Rope Bed Diary

IDEA

So I have decided to make a new rope bed for the May Kingdom A&S Comp for Lochac for Furniture. This will be my fourth Rope bed and from each I have learned just that little bit more.

The first was made based on a 13th century travelers bed. Unfortunately can't find pictures of mine. The next two were simplistic versions of Tudor Rope Beds. One with 2x6s and one with 1.5x4s. I moved to the smaller frame as really the 2x6 were overkill and a bit hard for me to manage on my own. It was a lot of weight and a lot of wood. I used plain hole and peg construction from a misunderstanding of looking at the bed I was basing it off from. Thanks to Veil le Pantera he helped me analyze the bed better and we realized it was mortice and tennon with the peg securing the joint. I have enlisted his help to help guide me through the process so I can make a bed I can be proud of. While I am happy with Rope Bed the Third, I did do a poor job of cutting the wood and the joinery. I am not a woodworker so much of this is outside my skill level. Rope Bed the Fourth will again be based on the Tudor Rope Bed Below. It is the closest to my Persona's time period I can find and also has many close up pictures to work from.

My plan with this project is also to use as close to period materials as can be used in Australia (And my budget) and to create historically accurate bedding as well.

This will mean:

1. Oak for the wood (Tassie Oak has been chosen, while not a 'true oak' it is the closest thing available around here and much sturdier than the Bunnings Pine I have been using)

2. Hemp Ropes

3. Layered bedding instead of my Ikea mattress. So far the only clear illustration of such I have found is the recreation of the bed of ware.

a. A woven mat of plant material to keep the bedding from gapping between the holes. (ordered)

b.Bottom Mattress: Course Linen Canvas Mattress stuffed with Wool. (Stuffed)

c. Middle Mattress:Course Linen Canvas mattress Stuffed with Feathers (stuffed)

d. Top Mattress: Finer Linen Mattress stuffed with Down. (Deleted, combined with above)

e. Bolster and rows of pillows: Canvas pillows Covered in Fine Linen stuffed with down (Pillows purchased, need to make cases)

f. Sheets of Fine Linen

g. Woven wool blanket

h. Quilt (Working on Quilt)

i. Coverlet?

j. Curtains for Canopy

So quite an extensive shopping list and obviously some allowances will need to be made for budget/skill.

Shopping List:

Woven Mat: May use the bamboo fencing from Hardware store...Will look into this more.

Tassie Oak: I have been directed to a couple of higher end wood shops and will be checking them out shortly.

Hemp Rope: After doing an internet search and originally only finding a couple of wholesalers not willing to sell short lengths of rope, I nearly gave into Sisal. January Baronial council ironically helped with this. While discussing ropes for one of the Baronial Pavs it was brought up that people knew of places that sold Hemp rope by the metre in Margaret river and Road Trip was declared! (And I have since found a shop in Fremantle that may sell it, calling today!) I will need 8-10ml Rope for this project. The hemp stores in margaret River and Fremantle no longer sell rope. Doing more research on rope sizes show I will need 6mm-8mm rope. I found a couple shops on ebay (with the help up Bronwen) that sell Hemp. One in the UK and one in America.

Wool: I then faced...where would I get enough wool to stuff a quilt. Ebay! Found a Wool seller selling wool by the kilo. I won an auction and in our correspondence I told her about my project and she has added in some more wool beyond what I 'won' to help me along. She had not put it up for auction as it was not a fine quality for spinning or craft projects and since it was clear I didn't need such fine wool to stuff a bag with...walah. Thank you Lorraine4031.

Rough linen: I was about to use some cotton canvas when I remembered I had a heap of this rough linen that I have been using for lining bodices. I think I /might/ still use the cotton canvas for the top layer as linen sometimes makes me itch and it is plausible a spanish persona would have access to such. Will see how I go as I make my way through the project.

Fine Linen: Again...will see as I go through the project. The sheeting layer may need to be of cotton for comfort purposes.

Already have:

Canopy for bed

Quilt in Progress

Research

Oak and Pine were the most common woods used in furniture production (Diehl)

THE MAKING OF THE BED

Saturday February 19th was the day the bed making was started! Started the day by picking up the last bits of wood from Gunns (Now Auswest Timbers) and then driving to Pantera's House. The size of the bed is a single tester that will fit in my tent so will be lower than a 'normal' canopy bed. Some decisions in the construction were also made for Portability as it will need to pack down to fit in my Hyundai excel. I have a chronic pain disorder and joint issues, so while I would have liked to hand tool this project, just hand sawing the plywood shield I did recently left me in pain for days. After receiving some instructions and demonstrations we started cutting!

First I cut the tasmanian oak 110x32 rails for the bed with a mitre saw, then we cut the 70x70 pine were cut for the uprights. Pantera helped with cutting down the uprights as I could not hold the circular saw and the pieces were too big for the mitre saw.

