The Guild of Medievalist Makers

Meet a Medievalist Maker: Sara Fredman — The Guild of Medievalist Makers “ Meet a Medievalist Maker ” is an ongoing series of blog posts introducing our members and the work they are doing. Each post is organized around our Four P’s: a project they are working on...

'What are we looking for when we pick up a “reimagined classic” or a “bold and subversive retelling” of a centuries-old tale?'

Our latest Meet a Medievalist Maker post is by @sarafredman.bsky.social, author of 'Griselda is Dead, and Also Her Patience', a reimagining of Chaucer’s 'Clerk's Tale'👇

Members of @guildmedmak.bsky.social should check out the cfp for CREATING THE MEDIEVAL NOW, a special issue of the journal 'Public Humanities', co-edited by yours truly & Eleanor Barraclough (with amazing artwork by our very own @hellomizk.bsky.social)

Attention creative medievalists! Eleanor Barraclough & I are co-editing a special issue of Public Humanities entitled CREATING THE MEDIEVAL NOW! See the cfp for details: essays of 2,000-3,000 words due 1 May 2026. (Amazing artwork by @hellomizk.bsky.social). 1/ www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Introduction to Making Medieval Manuscripts (Practice Based) This course introduces students to the complicated and messy processes of production through which pre-modern manuscripts were created

Booking is now open for Making Medieval Manuscripts! A practice-based course where we make ink, cut quills, illuminate, make pigments and bookbind, using #medieval techniques and materials. We also explore early medieval art. No experience necessary! #bookhistory ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

It’s that time of year again. Advent and waiting for the light to return. So I thought I’d post an image of my work a day until the solstice. Here’s The Green Knight, a panel I made in 2022 but it’s a subject that has entranced since I first studied the poem at Stirling University in the 1980s.

Top-view of a desk. Wood-carving tools are sprawled out, along with a pile of wood shavings, and the work-in-progress of small wooden owl.

A brilliant Making Space session this evening with @guildmedmak.bsky.social.
The owl I've been working on certainly looks "medieval".

Feminine-ish figure covered with eyes and ears and mouths and sitting in a ruby thrown. Nightmare fodder.

Great “Making Space” session with @guildmedmak.bsky.social tonight! Started playing with character design for Chaucer’s Goddess Fame…

Thank you for your support, James!

After only eight months of existence, we are delighted to announce that the Guild of Medievalist Makers has gained its ✨100th Guild Member✨!

We have lots of exciting plans for the development of the Guild, but in the meantime, why not join us for tomorrow's Making Space session?🍻

Publication day! The Routledge Handbook of Heritage & Creative Practice is out today and it includes my piece on creative responses to the mass removal of love-locks along with some amazing pieces by some brilliant people www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

Looks like I’m gonna be very busy at #IMC2026 @imc-leeds.bsky.social
We’ve got comics, dragons, and Old Norse galore! #medievalsky #comics

The summer seems a long way away now, but very much looking forward to presenting a creative-critical paper titled 'The Phoenix Speaks: An Eco-Creative Response to an Old English Allegory' at the Leeds IMC (@imc-leeds.bsky.social) next year #IMC2026

Appel à articles : Chaucer in the Age of Medievalism Following the Chaucer: Here and Now exhibition (2023–2024) at the Bodleian Library, the conference Chaucer in the Age of Medievalism—sponsored by the Modernités médiévales association and the New Chau...

Chaucer in the Age of Medievalism needs you! In the wake of our conference, we are now preparing a collective volume and seeking additional chapters to complement the proceedings. Please share widely!

#medievalsky

modmed.hypotheses.org/8517

An abstract which reads Making and Defining the Creative History Classroom: An Introduction Lucinda Matthews-Jones M First published: 27 November 2025 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.70066 E About | = Sections Abstract In 2022, Catherine Feely and I ran a series of workshops to explore how creative teaching methods have entered the History classroom. Our initiative generated a series of essays that feature in the present issue of History and a later edition of the journal. Taken together, these pieces invite us to consider how the past is made and remade through creative practice in our teaching environments. In this introduction, I will explain what is meant by the term 'creativity' and its significance to the discipline of history (and to higher education more broadly). Interwoven throughout will be a reflection on my own experiences as a creative history practitioner. In doing so, I propose that, as a discipline, we need to centre our lived practices and experiences of teaching if we are to fully show and celebrate our identities as lecturers in the twenty-first century.

