Thursday, June 29, 2017

Viking hand bag based on the Haithabu / Hedeby find.

I had started the first test weave on my warp-weighted loom and was looking for an application. The original plan was to make a Viking hood, but for various reasons the weave ended up being too narrow to be practical. I already had a so-called Haithabu bag made for me by a family member and realized that this test weave was the perfect size for one made by myself. I have always loved woodworking and the wooden handles that define this type of bag made it the perfect combination for an interesting A&S project.

 
Historical background

The name of the bag is derived from Haithabu (German) or Hedeby (English) after the location of an archaeological excavation in present-day Germany. The excavation yielded a number of narrow carved wooden pieces, rounded and with holes on both ends and a set of narrow elongated slots along the straight length (Figure 1). Some of the pieces had textile remnants through the slots, although nothing survived to the present day. The current interpretation is that they are bag handles after comparison with an earlier Sami find (Figure 2). They have a surprisingly simple but effective design; the wooden handles hold and maintain the shape of the bag and a single shoulder cord through the holes allows you to carry it, while keeping the bag closed at the same time.

Figure 1: Photograph of the wooden bag handles on display in the Haithabu Museum (http://europa.org.au/index.php/articles/21-bags).

Figure 2: Photograph of a Sami leather bag with antler handles .

A total of fourteen pieces where found at the Haithabu excavation site. Five are made from ash, five others from maple and the remaining four are not specified. They have rounded ends with holes drilled through for the carrying cord. The bottom edges are mostly straight, the top edges are wavy or with notches. Elongated slots along the bottom serve to attach the bag. Dimensions vary from 181 to 496 mm in length (Figure 3), a thickness of 7 to 13 mm, and 29-52 mm wide in the center part. The semicircular ends have diameters ranging from 31 to 61 mm, and have a 7 to 10 mm diameter (drilled) hole in the center. Two of the pieces were identical (HbH.119.001-002), i.e. a pair, and it is therefore assumed that the others should all have been part of pairs.

Figure 3: Four of the wooden pieces, ranging in length from 181 to 496 mm: HbH.119.003, HbH.119.012, HbH.119.013, and HbH.119.014 (top to bottom).

Creating the bag handles

I decided to create an accurate reproduction of the HbH.199.003 wooden handles. This choice was partially a matter of taste, but mostly a matter of size. The original size of this handle is 181 mm, which is almost a perfect match to the width of the fabric that I planned to use for the bag. I started by copying and scanning the top handle in Figure 3. The design was then enlarged and printed to get a length of 205 mm, slightly larger than the original, but a better match with the fabric. From the ratio of the length and thickness in Figure 3, I computed a corresponding thickness of about 9 mm. Since the original piece was damaged along the top, curved arches were added in a way that looks consistent with and in good proportion to the curved end pieces and the overall design.

Florian Westphal does not list the wood type for this particular handle, so I decided to use ash given that five of the fourteen handles were made from ash and the fact that a suitable ash log was available to me (a leftover piece of the ash logs that I harvested for another project). The log was split along the centerline with an ax into five boards. The center board was discarded in favor of the two boards on either side. This ensures that the wood grain is predominantly parallel with the face of the handle, avoiding potentially weak spots at the slot locations. The two boards were then shaped to the correct thickness and to a slightly larger outer dimension using an ax, a draw blade and a coarse rasp and finished with a file to a smooth outer surface.

The outline of the handle and the locations of the holes for the shoulder strap and the other five holes were traced onto each board using the real size printed design. The holes were cut out using a drill and chisels and finished with several files. When everything else was completely finished, the outline was cut out with a saw. The final handles were finished with linseed oil to help preserve and protect the wood.

The tools required to make the handle (axe, hammer, several chisels and files, rasp, draw blade, saw, and spoon drills) were quite common in Viking Age Haithabu. Examples of all these tools were found in the Mästermyr chest, a Viking Age tool chest from Gotland. Functionally identical modern versions of these hand tools were used to create the handles with the exception of the spoon drills and the saw. I have not yet laid my hands on spoon drills, so a modern drill was used instead. Due to an elbow injury, use of a handsaw was not an option, so a band saw was used to cut the outline of the handles.

Figure 4: Reconstruction of the HbH.119.003 handle.

