Examing my Expections: The Laurel Apprentice Relationship

A friend of mine was given her Laurel this weekend and I am glad to say I made the effort to attend her Vigil if not the actual Elevation. During my time in the Vigil tent we got off discussing the Laurel Apprentice relationship.

She asked me a question that have had me examining my expectations and desires over the last few days.


Her question was pretty straight forward: What are you looking for in a Laurel Apprentice relationship?

I thought I knew the answer. I said I would want someone who could and would teach me one or more skills, preferably in wood working; someone who would be an advocate; and someone who could guide me through the quagmire that is the culture and politics in the SCA.

Seemed like a good answer at the time. But, over the last three days I have replayed that one simply question and answer 100 or more times and each time I find myself wishing I had said more. I wish I had emphasized certain aspects more than others. Or maybe, just maybe, I did exactly what my friend wanted and that was the really think about what I want and how I want to get there.

So what am I really looking for in a Laurel? Here it is in order of importance to me...

1) I want a deep connection with a person or a group of people that are as enthusiastic, slightly obsessed about Arts and Sciences, who are happy for my successes and commiserate with me in my failures, and who I can really be myself with. I want someone who can give me gentle guidance when I need it, or beat me over the head with a stick when I need that. I want to have the kind of relationship where I feel welcomed and there is a genuine affection for me and I for them. I want a person I can be honest with and who will be honest with me.

2) I want someone who can help me understand the politics, and how to successfully navigate it, within the SCA. If I make a mistake, I want someone who can tell me what that mistake was and how to prevent making that mistake in the first place. I also want someone who can tell me how to go about correcting an inadvertent mistake without having to completely humiliate myself in the procress.

3) I want someone who can help me up my research game, so to speak.

4) I want a Laurel who can and will teach me, guide me, and otherwise encourage me in skills. I have enough interests that I would love to learn from anyone but I am passionate about Woodworking (carving, joinery, finishing, etc), Costuming, and nalbinding.

White Wolf Fian: Tools I used for this project

It was pointed out to me that I neglected to show pictures of the tools I used for this project. This post rectifies that mistake.

Here are all the tools I used for this project, except for the modern steel straight chisel. Instead I included the hand made one that I used for part of the project, until I realized that the edge would not stay sharp like the modern steel. The modern chisel was exactly the same shape and size as the hand made tool.

Full List of Tools:

• Jar of Wood Ash.
• Strip of heavy wool.
• Hacksaw blade mounted into a Medieval Saw frame.
• Lee Valley Brand Carving Knife.
• Modern files one fine and one with both course and medium teeth.
• Large Handmade Twist Drill mounted into a handle.
• Small Handmade Twist Drill mounted into a handle.
• Small hand made straight chisel mounted into a handle.  

I included the hand made ring and dot tool though it was never actually used for the actual White Wolf Fian Bone Strap End Replica.

WWF - Replica Bone Strap-End Progress and Final

 I tried drawing the interlace pattern directly onto the bone but had a hard time getting it to look anything like the original. In the end I traced the original onto the bone using a light graphite transfer paper and a print out of the original from the book.

Here I have done the very basic etching using the tip of my knife to scratch along the drawn lines. I had to etch all the lines at once as the graphite rubbed off the bone very easily.

It is kind of hard to see in this photo but the indented area on the back of the strap has been started. I used my knife to etch a straight line and then a file to actually start removing bone material. I had a hard time keeping the file straight. I clamped a metal ruler along the line and used that as a file stop (used similarly as a plane stop for wood), which allowed me to make the first few passes straight along the line. Once the first few passes were made the lip of the bone served as a file stop.

The deeper carving has begun. I am using a Ramelson Wood Carving Palm chisel to do the deeper cuts and shaping on the carving.

My homemade chisel was not staying sharp long enough to really do the detail work. I will be trying to make another set of tools this summer using tool grade steel rather than the softer steel used for the first run tools.

As I carve the details deeper, I am also going over the frame line more and more to make it deeper than it was before.

 More detail carving done. I originally estimated I would need 60 hours to complete the entire reproduction. At this point I was very near that time limit already.

 The front is finished. At this point I had spent nearly 80 hrs on the replica. That included cutting the bone stock, shaping the strap-end, and doing the carving on the front.