I cut the 70x70 pieces for the top of the canopy with a bandsaw after routering the edges instead of trying to router 7cm long bits of wood.

Next came what I thought would be one of the scariest parts of the process, but turned out being perhaps the most fun. Routering! Many of the pictures I saw of bed had some degree of routering (Planing) of the wood. In my practicing I noticed that the routered starts looked like some of the decorative bits on the bed and decided to include that scooped look. This caused me to add a bit more features to the wood then I had planned as I enjoyed myself too much!

PICTURES

Byzantine Bed Rope Bed the Third Tudor Rope Bed Tudor Rope Bed Join Bed of Ware Clothing

PRICING

REFERENCES

http://oak.atlantia.sca.or g/18/18bedofware.pdf (Clothes of the Great Bed of Ware)

http://www.greydragon.org/furniture/beds/index.html

http://www.greydragon.org/furniture/beds/saffronwalden/index.html

Link to byzantine bed.

Constructing Medieval Furniture-Daniel Diehl

Medieval Furniture-Daniel Diehl

TIMELINE

January 10th ish

Recovering from twelfth night, realizing I had committed to entering every kingdom A&S comp this year (Eek) and decide that the 'Furniture' one for May crown has tickled me fancy. I want to do a Tudor Rope bed complete with period beddings. Yes I have done another bed before, but this will be better!

January 24th

After Much plotting, diagraming, price checking of different aspects of the bed, went out in search of Wood prices and op shops to find a feather quilt or four to pilfer stuffing out of. Only one opshop had any, so purchased it. The best wood seemed to be at Gunns, so will be getting a mix of gunns and Bunnings woods for the project. Worked out which Hemp company to use, the one in the US. Have purchased my wool for mattress and just awaiting arrival! All is falling into placing.

January 26th

Making the mattress casings. Decided to go with the cotton Canvas I had available as a casing, then may make linen 'doona' covers for over them so they can be washed. I acquired a big feather quilt at an opshop and in the process of inverting it inside the mattress bag. Currently I look like I have had a fight with a duck as I have down over my face and chest. Luckily...not allergic. I think I will stick to pillows after this, surely will be easier to invert and empty! So today's effort has 1200g of stuffing into the bag...definitely need more.

January 28th

Got the rest of the feathers from Ikea and stuffed the Mattress. Feather Mattress is complete. It was done with cotton Canvas to provide a solid barrier against feather protrusion (mostly successful) Likely will do a linen cover for it. It has nearly 6kg of feathers in it. It looks more than thick enough. Really the truth will come once the rope bed is made. It is mostly small feathers with some down. The mattress bag was machine sewn. If I put a cover on it, it will be handsewn. Will be opening Rope and Rush Mattresses this week. I found a Takemi Mattress supplier that makes woven rush mattresses and a hemp rope supplier in the US.

February 2nd

Started purchasing wood. With discussion with Pantera we decided to go for the 70 by 70 corners, which unfortunately only come in Pine. Tas oak came in 65x65 or 90 x 90, one too small, one too big. As Pine was used in Period furniture making I will be ok with this deviation. It is also much kinder on the pocket book. I also picked up some Tas oak battens for the headboard. This will likely be the last piece made as it needs to fit neatly between the two uprights. The plan is to make the bed Next weekend, the 11th. Will practice with tenons this week (Hopefully). The Hemp rope and the Takami mats have been ordered. Still waiting on the wool!

February 4th

Wool Arrived Yesterday! Looks like it had to go through quarantine inspection which delayed it. So spent the evening and morning fluffing out the wool and finished the mattress for it today and still have a bit of wool left at this stage. Will see how the mattress feels once the bed is made.

February 8th

Got a response from the Saffron Walden Museum about the bed in their collection I am replicating! Some more pictures and information about the wood, sizes and the like. The curator is going to get some more detailed measurements of the woods and joins for me as well. Amazing help! Everything is coming together. The bed production looks like it will happen on the 18th of February.

February 11th

The Tatami mats have arrived, they definately look like they fit the defination of 'woven rush' and they smell nice too. Hopefully the hemp rope will arrive in time! Will likely work on quilt and pillow cases today, maybe the linen cases for the mattresses.

February 18th

The day of bedmaking! The rope arrived yesterday! Woo. Went in the morning to pick up the last bits of wood and went over to Pantera's workshop. The process will be detailed above in the "Making of" section. Learned how to use a router and band saw, Woo. Not as scary as I thought. Still caused a little bit of pain (Boo FM!) but I got through it and we got most of the components built up today. Will come back in a few days to finish the headboard and do the final sanding and neatening!

February 21st

Headboard, sanding, seeing if it all fits together!

February 23rd

Linseed oiling, more sanding, some glueing.