Weaving the fabric for the bag

There is no actual archaeological evidence for the bags that went with the Haithabu handles, but we can make an educated guess as to the shape, size and material. The width is dictated by the length of the handles, while pictorial evidence of period shoulder bags suggests an almost square form. The Sami bag in Figure 2 was made from leather, but textile evidence with some of the Haithabu handles at the time of excavation makes it plausible that fabric was used as well. I settled on the latter, since my motivation for this project stemmed from the desire to make something nice and useful with my first piece of hand woven cloth.

The cloth for the bag was woven on a reproduction Viking Age warp-weighted loom. A tablet woven band was used as the starting band for the warp. The same (store bought) wool was used for the warp and the weft. The loom was setup for plain tabby weave with a warp count of about 6/cm, and a weft count about 4/cm. A single piece, the full width of the woven fabric, was used for the front, the bottom and the back of the bag. Two additional pieces, half the width of woven fabric were used for each side, they are added to allow the bag to open wide enough for practical use. Selvage on both sides was obtained by weaving both sides at the same time after splitting the warp in two equal sections (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The finished fabric before cutting it in three pieces.

Assembling the bag

The three pieces of fabric for the bag were hand sewn together. Running stitch was used to join each seam; both edges were then folded down and secured with a whip stitch. The top of the bag was hemmed by folding the edges back once and whip stitch along the raw edge. A linen liner was added to protect the wool fabric and make the inside of the bag stronger for practical use. The liner was assembled in a similar fashion with the exemption of the reversed seams and hems. The outer wool fabric and the liner were joined with a running stitch along the hems.

After the bag was completed, the wooden handles were attached with a thick yarn stitched through the hems and looped through the elongated slots. Finally, a shoulder band was braided from three strings of leather and tied to the bag handles through the holes in each of the round ends.

Learning points

Handles:
Using period hand tools for wood working is fun and surprisingly efficient. I hope to get spoon drills in the near future, so that I can experiment with those as well.

Weaving:
While weaving the header band, I passed only a single weft tread for each turn of the cards (this becomes the warp on the loom), resulting in a fairly open warp, making it hard to maintain a constant width during the weaving. In a current weaving project, I passed two weft threads for each quarter turn of the cards, reducing this issue significantly. To prevent “sagging” of the warp, it must be tied to the cloth beam at more positions.

Shoulder strap:
The braided leather band is a bit to thick and stiff for easy opening and closing of the bag. I plan to either weave or braid a cloth shoulder band to replace the current leather strap.

Find a downloadable version of this post with its companion photo journal at:
https://www.academia.edu/33710073/Viking_hand_bag_based_on_the_Haithabu_find

Bibliography

Arwidsson, Greta and Berg, Gosta (1999), “The Mästermyr Find: A Viking Age Tool Chest from Gotland”, Larson Publishing Company (Lompoc, CA)

Johnson, Jennifer (2015) “Viking Stitchery”, SCA class handout by Hefðharkona Reyni-Hrefna.

Schietzel, Kurt (2014) “Spurensuche Haithabu: Archäologische Spurensuche in der frühmittelalterlichen Ansiedlung Haithabu. Dokumentation und Chronik 1963-2013”,
Wachholtz Verlag, Murmann Publishers (Neumünster/Hamburg).

Westphal, Florian (2006) “Die Holzfunde von Haithabu”, Wachholtz Verlag (Neumünster).

Creating wooden handles for a Hedeby wood handled bag.

A photo Journal of making the wooden handles for a Hedeby bag from scratch. Except for a modern drill (I don't have spoon bits yet, but I'm working on that), only hand tools were used that were readily available in period: an ax to split the log, a draw blade and a course file to shape the boards, a saw to cut the outline, a drill and various chisels to create the slots and several files to finish the surface.

Splitting an ash log to create the board for the bag handles. The log was split into five pieces. The two boards on either side of the center piece were used for the bag handles.

The two boards after splitting.

Tracing the outline from the printed design onto the wooden boards.

The finished slots of the first handle.

The finished handles.

Plain weave fabric for a Hedeby wood handled bag

A photo Journal of weaving fabric for a Viking hand bag on a warp weighted loom. Below is the finished bag after attaching the handles and adding the leather braided shoulder strap.


Creating the fabric for the bag start with tablet weaving the starter band. The weft of the band becomes the warp for the loom. By looping the thread around the last peg, and bundling the threads on either side before cutting in the middle, the warp splits naturally into the front and back warp.

The tablet woven starter band.

Attaching the header band to the cloth beam.