 The back is started. Like the front, I had to trace the lines onto the bone and give them a rough etching with my knife blade to keep from rubbing them off.

The inside of the bone seemed a bit softer than the front. The etching was much easier to complete and the deeper lines, especially the straight lines went much faster.

The interior details have begun. I still can not decide if they are fruit, birds, or human faces.

The red stain is actually my own blood. There is a saying among wood carving that it isn't done until you have bled on it. Well, I bled a lot. While making one of the cross cuts the chisel slipped out of the groove and right across my thumb. I wiped away the blood and found that it had filled the grooves in the bone. After I took the photo I had to take a toothbrush to the groves to remove the rest of it.

 The carving on the back is finished.

 Here is the back of the finished strap-end all cleaned up and polished. You can see the glossy look as I hold it tilted slightly to the light. I used fine wood ash, water, and a piece of wool fabric to polish the bone.

And the front of the finished strap-end. The gloss does not show as well in this picture but it was taken on the same day at nearly the same time as the above photo. The polish did not work as well on the deeper carvings of the front but it still looks nice.

From start to finish this project took about 120 hrs to complete. Spending that much time really makes you appreciate the art and skill of the craftsmen of the 10th Century.

Once I have gotten over the "Never want to look at bone again" attitude I developed during the making process, I want to make a bone buckle that ties into the strap end in some way. Perhaps I will replicate the interlace or perhaps it will have the bird faces on it. I don't think the buckle will be done this year.




This is a photo of the original strap end taken by a visitor to the Museum and posted on Flicker. It shows the details, especially the ladder etchings much more clearly than the photo obtained from the museum directly (see second photo).

In retrospect, comparing my reproduction to the photo of the original, I can see that I made my carving far deeper than the original. Perhaps when it was brand new the original had deeper lines but I do not think so.

I opted to NOT recreate the ladder etchings. I suspect in the original it was added to make it more obvious which straps were up and which were down in the carving. Due to the depth of my carving and the relief aspect that I used, the ladder etchings are not a requirement and I did not feel that they would add anything to my piece.

At a later date I may decide to add the ladder etchings but for now I am done with my replica.

WWF - Replica Bone Strap End Picture Progress

 A flat piece of bone, that was both thick enough on one end and flat enough to accommodate my strap end. This is the second blank I cut out. After cleaning up the gnarly bits on the inside of the bone it was to thin. This piece is almost perfect.

 The drawing from the York Archeological Trust book. Since it is shown at 1:1 scale that makes it much easier for me to verify against my piece. I do plan on carving both sides unless I screw up the front and end up making the piece to thin.

 Cut slightly larger the first time to allow for filing and scraping.

 The hole has been drilled and the outside frame of the front etched into place. The hole was done by drilling three holes and connecting them by cutting out the bits in between with the knife. It was smoothed and leveled with a file.

The edge frame was started with my knife, making a v cut along the edge. A straight gouge and a file were then used to make it slightly wider and deeper.

Doing this part of the decoration did convince me to make a new tool. I took a piece of an old bandsaw blade, bent it over, and attached a handle to it. This scribing tool will make evenly spaced frame lines simply by resting the wooden handle against the edge of the bone and letting the blade dig into the bone itself.

You can see a bit of the gnarly inside of the bone left. I'm afraid to scrape it any more for fear of making it to thin and thus wasting all this effort. Since the back is planned to be carved, I am hoping this depression disappears in the process.

Winter Garb Test Run

Since the Northern Outpost Winter Romp was cancelled we decided to test our winter garb at the local conservation area. Not many people there though one couple thought we were there to murder them, one lady (feeding Chickadees from her hands) didn't bat an eyelash, and one gentlemen interrupted his phone call to ask us what we were doing in costume. I thin this would make an awesome place for a winter demo/ half day event.

Weather was -10ºC with a -15º windchill and it was sunny. We hiked 1.3 km without snowshoes or skis. The trails had previously been broken by other hiders but I found it easier walking in the unbroken areas with my wool boots and leather overshoes. As I get older I definitely find I need more arch support than what turn shoes provide.

I was wearing linen pants and tunic, a thin wool tunic, thin wool pants, wool nalbound socks, a thin wool kaftan, wool nalbound mittens, wool hood, and a wool cloak (double over the back area). On my feet I also had two layers of blanket wool turn shoe boots and leather ankle high turn shoes. The leather boots were treated with beeswax paste and allow to dry for three or four days.

