Gorgeous buckle

The red silk girdle I made some time ago now has a beautifully stunning, hand-crafted, silver-gilt buckle and strap end, so I had to add this link to Jenn's blog. Its always so nice to see something I've created being finished so nicely, and I must say, so accurately! I can't wait to see Jenn wearing it!

It went well

The Soper Lane session (The Hole Craft of Silkwork) at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds went well - it was very well attended and we had alot of good questions afterwards as well. The picture above was taken during the question time. (me checking a picture reference!)

Many thanks from both Elizabeth and I must go to Debbie, our moderator, who did a fine job, and Machi Sasai, who's paper (The Connections of Silkwomen in Medieval London) was very interesting and contributed greatly to our knowledge of silkwomen in London and shed light on many working relationships. Elizabeth's paper, (Many Goode Householdes Kept: Estimating the size of the Craft in the 15th Century) gave us some very interesting details of the number of women working as silkwomen - she really has found quite a few! My own paper, (The Art of the Silkwomen) I hope gave listeners a better understanding of what medieval silkwomen actually did! There is a possibility that the three papers will be linked together, a section on silk dyeing added and then published. So, fingers crossed on that one!

Although because of travelling time (I was only able to attend for the day due to other commitments) I wasn't really on campus for very long, but I was very pleased to meet some people I only know of by name, and to see some old friends who I haven't seen 'in the flesh' for some time (you know who you are!). It was also very nice to co-ordinate some research, and begin talking about new avenues to persue.

This past weekend we rather insanely decided to reupholster our Victorian settee. Don't try this at home! I'm still aching, that was seriously hard work. At least now it time for the fun stuff - attaching nice hand-made cords on all the seams and making new cushions and curtain tassels to co-ordinate. I figure because I make these things, I can't really pop into a shop and buy some, can I?

All set for IMC

The paper's written, the OHPs printed, and the train tickets booked, Leeds here I come! I'm only able to go for the day, which is a shame, but I am looking forward to it all the same. I suspect I'll still be making small changes on the train on the way there, but hopefully nothing too drastic...

I said that my garden was like Springwatch at the moment, here's a couple of pictures to prove it. No telephoto lens - this baby was so new he wasn't scared (peanuts were far more interesting!) and my hubby was actually this close. Isn't it adorable!

Besides working on the other tassel, I've been obsessing a bit about 'point de milan' at the moment. I'm sure that it is a variation of the chevron buttons, but I am having difficulty getting it to work well over a shape other than a ball. The thing is, most of these techniques have a 'hard way' - which is usually the first thing you figure out, and an 'easy way' - the way that it becomes obvious someone doing something for a living has to work it. I just haven't quite gotten that! Then of course, I will need to find some originals to inspect, to double-check, as opposed to just looking at images. I'll get there in the end.

First tassel complete

The Richard III Society study day at the weekend was really enjoyable - there was a terrific turnout, the other speakers were very interesting and I met some really nice people. It was also perfectly organised, something which always makes things like this go well.

Now, to get my Leeds paper completed. I always seem to make another change each time I read it. I'll probably still be doing that the night before....

The first of the tassels is now repaired. This is the one that was in pieces. I have really enjoyed working on this. Isn't it wonderfully mad? I just love it.

Above, you can see the old and new together. As you can see, the cord and the skirt remain original, although the skirt on the 'new' has been cleaned and turned, so that the slightly less damaged and brighter silk shows through. Likewise, the rosettes keep what silk was there originally, which is why they are a beige colour as opposed to white, while the centre buttons have been recovered. The gold decorative cord was all re-used by cleaning and turning it. Surprisingly, there's actually more damage to the wood moulds on the 'old' tassels - quite a few of them are broken and will need repair.

Above shows the embrace coulant, again I was able to re-use the gold decorative cord, but as with the tassels, all of the red and white cords needed to be made. With this, I also had to spin up some gold silk for the decorative stitching, as the weight of the original thread isn't a 'standard' today.

So I'm now looking forward to getting on with the next one...

And other than that? Well, my garden has been the best place to be. We set up a bird feeding station in January, and we have been more than rewarded. Baby birds galore! Robins, blue tits, great tits, wrens, gold finches (which are really really greedy) chaffinches, and lots of others, and yesterday a baby woodpecker. Still no baby pigeon though... And despite seeing some birds regularly (such as wagtails) I haven't seen their young yet) So, with those and the owls and pheasants and rabbits and bats, I reckon they could have filmed Springwatch in my back garden!

More tasseling

The silk has arrived, and work on the 18th c tassels has begun. I am working on one tassel at a time, and have removed all of the old silk, retaining the decorative cords where ever possible, and making very complete notes of the silk, how it's wrapped, the mold shapes and sizes. Above, you can see some of the molds in various stages of completion - the white ones remain white, with no other decoration. The flat blue ones also have no other decoration, while the others will have quite a bit to add. You can see that I have begun putting the original red cord back - some was too damaged to use and I will be winding some to match - it like the white cord that will need replacing, will require me to make a fine gimp thread first. The gold braid, though quite worn, will be able to be used again. I also have to repair one of the molds, which has a decent enough piece missing to make re-wrapping in it's current state impossible.

However, the big thing this week is finalising my talk for the Richard III East Midlands Branch Study Day on Saturday. All's going well, but can I find an image I particularly wanted to show? It's on one of the many CDs I have, but it hasn't made it's appearance yet. I'm really looking forward to this study day, there will be quite a few interesting speakers and from what I understand, quite a few tickets have been booked.

So, alot of this week will be put to use writing - my IMC paper also has some fine tweaks required, and then straight into a piece for the Braid Society. It's all go...