Working with Silver

 Am letzten Wochenende habe ich mir endlich einen langgehegten Wunsch erfüllt: Einen Goldschmiedekurs.
Das tolle war, er fand wörtlich um die Ecke statt. Straße runter, Berg hoch, links ;)
In der Werkstatt und unter Anleitung von Susanne Lefarth übten die drei anderen Teilnehmerinnen und ich zunächst das Sägen an einer Kupferplatte, um das richtige Gefühl zu entwickeln. Gerade, Zickzack, Slalom ;)

Last Weekend I was finally able to fulfil a desire I had for a very long time: A goldsmithing course.
It took place just around the corner, literally. Down the road, up the hill, left side ;)
In the workshop and under the guidance of Susanne Lefarth the three other participants and me practised some sawing on a copper plate to get the right feelng. Straight, zigzag, slalom ;)

Dann ging es mit edlerem Metall weiter. Jede von uns machte sich an ein eigenes Projekt. Ringe standen hoch im Kurs, aber mir schwebte etwas anderes vor, da ich nur selten Ringe trage.
Ich entschied mich für einen schlichten Anhänger, inspiriert von slavischen Lunula/Lunitsa-Anhängern.
Die Form wurde ausgesägt und die Kanten glattgefeilt. Dann wurde die Platte leicht gewölbt und die Oberfläche mit einer Hammerschlagstruktur versehen. Dann lötete ich ein zurechtgefeiltes Silberrohr als Öse an die zuvor etwas plangeschliffene Oberkante. Nach dem Abbeizen und Säubern strahlte der Anhänger wie die Mondin selbst und ich war zugegebenermaßen etwas stolz ;)

Then we moved on with some more precious metal. Each of us did a project on our own. Rings seemed to be higly rated that day but I wanted to make something else since I don't wear rings very often.
I decided to do a quite plain pendant, inspired by slavic lunula/lunitsa pendants.
The figure was cut out and filed. Then the plate was cambered slightly and the surface was given structure with a ball peen hammer. I then soldered a narrow smothed silver tube to the pendant. After the cleaning it shone like the moon herself and I admit, I was a bit proud of it ;)

Am nächsten Tag arbeiteten wir an den begonnenen Projekten weiter oder begannen neue.
Ich wollte auch etwas hübsches für Fimbulmyrk machen :)
Ich entschied mich für ein Thorshammer-Amulett, ein wenig inspiriert von einem Fund aus Bornholm:

The next day some of us finished the project they had started before or began a new one. 
I wanted to make something shiny for Fimbulmyrk too :)
I decided to make him a Thor's hammer amulet, inspired a bit by a find from Bornholm:

© Nationalmuseet, København

Wieder wurde gesägt, gefeilt gelötet. Und diesmal auch Punziert.

Again I sawd, filed and soldered. And did some punch decoration this time.

Ich hatte noch genügend Zeit, um eine weitere Kleinigkeit fertigzustellen. Auf der Silberplatte war noch etwas Platz, in den genau eine Nadelform passte.
So kam am Ende noch diese Naalbindingnadel mit Punzierung heraus. Sie wurde schon getestet und liegt super in der Hand :)

I had some time leftto begin another little project. There was some space left on the silver plate in which the form of a needle would fit perfectly.
In the end this naalbinding needlewith punch decoration was the result. I already tested it and it works perfectly :)

Spun in the Sun

Schon vor einiger Zeit hatte ich diesen Merino-Kammzug gefärbt. Nach den vielen naturfarbenen Garnen in der letzten Zeit hatte ich dann endlich mal wieder Lust auf bunt. Ich hatte ihn in den Farben einer von blühenden Heide bedeckten irischen oder schottischen Landschaft gefärbt und auch das Spinnen war ein bisschen wie Urlaub ;)

Some time ago I had dyed this merino roving. After all these natural coloured yarns I made recently I now wanted some colour. When dyeing the fibre I had an Irish or Scottish landscape in mind, covered with blooming heather and now spinning itself was a bit like holiday ;)

 Navajogezwirnt und mit schlechter, nächtlicher Ausleuchtung:

Navajo plyed and with really bad nocturnal lighting:
 

Immernoch in meiner Buntphase kramte ich den wunderschönen Kammzug hervor, den in letzten Sommer von Frau Wo ertauscht hatte. Der Waldelf besteht aus 70% BFL und 30% Hochglanznylon, was ihn versponnen ganz dezent funkeln lässt. Ein Träumchen zum Verspinnen :)

Still in a colourful mood I took this beautiful roving from my stash which I had countertraded last summer with Frau Wo. The Woodelf is 70% BFL and 30% Nylon, which makes the spun yarn sparkle gently. Absolutely gorgeous to spin!
 

Sonne, Wolle, Garn ;)

 Die Sonne scheint, der Kreislauf kommt in Schwung und neue Ideen zeigen erste Knospen ;)
Schon als das Wetter noch nicht so toll war, habe ich angefangen, Gotlandwolle und braune südamerikanische zu verspinnen. Die beiden Garne sollen auf der Kromski Harfe vereint werden, wieder in Rautenköper.

Sun is shining, circulation gets boosted and new ideas start to bud ;)
I already started spinning some gotland and brown south american roving when the weather was still bad. I'd like to combine these two yarns on the Kromski harp to form some lovely lozenge twill again.

