[Regia-NA] [Fwd: [SCA-AS] Links: Tangled webs--medieval weaving]

[rmhowe]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SCA-AS] Links: Tangled webs--medieval weaving
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 12:57:42 -0400
From: "Lis" <liontamr at ptd.net>
Reply-To: Arts and Sciences in the SCA <artssciences at lists.gallowglass.org>

Hallo, my faithful readers!

This week's Links List is on weaving--from finger weaving, to weaving for
kids, to beginner weaving links, and even some pages related to
loom-building.

As always, please "pay it forward" to those who will find an interest in
this Links List, and use these links to update your own Links pages.

Cheers

Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
(m/k/a Lisbeth Herr-Gelatt)
Riverouge
Aethelmearc


The Medieval Technology Pages
The Horizontal Loom
http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/loom.html
(Site Excerpt) The horizontal loom appeared in Europe in the 11th century.
The first reference to it seems to be in the Talmudic commentaries of Rashi,
who lived in Troyes. He indicates that such a loom was being used by
professional weavers. [Mokyr 1990 p 52] By the 12th century it had been
mechanized. [Gies & Gies 1995, p 119] This loom was probably adapted from a
Chinese version already extant. Old looms had been vertical. The new one was
horizontal and was operated by foot-treadles. Instead of weaving the heddle
bar through the warp threads as had been done on the vertical loom, now the
weaver had only to pump his treadles and every other warp thread rose up
above the work. He then passed the heddle bar through the opening. On the
next pump of the treadles, the other set of warp threads rose.

Weaving on the Warp-Weighted Loom: Some Source Materials
© 1999, 2001 Carolyn Priest-Dorman
Books and Individual Articles
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/wwloom.html
(Site Excerpt) Barber, E.J.W. "The Peplos of Athena," pp. 103-118 in Jenifer
Neils, ed., Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient Athens.
Hanover / Princeton: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College / Princeton
University Press, 1992.
Postulates the weaving of a figured tapestry peplos on the warp- weighted
loom as an annual gift to the statue of Athena Parthenos. More generally,
continues the history of weaving in the Aegean begun in her Prehistoric
Textiles. Fascinating for Classicists, even though Barber apparently
misunderstands some technical issues such as the attachment of long warps.


13th Century Spanish Loom
by Forest Butera, Summerisle Spinners and Weavers, Inc.
http://www.avalonrecords.com/summerisle/oldloom.html
(Site Excerpt) Summerisle Spinners and Weavers, Inc. has embarked on its
biggest project yet - building a replica of a 13th century Spanish floor
loom! The original loom can be seen at Medieval Life Village adjacent to the
Medieval Times dinner theater in Kissimmee, Florida. The loom is now
finished and ready for demonstration at the South Florida Renaissance
Festival in February, 2000. Our loom builder is Allen Jones of Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia.Click on any of the following pictures to see an
enarged version.

Spun, Warped, and Twisted (Atlantian Fiber Arts Newsletter)
http://moas.atlantia.sca.org/guilds/swat/index.htm
(Site Excerpt) Texture! Color! String and Fiber! S.W.A.T. stands for Spun,
Warped and Twisted. We're a fiber group with the goal of spreading and
sharing knowledge of the textile arts of the Middle Ages and the Current
Middle Ages. We're not an official group of the Society for Creative
Anachronism, Inc.; however, most of our members are SCAdians who enjoy
researching and recreating the ideals of the Middle Ages. Basically we like
to play with string & take great pleasure in learning about/creating new
fiber works. Welcome and Enjoy! Want more information on S.W.A.T.? Contact
Lady Tangwystl ferch Dafydd (tawnykat at aol.com).

