Work in Progress - Birka brocaded band B20

Since we're int he middle of a move to a new home, I will not have the time or energy to finish my latest project for a while, so in the meantime I am posting some work in progress images. This is band B20 from Birka. Materials used are 60/2 silk, 60/2 linen, and 30 gauge drawn .999 silver wire.

I presented this as a work in progress at Ex Opus, Trimaris' Southern Regional A&S competition event. I won overall highest score and Populace Acclaim. Seeing as the quality of work on display at our humble little Art Sci event was of incredibly high caliber, it was an honor to have my work so highly received.

Now on to the pictures!


Here is the band still on the loom. I have about 45cm already woven, and the finished piece should be ~1.5m long.

Here is the band in better light.  The blue border is linen, which does not exist on the remaining fragments of the band, but there is ample evidence that there was such a border on the piece which has long since deteriorated away.

And some closeups of the pattern. Here you can see that two silver wires are used for the brocade.

The beginning 1cm is plain weave, followed by 2cm of brocade in silk, as described by Agnes Geijer in Birka III.