I had a wonderful time at Athenaeum 2019 - as always, I'm simply blown away by the artisans in our Kingdom.
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| photo by Steve Somers |
I had some simply wonderful conversations about predictive tablet weaving techniques from a fellow tablet weaving artisan (Sofia de Toledo) who focuses on early period patterns. I have previously struggled with how to visually determine which color will surface with the turning of the tablets and she was able to convey it very simply to me. When you turn the tablets towards you (back) the top thread furthest from you is the color that will surface. When you turn the tablets away from you (forward) the top thread closest to you is the color that will surface. I'd like to think that I'd be able to naturally figure that out, but the concept has puzzled me for about two years until she kindly explained it. That's why I go to these events, though, so that I keep learning and progressing.
I had the chance to geek out with Mistress Disa about her pictures of brocade from her Sweden trip. We got to discussing silver gauge and what size was used in various extant evidence. We only had a brief discussion, but her observations echoed my impression - that 32 gauge silver wire is too small and that the finds likely were closer to 30 or 28 gauge wire. I plan to do some additional tests to see what matches her photos.
Piggy-backing on this, I recently completed a brocade project with two other artisans (each of us weaving the same pattern). I noticed a difference in each of our tensioning and asked a few questions about the weight/level of tension used for the project to compare it with my setup. This got me thinking about the ideal weight/tension to use for my brocade and how the patterns appear in the extant examples. Previously, I've used weights according to what was found in archaeological finds, but I didn't fully examine whether the weight I used was correct to reflect how the pattern appears in the extant find (in relation to how condensed or spread out the pattern was). To my eye, higher tension yields the prettiest result, but that may not be the case in reference to the original finds. My next research project (post dyeing experiments) will likely be related to this.
I plan to use my warp weighted loom, do an iteration of a pattern at a certain weight, then add weight for every iteration of the pattern so the progression more tension can be observed and compared to an extant example. I hope to be able to use this tool and compare it to other examples so I can match up the weight used to achieve the end product for each, individual historic piece I recreate. I think it will be a worthwhile project to help my accuracy in future projects and I look forward to sharing it!
I missed presenting at Athenaeum this year, but still had a marvelous time getting my nerd on with all the artisans. I also realized that I didn't post anything on my blog about displaying last year, so I'll leave you with a photo of me displaying my initial works at Athenaeum 2018.