Cross stitched initials arranged on a desk

Various hand made plates

A collage of Victorian images with handwritten quotes

You may have noticed that I talk A LOT abt creative methods in my teaching. Well I’ve explained in this piece why it’s important for student learning& wellbeing as well as being fun. I use this as opportunity to define creativity & how we are creative teachers onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

On Tuesday 2nd of December we are holding our final Making Space session of the calendar year! Join us 5:30-7:00pm (GMT) to work on YOUR creative-critical project, or flex your creative-critical faculties and respond to our optional theme: festivities🎊🍺🥳

Meet a Medievalist Maker: Becca Drake — The Guild of Medievalist Makers “ Meet a Medievalist Maker ” is an ongoing series of blog posts introducing our members and the work they are doing. Each post is organized around our Four P’s: a project they are working on...

'I crumbed together my research into North Sea fish species, North Atlantic trade, and late-medieval environmental crisis around the medieval North Sea basin with my embodied experience of walking in the fens south of Grimsby.'

Our latest MMM blog post by poet Becca Drake is out now! 👇

Catherine & I had a lot of fun running this workshop on Creativity in the Classroom at the ‘Chaucer our Contemporary’ colloquium last month. Check out the blogpost for suggestions of activities from a wordhoard task to re-voicing the tales, and @hellomizk.bsky.social’s six-word adaptation comic!

‘Creativity in the Classroom’ workshop: GuMM at ‘Chaucer our Contemporary’ event 4/10/25 — The Guild of Medievalist Makers Write-up of activities from the ‘Creativity in the Classroom’ workshop at the ‘Chaucer our Contemporary’ colloquium (Laura Varnam and Catherine Clarke).

'The provisionality and dynamism of play enables creative thinking and dispenses with fears of failure'.

Read our new blogpost discussing the 'Creativity in the Classroom' workshop run by @drlauravarnam.bsky.social and @cathamclarke.bsky.social at the 'Chaucer our Contemporary' event 👇

Our @guildmedmak.bsky.social co-founder @hellomizk.bsky.social smashing it at the weekend!

Linocut print of knight on horseback in a raging snow storm.

Þe snawe snitered ful snart þat snayped þe wylde…

(The snow fell sharp as sleet that nipped at the wild beasts) SGGK, l.2003

It’s that time of year again when the Gawain-poet’s alliterative mastery of the North-west midlands dialect really comes alive. (Linocut my own - appears in b/w in my book)

Final day of Thought Bubble! Come find me at Comixology C12a and get your comics about Chaucer and academic stuff and Princess Wolf and even grab one of three tiny original matchbox pigeon flocks!

Still time to register for this free online talk tomorrow on making medieval manuscripts #bookhistory #medievalsky

Are you a medieval maker? Or know someone who is? Email hello@medievalmarginalia.com for a chance to be featured in my holiday gift guide!

So wonderful to see @jonathanfruoco.bsky.social featured on GuMM!!

I wrote a blog post for @guildmedmak.bsky.social!

My sincere apologies for not tagging you, Jonathan - the bluesky search bar was not being my friend. Thank you for writing us such a brilliant post! (Eleanor)

Meet a Medievalist Maker: Jonathan Fruoco — The Guild of Medievalist Makers “ Meet a Medievalist Maker ” is an ongoing series of blog posts introducing our members and the work they are doing. Each post is organized around our Four P’s: a project they are working on...

'Translating Chaucer is a strange and humbling act. It’s like listening through centuries of static to a voice that is both foreign and familiar, comic and solemn, earnest and ironic.'

Jonathan Fruoco writes about his experience translating Chaucer for our Meet a Medievalist Maker blogpost series👇

Attention @guildmedmak.bsky.social! Look forward to reading this, Nik!

Interested in adaptation, as a practice? Adaptation Today's upcoming mentorship workshop features composers, performers, and directors who will share their experiences adapting stories to bring familiar narratives to life - join us!

Register here: udel.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Our friends over at the @thesowhat.bsky.social are looking for guest editors (individual and team), and are particularly interested in craft medievalism and medieval crafts! Find out more by following the link below 👇