Category: Clothing and Equipment

A place to document my kit – things I’ve made or found

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String Skirt 2 – The metal bits

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I do love the internet.  We get wrapped up in "academic quality comes from peer-reviewed books" and then a wonderful museum posts good photos of some of their most popular exhibits. (photo from the National Museum, Denmark.) Here's the fragments of the Hagendrup skirt that I wanted yesterday, with both cord remains and metal embellishment.  The metal is much longer than I expected, but the tubes are located in a different place, too. Re: what the metal is: I've found descriptions saying both copper and bronze.  I don't know what bronze was, in more detail than "copper + tin", but … Continue reading String Skirt 2 – The metal bits

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Bronze Age String Skirt

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I find it interesting that nearly all of my European interests center around one little bit of geography.  There's something about the southern North Sea shores that draws me.  My name is from 15thc Zeeland, I'm enchanted by the 5thc brooch-closed Kentish dresses (heavily influenced by the Franks, who occupied Zeeland), I like the tablet-woven edges particular to the Jutes who lived in that peninsula, and my current favorite summer event wear is this outfit, which our extant pieces document to Bronze Age Denmark.  (Same place.)  (I won't talk about my love for Danish modern furniture just now.) Concept: Zealand … Continue reading Bronze Age String Skirt

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Oil lamps, 1.0

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(Continued from preceeding posts: 0.1, 0.2) My extremely-unrigorous experimentation with early oil lamps continues…I got the first batch back from Kerstyn Gartenier, potter. The top one is the first one I made, which was bigger than my reference sizes (gathered from the many extant lamps you can even buy on eBay, see previous posts).  The bottom one is the second try. You see them here with braided cotton wicks (trash yarn lying around in a color I don't like) and extra-virgin olive oil.  I have modern lamp oil, but I wanted to see how stinky the olive oil was.  Answer … Continue reading Oil lamps, 1.0

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First big weaving project done

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Began with 5.5 yards of warp (that's the max length of my warping board), ended up with 4 yards, 30" total length, so that's 24" of loom waste.  The finished piece averages about 32" wide. Yarns:  All of the dark brown weft is alpaca that I spun myself.  This is about two pounds-worth.  I learned that I don't really like spinning, and have just sold my spinning wheel, so I'll be forced to do the medieval thing and actually buy my yarn henceforth. The blue warp is also alpaca, but commercial.  The orange warp is handspun, but sheep, and not by … Continue reading First big weaving project done

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If it’s summer, it must be Roman…

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That title isn't quite fair, as I am generally interested in the fall of the Roman empire, north and south, so it does make sense for me to have a Roman outfit beyond the 103 temperatures.  I'm not being very academic about assembling this one though…   (Perhaps someone has a snazzy background?  I've got great pics of the ruins of the baths of Caracalla, but that doesn't quite work for post-apocalyptic logic reasons…must look at old travel photos.)  Edit: Lorenzo proposes Pompeii, apparently. This garment is an experimental chiton.  It's a very loose weave linen, with teensy gray stripes. … Continue reading If it’s summer, it must be Roman…

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Oil lamps, 0.2

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Mistress Honnoria, of Aethelmarc, sent me the following link about using oil lamps. Master Bedyr Danwyn's Oil Lamps and Working With Natural Oils This answers a concern I had, about the flame somehow spreading into the reservoir.  (It also refutes the Hollywood stunt about spilling oil lamps and then igniting the oil.)  According to this, natural oil has to be heated to burn.  Proximity to the burning wick heats just enough oil to burn as it goes along.  If you slosh oil, you're likely to put the whole thing out. More useful things for my particular application: Placed wicks are … Continue reading Oil lamps, 0.2

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Oil lamps, 0.1

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So I got it into my head somehow that it'd be cool to have some oil lamps.  Or cool to take Lady Kerstyn Gartenier's pinchpot class at Lusty.  I did a teensy amount of research (and here's a very basic timeline, look for the Oil Lamp page), and decided I might be able to bring off an Iron Age lamp. (Interesting historical tidbit I hadn't thought about yet – the Iron Age is later in Britain than other places, but the lamp type is the same.  This mushed shallow bowl is an IA lamp, whether it's found in the Mediterranean … Continue reading Oil lamps, 0.1

Clothing and Equipment, Research4 Comments

Non-SCA early period fora, furniture and oil lamps

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My buddy Cynred introduced me to Roman Army Talk, which I've been finding a terrific resource for my Coptic interest. Today, I stumbled on Kelticos, which has lots of lovely (and new to me) archeological directions, as well as people who are very focused on late Iron Age Europe. I was actually looking for some guidance on a ceramic oil lamp, because this weekend I can play with dirt under the guidance of Kerstyn Gartenier, but of course, I got sidetracked.  Here's an illustrative exchange about Celtic household furnishings: Joan Liversidge is an expert on furniture from Roman Britain. She … Continue reading Non-SCA early period fora, furniture and oil lamps

Clothing and Equipment1 Comment

Bronze Bog dresses, skirt 2.0

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While making the first version of my Borum Eshoj dress, I knew I wasn't cutting the skirt as accurately to the drawing as I could have been.  I admit I was thinking first about my mundane notions of vanity – which normally I really try not to do, because I think a big part of my historical recreation is setting my modern self aside.  The modern self that is proud of my long thick shiny hair, my fit figure…cover your hair and put on the poofy full skirt, Greet, and see how it goes.  It's just an experimental game. So, … Continue reading Bronze Bog dresses, skirt 2.0

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Bronze Bog dresses, version 1.0

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or more properly, Dress after the Borum Eshoj Woman. CA CONTEXT At GW, Gwen and Glenna both wore versions of what they called the Bronze Age bog dress (though Glenna's was more of a 'bog bikini'…she's very cute), and since it looked wonderfully comfortable and easy to wear in warm weather, I decided I wanted one.  Or three.  Here's what they looked like…Gwen's is normal skirt length.  (Gwen's image removed by request; sorry for confusion.) Carl Kohler's book, of which I have the 1924 translation in Dover edition, shows a partial image of this drawing… I decided I liked the … Continue reading Bronze Bog dresses, version 1.0