 Und endlich habe ich mal den Garnwickler bestellt. Ich weiß nicht, wieviele km ich schon per Hand auf Löffelstielen und der Nostepinne gewickelt habe, ich weiß nur, dass es immer unendlich lange dauert. Und jetzt - kurbelkurbelkurbel - fertig ;) Und eine hübsche Struktur ergibt sich auch noch:

And I finally ordered a ball winder. I don't know how many km i've wound by hand so far on spoon handles and my nostepinne, but it always was so awful slow. And now - crankcrankcrank - done! And it forms a nice structure:

 Dann habe ich noch den vielgepriesenen Polarfuchs angesponnen und ich muss sagen, es stimmt. Er lässt sich wunderbar ausziehen und ist schmuseweich.
Dieses Garn bleibt als Single unverzwirnt:


And I started spinning the higly praised polar fox roving. And it really is great, easy to draw and super cozy.
I'll leave this yarn as a single
 

In einem Anfall von Frühlingwahnsinn habe ich dann gestern noch eine neue Kette auf den kleinen Bortenwebrahmen gespannt, in ganz dünner Wolle.
Das Muster ist mal wieder das S-Motiv, dass ich ja schon mehrmals in dickerer Wolle gewebt habe, nur eben viel schmaler, 1cm bei 16 Brettchen.

In a fit of spring insanity I put a new warp onto my little tablet weaving loom yesterday. I used very thin wool yarn.
The pattern is again the s-motif one which I used before, but much slimmer, about 1cm with 16 tablets.

Leather and Yarn

 I didn't like my old belt pouches anymore, so I had to think of a new one. Ok, bad excuse, I simply wanted to make this one for ages ;)
I had some leather already and got a mounting plate for the Birka pouch. This version is bigger than the original find, but I lke it. I found no decent strap end, so I took a piece of reindeer antler and carved one with an design from the metal mount.

When the belt pouch was done, I thought, I needed a wallet. There are various finds from Birka of little rolled up leather wallets, sometimes still with coins inside.
They were decorated with gilded leatherstrips.

Reconstruction and original finds from Bj 750. Arbman, Taf. 130.

Wallet from Bj 904. Arbman, Taf. 132.

I did my interpretation with soft green leatherstrips. They are braided through slots in the leather of the actual wallet to form a checked pattern.

 After doing all this leather working, I needed sone yarn between my fingers angain. But I didn't leve the site of Birka ;)
I did this pattern as a brocade some years ago. It was my first encounter with brocading technique. Though I love the technique and the look it produces, this time I wanted to weave the pattern in a faster way. For brocade is easy, but soooo slow, if you do it assiduosly.

Birka Brocade Bling

 A few days ago, I saw Asrun's pretty brocaded band on her blog, I remembered that I did show the beginnings of my B20 band here, but I didn't show the finished one yet.
So, here it is :)
I made a rather long break while the band was on the loom. I simply couldn't see it anymore, for the weaving was very slow. Brocading is easy, but counting threads will make you insane after a while ;) (Yep, even more insane than I'm already are!)
So, it seems making long breaks is not good, as the width of the band was a bit different when I started again.
But still I like the result, which is about 1,93m. Phew.

My very first knife!

 All the time I see those beautiful knifes everyone makes. Now I finally worked up the courage to do it myself and give it a try.
As materials, I chose a Lauri70 Blade, a brass fitting, reindeer antler, walnut wood, buffalo horn and leather. And a little mother of pearl thingy.

I measured and cut everything and wrote numbers and marks on it to be sure the direction of the grain was right in the end.

Then the smelly part ;) I set the parts in plce with epoxy glue and clamped the knife. To make sure that the preassure didn't affect the blade, I cut a slot (just a bit longer than the blade) into a strip of wood and placed the blade in the slot.

After drying, I rasped, filed and sanded the handle. Looked more like a knife now! ;)

I decided to carve the antler part. I found a beautiful pattern from the Isle of Man (fig. 28 - 3).

 when the carving was finished, I tanned it with an experimental mixture of vinegar, iron sulphate -which I normally use for plant dyeing- and coffee.
Then I set a little drop shaped mother of pearl chip into the back of the handle and oiled the whole thing.

Well,

I have made a knife!

Huzzah! :D

Countertrading with Petr Florianek

Last year Petr from Gullinbursti asked me to make him some shiny embellishment for his viking time based reenactment.
He wanted a tabletwoven braid, brocaded with silver. The original was one of the braids from the Mammen grave, Denmark:

I used the pattern notation by Egon Hansen and the photos of the original. The info on the site of the Danish National Museum is very good and you can zoom in up to the finest detail.
The Materials are fine red wool and a very fine thread of spun silver with a silken core.

Furthermore he asked me to make him some posaments as found at Birka, Sweden. More precisely, grave nr. 524.

I made the posaments for him in silver wire and some more in brass. You know, I was in the right mood for mass production then ;)

So, this was my part :)

As Petr is an excellent bladesmith and knifemaker, his part of the trading was a beautiful folding knife.
The description from his page says:

"Wrought iron back, HC steel edge, stag antler handle slabes carved in ringerike style tendrils, silver ring, iron rivets, handmade glass bead."

Once again, thank you, Petr! :)