The next couple of weeks are the busiest time of the year for us, with overlapping festivals at Minnesota Renaissance Festival and the Bristol Renaissance Faire. These are the events where we got our start back in the 1980's, and they are the only major events we still attend and sell at. Our business has changed a lot over the years, shifting from largely in-person sales at events around the country, to a business model based on selling high end and custom pieces to collectors and martial artists around the world.
We are so busy right now we really don't have time to write a blog post, so check out this cool article from the Smithsonian on the roots of the renaissance festival movement as part of the 1960s counterculture.
Check out this previous blog for details on the events. See you at the faire!
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985