For years, I’ve been puzzling over a picture in the book, “Ancient Hungarians” as it is literally the only picture in the entire book that shows textile fragments. In the picture, there is a strange metal object; a tube. It looks unlike any textile tool I’ve ever seen. Clearly, the authors were as stumped as I for the description of the object is as follows: “Bronze tube bent of sheet metal. One end tapers...
Now that the big road trip is over, its time to get a new warp on the loom. My next big project is going to be cloth for a Rus Kaftan for my husband. The yarn I’ve chosen is Jaggerspun Maine Line 2/20 worsted wool. I’ve ordered three pounds each of two colors – Sable, a warm, rich medium brown and Bittersweet, which is a dark rusty red. I’m hoping to have a bit...
I’ve been wanting to make a short viking coat (sometimes called a Klappenrock) for my husband for some time. The jacket is loosely based on the cross over coat worn in some of the dancing man depictions as well as various other stone carving and artifacts. I started out making a couple of sketches. I’m terrible at drawing, but I like to get my ideas out on paper so I can work out...
The last few days have been more about life and less about projects. I am chafing at the disruptions. I finally downloaded some free weaving software so I can draft without graph paper. The program I’m using is called WeaveDesign. It’s an easy program to use and has made fiddling with the draft for the fabric of the magyar kaftan much easier. I’ve settled on an 8 shaft draft in order to get the...
Last night, a friend brought her big brain over to my house and applied it to translating the German text in Die Graber der Moscevaja Balka edited by Anna A. lerusalimskaja . It was too much to translate all at once. She said she will give me the next part later. Here is what she has given me so far as it relates to the inspiration fabric for the Magyar kaftan: Pg 152 #155 Man’s...
Kaftan fabric weave I believe I landed on a point twill draft for the fabric for the magyar kaftan I will be creating. It is not a reconstruction of a period draft, rather it is a design that approximates the look and feel of an extant piece within the constraints of my abilities and the limitations of my equipment.
View of the loom Saturday morning. Saturday was a productive day, though everything that was done was not actually on my list yet. I also struggled throughout the day with shoulder and back pain so there was more napping during the day than originally intended. Still, I’m pleased with progress on the list. Sewing room excavated. – Check! Shaggy pile weave – Worked on! Plan kaftan fabric project – Started! Weaving task list –...
Not a whole lot of progress this evening due to the need to meet with friends and plan excursions for the upcoming Carribean cruise. I did manage to upload about 20 additional images to shoe gallery but I haven’t had time to cite them yet. The new images are from Scythian and Altaic grave finds and are there to provide additional context and examples of steppes nomadic footwear. At right is the pail o’ indigo as...
I culled some photos of felt shoes and other nomadic shoes from various books last night and uploaded them here. Enjoy!. In the next couple of days, I’ll talk about how I plan to make that all come together, talk about the choices I am making and the reasons why, as well as document the process I will use in making and embellishing the shoes.
My current project is to recreate the clothing for a 9th century magyar woman. It is a challenging project to pursue, given that there have been no intact textiles recovered, little to no portraiture, very little in the way of contemporary description and the artwork in the archeological record doesn’t depict human beings. Publications are primarily in Hungarian, Russian or German, if they are available at all. For this recreation, I will lean heavily on...
