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.

Reproduction of the Animal Motif Tablet Woven Band from Evebø

For this year's Arts and Sciences Faire in the Kingdom of Trimaris, I chose to make a reproduction of the famous Evebø band. This was by far the most difficult and most fun weaving project I've worked on thus far.  There was a huge amount fo research, reading, and translation involved and I am very pleased with the results. This was the first time I enteres an A/S competition at the Kingdom level (second time overall), so I was not expecting to do as well as I did. This was meant to be entered as an Artificer level, but doe to some clerical snafus which went unnoticed due to fatigue, it was entered at the Masterwork level. I was very surprised to have scored very well, earning the Laurel's Acclaim, and this project was selected as one of the Gulf Wars entries for our Kingdom. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend Gulf Wars XXV, but some members of the Kingdom were gracious enough to take the entry on my behalf.

Below follows an excerpt of my report. The full thing is very long, but if you would like to see a full copy, please contact me directly and I would be more than happy to share.

2-Hole Pebble Weave: Reproduction of the Tablet Woven Band “Object I/7” from the Ladoga Burial Mound

The following was my entry into the Regional Art Sci Competition in the Barony of Wyvernwoode, for which I was awarded the title of Baronial Champion. I am making my documentation available here so that it is available to any who wishes to weave this band. Most of this information is freely available on the web, and the Bibliography section has links to the source material.

1.     Summary and Inspiration

In 2010, an excavation of burial mounds in Ladoga, Russia yielded a rich variety of textiles finds believed to originate from the people inhabiting a nearby Viking settlement.  Ladoga is a small town north of St. Petersburg in Leningrad Oblast, in the area historically known as Karelia. This area is in far northern Russia in the area bordering Finland. The area was inhabited in the period from the 10^th to 13^th centuries by Vikings, leading up to the Novgorod Rus era of the 13^th to 15^th centuries.

The finds at the Ladoga burial mounds have been dated from between the 10^th and 12^th centuries [1]. The finds consist mainly of small fragments at various degrees of preservation, ranging from small segments of tablet woven woolen bands, to small patched of woven textile in herringbone patterns. The quality of the fibers varies with some rich silk originating in Central Asia likely belonging to a wealthy elite. While some of the fibers were not of such high quality, their co-location with expensive silks in the same burial mounds indicated they probably were owned by the same wealthy person or persons [1, 2].

In the present work, a reproduction of a particularly interesting tablet woven band from the Ladoga burial mounds is attempted. Care was taken to make use of period materials and methods where possible, although there were a few differences from the tools used in period, as will be discussed.

Since the very beginning of my SCA career 2 years ago, I have been fascinated by fiber arts and specifically band weaving.  At my first SCA event, I learned to use the inkle loom, and was immediately hooked.  Within a month I had woven my first tablet woven band, and have since endeavored to attempt new historical reconstructions in a variety of techniques.  For my first entry into an Art-Sci project, I wished to attempt a technique new to me. My choice of this band to weave for my first Art-Sci project was inspired by the beautiful reconstructed band form this burial by Silvia Aisling [4] which showed the delicacy of this woven band. Aisling postulated [4] that the method for weaving this band should differ from that suggested by the original paper by Kochkurkina and Orfinskaya describing this find [1]. My attempt at reproduction confirms this hypothesis, as will be shown presently.

New Project: Finnish Iron Age Band Reconstructions - Kakuola Kekomäki 376a

Ever since getting Applesies, I have been mulling over a larger sort of tablet weaving project.  Here is this fantastic book with amazing pattern reconstructions of some historical bands. So, why not go ahead and make it a project to make a reconstruction of every historical band in Applesies, and maybe a few more Iron Age Finnish finds?

I've already made the Masku Humikkala band, but I used non-period materials (cotton and bamboo viscose). For this project, I want to make reconstructions that would not be out of place in period, which means using period materials and methods. I will be working my way through this project throughout the year, maybe spacing it out with some other projects. Each time, I will make an attempt to be more and more authentic in my materials and methods.

Another Applesies Band

This is a quick update, which is about a month overdue.

I've continued to weave bands from Applesies and Fox Noses, and this time I wanted to take a break from the complexity that was the Masku Humikkala band and chose something simple.

This pattern, called small applesies, has a simple 5-forward, 5-back turning pattern and was thus very quick to weave. Still, I think the pattern is quite striking and very beautiful.

More images after the cut.

My Attempt at the Masku Humikkala Band

I finally finished a new band!

This band is based on the Masku Humikkala band, and the pattern came from the book Applesies and Fox Noses.  I have mentioned this book a couple of posts ago, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite tablet weaving books. I suggest anyone looking to table weave purchase it.

