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! :)

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 ;)