Adventures in Historical Tabletweaving

Warp: Blue silk (Devere) Weft: Structural weft: blue silk.  Ground brocade: Honkin "real gold". Pattern brocade: Red silk (Devere) Pattern: Band from Philip of Swabia's caligae Cards: 112 pattern + 2x2 border Width: 4.2 cm Length: Aiming for 2x120cm, woven 40cm so far. It's been 4 years since my elevation and the dress I wore is still only embellished with bicep bands.  This year I've finally started weaving the bands for the big  cuffs... although at the rate I'm going it will be next year before I finish! This band is based loosely on a band on Philip of Swabia's caligae (fabric boots). Philip was buried in the early 13th century, but the information I have says the band is probably 11th century Islamic. I would love to know how they made that determination but no details are provided. The end effect of this band is going to be very similar to the bicep bands but the technique is different.  The bicep bands were 3/1 broken twill so th...

Last year I re-wove the Mammen band.  I used exactly the same technique as the previous time but with my super-thin honkin gold rather than the gilt passing thread I used last time for the gold. I used my new favourite, Devere's tight-twist 12 thread, in red for the silk warp and the ground weft (I used 2x6 thread loose twist in pink last time). I still used the same white Bockens sewing linen for the rest of the warp, and spun silver for the silver weft.  For the soumak I used blue 6 thread loose twist silk. This one really popped! I think I can declare victory over this band... until I encounter new research :-)

I spent a lot of time weaving my bicep bands based on the chasuble of St Wolfgang a few years ago, but the end result was very underwhelming.  I used 120 denier loose-spun silk and it really wasn't up to the abrasion it got from the cards. This year I've re-woven it using 240 denier tight-spun silk and the thread came through it without any problems. I also used a better red. The result is so much better! The cards themselves took quite a beating just like they did last time. I think I'll try painting the edges of the cards with nail polish again next time I weave with this type of thread.  Getting enough "real" cards, like wood or bone, for a project with 400+ warp ends would be pretty expensive. I also think that tensioning would be challenging with cards that much thicker since the warp threads on the outside would need to be significantly longer than the ones in the middle.

Goodness it's been a long time since I posted anything.  I've been weaving though!  Here are a couple of photos of the band I wove for the fastening of the new Lochac Laurel Cloak . This is an extrapolation of pattern 69 "Motif from the border of a mitre band, 12th/13th century (p. 186) in EPAC. It has about 100 cards including border.

A particularly intriguing section in Collingwood (page 278 in the 2002 edition) concerns warp transposition (swapping the positions of tablets so their warp threads completely cross over).  It reads: The controlling tablets are lifted from their place, passed over one or more tablets to the right or left and then re-inserted in the pack... the earliest example of the technique is a seal tag from Durham Cathedral, dated between 1189 and 1197 (Henshall, 1964) Henshall, 1964 is 'Five Tablet Woven Seal Tags' in Archaeological Journal , Vol. CXXI.  I finally got my hands on this article last week.  It may blow nobody's mind to learn it details five different tablet woven bands.  They are: Braid in double-faced plain weave with geometric pattern 1194-1215 Thora Sharptooth has written about this band. Braid in double-faced plain weave with chequer pattern 1165-1174 Braid in double-faced diagonal weave with animal patterns 1189-1196 Brocaded band in plain tablet ...

Hi folks, long time no post, I've been having a bit of upheaval in my professional life this year and have been pouring a lot of time into my professional development rather than weaving. I've just started a new job and have a lot to learn there but hopefully things will start to settle down soon.  Anyway, I didn't stop weaving entirely. Here are some photos of some bands I've woven in the last 6 months.  The green one which is a cut-down Anna Neuper pattern was an experiment using the same materials as for the Chasuble of St Wolfgang, seeing if on a simpler band I could manage to use the nice fine silk without it getting eaten to pieces.  Conclusion: no. What a pity, because the effect is lovely. Photograph doesn't really do it justice. The purple one is a Birka 22 I strung up for a talk on Viking tablet weaving to let people have a go, as per usual at these things people wove about a cm and then I went home and finished it myself.  Fibreholics silk and tambo...