the Red is a Norman Knight who fought at the battle of Hastings, and later settled down in northern England where he married a Saxon lady. (How their son ended up as a Viking is still a mystery.) Edward enjoys fighting, with rattan polearms and swords and rapiers in the SCA and with rebated steel swords and spears with Regia Anglorum. He also enjoys building things - armouring, woodworking, leatherworking, and even setting things on fire, and whatever else he can fit into his dwindling spare time.
Class: Flint and Steel Fire Striking

Melanie Burrett likes to play the harp, fiddle around with various crafts and read. She spends her days helping kids find good books. Muirenn ingen Morgair does pretty much the same thing, but apparently about 1000 years earlier. Melanie's B.A. in Classical Studies is somehow appropriate, since the Irish of that period were well known for their classical learning. Hooray! A use for Latin! (who knew?)
Class: Beginner's Celtic Harp

Melanie Robbins is an Accounting Clerk who lives in Kitchener, Ontario. Lady Gwendyon Casgudcath is a young Lady from Wales whose interests lie in fighting and learning...anything.
Class: Kumihimo - The Art of Japanese Cordmaking

Mila Little is a Professional Engineer working for the Department of National Defence. Hlaefdige Ælfwyn et Langanwuda is an early 10th century Anglo-Saxon living in Mercia.
Class: Riveted mail

Neil Peterson is a certified Project Management Professional working in the software development industry. In his spare time he is a student of Archaeology at Wilfrid Laurier University and works with museums, libraries, and various groups to promote an appreciation of Norse History, and the application of Project Management to historical projects such as this conference. He is a charter member of the PMI-CTT chapter, a member of the Ontario Museum Association, a 20 year vetran of the SCA, and the co-founder of the Dark Ages Re-creation Company where he is known as Ragnarr Thorbergson. Ragnarr is a tired old ex-viking who now makes his living as a trader. Never one to give up a fun hobby he is still making trouble wherever possible.
Class: Pretty Colours! The production of viking era glass beads.

Nina Bates is a mother of 4, with 2 left at home. She can be found spinning, weaving, dyeing, playing in the garden, sewing and cooking amongst other things. In the SCA, Odette de Saint Remy lives in the very early 16th century in France. The darker side prevails sometimes when Odette goes a "viking" for comfortable clothes, inexplicably and overwhelmingly interesting research projects and the hunt for a suitable name and fitting second persona.
Class: Spinning Silk (intermediate spinning)

Pamela Bottrill is a textile artist and lifelong avid gardener who works from home in a state of blissful chaos also inhabited by (amongst others) 2 beagles and a very active toddler. How she gets anything done is one of life's essential mysteries. Lady Alais de Poitiers is a 12th century lesser noblewoman just returned to the Aquitaine from the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, where she escaped from the Holy City during the ransom negotiated with Saladin in 1187.
Class: Gardening in the Middle Ages

Richard Schweitzeris a teacher, artist, musician and imminent father currently busy preparing his "farm" north-west of Orangeville. In the SCA, Martin Bildner is a pewter-caster, instrument maker and musician from the town of Wismar in the early 1300s. In DARC, Rig is a Skald of no fixed address (his wife has a terrible time keeping track of him).
Classes: Dance Music for Two Recorders
               Making Musical Instruments

Rob Schweitzer is a chemistry teacher in Toronto. In the SCA, Master Rufus of Stamford is a Saxon born in 1098 in the village of Stamford, with a great many hobbies and interests to keep himself busy. Some of these hobbies include tablet weaving, archery, leather work (primarily bottles), choral singing, and playing the harp.
Classes: Tablet Weaving for Beginners
               Tablet Weaving - Advanced

Sam Falzone is an elementary teacher with the Toronto District School Board. He has been teaching for 10 years and has mostly been teaching grade 6, 7 and 8 Science and well as grade 7 and 8 Design and Technology. Woodworking, blacksmithing, throwing, storytelling and cooking are the things Sam does for fun and to relax. Aeneas Oakhammer is currently the sitting Baron of the Barony of Rising Waters. He is also the current Kingdom Throwing Weapons Marshal. Aeneas' prefered pass-times include wood carving, woodworking, blacksmithing, throwing axes, knives and spears, storytelling and cooking (of course).
Class: Playing With Your Meat - Sausage-Making and You

Steven Strang has been carving bone and antler for over 25 years, concentrating on Viking age objects and techniques. His carvings are in private collections in Canada and the US, and have been acquired by Parks Canada and The Smithsonian
Class: Bone Carving

Susan Carroll-Clark is a project manager and business analyst, and is the former editor of the SCA's quarterly magazine, Tournaments Illuminated . She also has a PhD in medieval history from the University of Toronto and works as an independent scholar of medieval popular religion and clothing. She lives in Ajax with her husband and three cats. In the SCA, Nicolaa de Bracton is a 13th century Englishwoman, the daughter of a minor knight in the service of Simon de Montfort. Her husband is a wealthy cloth merchant, and they have holdings in Leicester and on the newly-fashionable shops on London Bridge and are embroiled in City politics.
Class: Calligraphy for Beginners

V.M. Roberts is a history/anthropology student at Athabasca University. As an illustrator, she makes pictographic versions of complex texts for people who have difficultly with language. Her past work includes "Life is Larger than Aphasia" a self-help book, and the "Assessment for Living with Aphasia" a quality of life measure. Currently, she is developing a communicatively accessible film "What is Aphasia." Magnunnr Hringsdottir is a sheepfarmer and wool trader from Hvammr in West Iceland.
Class: The clothing descriptions in Rigsthula

Valerie West is a manager for a second hand clothing store and has been sewing extensively for many years. In the Society, Valerie is known as Lady Mahhild de Valognes, a Norman noblewoman who is running the family estate while her husband is away on Crusade. Mahhild enjoys a variety of medieval crafts including sewing, Lucet, embroidery, chainmaille, wire knitting, leatherwork, calligraphy and illumination.
Class: Hand Sewn stitches for seams, edges and hems

Wendy Maurice is on the secretarial staff of a psychiatric hospital. Away from work, her family, rambunctious kitten, knitting, crocheting, sewing, spinning, weaving and two gardens keep her busy. Her quest to learn how to get the fibre from the flax she has been growing in a local biblical garden since 2000 led her to the SCA in the fall of 2003, where she is known as Anne of Saffron Walden. Anne enjoys learning as many new A&S skills as possible, especially but not exclusively in fibre arts.
Class: Linen: flax seed to fibre

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