I was perfectly warm, my feet perfectly dry. In fact, once we got into the trees and the wind was mostly blocked I got hot enough to throw back my hood and take off my mittens. I stomped in a water puddle in the parking lot just to test my waterproofing and it worked a charm. No water seeped through the seams or soaked through the leather. The wool boots repelled any water that splashed above the leather over shoes. Slogging through water or slush all day would be uncomfortable but the occasional puddle is no problem.

The only thing I felt lacking was face coverage, especially in the wind. So a scarf of some nature is in order for windy days. I think for sunny days it would be smart to make some snow goggles to cut down on the glare. My ears were a little cold under the thin wool hood so for harsher and longer outings a thicker hood may be in order.

With this garb I can confidently say I can handle a full day 10am to 4pm in -10º to -15º C weather. Any warmer and I will have to drop a layer of wool, my tunic. Any colder and I will need thicker wool garb.

QPT2 - Non Rigid Heddle Brocade

Brocaded Non-Rigid Heddle Band

QPT 2014

Entrant: Kaolin Konalsdottir

Category: Textile Arts – Inkle Weaving

The Project

I chose to make a non-rigid heddle (a.k.a. Inkle) brocade band, using a brocade pattern from the early period. The loom is a basic inkle loom. The heddles are lengths of string looped around one of the pegs of the loom.

Materials:

Linen thread

Gold Metallic DMC embroidery floss

It is my hope to use this piece as either trim for an outfit or possibly, assuming I manage to get enough length, as a belt for a dress.

The Inspiration

While doing research on appropriate trim for an early period persona, I came across images of brocade trim made with tablet weaving, silk, and flat silver or gold ribbon. I wanted to make something that would fit both my persona, a crafts person in early Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, and was some I could make myself.

While researching the brocade technique I came across an article on early period metallic trim by Carolyn Priest-Dorman “Metallic Trims for Some Early Period Personae”. There were several patterns in the article but the one I liked the best was the Birka 6 pattern.

Deviations from Period

I chose to make the background out of linen rather than silk. Silk is quite far out of my budget at this time. Linen and wool are period fibres that could have been used for the background fabric for bands, though little if any have survived. A fine linen was easier to find than a fine wool so I chose the linen.

Another material choice I made was to use metallic DMC embroidery floss rather than the wide, flat ribbons more commonly seen in brocade. This choice was based on availability and cost. It is likely that I was not using the correct search terms for the wire but I was not able to find anything that looked like the extant examples.

I did initially try to use jewellers brass wire but found it was stiff and prone to kinking making it hard to use effectively. Hammering it to flatten it only made the wire more brittle and impossible to use. Fighting with my materials seemed as daunting as fighting with my techniques so I dropped the wire idea and chose a flexible metal looking fibre instead.

The biggest deviation from period was the choice to use a tabby weave (one up, one down) for the background, rather than tablet weave. I am not as comfortable with tablet weaving and trying to learn to brocade on a tablet woven band, while trying to manage the weaving itself seemed daunting to me. Instead, I chose a background that I was far more proficient with. This way there are no mistake in the background to detract from the brocade pattern itself.

The Process

My first order of business was the take the black and white pattern and convert it into a graphed image that I could then use for the pickups. This involved estimating the number of warp threads based on the width of the single dots. Once that was done I simply copied the pattern to the graph paper and colour coded it to make it easier to see the pick ups themselves.

A border was added to the pattern to hide the loop around of the metallic thread. This made the pattern a total of 20 warp threads wide. The tape at the bottom of the pattern is sticky on the two ends and keeps me from loosing my place in the weaving process. I move it to the current line, working my way up from the bottom, to make a full repeat.

A few straight tabby weaves were done, before the actual brocade began, to give myself a border at the beginning of the band. During normal weaving this is the area were the width of the band is set by gradually pulling the weft threads tighter in each subsequent pass.

In the case of brocade, there are two shuttles. The first carries the background fibre, in this case the red linen. The second carries the brocade fibre itself, this time a DMC embroidery floss. I should have made a few passes with just the background fibre instead of both the background and the brocade fibres.

The loose threads you see in the back ground of this image is one of the unwoven layer of warp threads and not mistakes or dropped warps.

