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== Iron Age Austrian Band ==
== Hallstatt Ribbon No. 1 Reconstruction ==


the original band had been excavated from an Iron Age salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria. Photo credit for the original image can be found here: https://www.academia.edu/11916994/Tablet-woven_Ribbons_from_the_prehistoric_Salt-mines_at_Hallstatt_Austria_results_of_some_experiments
I finished weaving this reconstruction of a Hallstatt band. It's my first time weaving 3/1 Broken Twill. I've wanted to try this technique since I began weaving years ago but I always felt so intimidated by it up until now.
To weave this band I used a pattern drafted by Michael Houghton, who was kind enough to show me his own beautiful reconstruction of the band and discuss it with me while attending this last Pennsic. I added a third color and selvages based on what I read about the original band here:https://www.academia.edu//Tablet-woven_Ribbons_from_the_pr…
I wove with 2/24 wool across 21 cards (the original was also made of wool and used 21 cards). My band is just under .5" wide, which is very close to the 1.3 cm width of the original. I did choose a different color palette, simply to suit my own taste, however, I chose colors that would have been achievable during the time period the original ribbon was created (8th to 4th century B.C.).
I learned so much from creating this band. I feel like weaving 3/1 Broken Twill has taught me more about tablet weaving structure than any other band I have woven up until this point. I had so many "Ah-HAH" moments! I also learned how to work with fine wool, which is much more temperamental then I ever imagined. In fact, I broke my warp threads about 10 or so times before learning how to deal with it properly (I received a lot of great advice from others on this issue and it all helped so much!) I found spraying my warp with a mixture of water and a tiny bit of wool conditioner helped greatly. Not only did the warp stop breaking, but my band wove with far less "fuzz" to it. Weaving with a damp warp did eat through and destroy my cards though (they were made of poster board) and at one point I had to take my warp off the loom and carefully replace ALL the cards with laminated ones. --Yikes--
This is my first attempt at recreating a historic band. The original band was used to trim a sleeve but I was having fun with it and therefor tried to weave as much length as I could get out of my warp. In the end mine measured 86" long.
Thank you to Michael Houghton for creating this pattern and sharing it and thank you to everyone who gave me such great advice along the way.


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Revision as of 15:04, 7 February 2020

Gallery of work by Svana Vefa

Gold Brocaded Birka Band

This is a 21 card band made of brown silk with 24K gold brocade. The design is inspired by grave finds at Birka. I wanted to make a band that was as similar as possible, in material and process, to bands created in that period. Bands like this survived decay (to an extent) because of the metal threads that were used to brocade them. The precious metal did not decay as much as the ground weave threads. I only wove about 5 inches of this band before I realized that I did not warp enough silk on my loom for the 12 inches I was striving for. I will definitely revisit this again in the future.

My first A&S Display

Recently, I visited my son's elementary school to show the children what Tablet Weaving is like. The children seemed to be the most interested in what materials the bands were made of. One group of kids acted completely shocked that you can make fiber from bamboo! You can never really predict how kids will react to anything. They seemed pretty bored by all of the historical info I was trying to explain to them. haha!

60/2 Silk Trim, 62 Cards

I wove this band in the tablet weaving technique called Sulawesi. Sulawesi is also known as "Three-Color Double Face"...but I still only used two colors, red and gold. This trim will be for a tunic I am making my hubby. I had a lot of trouble early on with getting the tension correct on this band. I found I was most successful once I significantly increased the tension by adding heavier weights to each tablet's warp threads. Otherwise, my threads "misbehaved" and the pattern came out (and please excuse my scientific terminology) "wobbly".

20/2 Silk Band, 37 Tablets, 3.5 Yards

This is tablet woven trim created using the "Threaded In" technique. It took a long time to finish this one but it was worth it. I wove this to decorate a brown wool Kaftan that I made. Now it's probably my favorite piece of garb.

Hallstatt Ribbon No. 1 Reconstruction

I finished weaving this reconstruction of a Hallstatt band. It's my first time weaving 3/1 Broken Twill. I've wanted to try this technique since I began weaving years ago but I always felt so intimidated by it up until now. To weave this band I used a pattern drafted by Michael Houghton, who was kind enough to show me his own beautiful reconstruction of the band and discuss it with me while attending this last Pennsic. I added a third color and selvages based on what I read about the original band here:https://www.academia.edu/…/Tablet-woven_Ribbons_from_the_pr… I wove with 2/24 wool across 21 cards (the original was also made of wool and used 21 cards). My band is just under .5" wide, which is very close to the 1.3 cm width of the original. I did choose a different color palette, simply to suit my own taste, however, I chose colors that would have been achievable during the time period the original ribbon was created (8th to 4th century B.C.). I learned so much from creating this band. I feel like weaving 3/1 Broken Twill has taught me more about tablet weaving structure than any other band I have woven up until this point. I had so many "Ah-HAH" moments! I also learned how to work with fine wool, which is much more temperamental then I ever imagined. In fact, I broke my warp threads about 10 or so times before learning how to deal with it properly (I received a lot of great advice from others on this issue and it all helped so much!) I found spraying my warp with a mixture of water and a tiny bit of wool conditioner helped greatly. Not only did the warp stop breaking, but my band wove with far less "fuzz" to it. Weaving with a damp warp did eat through and destroy my cards though (they were made of poster board) and at one point I had to take my warp off the loom and carefully replace ALL the cards with laminated ones. --Yikes-- This is my first attempt at recreating a historic band. The original band was used to trim a sleeve but I was having fun with it and therefor tried to weave as much length as I could get out of my warp. In the end mine measured 86" long. Thank you to Michael Houghton for creating this pattern and sharing it and thank you to everyone who gave me such great advice along the way.