This band had been on the loom since October, but I only had the time to work on it in spurts, and often at SCA events where my attention span was limited. I was finally able to finish with it at The Tourney of the Three Ships in Southkeep.

I will admit that this band gave me some trouble at the beginning due to some poor fiber choices, but once I figured out how to fix the issues and how to work around the problems the poor fiber choices caused, I was able to weave it, but unfortunately with some difficulty which I'll explain after the cut.

The First Law of Tablet Weaving

The band that I am currently weaving is the most complex I have tried yet. Consequently, it is taking a very long time to weave, mostly thanks to the huge amount of unweaving I've had to do to fix some mistakes. This got me thinking that it would be a good idea to make a blog post about a basic rule of tablet weaving which is invaluable in figuring out where you went wrong. This rule is so important, in fact, that I like to call it the First Law of Tablet Weaving.

The first law of tablet weaving states:

"When turning a tablet, the thread which is up and moves across the top will tell you what color you will be weaving that pick."

Think of it this way, before turning the tablet you will have two threads at the "up" position (I am defining "up" as the face of the band you are weaving). When that tablet is turned, one of these threads will move towards the "down" position, and one of the threads will move across the top of the band but still remain the the "up" position. Here is an illustration which shows what I mean:

Note that before turning the tablet, the thread labeled A is in the "up" position, after turning it has moved across the top but yet remained in the "up" position. Conversely, the thread labeled B is in the "up" position at first, but drops into the "down" position after turning the tablet.  In this example the line being woven will be red for this pick because that is the color of the thread that has moved across the top of the band.

I cannot over stress how important it is to understand this rule if you are tablet weaving.  It will not only let you know ahead of time if you are weaving correctly, but if you have made a mistake, it will be invaluable in figuring out what went wrong and how to fix it.  As in all arts and sciences, understanding the theory of what you are doing before you do it will demystify the "magic" behind the patterns you are following and you will then be able to solve your own problems. In fact, once you understand this rule, it becomes possible to make your own complex patterns.

How can understanding this rule help you figure out a mistake? Well, when unweaving, paying attention to the position of the threads in the tablets which are giving you the mistake will tell you which thread moved up when you turned it. If that thread does not match the color that you are expecting, then you can further deduce whether you perhaps turned the tablet an extra turn, or maybe missed turning it altogether. It takes some practice, but since any weaver will make plenty of mistakes, and therefore do a lot of unweaving, then you will eventually be able to quickly pick out where mistakes were made.

Finnish Diagonals

In this post I'll be talking about a technique which is almost identical to the 3/1 twill from the last post.  It's the Finnish Diagonals technique. My guide for this band was the wonderful book Applesies and Fox Noses by Maikki Karisto and Mervi Pasanen.

A Very Long Adventure in 3/1 Twill

Wow, I have not had a real post on this blog since June, and that's a real shame. Unfortunately real life has become too hectic to be able to spend much real time with weaving.

I have actually had the same project warped on the loom for the past few months and just yesterday managed to finish it up. This was definitely the most difficult project I've worked on, but one which came with a lot of fun and a healthy dose of frustration. The project was my very first attempt at 3/1 twill.

First try at Double Faced Tablet Weaving

As I stated before, there are two main purposes to this blog. 1) to document the woven bands I make and 2) so that hopefully readers will learn from my mistakes and have their lives made a bit easier. This post will try to hit on both points and specifically will focus on the double-faced tablet weaving technique.

In my previous post, which was my first attempt at tablet weaving, a couple of very important lessons
were learned:

1. Twist is a big issue that must be dealt with, and there are ways to cope
2. Many mistakes will be made and learning how to unweave those mistakes is paramount
3. The tools you use will make your life much easier
4. DON'T get too ambitious

Of course on my second attempt at tablet weaving I made some changes to accommodate for the first three lessons, but completely ignored the fourth. This will become a running theme with this blog, I think.

My second tablet weaving project was an attempt at double faced tablet weaving. This method is able to create very complex patterns with the added perk of giving you a color-switched version of the same pattern on the obverse of the band (thus the term 'double-faced').  Being still a complete beginner, I decided to take advantage of a great youtube tutorial by Marni Niles, which you can find here and here.  Marni is nice enough to provide the climbing vine pattern she uses in these tutorials, and all I did was slightly modify it to make it easier for me to read.

Now, onto the process.


Using the Right Tools

1. Fishing swivels make taking care of warp twist a breeze (no this isn't period appropriate, but at this point I'm not going for historicity, rather I'm trying to get the process down). The idea is that each warp thread is tied off to each end of a swivel. When the twist accumulates, it can be combed out and the swivels will turn independently on each side such that you will end up with a straight warp again. The swivels I used I purchased from Amazon.  These were super cheap and very effective. I wish they had the larger loop on both ends, but they serve their purpose well. One thing I did notice is that it's best to trim off as much of the excess warp after you tie off the swivels, otherwise, the threads tend to get caught in the swivel while it is spinning fast which can lead to it becoming jammed.  One other thing I'd change is to also use swivels on the pattern threads since this pattern is not twist neutral.
   

