Historic experiments

Seydisfjordur Find

This one was really cool to me. In 2020 there was a landslide in Iceland that revealed a long-buried viking-age settlement. Amidst the items found was a piece of textile - a tablet woven piece that was reminiscent ot vines. I tried it as a normal threaded-in 4-holed weave at first , then did it again in the more historically proper two-holed style. I like how it really tightens up the motif.

Gotland, Tingstade find

I first tried this one in 2018(?) as a challenge from Viscountess Wilhja to enter in Pentathlon and give as an apprentice belt. Well, it never made it to pentahlon, and I realized I wasn't weaving it per historic method anyway. So I learned a few things and tried again.

This is my newest attempt in wool. I still don't have it quite right so this is going to take some further practice.

Second attempt in Cotton to see if the material I was using was the issue. I tried 7 different turn/flip sequences on this one. It's still not quite right, so I'll have to think about it and try some other techniques.

My attempt at the band

St Bathilde de Chelles

I accepted a commission from someone who wanted a Saxon motif from about 600-700 AD. The closest to this was a Frankish find in the grave of Berthlde de Chelles, once Queen of France. She founded several abbeys before retiring to Chelles and eventually sainted for her acts of generosity and kindness. I had to make the band narrower than the original due to the limitations of my loom, but I think it came out pretty well.

From the museum

Skjoldehamn Belt

I was asked to replicate the Skjoldehamn Belt found on the body of a female buried around 1075 C.E. I found this blog to use as my guide: https://bookeofsecretes.blogspot.com/2017/10/how-to-make-12-strand-skjoldehamn-belt.html
My wife made the loom for me and here are my attempts:

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