Greet's Middle Ages

Requoting diamond twill source

I mean to go look at this diamond twill...

 

Sounds like a re.seller who buys from these guys. I got mine direct at 
great prices, they do bulk as well if you
can be patient and wait if they do not have enough in stock. on them to 
put the order together.
Usually a couple of weeks for 10 or more. But well worth the wait and 
the blankets are great for cloaks. LOL.
Here is the direct link. Shhh it's a big secret kept by their 
re-sellers. LOL. http://www.loricamos.vizz.pl/tkanieuk.html

Sandy

On 2/08/2010 10:17 PM, LEWINS SHELAGH wrote:
> I got it from a friend who trades in Viking and Saxon wares, in England. I
> can put you in touch with him if you are interested.
>
> These are actually shawls / wide scarves. One would be enough for a top, or
> for an apron to hang down the front of an apron-dress. Or you might piece
> one into a more suitable shape for a small cloak - or make any number of
> hats, pouches, trimming strips etc. But you couldn't make a whole dress out
> of one. And because the colours vary (they are seconds, though I haven't
> seen any flaws in mine) I think you'd be hard-pressed to get enough the same
> to make a full garment. But I haven't seen his current stock, there might be
> 2 the same and that would probably do an apron-dress.

 Looks great to me! Pretty much looks like this down to the size of the repeats:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_35z6SrYO6Eo/TFWnCRpprXI/AAAAAAAAAGE/bzPGkvrkuPg/s1600/\
Broken+Diamond+twill.jpg
-which was based on the thread/pattern repeat counts at the higher end of the finer fabrics found from the period (gaps between repeats are still there because it was a sample piece and only lightly washed).

Brígiða Vadesbana
http://ooo-shiiiny.livejournal.com/
http://brigidavadesbana.blogspot.com/

 

Early Anglo-Saxon embroidery

More quoting from the lists:

Class Handouts
Unaltered class handouts may be reproduced for use in non-profit teaching 
programs (eg SCA Collegia etc).
* Five Period Stitches - Quick Reference Guide - Oct, 2003 (.pdf 148kb)
* Five Period Stitches - In Depth - March, 2006 (.pdf 2.4 mb) (revised)
* Embroidery for Clothing - Anglo-Saxon - Nov, 2004 (.pdf 3.6 mb) 
* Getting Started with Tunics - March, 2005 (.pdf 535 kb)

 Hi,

The best overview for viking and anglo-saxon embroidery stitches and styles 
is 
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/asvembroid.html

this site has a few nice images:
http://kaleeb.galtham.org/pdf/Kaleeb-angloembroidery.pdf

Queen Arnegunde find, 6th century Frankish:
http://reocities.com/Athens/forum/6948/arnegunde.html

Gabrielle

 

Red-tanned leather

Since I've started back to school, I've not been starting much new, though still keeping an eye on possibly useful items that come up on the lists.  From Norsetalk2:

Christopher wrote:

>What would be a period way to a veg tanned leather belt red?

There are a number of extant early and medieval recipes for dyeing leather 
red. The most common dyestuff I've seen referred to for that purpose was 
brazilwood, but madder was also used.

There is an extant Frankish belt in the Arnegunde grave; it's very 
elaborate, with cutwork and gilded parchment and a big gilt bronze 
buckle. It was dyed red with madder.

Here's an SCA-period recipe for dyeing leather red with madder (Rubia 
tinctorum). It's from The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont (1558).

"To Die Skinnes in chickweede, called in Latin Rubra Maiore, or Rubra 
Tinctorum, into a Redde Colour.

