Reconstruction of the Brocaded Tablet Woven Band B20 from Birka Grave 735

The following post is a copy of my documentation for my Trimaris Kingdom A&S Masterwork project from 2016, also presented at Gulf Wars XXVI.

Glossary

1. Brocading: Technique in which a second supplementary weft is passed across the warp and brought up through the warp threads such as to be visible in the front of the band to add pattern.
2. Brocade Weft: The secondary weft used during brocading.
3. Shed: An opening formed in the warp between upper and lower threads on a tablet.
4. Selvedge: The portion of a fabric which is at the edges. Since this is the location where the weft is turned in its pass back and forth during the weaving process, these edges are clean with no unraveling possible.
5. Structural Weft: The main weft passed back and forth along the warp of the band, which provides the band with structure and locks the weaving in place.
6. Tablet Turn: The basic motion of turning a tablet along its central axis to create the warp twining, illustrated below:
   
   
   
7. Tie-Down: In brocade, these are the background threads which are used to tie down the brocade weft in place and avoid any bucking and lifting which would get caught on objects and damage the band. In addition, they help create the pattern.
   
   
   
8. Twill: A textile weave where warp threads pass over and under weft threads in specific count in such a way that diagonal lines are formed.
9. Twine: The twist of threads with each other in either a Z or S direction.
10. Warp: The lengthwise threads in a weave structure.

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.