To make a single pass of the background weft, the shed , the space between the heddled and unheddled warps, is opened by pushing down or up on the unheddled threads, a weaving sword is pushed into the space and twisted to cleanly open the shed. With the weaving sword I use the shed is approximately 1.25 inches wide allowing a clean pass of the shuttle.

The weft is pulled through leaving a small loop on the side the shuttle was passed from. At this point the weaving sword, or weft beater, is used to push the new weft tightly against the old ones. After the threads are firmly packed the short loop is gently pulled tight.

The order of operations is to make one pass of the background colour, followed by a single pass of the brocade colour. Back and forth along the length of the weaving.

Un-heddled warps being pushed down

Un-heddled warps being pulled up.

A clean open shed, ready for a shuttle pass.

The process for doing the brocade is a little more involved. First, all the warps have to be side by side before the pick ups can be done. This prevents the accidental picking up of extra warp threads.

 Then using a pointed stick, each warp thread that the brocade fibre goes UNDER, is picked up. If the warp threads are bunched up it is very easy to pick up the wrong number of warps, and you will not know until you have reached the left side of the pattern. Having a border made it much easier to see if my counts were off, as I always had to drop two and pickup three.



 The stick is used to lift the picked up warp threads and the weaving sword is slipped through the shed once more. This weaving stick is knife shaped, square on the back side and wedge shaped at the front, to make it easier to pack each pass of the wefts. This makes for a smoother band and helps the brocade really show nicely against the background colour.



 Beater in Place.




As with the background weft, the brocade weft is packed tightly against the previous pass of the background colour while there is still a short loop on the side passed from. This is then taken up before the next weft pass.

Side loop being shown.

What I learned

• The initial end of the weaving should only be done in the background colour. This will give a smooth selvage at the beginning and make it easier for the addition of hardware if needed.
• The width of normal inkle weaving is pulled tight enough that the weft passes can not be seen. With brocade that is not the case. The warp threads need to be equidistant, laying neatly side by side, to allow the brocade weft to show correctly. Comparing earlier repeats that do not show the pattern as well, to later repeats that do show the pattern fairly well you will notice quite a bit of difference between the width of the band – 3/4 inch compared to 7/8^th inch. It doesn't seem like a lot but the wider section looks much nicer than the narrower section.
• The brocade weft needs to be thicker than the background weft. I figured this out during the first few passes of the brocade. A single twist of DMC floss barely showed against the background. After I removed the initial passes and doubled the DMC floss the brocade showed much better.
• As much as the doubled DMC floss looks okay, I want to use a single, thicker weft for my next brocade band. Where the two floss lay beside each other in the pass the brocade effect is much smoother and more noticeable against the background. Where the two twists of floss cross over each other in the pass the brocade is less noticeable and does not fill out as nicely.
• As silly as it seems one thing I learned is to double tie my warp threads. In the process of sliding my band forward a couple of the warp threads became untied, making those warps loose. I managed to retie one but was not able to find the other end of the other thread. As a stop gap measure I pulled the loose warp snug, tied it to another warp and place a wrapping of masking tape around the ends to keep the warps evenly snug.

Conclusion

I really like the colour of the gold on the red and if I get enough yardage I think it will make a very lovely trim for a court tunic. I hope to find a more suitable brocade fibre than doubling up DMC floss. I think a thicker gold cord would look much better than the floss.

I have seen images of other peoples efforts where they used a flat wire but have yet to find a source for this. If silver and gold wire was not so expensive I would try once more to make my own flat wire by hammering out would wire.

I think now that I have learned the basic technique for brocading it is time for me to try brocading a tablet woven band. With any luck I will be able to find a nice thin wool thread to use for my warp and background wefts. With a fine enough background thread a single length of the DMC will look good and allow me more practice before investing in gold or silver flat wire.

References

Historical Relevance

1. CROWFOOT E, HAWKES S. Early Anglo-Saxon Gold Braids. York: Archaeology Data Service (distributor)Available at: http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-769-1/dissemination/pdf/vol11/11_042_086.pdf. Accessed November 13, 2014.
2. Metallic Trims for Some Early Period Personae, Carolyn-Priest Dorman, Cs.vassar.edu, (2014). Metallic Trims. [online] Available at: http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/metaltrims.html [Accessed 13 Nov. 2014].
   