"Having annointed, washed, wronge and layed abroad the skin, as is 
aforesaied, wete it with water that white wine lees and baye salt hath ben 
boiled in, and than wring him. Take than creuiles or crabbe shelles (be
they of the sea or of the river) burned into ashes, the whiche yon
shall temper with the said water of the lees and salt, and rubbe well the 
skinne therwith, than washe him well with cleere water, and wringe 
hym. This done, take ruddle tempered in water of lees, and rubbe the 
skinne well over and over with it, and than with the foresayde ashes, 
wasshinge, and wringinge it thre times. Finallye, after you have wasshed 
him, and wringe him, if you thinke it not be well ynoughe, you shall geue 
him one dienge with brasyll. The paste or masse of Rubia Tinctorum, must 
be made with water that lees or tartre hath bene boiled
in, and the sayed water must be luke warme, and whan you make the paste of 
ruddle, than leave it fo the space of a night. After this, put upon the 
sayd Rubra Tinctorum, a lyttle alom, dragges,or lees, or Alome catinum, 
steped in water. You maye also adde to it the colour of the shearing of
scarlet, whiche hath been taken oute boylinge in lye, which is a goodly 
secrete."

I can't speak for the Chivalry, of course. But I would be impressed 
entirely to itty-bitty pieces if I had a squire who tried to dye his own 
belt red with a period recipe. Let me know if you decide to undertake it, 
or if you have questions.

Carolyn Priest-Dorman // Þóra Sharptooth
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html

 

RUM 2010

RUM was held less than an hour away this year, so I got to go.

The Royal University of Meridies is the annual big teaching event for the kingdom of Meridies, and it also hosts meetings for many of the kingdom's service groups, resulting in the usual problem of too many places to be at one time, and difficult decisions for someone like me, who has her hand in too many Yahoo! lists.

So I chose according to Most Pressing Responsibility, which was first that I'm the new chatelaine of Glynn Rhe, and there was a series of How To Be The Best Newcomer Supporter Ever classes offered by the chatelaine of the entire SCA, so of course I had to see what she was like.

(I've already broken one of her suggestions, in that it's been more than 72 hours and I hadn't blogged yet.  Oh well, I'm learning.)

But there were all sorts of other lovely ideas about expectations for demos, followup, what loaner gear should be like to encourage retention, etc.  I look forward to Baroness Marie's summary of what was talked about.

I also took Ailleaghan's "Medieval Foods for a Modern Palette" cooking class, in view of my Pressing Responsibility for feast this year, and feel a little better about having the skills to pull this off.  Neat tip about how to use Excel to keep track of amounts and repetition of ingredients - since I'm working hard to become an Excel monkey mundanely, this is fun.

I hauled around some cardweaving that I'm doing to bind the cut edges of Honnoria's diamond twill wrap Viking apron.  I think I've got a new loom design worked out, based on the archeological board finds that I've seen somewhere, probably in Collingwood's book.  (I don't have a new board yet, but I've been using a segment of my warping frame with only two pegs, and it's working fairly well, and would work better if it were wider and had a big hole in the tummy end.)  Sorry, no pics, still camera-less, and I haven't taken a moment to sketch yet.  Bad Greet.

I didn't make all the social rounds I usually do, having showed up Not Early that morning and skivving off in advance of approaching thunderstorms, but it was nice to catch up with those I saw.  Fun to see more developed Roman and Kentish kits coming along...I wanted to take pictures of Her Highness Lethrenn in her new Kentish, but...no camera.

I also wish I could have stayed for the singing, but mundane life called, and I missed the Viking, who stayed home to handle Stuff, and was asked about.  We plan next to visit Trimaris for 25th Year (I'm really looking forward to the Indian feast!) and think our next Meridian event will be MGT.

Coats for Gulf Wars

It's somehow much easier to work on jackets, coats, and cloaks when there's snow on the ground.

Everyone with extensive Gulf Wars experience is worried about another really cold one this year.  This seems amazing to me, as I have always been quite warm during the day, though nights can be really chilly.  Still, it's a great time to curl up with handwork under piles of wool.