Regia Anglorum Textiles
http://www.regia.org/textiles.htm
(Site Excerpt) The other type of loom was the two-beam loom, which worked in
a similar way to the warp weighted loom, but instead of weights, a bar was
used to hold the bottom of the threads taut. Unfortunately it is hard to
tell how widespread this type of loom was since it leaves little or no
archaeological trace. By the early eleventh century it is likely that
professional weavers were using simple, flat treadle looms, although the
warp weighted and two beam loom would have continued to be used in the home.
See also Braid Weaving page at http://www.regia.org/braids.htm

Coptic Style Tapestry by Bronach Nålbrjótr
http://www.armageddon.org/~deimos/tapestry.html
(Site Excerpt) This is a tapestry woven in imitation of Coptic tapestries
from the later period of Coptic textiles ranging from the 6th to as late as
the 15th century. I designed it as a wall hanging, although most Coptic
textile designs functioned as clothing decoration.

Cotton in the Middle Ages
Date: Fri, 31 Mar 95 12:25:16 EDT
From: drickman@ (address masked)
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/cotton.html
(Site Excerpt) A term used to designate certain woolen cloths from at least
the fifteenth century, so one must be cautious in reading the term...the
explanation of the use of the word cotton may lie in the fact that it had
also the sense of nap or down, and the process of raising the nap of woollen
cloths was called "cottoning" or "frizzing"...At the end of the sixteenth
century, Manchester was "eminent for its woollen cloth or Manchester
cottons"..." An 1822 source quoted by this same author notes that in America
and the West Indies, cottons made of wool were chiefly used as clothing for
slaves...though some were worn in Great Britain by "the poor or labouring
husbandmen." This source speculates that the word could have been a
corruption of "coating" i.e. fabric meant for coats. The point of this is
not to say that what we call "cotton" didn't exist in the 14th century, but
that when we look for evidence of its use in the written record, we need to
know that, until well into the 19th century, the word probably means wool,
not cotton.

Textile Resources for the Re-enactor by Þóra Sharptooth
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/textileres.html
(Note: I had the opportunity to learn how to use a warp-weighted loom with
Mistress Thora, who also has the Weaving on the Warp-weighted Loom article,
above. She's not called "sharptooth" for nothing, 'cause she owns scissors,
but rarely uses them when a quick thread needs snipping. What a wonderful
and knowledgeable lady! Here's a site excerpt:) Here you will find links to
some articles, bibliographies, and weaving drafts I have produced on the
subject of Western textile history that may be of interest to Dark Ages,
medieval, and Renaissance re-enactors. Some of these are reprinted from
various group newsletters inside and outside the re-enactor community;
others are teaching aids from classes I have taught. Now that the website's
been here over five years, though, many of the works here have been produced
specifically for web publication. All of them are copyright © by me, Carolyn
Priest-Dorman.(See also: Just What Exactly Is "Whyt Samyt" Anyway? being a
handweaver's bibliography of sources for technical information on divers
weaves and setts of the Roman Empire, Middle Ages, and Renaissance at
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/textilebiblio.html as well as
Bibliography of Sources for Information on Period Tablet Weaves
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/tweavebib.html, and many other of Mistres
Thora's terrific fiber pages)

Real Medieval Fabric
Always wanted to know what those splendiferous fabrics in the
Fifteenth-Century paintings were like?  I had a chance to find out.  Here's
a travelogue. Subject: 1400s Fabric: Art Institute of Chicago by Cynthia
Virtue aka Cynthia du Pré Argent
http://www.virtue.to/articles/real_fabrics.html
(Site excerpt) I'm sure many of you have seen the various paintings and such
during this period that show very large brocades -- by which I mean fabrics
which appear to have design elements fully a foot across, and "repeats" of
several feet (for those of you who don't 'do' fabric, this means 'how often
does the pattern repeat itself').  I had often assumed that this was because
the painter or tapestry weaver didn't want to paint umpteen little
medallions, so they went for the overall effect. Judging by the actual
fabric I saw, the painters were painting entirely to scale.  They did have
and use as clothing, fabric with larger motifs than we'd even put on a sofa
today..... The second thing that struck me was the actual composition of
some of these brocades.  Many of the paintings appear to be a yellow gold
background with some sort of rich dark motif on them.  This type of fabric
is well represented in the exhibit; they are woven with a heavier metallic
gold cord in the background (near the weight of a thin "couching" cord), and
the dark bits are velvet. Some of the items were velvet of two colors; the
one that comes to mind was of an entirely eye-popping bright red and bright
blue -- colors of the sort you normally only see in books about optical
illusions.

