in Purple Silk and Gold Thread · 2005. 10. 25. · the brocade weft rarely appeared on the back at the tie-down points. Silk Warp (and primary Weft) The 60/2 pre-dyed silk (.33mm

Valgardr’s Annotated by Rhiannon Example of Ice Dragon DocumentationFor original, unaltered, see url: http://www.siriustech.net/weaving/weaving2005/brocadedoc.shtml

Tablet-Woven Brocade Trim

in Purple Silk and Gold ThreadValgardr Gunnarsson

Description

This piece is a tablet-woven gold-brocaded purple silk trim made for a Viking man’s hat. Sincethe hat will be worn by a 10th century Dublin Viking the colors and design were chosen with this inmind.

Exemplar

This piece is based on Band III from the Ruins of Hamar Cathedral in Norway (Bergli, 1998)dated between 1050-1230. A similar band, also from Hamar (Spies, 2000), is dated to the 11th Century.Initially I started with drafts based directly on the archaeological finds. As the weaving progressed Inoticed certain features I liked and altered the pattern. After several iterations I ended up with 3 motifsrepeating, each divided by a star-like motif.

Below are shown Band III from the Cathedral (left) and a draft of the Spies piece from Hamar(right).

My drafts: Below and left is the starting draft based on the exemplar. Below and center is anintermediate draft incorporating basic designs from several of the exemplar pieces. Below and right isthe final draft. The final is based on a number of aesthetic changes made as the weaving progressed.

Two Pictures from source material (book) were inserted here, explaining the exemplarValgardr was inspired by.

WHAT

WHEN WHERE WHO

Existing Example

Existing Example PICTURE with Draft(details of construction)

Technical information on making the choicesinvolved in a re-creation of the band andadaptation to Valgardr’s purpose.


Gold Brocade Weft

Kreinik Japan #7 was chosen for its similar appearance to the original gold strip spun around asilk core. The original gold thread would have created an extremely stiff band and was prone to cuttingthrough the silk where it was tied down at the ends of each pass. The Kreinik thread produces a slightlystiffer band than plain weave but not nearly as stiff as with real metal. It was also interesting to note thatthe brocade weft rarely appeared on the back at the tie-down points.

Silk Warp (and primary Weft)

The 60/2 pre-dyed silk (.33mm diameter, s-plied) was chosen for its similar characteristics to theoriginal thread (.25mm diameter, s-plied). Both single and plied threads were used in period tabletwoven pieces. The charts below provide a brief comparison between this piece and various periodsamples (my piece is indicated in red and italics.)


Warp Ct. / Width

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Width (cm)

Car

ds

Use

d

Dye Color

Threads dyed purple from lichen have been found in leg-bindings from London and York, 9th-10th Century (Beatson, 1995) and also in nalebinding from Dublin c.917-1169 (Pritchard, 1992). Most ofthe brocade finds have been identified as dyed red from madder; however no color is indicated for thetwo exemplars. This piece was done in purple for personal taste and its striking contrast with the goldthread.

Weaving Technique

The brocade weft was doubled up to get a fuller appearance as was common in period. Spun-Gold brocade is doubled in numerous finds from the 11th-15th Century. (Spies, #21,26,32,36,40). Thetwo brocade wefts were passed in opposite directions, as when taken together the two threads would

SampleWidth(cm)

CardCount

WarpCt./CM

Weft count(cm)

Purple Brocade 0.8 25 31 15Memmelsdorf (Spies #24) 1.4 32 23 15Dublin (Pritchard, 1992) 4.2 61 15 20

Memmelsdorf (Spies #25) 0.6 17 28 22Cingulum (Spies #29) 3.6 96 27 26

Birka (Spies #28) 3 84 28 32Trondheim (Spies #31) 0.9 23 26 ?

Hamar III (Bergli, Band III) 0.95 25 26 ?Rodrigo (Spies #32) 1.6 41 26 ?

Trondheim(Spies #30) 1.7 41 24 ?Leonor (Spies #34-35) 5.8 155 27 ?

One graph removed by Rhiannon forbrevity in this example.

Documenting the Color using other Period examples, even though V doesn’thave naturally dyed yarn to work from.


twist and not cover as well. The tie-downs were done using two-threads to make them more distinct,both single and double tie-downs are used in period. The brocade weft was brought to the back of thepiece 2 cards from each side. This was to hide the tie-downs underneath, but ironically they barelyshowed there anyway. This is most likely because the kreinik thread is more flexible than real metal.This piece is 25 cards wide for a woven width of approximately _”.

The exemplar was likely woven on a post loom similar to that found on the Oseberg ship. Thetablets would have been made of wood, bone, or leather, and would have been about 1 _” square. Thispiece was woven on an inkle loom for portability and space concerns. I used modern cardboard cards(3” square) for convenience. In addition to being kinder to the hands (I have carpal-tunnel) they alsoprovide a larger shed which helps when managing 3 wefts at once.

Notes

• The staff border used in the exemplar and found in many other pieces may be structural as wellas aesthetic. Compared to other pieces I’ve done the border helped stabilize the brocade threadsfor the main pattern.

Bibliography

• Beatson, Peter, ‘Wickelbander’. 1995 URL:http://users.bigpond.net.au/quarfwa/miklagard/Articles/legwraps3.htm

o Lichen purple leg bindings from London and York, 9th-10th Century.• Bergli, Aud & Inger Rankes Pedersen. The Textiles from the Ruins of Hamar Cathedral.

Textiles in European Archaeology, 1998o Exemplar – Band III.

• Collingwood, Peter. The Techniques of Tablet Weaving. McMinnville:Robin and RussHandweavers, Inc., 1982

o Brocade weft is doubled to fill out pattern with thinner wefts.• Priest-Dorman, Carolyn, An Archaeological Guide to Viking Men's Clothing. 1993 URL

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/mensgarb.html• Priest-Dorman, Carolyn, Metallic Trims for Some Early Period Personae. 1997 URL:

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/metaltrims.html• Priest-Dorman, Carolyn, _Thóra's Basic Viking Hat. 2001 URL:

http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/manshat.html• Pritchard, Frances. Silk Braids and Textiles of the Viking Age from Dublin. Archaeological

Textiles: Report From the 2nd NESAT symposium, 1984• Pritchard, Frances. Aspects of the Wool Textiles from Viking age Dublin. Archaelogical

Textiles in Northern Europe. (4th NESAT), 1992o Lichen purple nalebinding from Dublin c.917-1169.o Swastikas as TW motif from 6th-15th century.

Picture of the Oseberg loom wasinserted / glued here.

Explanation oftools used inPeriod, withpicture of extantloom.

Annotated bibliography. (Author listed alphabetically). Onemissing item: V should have included URL’s for web-basedpublications (in red below). Pertinent Page nos. would alsohave been helpful (to himself and other researchers) whenmushing thru big books.


• Spies, Nancy. Ecclesiastical Pomp & Aristocratic Circumstance. Jarrettsvill:Arelate Studio,2000

o Exemplar - Trondheim, Norway, 11th Century. (#31)o Spun-Gold brocade doubled from Cleveland, Germany, 11th Century. (#63-64)o Spun-Gold brocade is doubled in numerous finds from 11th-15th Century.

(#21,26,32,36,40) Less common with spun-silver.• Stomford, Rufus of. Brocaded Tablet Weaving

in Purple Silk and Gold Thread · 2005. 10. 25. · the brocade weft rarely appeared on the back at the tie-down points. Silk Warp (and primary Weft) The 60/2 pre-dyed silk (.33mm

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