I'm sewing for three on a regular basis now, so first I attended to the family:

 

Teenaged girl likes both Oriental and Irish culture.  She'd received a wrapped Mongolian coat shell, but it needed a lining to hang right and a bit of finishing.  Cue leftover felt from the tent, and I used white thread to reference sashiko quilting.  If she ever wants to push the jacket more Japanese, I can add more quilting, or if she decides to sway towards Early Period British Isles, then we can take the collar off and fasten it with brooches.

 

The resident Viking has a favorite coat, of wool herringbone twill, but it really wasn't warm enough, and it fits differently since he's lost a lot of weight recently.  The new lining I've added is a striped wool twill, brushed and incredibly soft.  The extra fabric folded open like lapels when he was trying it on in rough assembly stage, so I took the hint and chainstitched on a series of severely abstracted black rams.  I used JaggerSpun 2/24 SuperLamb, which is a superwash merino wool thread available from Ursula's Alcove, and my favorite embroidery floss in wool.

(spear dancers from Sutton Hoo, via Rogers' Cloth and Clothing) 

I'm in excellent shape, garb-wise, but I am concerned about the cold, and wanted a Early British warrior's jacket.  I do have a new voluminous cloak, courtesy of the Christmas gift swap, and I'll certainly bring that, but for cooking in the morning chill, or for easy maneuverability in the marketplace at night, a trim jacket is easier to manage.

I really wanted to use a piece of nearly black brushed wool felt, that's incredibly soft, that I was given a couple of years ago, but at only 2 yards, I wasn't sure I had enough for the wrap.  I'm also not sure that the wrapped jacket is appropriate for women, given that the women's jackets seem to have vertical trim down the center preserved on the backs of brooches that follow the spines of the bodies.

 

(Kentish brooch-closed dresses and jackets, also from Rogers' Cloth and Clothing, which is one of the main types of garb I wear.)
 

But the evidence of that presented in Rogers' book is so tenuous, and the angle of the wrap is shown as being so steep, that I'm not sure we can really know.  I can always fall back on the "I need male-ish garb for fighting" argument...and come on, the wrap design is so attractive, I can't wait to get the right trim made and the jacket embroidered.

Here's a trick for getting the extra wrap out of only enough fabric for front and back.  Admittedly, this works because I am slender, with broad shoulders.  A more pear-shaped person would need a larger triangle than would come out of the neckline.

 

See, the wrap portion of the front right piece is taken from the neck of the front pieces.

 

It gets attached like this.  Here's the jacket, roughly assembled.  I intend to run the green-gold wadmal around the hem, and also at the cuffs, heavily embroidered to resemble the Sutton Hoo art.  I also see in the art another line of tablet-woven trim, around the neckline.  Another project!  But that one can wait for a bit.

 

I'm planning on closing it with two of my TB-3s from Raymond's Quiet Press for now.

Amber is a SCA convention; new cemetery report

Hmm.  I'd been thinking about getting a couple of strands of amber chips to play with, when I found a reference in Owen-Crocker to amber going out of use by the 7thc, and shortly thereafter a comment on Norsefolk about huge ropes of amber being unsupported by evidence, and a "SCA convention".  I need to read more about this so I don't get myself into trouble.

(The new necklace from Pennsic, from Cabachon, which is the stall run by the woman who teaches so much Anglo-Saxon stuff, including architecture, and references literature so charismatically.  I might be okay with this -it's not many amber beads, and there are more of the silver + jet, and the amber isn't shaped.)

I do have a new book to read - it's the archeological report from the Mill Hill Cemetery, in Deal, Kent.  (By Keith Parfitt and Birte Brugmann, The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series; No. 14)  I had no idea it existed as a published document entire, until I was chatting with a beadmaker at Pennsic A&S, who had some beads labeled "Migration Period", with their various cemeteries.  Of course that drew me in, and I explained my interest, particularly in Mill Hill, and she whipped out a copy.  

Friends from Phoenix Glade said they could see my "craft-gasm" across the hall.  