How To Build a Frame Loom
http://www.hallnet.com/build.html
(Site Excerpt) Take one of the 16" pieces of wood and clamp it to your work
bench. If you don't have a work bench clamp the wood to a table but make
sure you have a thick piece of scrap wood underneath it because we're going
to be drilling all the way through....

  Toli's inexpensive inkle/cardweaving loom design
http://anvil.unl.edu/toli/loom.html
(Site Excerpt) The loom looks a lot like your regular inkle loom except it
has two sides. The sides are made by cutting a cheap particle board shelf
into two symmetrical parts. A hardwood board can also be used, but that kind
of negates the part about being inexpensive. Do NOT use a soft wood like
pine, the sides will just crack and break. A happy side-effect of the design
is that the loom is amazingly sturdy. You can put more tension on this loom
than any warp thread can withstand(at least so far). A brief
history/justification of the loom design.

Phiala's String Page
http://www.stringpage.com/loom/loom.html
A source of a great deal of fiber information--not a ton on loom use, but
other types of weaving are represented. See espescially her page on Viking
Textile Tools at http://www.stringpage.com/viking/viking.html

Stefan's Florilegium: Textile Arts
http://www.florilegium.org/files/TEXTILES/idxtextiles.html
A font of information, some articles and some gathered from email and
newslist messages. There are currently 60 files of missives on textile arts.

Tournaments Illuminated Index: Textiles
http://www.sca.org/ti/topic.html#textiles

Recreating period fabric production.
By Maggie Forest and Silvia Ravinet Being an ongoing record of an attempt to
weave a replicated fabric from Early Mediaeval northern Europe. This is the
background for the project.
http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Warp/WARP.HTML
(Site Excerpt)
For the last few years, the idea of trying to recreate a fabric of a quality
and type typical for the 'Dark Age' Scandinavian sphere had become the dream
project for myself and Silvia. We are both interested in the technology of
fabrics, spinning, weaving and dyeing, and both of us had been researching
the history of it. The quality that our ancestors attained using simple
tools and enormous skill was simply mind-boggling to us. In 1997, we decided
we'd focus our efforts on learning enough to be able to replicate a real
fabric, rather than samplers and trial pieces. Recognizing that this would
be a very long-term project, we began looking at the options. Not trying to
be too fancy, a simple tunic-type cloth, woven on the upright warp-weighted
loom from homespun yarn was our goal. We could spin, we had a loom that
Silvia had built. All we had to do was spin enough yarn and set it up... It
turned out to not be quite as simple as we thought.

Ravensgard Bibliography of Embroidery, Textiles and Weaving
http://www.ravensgard.org/gerekr/costumef.html
(Site Excerpt) Brown, Rachel. The Weaving, Spinning, and Dyeing Book. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984. new 7/7/97
Brunello, Franco. The Art of Dyeing in the History of Mankind. Cleveland,
OH: Phoenix Dye Works, 1973. new 7/7/97
Buchanan, Rita. A Weaver's Garden. Loveland, CO: Interweave Press, Inc.,
1987. new 7/7/97
Cameron. Woad

MOUNTFITCHET CASTLE weaving and dying house
http://www.gold.enta.net/tourpg6.htm
This link chiefly valuable for the photo of the warp-weighted loom in situ.

The Weaving Mailing List
http://www.quilt.net/weaving.html
(Site Excerpt) There are 2 formats for subscription:  digests or individual
messages.
Both, if you wish.
         to:  majordomo at quilt.net
         (subject is ignored)
         message:    (un)subscribe weaving-digest
                           --and/or--
                     (un)subscribe weaving
                     end

Medieval World Library: Medieval Weavers
Written by Carissa Thomas, February 24, 2001.
http://www.geocities.com/MedievalWorld/LibraryWeavers.html
(Site Excerpt) Weavers either worked out of their homes, or were part of a
weaver's guild. If a weaver worked out of his house, a wool merchant would
sell him clean wool, and the weaver's wife would spin it into yarn with a
spindle and distaff. Then the weaver would sit on a high backed chair or a
stool and weave the cloth on a loom. If the weaver was poor or from a town
where the wool industry was small, he would probably have an upright loom,
which was more compact but produced lower-quality cloth.

