Tablet woven trim in the style of a Viking era trim

This is my documentation for some weaving I entered in the AEthelmearc A&S Champs this past weekend - I didn't win, I didn't expect to win, I went because a friend goaded me to get out of the house and I knew that I would have a good time once I got there.

I hope the images come in okay.

Introduction:
   This is brocaded tablet woven trim I made for a friend that has an 11th century Irish personae. The original band this is based upon was made of silk thread with gold brocading, it was found in Dublin, Ireland. That piece is believed to date to between the late 10th and early 12th century when Scandinavians played a dominant role in the founding of Dublin as a place to trade slaves and as it’s rulers until the Anglo-Norman invasion in the late 11th century.

Technique/Material Used:
   The original band was made from 31 cards threaded in all four holes and is 9mm wide. The cards were mostly threaded in the S direction, but a portion of them are a mixture of S and Z threading. The brocade thread is “spun-gold”, which is gold foil wrapped around a core of silk thread. The brocade pattern is 18 lines that repeat over and over and has an approximate density of 44 picks per cm. Neither Pritchard nor Spies mention how the brocade is handled at the selvage and I have not seen a photo or the back face of the fragment to try to surmise that for myself – it is unlikely that the brocade thread passed completely thru the selvage as Spies points out that the only example of this happening is one of the Birka finds where it makes a fringe.

   This is half of a trim commission that was requested to be 1-1.5 inch wide. I used #10 crochet cotton for both the warp and brocade weft and #30 for the ground weft to help offset elongation that might be caused by using a #10 ground weft. Neither reference source I have for this piece specifies whether the brocade thread is held down by a single thread per card, both top threads (“double”) or if it passes to the back face so I chose to use single thread tie downs after trying double tie downs; the sample I kept for myself shows how the individual pips in the pattern appear more clearly with single ties downs as opposed to the doubles. This leads me to think that the original probably used single thread tie downs, but I am experimenting with changing my weaving technique to explore several different variables and see how much of a difference they can make.

   After some discussion with Nancy Spies I did some experimenting with warp tension using 100/3 silk thread and Mylar fly fishing tinsel. I managed to reproduce the band and pattern at 11mm wide and roughly the same length, maybe a bit longer; so I know that I need to use even finer thread to achieve the same width as the historical remnant, possibly 120/3 will do it. The elongated pattern sections are where I had my warp tension VERY TIGHT, then I eased that off and did another section and eased it off again and another section, etc… The shortest section was accomplished by having the tension so loose that the cards were hanging at about 45 degrees under their own weight.

   I want to see how dramatically warp tension, burnishing, and the use of a beater sword will affect the pattern visibility and recognition after the silk decays. I’ve started a new band with 60/2 silk thread and using same pattern, but I’m using measured weights to control the tension and card skew to see just how little weight it will take to get the period warp/weft ratios. I’ll also experiment with using a beater sword in addition to just beating in with the shuttle to see how that affects pattern elongation. Most of the brocade thread will be a modern “spun-gold” replacement that is intended for embroidery work, but I also plan to do sections using silver wire. I am going to use fire to burn away the silk warp to see if I can replicate the pattern imprinting in the wire has been used to determine the Bifrons, Birka and Evido patterns.


Pattern B23 from Birka - Birka III


Kentish bands from Bifrons - Crowfoot


Spun Gold - Spies

References:
Pritchard, “Silk Braids and Textiles of the Viking Age from Dublin,” pp.149-156
Spies, “Ecclesiastical Pomp & Aristocratic Circumstance“, pg. 254-255
Geijer, Birka III: Die Textilfunde. Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksells Boktryckeri, 1938
Crowfoot and Hawkes, “early anglosaxon gold Braids,” Medieval Archaeology Xi (1967)

My weaving sample showing double ties downs on the right and single tie downs on the left: