Silk ribbon

Another rush job completed - 2 lengths of silk grograin ribbon at a half inch wide, as well as another length a quarter inch wide (not in the photo!). The quarter-inch was sooo cute, if I do say so myself, a lovely tiny ribbon! This will ultimately trim a gown with the little ribbon making bows.

I'm taking a tiny breather from weaving now - only in that I now have to wind off skeins and prepare for the next one!

I am looking into having a new loom made. Not anything 'historical', but something which hopefully will be practical enough for both tablet weaving and inkle weaving, and do very long lengths. Of course, how successful it is will depend on my design - I am basing it on an inkle floor loom, but with a variation to allow me to weave with tablets as well. Now to keep my fingers crossed that my friend will be able to make it. (And, if it doesn't quite work for both, it'll make one heck of a warping board!)

Lots of buttons

I have a few rush jobs at the moment, one of which is 60 cloth-covered buttons for Jane's Wardrobe. These are for a justaucorps - 1680s - and there are 60 to complete. Of course, being the odd person that I am, I find it very relaxing making buttons, even plain covered ones... These have a card base, which is actually historical - its not something that you find in a dig of course, but there are buttons where, when the mould can be seen, is cardboard. I suspect it is less likely on the very fancy passementerie buttons, (though of course, many of these are so well made that the mould cannot be seen) but is very suitable for plain buttons.

There is also the added benefit that there is no problem finding the correct moulds, no matter what size is needed!

Another brocaded band completed

Three and a half metres complete - in two pieces so that the long piece doesn't need to be cut when it is added to the coat.

Flattening the gold worked wonderfully. I placed the band face down on a glass placemat, and used a rolling pin to put an even pressure along the band. Not only did it do the obvious, which was to flatten the returns on the back of the band, it evened out the tone on the front as the gold has fewer 'bends' from the weaving. This has really helped it reflect the light better, which meant I actually managed a few photos I was happy with :-) It changed the flexibility of the band too - it is hard to explain as its something that really is more noticeable by feeling the band - it just felt different afterwards. I think it will be easier to sewn onto the garment as well.

Yes, we had some snow too..

My garden, about 4pm yesterday. Lovely!

We're sort of snowed in - actually, it's more like iced in. We're at the top of a hill, on a rural road, so when its icy you can get down, but can't get back up! It happens at least once a year anyway so it's not something to stress about. And one of my dogs is so happy - he adores the snow and would stay out in it all day, so it is worth having.

Gold brocade weaving progresses

The Anglo-Saxon gold brocade is moving along nicely now, I have a good pace going. My upper arm muscles are feeling it too - there are two lengths to work and quite long so hopefully my muscles will be nicely in shape by the time the nice weather arrives ;-)

Originally (read about here..), I had warped onto my long band loom, with the intention of using warp weights. My gold brocade band of last year had been warped onto my large inkle loom, and I had found it very easy going, but the gold plate had scratched into the beams to such a degree that I didn't really want to risk causing more damage. However, because of the mistake, and not wanting to actaully waste the materials I had warped, I was then left to having to use the inkle loom again.

I'm very glad I did. I have noticed a real difference to my own working comfort due to the fact that I can sit with the weaving directly in front (going out) as opposed to running side-to-side (so therefore working from left to right). I seem to twist my back more working brocade the second way, whereas with the work right in front of me I can work for longer periods.

I have also noticed that the weave itself is more even. The 'mistake' band seems to have the warp threads closer together on what would be the left side of the band, which is the 'top' when working side-to-side. I assume that this has alot to do with the weft thread hanging, therefore pulling at that edge of the weave.

Most important though, is that the gold plate itself seems to lie flatter and is more easily turned when working head-on to the band. So - perhaps I'll just have to sand down my beams later on! So all-in-all, making the mistake has been a very good thing.

The next experiment for the 'mistake' piece - (its great to have something to experiment with actually), will be to try to really flatten the gold plate, as many finds show happened - the plate was flattened and burnished after weaving, ensuring that the threads made an impression in the gold. Of course, the Anglo-Saxons were using pure gold and that is really quite simple to flatten, the modern version, despite being 'Admiralty' standard, still contains more base metals than the early stuff. But I'd like to try to get the plate as flat as possible, to ensure that it reflects the light as evenly as possible - you can see from the photo that otherwise the slightest bump in the plate reflects differently, which results in the pattern not being as clear as it might. And perhaps it will make the band itself easier to photograph? The top one - so that you can see the gold, is too dark for the wool, whilst the next shows the blue very well, and the gold not-so!