Ebony's Pearls

Maple Roses
Originally uploaded by nodigio

The WoodSpirits logo is a winged acorn, green because brand new acorn are green, with wings of gold. It suggests that our ideas and beginnings have wings, are going places. They aren't going to rot on the ground. It's a single acorn because we earn our badges ourselves. I like to display the wings as butterly wings because it layers in to the symbolism of the acorn - the butterfly starts as a caterpillar and as it moves through life, transforms into a mature beautiful butterfly, but the wings can be bee's wing's (for busy!) or feathers (for accomplishment and friendship), or bat wings (for useful), or anything else that will look like wings.

I know the FAQ lists uniforms, but really the one and only uniform to identify a fellow WoodSpirit is the logo. It can be painted on, embroidered on, cast as jewelry (pendant, tie tack, brooch, earrings, ring...), or whatever. Polo shirts and T-shirts are practical and comfortable, and I can't foresee ever needing the "business formal" uniform of suit with jacket - but friends insisted we might gain legitimacy at some time in the future and might need something normal and "dressy", so I tossed that in.

Me, though, I adore the concept of a fancy ceremonial uniform because I like wearing costumes of various sorts, and I liked being able to wear my badges and awards where they could be seen by others - the Scout baldric and Camp Fire vests, for example. But I wanted our uniform to be "different" and fancy and fun. I don't know if anyone but me will ever wear it, but that's OK.

It's a rather adaptable costume - think of the fancy wide Egyptian collars, or the Byzantine capes that draped over a tunic or pantsuit (or, more modernly, a catsuit). To this collar would be affixed our awards - badges, pearls, feathers. We'd wear it in parades, and at recruiting booths, and when we held conventions (assuming we amass enough members to do any of this), and we'd wear it when we claimed a new badge.

Mine has a lavender colored tunic with a dark green crennelated collar, kind of like a fancy monk's tabard. The badges are painted on and beaded. Being the anal sort of person I can sometimes be, I've divided the badges I've earned up into categories: arts and crafts, skills, nature, people, and play. Each one has it's own color of beads sewn around it decoratively (green for nature, purple for people, yellow for play, red for skills, and blue for arts and crafts). The pearls are sewn to the tunic, along the cuffs and hem, with beadwork filling in around them until I earn more pearls.

I think it's eye catching and communicative.

Now that I've gotten over the whole "must be a group" thing and realized, hey! We're adults, we can certainly go solo to do all of this, and if we form groups along the way, cool. But groups aren't needed.

I think I may ask for a booth at the 4th of July Celebrations here in town and wear my ceremonial uniform. It's medieval-enough looking, I could probably get away with wearing it at MedFaire. I can wear it to SF Conventions (I only go to three a year, 2 in Oklahoma, 1 in Texas).

I suppose, if it ever comes to it, I can sew or buy a green suit jacket and have a jeweler friend make up a logo pin for me.

And, you know, thinking about it, I could probably wear it to the NaNoWriMo Meetings, and add my NaNoWriMo badges to the collar - in a little cluster with a label saying where I earned them (the NaNoWriMo logo of the runner with a giant pencil?).