Knitting the heddles.

Weaving in progress. The loose loops in the weft before changing the shed and beating the weft are required to maintain an even weave of constant width.

Getting somewhere...

Et voilà: my very first weave from a warp-weighted loom. The top part becomes the front, bottom back of the bag. The two narrow parts at the bottom become the sides.

The assembled bag. A linen liner (store bought) was added to protect the wool fabric during use and to strengthen the bag.

Photo Journal Viking Belt

Creating the tablet weaving loom


Assembling the warp weighted tablet weaving loom that I designed and created for this project. Although I could not find historical evidence, I think the design is plausible. It greatly helped me to easily experiment with loom tension.

Weaving the belt

The warp setup length was 105 inch, the length of the woven belt after completion was 75 inch.

Warping the loom.

I started and always kept the ground and the brocading weft spools on opposite sides. That way I notice it right away when I have forgotten a pass. I always pass the brocading weft first, then the ground weft followed by a quarter forward turn of the cards and a beating of the weft.

The start of the weaving.

The loom weights are about 300 gram each. I attached the 20 warp threads of 5 cards in one bundle to each weight.

The loom weights. I think Lego should be period...

The finished belt was secured around the bar and wound up as I went along to keep a pleasant working distance from where I was sitting.

Over halfway done.

Passing the brocade weft behind complete cords to get a negative pattern on the bottom side of the belt.

The finished belt.

A Viking belt based on the Birka B21 band; 800-975 CE Sweden.

I was in need of a specific belt for a special occasion and was searching for ideas that would fit a male Viking persona. Initially, I focused on leather, but leather working has not yet captured my interest and I was procrastinating. Then, I took two tablet weaving classes at Fiber, Fabric & Fighting XIV and that resonated with my growing interest in all things weaving. The classes “Who’s afraid of brocade” by Lord Silvester Burchardt and “Warp float patterning (Snartemo): Yes, you can do it!” by Mistress Rosalind Ashworthe, gave me the inspiration, motivation and confidence that I could tablet weave a belt that would suit me. Particularly since Silvester’s class had several examples of brocaded bands from archeological finds originating from Birka, the commercial center of Sweden in the Viking age.

My finished green belt, of contrasting dark and light green silk.

I read and translated several relevant sections of “Birka III, die Textilfunde aus den Grabern” by Agnes Geijer (1938) to get an overview of the bands found in the Birka graves: their designs, dimensions and the materials and techniques that were used to create them. I fairly quickly gravitated to the B21 design. It has an intricate, appealing and well balanced design and suitable dimensions.

Historical background

Archeological research conducted by Hjalmar Stolpe in the years 1871 to 1881 showed with all certainty that the Viking settlement Birka on the island of Björkö in the Lake of Mälar in present-day Sweden was the commercial center of Sweden during the Viking Age. For almost two centuries, from about 800 to 975 CE, Birka served as an important trading center between Viking age Scandinavia and Western Europe and with the Orient through the trade routes in Russia. Die Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien commissioned Holger Arbman in 1931 to catalogue the enormous wealth of artifacts found in the Birka archeological sites. Agnes Geijer republished an extensive survey of the textile fragments from the Birka graves in 1938. This publication contains a complete chapter on the Birka bands (see Figure 1 for examples of some of these bands, including the one labeled as B21).

Technique, material and design
   
Virtually all the Birka bands are woven on tablets with four holes. A large variation of designs can be created by using differently colored threats in the different holes and turning the cards in a specific order, backward or forward, as individual cards or in groups. An alternative, and for me a more attractive, way of creating a pattern is by brocading with a contrasting color or with gold or silver thread. The B21 band is of the latter type. It consists of: (a) the basic ground weft that binds the warp threads together, hidden by them in the usual way, and (b) a second, brocading weft of double drawn silver wire, creating the actual pattern or design. The brocading weft consists of a pattern of floats and hidden sections by passing the weft underneath one or more warp threads of one or more cards.

Most of the Birka bands show a mix of repeating patterns, like diamonds, stars, swastikas or geometric patterns of diagonals lines (Figure 2). What sets the B21 design apart is the unique and very uniform base design, combined with two distinctive motives that stretch the full width of the band. Another attractive aspect of the B21 band is that both the warp threads and the ground weft are silk and a fairly long piece is almost completely preserved. This in contrast with many of the other bands, where to save on expensive silk a cheaper material like linen was used for the hidden threads. Here, the linen has decomposed completely over time making it impossible to determine the exact type of weave.

