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! :)

Knochenrecycling

Some months ago, Fimbulmyrk brought me a bone from the woods. It was a bit dirty and scattered at the ends, but I could see some hidden beauty within.
So I cooked it, cut off the ends and gave it a fine polish from the in- and outside.
Then I covered the middle section with wire in trichinopoly technique (viking knitting) and added one of my posament beads.
I also made a two-in-two chain and a little flattened hook.

So, now look at this dirty bone from the woods:

To hold the needles in place inside the bone I felted two plugs from wool.

Neue Bänder

 I was lucky to get me a little Ashford Inkle Loom for a good price. I like my big loom a lot, but for trying new patterns or brocading this little one is better, I think. If I don't like the pattern or make mistakes, not much yarn is wasted. But it still holds enough warp to get a usable band.

Here I tried a pattern from Finland, Kaukola Kekomäki. I like it, easy to weave and a lovely pattern.

 The next pattern is Hallstatt II :

And the third one is a S-motif, very popular during the ages. It can be found on the woolen band from Mammen, for example.

Haithabu-Taschenbügel

Ok, I admit, long time no post. But I wasn't lazy at all ;)

So, I wanted to have another proper bag that fits my scandinavian garb. I have a naalbound one, but it is quite stretchy if you put in many or heavy things. Not good for proper viking shopping ;)

There are finds from Hedeby, remains of wooden handles that were attached to bags.
My handles are a free interpretation of those from Hedeby. I carved them from beechwood.

 I want to use the red leather in the background to sew the actual bag.

After carving the form, I treated the wood with a stain from dark beer. You see, it's always good to have a stock of dark beer ;)

Summer in the city

Man möge mir verzeihen, aber in letzter Zeit hatte ich einfach keine Lust, schwitzend vor dem Laptop Bilder zu bearbeiten. Mit Ventilator geht es jetzt allerdings besser ;) Dann mal auf zum sommerlichen Geposte.

Alles grünt und blüht vor sich hin. Und wuchert mich ein. Hab nix dagegen ;)

Die Hummeln hummeln vor sich hin und sorgen dafür, dass ich bald wieder leckere Bohnen ernten kann.
Klein Gonzo ist auch wieder da ;P (Man beachte die frappierende Ähnlichkeit der Bohne mit der Nase des besagten Plüschwesens aus dem All.)

Erdbeeren konnte ich reichlich ernten, wenn auch nicht so große wie die Jahre zuvor.

Dafür aber extravagantere *g*  Maulwurfnerdbeern?

Fimbulmyrk war auch ein paar Tage in Marburg und man kann mit Fug und Recht behaupten, es war dekadent ;)
Doraden, Forellen, Paprikakuchen, Nuss-Blätterteigrollen... Nom.

Der Kater macht mal wieder das beste, was man bei schwülem Wetter und erschreckend hohen Ozonwerten machen kann. Nix.

Ich sehe leider nicht so dekorativ aus, wenn ich quer über den Tisch hänge und schnarche. Also bleibe ich lieber bei lauwarmem Minztee und selbstgemachtem Schoko-Bananeneis.

Weitaus aktiver ist da der kleine Kerl auf der Elisabethkirche. Wobei 'klein' da eher relativ ist. Uhubabies sind ja dann aus der Nähe betrachtet doch ganz schöne Brocken.
Das Geschwisterchen ist vor einiger Zeit schon vom Dach der Kirche geplumpst, wurde aufgepäppelt und sitzt nun mit ordentlichem Gewicht in einer Aufzuchtstation.
Das verbleibende Tier hopst und fliegt munter auf dem und um das Kirchendach herum. Und unten versammeln sich Menschen, denen Genickstarre nichts ausmacht. Der blaue Kringel ist übrigens der schlechten Kamerawahl geschuldet. Aber Uhugucken war eigentlich nicht geplant und ich daher schlecht vorbereitet. Bessere Bilder und Artikel zur Kirchenbrut 2013 findet man unter http://www.marburger-vogelwelt.de/html/uhu2013marburg.html

In den Pausen, in denen man seinen geschundenen Nacken vom Uhu-Watching dann mal entlasten will, schlägt Marburg mit der vollen Kitsch-Breitseite zu ;)