There was an arts and sciences display at the recent crown tournament in Drachenwald. There were so many awesome projects on display! It was a joy seeing contributions from people across the Kingdom.
I took along a collection of tablet woven bands I made in the last few years, some of which had never made it to events before. This is a small tour of the pieces I exhibited.
The bands
Pictured below, top left to bottom right, are five belts I made using:
- A simple 4F4B pattern (one of the first I wove)
- A completely reversible design using the ‘saxon-style’ pack idling technique.
- My orion A pattern, a six point star on a 3-1 twill background with tubular borders.
- A monochrome laurel leaves pattern, which I developed based on ancient greek pottery.
- One of the variations in my ‘scattering of oak leaves’ pattern.
Then there was a panel of various sample bands (pictured at the very top of this post). Most of them were of finalised designs, but I did include some test pieces as well.
I included the majority of the ermine patterns I’ve designed. I had shown those before at an event in early 2020. The picture below is from that earlier display .
Then there were five bands of two-hole tablet weaving. In the picture below:
- The band on the far right is a pebble-weave version of the Dublin dragons, using someone else’s pattern.
- The red/blue/gold band next to it is my take on the Finnish diamonds band, which was drawn in an archaelogy book by Theodor Schwindt in 1892.
- The other three bands use the same technique I developed for my Finnish diamonds pattern. Actually, someone somewhere has a length of my Finnish diamonds, because I contributed a band as a prize for a sponsored tournament at Raglan a few years ago.
Then came a set of experimental pieces.
- On the left below are two brocade test bands with a blue background, which I made using 8-hole cards. I was pleased with how these turned out, and have since made a filet using the same technique.
- On the right are three red monochrome samples, none of which made the mark. I’ve redesigned them all.
And yet there’s more below!
Doubleface designs I created (from top left to bottom right): Fleur-de-lis, Davis backstaff, octant, sextant, short lucet, sword/gladius, cinquefoil, dog’s paw-print, fleur-de-lis again, ermine head/face, outline tudor rose, 8 point star from medieval floor tile, otter face, small 8 point star (which didn’t work well), tudor rose (again), lattice pattern with dots, hanging cauldron with steam, pitcher/jug, simple cat face, long lucet, rocket, cat reaching, cat eating from a bowl.
Below : oak leaves and acorns on a vine; oak leaves in various zigzags, and an attempt at showing twining threads and cards as a doubleface pattern. Unsurprisingly the twining design has been shelved. I’ve since created a new one that I’m happier with. Just haven’t had time to make it yet.
Below are a set of bands I designed that display dragon and raven heads in various combinations. The patterns are all 8 row repeats, in which each row is different. They are very similar to kivrim patterns, in which each repeat is also 8 rows long, but there are only four different rows each of which is repeated twice.
Below top: a first attempt at snartemo style patterns
Below bottom: a simple clover leaf pattern that I submitted to the Baelfyr a couple of years ago.
Nearly done! Below, is a comparison of a six point star on a twill background (orion A) vs the same star on a standard doubleface background.
I also included a light blue/dark blue band made with tablets. The borders were tablet woven, but the central part of the band was a sampler of tabby, twill, hopsack etc .
Inspirations
Mostly historical sources including grave finds, pottery, armorials and manuscripts.
There are six motifs inspired by modern sources. Can you spot them?
Stringcrafter 