Mill Hill is my favorite cemetery thus far, because per what I've read in Rogers and Owen-Crocker, it has the most craziness in brooches, and I'm really after graphic design.  But the report is about EVERYTHING.  What is in which grave, and bodies, and weapons, and beads, and pottery, and glassware...it's a terrific book, and not that expensive, thank goodness.  It even has in the back, a listing of the other cemeteries in Kent, with their major finds, so I know where to hunt down more of a thing.  From the Foreword:

"Mill Hill was the burial place for a 6th-century community of high status, with men bearing arms and women wearing jewellry, some deriving from the Continent.  Until the excavation of Buckland, Dover, in 1994, the Mill Hill cemetery was the largest Kentish 6th-century site excavated with modern techniques.  Its 76 graves can tell us much about the generations after the historical advent of the Jutes to Kent.  The wealth of objects in the graves allows re-evaluation of both Scaninavian and continental influence on Kent in the 6thc century and therefore is of importance to studies of both the Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian periods."

There's Merovingian again.  I really need to get stronger on my political history.  I've been listening to Winston Churchill's history of Britain, but he doesn't run off and talk about France and Germany much.  I'm also running into references to Alamannic culture...there's a honeycomb weave that's Alamannic.

Here's some info about amber for Kent, in context with other cemeteries (my paraphrasing) - 

40% of total number of beads are amber (in Mill Hill).  Higher than Lyminge (16%), but lower than Bekesbourne (49%).  Anglian and Saxon regions use more amber than Kent: Castledyke (63%), Sewerby (46%).  Shapes - most roughly shaped, very few shaped into wedges and discs.  Apparently two graves at Mill Hill have typically Anglian/Saxon carefully shaped beads, one had 10, and the other 12.

Wow.  That's not ropes.  Well.  I'm not going to get myself any more amber than I already have.  45 amber pieces.  I'm rich!

It's going to take a year at least to get through this in a meaningful way, and share what I want to send off to my beadmaking and pottery buddies who are also working on reconstructive archeology.

More about Frankish Kent (women's clothes only, sorry)

I am helping a friend think about 6thc clothing for Crown List, and thought it'd be nice to collect some research images, with my thoughts about how they might be put together.

Aillegan is focused on Merovingian - that'd be Continental - but as there's significant influence in Kent by Franks (the marriage of Berthe to Ethelbert in late 6thc), and I've got a couple of really good books about the period, I'm sharing.

The books are:

Owen-Crocker, Gale.  Dress in Anglo-Saxon England.

Rogers, Penelope Walton.  Cloth and Clothing in Early Anglo-Saxon England.

The images that follow are from them.

(Owen-Crocker: "Middle class and upper class Kentish Women")  Bangs?  Really?  I also think this depiction looks unnecessarily gritty, based on an Anglo-Saxon architecture class I took at Pennsic, but that's another post a long time from now.

Aillegan was originally concerned with veils, so I'll start there.  The evidence supports veils - veils pinned under the chin, veils attached to a gold-brocaded fillet...earrings strung on a wealth chain because they wouldn't be seen with a veil.

(Owen-Crocker) (I need to get a good description of the Arnegundis gravefind - it's becoming Necessary.)

Since I mentioned the "wealth chains" - that got A's interest, and she wanted to know how that worked.  The answer seems to be, "any way you'd like it to..."

(Rogers)  Right now, I'm combining the plainest 'Kent' version, since I don't have many beads*, with the first of these dresses:

(also from Rogers)  I've made a long woolly version of the coat-dress in the second figure, and mean to make another of lighter weight, that will be fancier.  (Winter North-Sea dress needs its cuffs redone, too, but my hands were cold.)

*I don't have many beads, because I associated glass beads until this year with Viking aprons and tortoise brooches, and that style doesn't appeal to me.  But then my glass-bead-making friend Lavena gave me a handful of museum replicas she'd done, including a precious face bead from 100 BC...and happily my Kentish stuff can use them...until I redistribute them more accurately.  (Because 100 BC really ought to be Roman Republic, right?)