 (1)                 (2)                (3)              (4)

Figure 1: Examples from several bands : (1) B6-7, grave 965, (2) B21, grave 943, and (3)-(4) B19, grave 965.
  Figure 2: Examples of several patterns: (a) B6, (b) B22, (c) B20, (d) B19, (e) B21, and (f) my own reproduction of the pattern.


Details of the B21 band

Warp on 17 cards, four holes in each card, with silk threads in all four holes. Silk ground weft. A brocade of double drawn silver wire, tied down with two threads per cord. No stave border. All cards rotated in sync with quarter turns forward, leading to a completely smooth and uniform underside. Weft count 18/cm, width 10 mm (warp count 68/cm, length 25 cm).

Weaving the belt

I started by designing and building a warp weighted tablet weaving loom. Although I think the design is plausible, I have found no historical evidence for this particular design. I picked it because of an interest in Viking age warp weighted looms, but more importantly because as a total newbie to tablet weaving, I wanted a tool that allows me to experiment with warp tension in a consistent and deterministic manner.

The warp was created one card at the time, threading back and forth twice per card. The cards were warped alternating S and Z (to eliminate fouling of the warp threads during turns), mirrored with respect to the center. After warping the loom, I experimented a bit with warp tension and thread thickness to get roughly the warp and weft counts of the original band. I decided to add a stave border to the band increasing the full width to 25 cards in order to get a width and design that appealed more to me, keeping in mind its practical use. I also deviated from the original by passing the brocading weft under all four instead of two threads of the cord. This creates an inverted pattern at the underside, instead of a smooth and uniform underside, again appealing more to me for its practical use. As in the original, all cards are collectively rotated forward one quarter turn for each successive passage of the ground and brocading weft. The unfinished warp threads were periodically untwisted to eliminate the build-up twist.

After some trial and error, I ended up using 2/20 silk, which resulted in a width of 18 mm and a warp count of 56/cm. Using 2/20 silk for the ground weft and brocade resulted in elongated patterns, even at a relatively low warp tension, so I ended up using 2/60 silk for the ground weft and 2/20 for the brocade, which combined with a warp tension of 15g/thread resulted in a total weft count of 18/cm. The final woven length of the band is 75 inch.

Learning points

I found tablet weaving and brocading a very rewarding and surprisingly relaxing past time (even though it was slow going). The correct tension in the warp is crucial for the final weft count and I think that the initial experimenting with different warp tension and thread thickness paid of to get the look of the original band. Surprisingly, using a single weight for the four warp threads of each card, instead of combining several cards and using a larger weight, does affects the weft count, even when using the same weight per warp thread. It does have the benefit of easy untwisting of build-up twist.

Find a downloadable version of this post with its companion photo journal at:
https://www.academia.edu/33710000/A_Viking_belt_based_on_the_Birka_B21_band_800-975_CE_Sweden

Bibliography

Arbman, Holger (1940) “Birka I: Die Gräbern”, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (Uppsala).

Burchardt, Silvester (2016) “Who’s afraid of brocade” (class handout)

Collingwood, Peter (1982) “The Techniques of Tablet Weaving”, Echo Points Books & Media (Vermont)

Geijer, Agnes (1938) “Birka III: Die Textilfunde aus then Gräbern”, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (Uppsala).

Stolpe, Hjalmar (1878, 1880) “Meddelanden frän Björkö”, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitetsak-ademiens Mänadsblad.

An embroidered tunic facing based on a Valsgärde motif, 10th century, Uppland, Sweden.

I wanted to give embroidery a try and was looking for an application that fits a male Viking persona. My wife made me a tunic with a narrow facing along the neck opening and that gave me the perfect excuse to find a suitable embroidery motif and decorate the facing.

The finished neck facing.

Historical background

There are only about six archeological finds of embroidered textile from the Viking Age and it is quite clear that embroidery was not really adopted by the Vikings until late in the Viking Age when the trade with foreign cultures was well developed and their influence made its way into textile decoration. Carolyne Priest-Dorman gives a nice outline with references of Viking Age embroidery . A few examples of embroidery as part of a garment were found in two 10th century graves (12 and 15) in Valsgärde (Uppland, Sweden). The excavation was catalogued by James Graham-Campbell (1980) and the object of this project is described on page 102:

356 Silk fabrics
Valsgärde, Uppland, Sweden
Uppsala 59(15)
Valsgärde grave 15: silk edging for a cloak, embroidered in silver with a pattern of foliate derivation. There is a pair of similar edgings for cuffs from grave 12.

