My private museum - Part 1: Tablet weaving
I often demostrate tablet weaving at various historic events. After few years of talking to people about weaving and listening to their responses I realized that it is not enough to copy just the patterns to show the audience how skillful our ancestors were. Since then I try to use similar yarns to the original ones to show not only the complexity, but also the fineness of prehistoric and medieval weaving.
In chronological order:
Hallstatt (Austria), 800-400 BCE. For my first attempt I used the finest wool I could find and I had to give up after few centimeters due to breaking threads. Therefore, I used cotton instead for my second attempt. Still, my band is 2 cm wide, while the original one was only 1.3 cm wide!
Dürrnberg (Austria), 3th century BCE. Woven from the hand-spun and plant-dyed yarn for the book Po nitkách do minulosti (Threads to the Past). 29 tablets (triangular mostly), width: 1.8-2 cm.
Lønne Hede (Denmark), 1st century CE. Made as a test-weave for the book Po nitkách do minulosti (Threads to the Past). 62 tablets; width 6.5 cm instead of 5.5 cm due to using too thick yarn.
Bifrons (England) 6th century CE. My first brocade with the flat metallic strip. In the original band the gold was used instead of the silver (or fake silver in my case). Colour of the original background is unknown.
Chelles (tomb of St Bathildis; France), before 680 CE. Woven for the exhibition Brides from Far Lands. Silk, 89 tablets, width: 4 cm. To test the hypothesis, whether the band was woven in one piece or the edge patterns were woven separately, the central and botom parts (73 tablets) were woven together, and the top band (16 tablets) was added later.
The brocaded band, silk on silk. Variation of the pattern recorded in many countries during High Middle Ages. 13 tablets, width: 6 mm.
Prague (Czech Republic), 14th/15th century. Replicas of two wool bands found during the recent archaeological research and published in the book Středověké textilní a barvířské technologie (Medieval Textile and Dyeing Technologies).
Top: 15 tablets (with two threads in each only), width: 1.2 cm; bottom: 24 tabets, width: 2.2 cm. The weaving errors in the bottom band replicate the mistakes in the original band.
In chronological order:
Dürrnberg (Austria), 3th century BCE. Woven from the hand-spun and plant-dyed yarn for the book Po nitkách do minulosti (Threads to the Past). 29 tablets (triangular mostly), width: 1.8-2 cm.
Lønne Hede (Denmark), 1st century CE. Made as a test-weave for the book Po nitkách do minulosti (Threads to the Past). 62 tablets; width 6.5 cm instead of 5.5 cm due to using too thick yarn.
Bifrons (England) 6th century CE. My first brocade with the flat metallic strip. In the original band the gold was used instead of the silver (or fake silver in my case). Colour of the original background is unknown.
Chelles (tomb of St Bathildis; France), before 680 CE. Woven for the book Po nitkách do minulosti (Threads to the Past) and repeated and expanded for the exhibition Brides from Far Lands. Silk, 48 tablets, width: 1.8 cm.
Chelles (tomb of St Bertille; France), before 704 CE. The top band (2 cm wide) is made of cotton. The bottom silk band shows the fineness of the original band. 28 tablets, width: 9 mm.
Oseberg (Sweden), before 834 CE. Silk and linen band. The colours of the original band are unknown. 9 tablets; width of the replica 1.1 cm, original width < 1 cm.
Top: 15 tablets (with two threads in each only), width: 1.2 cm; bottom: 24 tabets, width: 2.2 cm. The weaving errors in the bottom band replicate the mistakes in the original band.