Wool manufacturing
http://www.sheepcentre.co.uk/wool3.html
(Site Excerpt) The two main types of woven cloth are woollen and worsted.
The yarn for woollen cloth is usually made from short-fibred wool and during
processing the individual fibres are thoroughly intermingled. In the worsted
process, which uses the longer-fibred wools, the individual fibres are
separated and laid approximately parallel to each other.

Museum of ANCIENT INVENTIONS
The Warp-Weighted Loom, Worldwide, 7000 BCE
by Kristy Beauchesne, Sun Eoh and Kate McClosky
http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/hsc00b.htm
(Site Excerpt) The warp-weighted loom uses a system of holding the warp
threads parallel under tension by tying them in small bunches to weights
made of stone, pottery or metal. From the beginning of Western history until
the Middle Ages, the main weaving tool was this type of loom. Loom weights
have been found in Catal Huyuk, an ancient city in Anatolia that dates to
7000 BCE, and use of the warp-weighted loom persists to the present day in
part of Norway. Although its particular form has varied through the ages and
by locality, its essential parts remained the same.

Medieval Sourcebook:
The Regulations of the Weavers' Gild of Stendal, 1233
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1233Weavers4.html
(Site Excerpt) 1. If any of our burgesses should wish to practice the craft
of weaving he ought to have one spindle or as many as two, and he should
place them in his house, and for every spindle he should pay three solidi on
entry into the fraternity. But if he should not pay the denarii within the
said time and he afterwards cease to be of the craft he cannot regain it
except with twenty-three solidi. 2.Whoever is not of the fraternity is
altogether forbidden to make cloth

Medieval Textile Study Group:
Partial Cumulative Index 1994-2003
http://www.medievaltextiles.org/medindex.html

Continuous Warping on a TWinkle Loom
Copyright 2000, 2003, L. Meyer (known in the SCA as Halima de la Lucha).
http://www.halimal.com/WWW/TWinkle/TWinkle.php3
(Site Excerpt) A TWinkle loom is an inkle loom being used for Tablet Weaving
(TW). It was affectionately christened this on the tablet-weaving e-mail
lists, after a first posting by Jean Birch.
This document shows a fast way to warp an inkle loom for tablet-weaving,
using the same yarn colors in all cards (but see "Changing Colors", after
you understand the basic process). It's sometimes called "the 10-minute
warp". After that, it goes into advanced topics related to tablet-weaving on
inkle looms. A TWinkle loom is my favorite set-up for tablet-weaving
(sometimes called card-weaving), but it's important to find out what works
well for you. Many people swear by inkle looms; others may swear at them.
See "Is an Inkle Loom for You?", below, for details.
Jacinth's Infomine: Textile Arts
http://users.ev1.net/~jacinth/textiles.html

Constructing a Warp-Weighted Loom
http://www.housebarra.com/EP/ep02/20wwl.html
(Site Excerpt) The warp weighted loom is a vertical loom with an upper beam,
the warp held taunt by weights (hence the name) and the weft beaten up
toward the beam. It was used by most early European cultures and even
survived into modern times in northern Europe.