Figure 1: Reproduction of an illustration of the silk edging.

Expensive textiles from silk were important trade goods during the Viking age and many examples are found in graves like those at Birka and Oseberg. Most of the silk found is thought to have come from Byzantium, as is probable for the object of this project. James Graham-Campbell (1980) considered the piece to be a cloak trimming, though no supporting evidence is provided for this conclusion.

Embroidering the tunic facing

I traced the motif from the published illustration (Figure 1) and scanned, resized and printed out a work copy (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Motif traced from a scanned image of the original illustration.

The literature specifies the motif to be about 4 cm high and I scaled the scan to roughly the same size. I then laid out a pattern that uniformly spanned the entire circumference of the neck opening. Each period was embroidered one at the time after transferring the pattern onto tracing paper and pinning it to the correct location. The original was a red silk tabby fabric embroidered with silver thread, and on display at the Museum of Norse Antiquities (Uppsala, Sweden)5. I decided to embroider the pattern directly on the linen facing of the tunic and use silk instead of silver thread. Coffee brown 2/20 silk was used for the foliate patterns and hunter green 2/20 silk for the buds. I used stem stitch for the outlines of the vines and a combination of stem and chain stitch for the buds.


Initially I planned to fill in the entire pattern (like in the original), but I kind of liked the look of just the outline of the vines. I decided to wait and see how I will feel about it after wearing it for a bit. After I started the first pattern, I quickly realized that stem stitch allowed me to curve only in one direction. Trying to mirror the stitches of the vines with respect to the bud location created a distinctly different look of the stitch from clockwise to anti-clockwise direction. I figured out that I would need to get S and Z thread to create mirrored stitches, so I decided to just use the same direction stem stitch for the entire pattern.

Bibliography

Arbman, Holger (1940) “Birka I: Die Gräbern”, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (Uppsala, Sweden).

Beatson, Peter (undated), “Kaftan”
http://miklagard.nvg.org.au/costume/rus/trader/kaftan_text.htm (last accessed 04/07/17)

Geijer, Agnes (1938) “Birka III: Die Textilfunde aus then Gräbern”, Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien (Uppsala, Sweden).

Graham-Chapman, James (1980) “Viking Artefacts – a Select Catalogue”, British Museum Publications Limited (London, UK).

Bender Jørgensen, Lise (1992) “North European Textiles before 1000 A.D.” Aarhus  University Press (Aarhus, Denmark).

Priest-Dorman, Carolie (1997) “Viking Embroidery Stitches and Motifs”
https://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikembroid.html (last accessed 04/07/17).

Metal hinges and a latch for a Viking Age inspired feast ware chest.

We needed a sturdy chest to store and transport our feast ware to events and given our Viking persona’s I was looking at Viking designs. I was really inspired to make an accurate reproduction of the Mästermyr chest, a Viking Age tool chest from Gotland, but figured that I should try something more modest first. Then Master Bedwyr Danwyn convinced me to try and make a set of metal hinges and a latch myself to get some experience with metal working.

The finished chest.

Historical background

Chests were common pieces of furniture in the Viking Age. They were used to store goods or transport them and conveniently served as seats at the same time. As a result, there are quite a few preserved examples or Viking Age chests found at archaeological sites. Probably the most well known one is the Mästermyr chest, a Viking Age tool chest from Gotland1, although it arguably deserves its fame not so much due to the chest itself, but for the treasure of tools that it contained.

From a metal working point of view, probably the most impressive chest it the Oseberg chest, made from oak and completely reinforced with metal strips. The lid is secured with a working padlock (although he key is lost) that are shape like an animal head. A nice description of the chest is given by Charlotte Mayhew (2013).

Many other examples can be found in the literature and on-line. Most of them share a similar design. Six boards are used to build the chest, four for the front, the back, the top and the bottom and two for the sides. Quite often the sides are somewhat slanted at an angle such that the width at the top is smaller than the width at the bottom. The front and back boards and the sides are typically fit together by a single “dove tail”, with the front and back boards resting on the sides and held together with wooden dowels. The bottom is usually fitted in a slot in the front and back boards and mortars in the side boards. Metal hinges and a variety of locks are used to secure the top to the chest. Often the chests are strengthened with metal strips around the corners or edges.