The brooches vary a lot, too - here's the variety found in one cemetery:

Aillegan, I hope this helps, and it has shown me that I need to keep documenting the garb I'm making for my own use.  And probably prep a class, with a big map.

Jenny Dean's Anglo-Saxon Dye Experiments

Part 3 - Blues, Greens, Purple, Brown and Black

Part 2 - Reds, Yellows, and Browns

Part 1 - Introduction

Refocusing persona development - 6thc Kent

I haven't really done any persona development since getting my name (15thc Flemish, Margareta Gijsberts, called Greet, which is a 15thc pet name).  The last two years, my first two years, I've been following advice to play around...try things...and I've gotten sucked into Major Funness that required Themed Clothes.

But now I think it's time to settle down and focus on one placetime for a while, and that's going to be 6thc Kent.  Southeastern England, influenced by the Anglo-Saxon, the Jutes, and some highborn Frankish marriages, after the pullout of the Romans, but before the Holy Roman Empire swells back again.  Don't worry, the Coptic project is still going ahead, but there's something about the Dissolution of the Roman Empire - North that speaks strongly to me.  I like the tents, the graphic arts, the runes, the brooch bling, the textiles, the Kentish garb cuts.  I spent quality time in the longhall this GW, such great singing that happening there!  (Also the bacon at midnight rocked.  And snuggling with one's peeps in the firelight.)

I'll still have some resources here for other places and times...I can't stop being a costumer-type, and I will be sewing for my pals which requires Research.  And...well, you know how it is in the SCA...if I'm doing Early Period, then I need a Bronze Bog dress, and some Empire stuff, and some Anglo-Saxon pre-Viking, and don't forget the Celtic woad face-painting...

Norse clothing used "blue-green", Early English red, Irish pink/purple

I'm still madly preparing for Gulf Wars, but in the midst, this snippet from the 12thCgarb list on appropriate colors for various northern placetimes is really interesting!  Emphasis mine:

But that is not what Rogers found and the fact that it is what makes it interesting. Looking at her graph, she found nearly 75% of her samples from the Norse textiles (found in Norway and Denmark) to have been dyed with woad, compared with only 20% in England and less than 5% in Ireland.

This chemical evidence seems to confirm what can be inferred from both the literature (not only the Sagas, but other poems and prose records as well) where blue is mentioned more often than other colours and from anecdotal evidence, such Irish epitaphs that refer to the Norse with a word that translates "the blue-greens". The Norse did seem to have a marked preference for shades of blue.

As I said, blue more frequently than red, and when red is mentioned, it is an indicator of either wealth, status, or someone putting on airs. Now this, of course, maybe merely a literary device (akin to our referring to a good guy as a "white hat"), but it also seems to be born out by the archeological evidence where red markers (most often madder) are more frequently found in high status graves like that of the Oseberg Queen.

On the other hand, Rogers found red markers most frequently in English samples from the same era: in more than 60% of her tested samples. Of course, madder can be grown in England, or easily imported from France. The availability of the dye stuff may have impacted where it was used. This also begins to make one of the Norse descriptions of red: "foreign-red" make more sense.

The truly surprising one (for me) was extraordinarily high number of Irish textiles from that era that had chemical traces of the purple lichen dyes (which can yield of a whole range of pinks, lavenders, and purplish-shades, even fuchsia when its fresh).

For the record, Rogers identified indigotin, kermes (only on silks), madder, bedstraw, purple lichen, weld, and a "Yellow-X" in her tests.

~ Wencenedl ~

So, my North Sea dress is Right On, and putting red trim on the neckline of the underdress for higher class/Englishness is also Right On.  Sweet!  I'm going to look for small brooches to close the underdress...yes, I know you haven't seen it yet, I'm still finishing the seams.  More handwork to do at War.