Warp-weighted Loom
http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/cmot/blloom22.htm

Warping and weaving on a warp-weighted loom
http://vt.essortment.com/warpingweaving_rkpp.htm
(Not sure of the validity of this information---weaving from the bottom on a
warp-weighted loom? FWIW, Site Excerpt) Instructions for warping a
warp-weighted loom and weaving the warp. A recipe for sizing is included
along with directions for striking the warp.
The warp-weighted loom is one of the easiest looms to warp. Especially when
compared to large floor loom with multiple sheds. These instructions
presuppose a working knowledge of weaving and warping, but there is a brief
glossary at the end of the article.
WARPING THE LOOM
Unlike table and floor looms, the warp-weighted loom does not have
treadle-operated movable sheds and heddles. It is operated with a fixed shed
and three shed sticks with hand-tied string heddles. You weave from the
bottom to the top, rolling the finished fabric around the top beam as you
go.

Weaving on a Warp-Weighted Loom Project #1: Tabby by Karen Peterson / with
help from her partner Neil Peterson
http://www.pipcom.com/~dark/projects/kweave.htm
(Site Excerpt)
I choose to start with a tabby pattern in the weave because it is the
simplest of all patterns. Two sheds create a very simple back and forth in
the weave. If X is over the warp and O is under, it looks like this:
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
OXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
I used Patons' Classic Wool Merino, because it was cheap and available in
bulk at Len's Mill Store in Kitchener. I chose contrasting colours in
off-white and blue for the warp and weft, because I wanted to be able to see
the weave very clearly. I've since learned that contrasting colours in this
manner isn't at all period to the Norse.

The Art and History of Weaving By Susan Wylly Professor of Art Georgia
College & State University
http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/fap/weav.html
(Site Excerpt) Because of the perishable nature of textile goods,
information found about the beginning stages of weaving is sketchy, and
tracing the development of textiles is a difficult task and a tremendous
challenge. Due to nature's hazards of erosion, climatic conditions, insects,
and fire, few examples of early woven fabrics survived. Therefore, much of
what is written about primitive weaving is based on speculation. There are,
however, certain circumstances under which remnants of fabrics have
survived: arid regions, bog lands, sealed tombs, and extremely cold areas.
Because of these artifacts, we are fortunate to have some examples of early
textiles and weaving tools.

Looms and Weaving Tools (Roman Weaving)
by Kathy Laxton
http://www.unc.edu/courses/rometech/public/content/survival/DeRamus_Durham_Laxton/kathy.html
(Site Excerpt) The pieces of Roman fabric which remain for us to study were
either not completely burned by fire or destroyed in other ways such as
dampness or decay.
Keeping these limitations in mind, it is possible to recreate a great deal
about the process of Roman weaving using the evidence that is left. This
evidence comes from several ancient sources. The ancient evidence is present
in archaeological remains of loom tools, which were often made out of terra
cotta, stone or bone, as well as in the surviving pieces of cloth.

All Fiber Arts
http://www.allfiberarts.com/
(Site Excerpt) Welcome to our new All Fiber Arts website.
You can find over 1000 pages of information, free patterns, resources and
instructions for weaving, spinning, dyeing, knitting, crochet, felting,
papermaking, needlepoint, sewing, and other textile handicrafts. We also
have a free Discussion Forum and Chat rooms where you can meet with all your
"fiberholic friends".

Handweavers Guild of America, Inc
http://www.weavespindye.org/
(Site Excerpt) We are dedicated to encouraging excellence, inspiring
creativity, and preserving fiber traditions through education.
Celebrate Spinning and Weaving Week . October 4-10, 2004

Easy weaving projects for kids (great results)
http://www.montessoriworld.org/Handwork/weave/weaving3.html
(Site Excerpt) With a heavy ball of string, cover the frame. Start at one of
the edges and thread the frame up and around each incision. Then fasten and
cut. You can use any flexible material, for example, wool, ribbon, yarn,
fabric strips, raffia, twigs, etc. The more variation, the more interesting
the result will be. The children could experiment with twisting yarn
together before weaving, to achieve interesting texture variations. A piece
of card or a ruler may be used to hold up the thread to make the weaving
easier.

Ebay--How to Weave listings
http://search.ebay.com/how-to-weave_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQsonewuserZ1

"Romance is everything."  Gertrude Stein
"I have learnt to love you late, Beauty at once so ancient and so new!"
(Bishop) Saint Augustine (354-430)

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