Creating the hinge and latch

Master Bedwyr Danwyn inspired and helped me make the metal hinges. I used store bought metal strips for the starting material. In Viking times the metal would have been worked in a forge, but since I have no access to one and no experience with one either, an acetylene torch was used instead.

The hinge itself was created by heating a metal strip and then bending the end of the strip around a metal rod, specifically designed by Master Bedwyr for that purpose. Four of these pieces were created and fitted together in pairs. The hinge pins were created by cutting a piece of rod to size, inserting one in each hinge and hammering the end points such that they were firmly secured.

The two parts that make up the latch were created the same way as the hinges. For decorative effect, one end of the latch, the end that will lock the chest, was bend around a metal rod, with the same rig as used to create the hinges. An elongated slot was drilled and filed to shape to accept the latch ring.

The latch plate was cut from a small metal sheet. Two holes were drilled to accept the lock ring. The lock ring itself was shaped by heating a metal rod, bending it to a U-shape around a metal pipe and cutting it to size with a saw. It was then welded together with the latch plate.

Finally all the holes were drilled to accept the nails for attaching the pieces to the chest.

Learning points

I found an acetylene torch to be a relatively easy and affordable way to work metal, when a forge is not an option. While not period, it does give you the satisfaction of being able to work metal yourself for projects like this.

 Test fitting the six boards before gluing the pieces together and drilling the wood pins.

Finishing the chest with linseed oil to preserve and protect the wood.

Bibliography

Arwidsson, Greta and Berg, Gosta (1999), “The Mästermyr Find: A Viking Age Tool Chest from Gotland”, Larson Publishing Company (Lompoc, CA)

Mayhew, Charlotte (2013) “Chests”, http://www.olvikthing.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Viking-Age-Furniture-6-152.pdf (last accessed 04/07/17).

The following websites give on-line examples of Viking Age chests with ample references to the literature (all are last accessed at 04/07/17):

http://www.geocities.ws/chestsandcaskets/catalogueofextantchestsandcaskets.html

http://www.historicallocks.com/en/site/h/safes/mastermyr-and-oseberg/description-of-the-chest-and-lock

http://www.greydragon.org/library/chests.html

https://baroquepearls.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/norse-boarded-chests

Making my Warp Weighted Loom

I decided to make my loom from Ash. It's a commonly used type of wood in the Viking age, relatively easy to work with, and with the Emerald Ash Borer quickly approaching our area I didn't feel too bad about cutting down some young trees. So first I went out to the woods to collect trees. I needed two uprights about 8 ft tall and 4 in diameter, each one with a somewhat matching suitable fork for the cloth beam at the end, a beam about 6 ft long and 4 in diameter for the cloth beam (as straight as possible and of uniform thickness), and two beams about 6 ft long and 2 in diameter for the shed bar and the heddle bar (the latter also as straight as possible). Then I needed a few smaller branches with a fork to use as the heddle bar holders. I was very pleased to find everything I needed and even three additional nice and straight heddle bars and enough forks for the holders to weave twill.

Harvesting the wood.

I used a traditional draw knife to debark and shape the trees. I quickly fell in love with this period hand tool! No sawdust everywhere, the shavings are good fire starters for our wood stove and the blade follows the grain, giving a nice smooth surface without additional sanding.

Debarking and shaping the trees.

Next came shaping the notches in the cloth bar where it will rest on the uprights. A chisel and hammer did the job.

Shaping the notch in the cloth bar.

After that came shaping the heddle bar holders and drilling the holes for the holders. I have no spoon drills (yet), so this was the only time I used a modern tool during the making of the loom: a power drill.

Finally, came making the weights. I decided to use clay weights for now, since they it's relatively easy to make a fairly large number of approximately equal weight. I used store bought clay and air dried them and then used them without firing. I will likely fire them at one point, since they keep shedding a fine clay dust while using them, but at least I was ready to start using the loom.

Making the clay weights.

And here is the final result as entered at Ice Dragon competition in 2016 (with a tiny test warp just to show the idea):


Gold brocaded headband inspired by a find from the Shestovica cemetery; Second half 10th century AD, Chernigov, Ukraine

I was looking for a project to try something new with tablet weaving: brocading with metallic thread. A headband as part of the Wardrobe Pro...