What I've been up to

Yeah, so I think I mentioned that I'm not very good at keeping up on these things, but I'm going to make another effort at it. I posted about the leather bottle that I'm working on, but figured that I'd post a few pictures of things that I've done in the past several months. Some I remembered to take pictures as I went, but others I didn't. At least you'll get to see the finished product, which sometimes is as much fun as the process, right?


The Leather Bottles

I've long had a love affair with leather, but rarely had any good ideas on what to do with it. Recently, a friend of mine learned how to make a sand-packed water bottle, and graciously offered to show me how to make one. Yay!

In general, these aren't hard to make. You cut the leather to form, decorate it, sew the two sides together with a simple saddle stitch, then soak it in water, pack it with sand, and let it dry. Wax the hell out of it, and ta-da! You have a nifty period-esque water bottle! (I say periodesque because I'm still waiting for some documentation that shows these in period. The ones that I've seen from the Mary Rose ship wreck all appear to be molded bottles due to the crisp line another stitching, which is nearly impossible to find in a sand-packed bottle. So if you find an example, please feel free to send it my way.)

Anyway, I made this bottle for my husband for Yule. It has his two early Icelandic ravens on one side and his name in runes in the other. Probably not period in any fashion, but he loves it, and it looks good when he's at events.

                        

Overall, the bottle is pretty awesome. I love the color, and the sheen is spectacular.

After I made that bottle, I was doing a bit of research into period leather bottles and found information on a molded leather bottle from around the 10th century in Ireland. You can find more information on that on an earlier post, so I won't go into detail here. Anyway, I decided to make a molded bottle, too. Here are a few pictures of that process, and the finished product.

10th Century Irish molded leather bottle

The molds that I commissioned for my bottle

The leather in the molds

The bottle top after decorations were added

The bottle bottom after decorations were added

The bottle top after sewn and waxed

The bottle bottom after sewn and waxed

I learned a lot doing this bottle, which I'm hoping to apply to the new one that I'm making as a commission. Again, that's all on the other post, so I won't get into it here.


Romanesque Book

Books are a passion of mine. There truly is no better sensation to me than handling a hard-bound book. I don't really even care what's inside it, so long as it has the look, feel, and smell that I crave. So it's no surprise that I love bookbinding. Unfortunately, of late, I haven't really had the time or the money to put into doing much. Plus, while I say that I don't care what's inside, binding blank books gets a bit dull after a while.

That being said, while doing some research on a few bits and bobs regarding books, I stumbled on an article about a little-known style of bound book from the 11th- 13th centuries. The book, a Romanesque style, is bound by sewing around leather longs individually, rather than end-to-end like books are normally sewn. This required two needles going at the same time, and yet never crossing or connecting in any way. The result is a rather loosely bound book that opens completely flat on a table. It's perfect for priests reading a mass, and for those using a book as a resource while working on something.

Because it's not a common style, when it was first found around a hundred years ago, people assumed that it was made incorrectly. Then they found a few others bound in the same way from the same time period, but from different monasteries. Turns out the books were intentionally made this way.

Here is the Romanesque book that I made. It's on the plain side, as I didn't add any bosses or straps, but I still like it. I may add bosses at a later date just for bling, and because the truth is, in period, a book this plain wasn't likely to be made at all.

This is the sewing structure of the book. The two center sewing bits are a cross-hatch stitch that both Christopher Clarkson in "A Hitherto Unrecorded English Romanesque Book Sewing Technique" and J. A. Szirmai in "The Archaeology of Medieval Bookbinding" call a herringbone stitch. The outside two sewing bits are the endbands.

The book block attached to the oak boards

Here I've glued a thin linen to the spine of the book to give it a bit more stability. Clarkson stated that this was found on the two books that he examined of this style, though Szirmai intimates that it wouldn't have been done. I preferred the stability, so I followed Clarkson.

 Here are some pictures of the completed book. Like I said, it's rather plain, which wouldn't have been the case in period. But I liked it as it was, to be honest, so left it this way. Eventually, I may add some bling, but for now, it's fine. I've given it to Abbess Katherine for her circa-1200 display, anyway, so to do anything else to it, I'd have to get it back.

 

 

I'm working on a few other books at the moment which I will start a new post on once I get them sufficiently underway. One is a gift for a friend, one is a gift to the Abbess for circa-1200, and the third is a vigil book.


Sewing fun

So, I have no progression pictures of this stuff, which, since this post is already so long and photo-heavy, probably isn't a bad thing. But I liked the outfits and wanted to share.

First, my Italian Ren dress. I adapted a Period Pattern to fit my body and to be more what I liked. The fabric was bought from a friend when she was destashing, and it's perfect for this gown. After ages in the SCA, I finally have court garb! *does a happy dance*

I hand-sewed the bodice to make sure that it fit correctly, and sewed the skirt, sleeves, and lining with a machine. It's laced in the back with metal rings which will be, eventually, replaced with eyelets. For now, this is functional.

A while ago, my dear friend Tamilia asked me to make her a Norse outfit to wear to SCA events. I was slow to get it done, but I do like how it turned out once I got there. 

She looks stunning in everything she wears, but I think this style in particular suits her.

I also made an Anglo-Saxon gown for myself and tunic for my husband for our 10th anniversary vow renewal. I love this gown! It's heavy as sin, but I think it turned out well. The dress was sewn entirely by machine, but my husband's tunic was mostly hand-sewn.

There are other things that I've worked on this year, but these were the big ones. I have done a good bit more brewing, which I'll probably post about in order to not lose my recipes. And there's always something new to learn, like goldwork embroidery or spinning wool. :)

Stick around. Between us, we might learn something.