3. Walton Rogers P. Cloth And Clothing In Early Anglo-Saxon England, AD 450-700. York: Council for British Archaeology; 2007. pg 96-97
4. Mayhew C. Viking Age Tablet Weaving. 1st ed.; :13.

Techniques

5. JOHNSON N. Pick-Up Or Brocade Weaving On A Simple Heddle Loom. 1st ed. Available at: https://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/articles/tw_3_2-03.pdf. Accessed November 15, 2014.
6. Cook M. Tablet-Woven Brocade. WeaveZine. 2008. Available at: http://www.weavezine.com/content/tablet-woven-brocade. Accessed November 13, 2014.
7. DeGarmo T. Inkle Weaving. Degarmonet. 2005. Available at: http://www.degarmo.net/inkle/notes/brocade.html. Accessed November 13, 2014.

General A&S: Leather Boots

I was asked by a friend of mine to make him a pair of leather boots based on a 13th C German Riding boot. My entire experience with foot coverings up to this time was some very simple turn shoes based on bog finds. Needless to say the first thing I had to do was look at picture of other reconstructed boots. Surprisingly, there was little to be found on the Internet. So I looked up 13th C Boots and found a line drawing on the only shoe making link I have ever found online Footwear of the Middle Ages. I did find at least one book on period shoes but am currently unable to buy books and the local library is useless.

With the line drawing for 13th C shoes and a side buckled boot I took measurements of my friends feet and started working on drafting a pattern. The measurements I found useful were:
1) Outline of socked feet.
2) Around the widest part of the toes.
3) Around the arched section of the foot.
4) Around the Ankle.
5) Around the thickest part of the calf
6) Height from sole of foot to bottom of the knee.
7) Height of foot from sole to ankle.
8) And lastly, the length of the top of the foot from tip of the longest toe to the front of the ankle.


First I made a paper pattern on cardstock, taping extra pieces together to get the length required. Then I made a fabric mockup to test the shape and sizing. The first mock up led me to make some changes to the basic pattern I was using from the Footwear site.

1) The leg portion went from a single piece of leather to two pieces of leather. One piece that was the width of the distance from side to side of the ankle and the height of the leg from ankle to knee. The second piece was straight on one side and sloped on the other, being narrower at the bottom than at the top. It was also an inch shorter that the other leg piece to allow it to wrap over the top of the foot. After discussion we opted for 5 straps and buckles instead of the 10+ shown on the drawing linked above.

2) A tongue was added to cover the top of the foot where the "v" opening in the foot portion of the pattern. Thinking about it all after the fact I expect the author of the site expect that v to wrap around the ankle.

 3) The drawing suggests they were slipped through slots in the leg pieces and only attached at the beginning and end. All the stress of buckling is on the straps but should they break they can be replaced. Instead I sewed the straps all the way around the outside of the leg leathers. The straps sewn on like this allow the leathers to be tighten up completely to wrap more snugly around the wearers legs.

After some tweaks to the pattern and another set of mock-ups seen in the top to pictures linked, we decided it was more or less exactly what the person was looking for. He purchased a deer hide and told me to use what I needed to use. At this point I became rather paralyzed with fear. I was very much afraid to cut out the pattern in the leather and make mistakes, resulting in wasted leather.

A few weeks passed where the leather and pattern sat on my work bench and dared me to start. Which I eventually did. I laid the leather out and carefully cut out each piece, labeling it left or right as I went, using a Olfa rotary wheel. I allowed 1/2 inch for seams, since I was planning on sewing this on my sewing machine. Luckily I own an industrial strength machine and with a larger needle and some nearly unbreakable thread I was able to do 90% of the sewing on the machine.

In the leather version I allowed a full inch around the foot so that the owner could take them to a local cobbler and have a modern sole sewn on. That is why the foot looks so loose in the pictures to the left, compared to the picture of the fabric mock-ups.

He is pretty happy with them and truthfully I am glad they turned out as nice as they did. I learned quite a bit about drafting a pattern based on a drawing, learned about the shape of the foot and how it effects the way the shoe looks, and even learned how leather and fabric differ. I think at some point I want to carve out a pair lasts , wooden foot shapes, and see how different make a pair of shoes that way is to basic turn shoes.