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All posts from the category "Textile work".
A project I started just for fun and training during the pandemic is finally finished.
I wanted to train my brocading skills a little more and had access to some very pretty fake gold thread which I really wanted to try out more. So I made this filet/headband in a pretty sky blue with a golden yellow border. (more…)
Hold on, you are not on the blog of my dear friend and colleague Niklas, der Girdler! No, this time, I will tell you about this belt myself, even if Nikolaus did have his fair share to do with this piece.
My impression of a wealthy crafters wife is slowly but surely being finalised. One large project that I had postponed for a long time and which I was working on for far too long, is finally finished. A belt suitable for this ensemble.
I am incredibly unlucky with my garters. After loosing my first ones made from leather with buckles, now I lost my woven ones too and I needed new ones. They should be flexible, which wool provides and I chose a coarser wool that clings to the stockings. And they needed to be pretty broad in order to spread the pressure the right way. Other materials often bunch up and then cut into my legs. (more…)
Ich recently could get my hands on some pretty convincing fake gold thread and now I have some projects I had always wanted to do. One of them is a gold brocaded tablet woven filet ribbon which I had been inspired by an extant original by.
You probably already know some of my hairnet adventures. Knotting the net however is only a part of making a late medieval hairnet. While f.e. the London finds and Original illuminations show unembroidered examples, the mass of extant nets is embroidered.
Today we would like to show you some sources and techniques for doing laundry in the 14th and 15th century.
I want to show you another tablet woven piece of mine which I made for a young interpreter colleague of mine.
I already collected the evidence for silk filets in this article of mine.
Just a short documentary entry for a little textile shenanigan:
I could not resist executing another reconstruction from a great written source for my #pluckingroses Challenge.
My reconstruction is based on a court file from the end of the 13th century. The case was revolving around a Ms Bertolina, nicknamed “Guercia” from Bologna who was charged with sodomic practices (meaning sexual practices that were considered to be abnormal). I can’t tell her story any better than this amazing Podcast here (transcript can be found in this article here). I can really recommend this read, because Guercia seems to have been a very unusual woman and in my opinion a great example of women’s emancipation in the middle ages.
When reconstructing medieval life, especially medieval clothing, one needs to maintain a fine balance. Especially if one is not 20 any more, you have more options for going about your impression. Because there were without question those who did not follow the latest fashion, those who work hard, who are very religious or who generally follow more conservative views of fashion. We know of those people when we read moral texts from our period, when we read sumptuary laws, inheretance registers and mundane letter correspondences.
But the decision, which elements to choose for a certain point in time and a certain region in order to appear conservative or fashion-forward, is difficult. You choose between profane and religious art, between what moral writers condemn and what they propagate, between local tradition and foreign influence.
At the moment I am planing a very unusual surcot for my 1350s wife of a well-off crafter. When researching, I did however come across many overdresses that were quite conservative, loose cut and not exactly what other countries in this time already had to offer. So without question, there was still a large trend for that kind of clothing in my area as well.
So I decided, in order to extend my repertoire, i should also make a version of a surcoat that mirrors this world view and started an inbetween project.