      

   Swivels are a must-use for the selvedges. Note too much excess warp which did end up making the swivels jam eventually.

    
2. Home-made tablets (made from playing cards as can be seen in the previous blog post) will do just fine in a pinch, but they wear out very fast.  Store bought tablets are laminated and will last longer.  They will also have nicely rounded edges, clearly marked hole,s and are all the exact same size and shape.  All these features makes them a little easier to turn.  This is more of a personal choice rather than a must-have, many many people do just fine by making their own tablets.  Eventually I'd like to have wooden tablets, but that is more of a pipe-dream right now.                                                                                                                  _                     
3. It can be difficult to keep track of where you are on the pattern, which will lead to mistakes.  I've noticed that each person has their own method for keeping track of where they are on the pattern.  One thing that worked for me was to use a metallic board (I bought one at Target meant to be a message board) and use a magnet with a straight edge to keep track of my location. Any magnet will do, mine came right of the fridge (an of course is super geeky!).

Having all of the necessary implements to make my life much easier, I embarked on the creation of this new band. All in all, the process was not as difficult as I had imagined. I was very confused at first and had to unweave a few lines, but a few careful watches of the above-mentioned tutorials was enough to clear most of my questions and make the rest of the process much easier.

Learning Though Mistakes

The real difficult part was noticing I had made a mistake and having to figure out what the mistake was. One thing which made this process easier is that this technique gives you a little hint as to what the mistake was. In my case the background threads are white and the pattern was green (with blue selvedge cards that continuously turn forwards). If I suddenly found myself with the colors inverted, that is, if I ended up with green where there should be white and white where there should be green, then that means that I either skipped a line in the pattern (a pick) or I repeated a line I already wove.  This is due to the way the cards are threaded for double-faced tablet weave. If you make either one of these mistakes, the cards will be either a quarter turn ahead or behind, and the wrong color thread will come up. This is explained by the First Law of Tablet Weaving, which I will make a separate post on later.

Now Onto the Results!

All in all, I was very pleased with this project. There are a couple of mistakes here and there, but they are minor and barely noticeable (unless you know what you are looking for). Pictures below:

Close-up of the pattern. Climbing vine.

"Obverse" side of the band, green pattern on white background.

"Reverse" side of the band, white pattern on green background.

First try at Tablet Weaving

When we last left off, I had finally gotten the hang of the inkle loom. Not being one to make things easy for myself, and often biting off way more than I can chew, I decided that my next endeavor should be tablet weaving.

Oh boy, was I in for a wild ride. Tablet weaving, you see, is orders of magnitude more complicated than inkle weaving, and provides the potential for making many many more mistakes, which I definitely did.

All in all, after some missteps, I was actually pretty happy with the results of my first tablet weaving project.

It all started when a friend of mine let me borrow the very beginner-friendly book Card Weaving by Candace Crockett.

Looking through the books, there were many simple patterns to chose from. So of course I chose one of the more complicated ones (the rams horn pattern that is so popular). A couple of hours of warping later I realized I basically had done everything wrong and had to completely give up on that misguided attempt.

Finally realizing that I am not superhuman and actually need to take realistic steps, I chose a simpler (though still challenging) pattern, the Greek Key!

It actually took me a few hours to get this warped since I was basically going from written descriptions on a book. I had read some horrors about the build-up of twist, but being as stubborn as I am, I decided that I did not want to just switch the card turning direction, so I warped it in such a way that I thought would make combing out the twist easy.

It did not make it easy, not even a little bit. Mostly because the way I chose to warp this was stupid and honestly I could not repeat it if I tried. Anyway .... much frustration and several very scary near misses later, I had somewhat of a rhythm going.

Side view of the warped loom. If it looks a bit off, it's because I did it in a very weird way.

Close-up of the pattern.

About one foot away from completing all of the 6 feet or so this loom can handle, however, I had a major mishap which led to the thread I was using for tension snapping and sending the tablets flying in every which direction. Rather than try to clean up the tangled mess that resulted, I decided to end my adventure there and called it complete. Since this was to be a major learning experience however, I also decided to braid the warp threads as a finishing touch. How hard can it be right? Well, it took a few hours, and I realized after a fact that I tied them off in a very stupid way, but I managed to finish it and it even looked really nice!

About halfway through the tedious process of braiding the warp threads.

Finished product:

Closeup of the pattern.

Closeup of the braiding.