The original was described in Henshall, Audrey, 1964, Five tablet-woven seal tags, Archaeological Journal 121:154-162. But I haven't tracked down a copy of that yet. So I'm working from the description in Phiala's (aka Sarah Goslee's) email from this website/blog: https://research.fibergeek.com/2005/02/10/tubular-tablet-weaving/
It's described as a silk cord roughly 1.5mm in diameter, multi-colored and tablet-woven, with reversals throughout. It's the seal tag on a charter sealed by John (de Balliol), King of Scotland, to Nicholas de Haia, of the lands of Erroll, etc. Granted at Lindores, 1 August 1294. The colors in 1964 were described as white, dark blue, salmon-pink-faded-to-buff, and pale-yellow-green-faded-to-white. Dunno if the colors in 1294 were brighter; there are definitely dyes that would fade out over the centuries.
Well. I had been considering adding a pattern to spiral cords, and here was one already done and described, all historic and everything.
I didn't have the proper colors in my cotton stash, so I picked some likely-ish colors from the #10 big box store crochet cotton, namely substituting orange for the salmon pink. I charted up the pattern from the description and off I went.
It's not my favorite. I should have realized that the little box pattern is very similar to Candace Crockett's Sample Band A. With all the card orientations in the same direction and with the spirals, the box ends up very jagged rather than smooth. (We won't mention the early part of the band where apparently one of the cards rotated without me noticing so that it looks even messier.) It might have been better in a much finer thread. Also, the dark blue is too dark and the light green is too light. The orange is OK, though. But then the orange/blue/white combo ends up looking like something from the Denver Broncos Paraphernalia Store.
I used a lighter weight and a finer weft (doily-knitting cotton leftovers) to see if I could decrease the weft spacing in the final cord. I can't say that it made much difference.
The original has card 4 with a different orientation than the rest of the cards. I tried that for a while and again, there wasn't much difference. The spiral might be a little less tight in that area, but I don't think that was something the original weaver really could have cared about. So I'm gonna agree with those who said that this was unintentional rather than deliberate -- either the original weaver(s) didn't notice or he/she/they didn't care.
I sometimes flipped the cards (and continued turning forward though the weft was going from left to right) and sometimes rotated them backwards, as with the last band. Both are fine; I don't really have a preference. The little weft bloops are still there when the spiral is to the left, but they'll disappear when I wiggle the cord. I assume it's something about how the band is in tension while weaving and relaxes after, along with maybe pulling it less snug when the weft goes from left to right, or maybe there's some slight interaction between ply twist and cord twist. Eh. At least I had the sense to have white weft next to a card threaded with white.
The cord is roughly 6mm in diameter, and roughly 175cm long, before blocking and freshly done.
I learned a lot from this cord. Dunno if I'd do it again in different colors and/or different thread. But it had some good lessons for me. I'd definitely make more patterned cords, but will think more carefully about motifs and colors and how they interact with the spiraling, should I choose to spiral since I can also make cords that don't.
It's kind of frustrating looking at cords and braids and what-not in museum websites, for purses and for seal tags, etc. The sites talk about the seal. Or the purse and its embroideries. I want to see the braids and cords and tassels and stuff!
Also, I don't have a copy of this technical paper. I don't know if I need it or not. Several people have made re-creations of the 5 seal tags described within. Some of those are on my to-do list.
This blog post lists the techniques used in the seal tags: https://thewarpfactor.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-dead-end-on-durham-warp-transposition.html
One is an interesting double-face (with all tablets oriented the same) band with small geometric motifs.
Another one is also double-face in a checkerboard pattern, not sure if the tablets are oriented the same or alternating Z and S. (According to this, the7-tablet blocks alternate S and Z: https://aisling.biz/index.php/galerie/historisch/hochmittelalter/312-band-zwei-der-siegelbaender-aus-durham-gb for discussion and https://aisling.biz/images/brettchenweben/Anleitung/Durham_Seal_Tags.pdf for pattern)
One is a 3/1 twill (I think this is the one that one of the above blog posts calls a double-faced diagonal weave?).
One is brocaded.
One is this tubular cord. Collingwood claims that there's a seal tag which uses warp transposition, but I have no idea if that's correct or not; chances are that he's referring to a different seal tag in the Durham cathedral since he has an actual photo in his book that doesn't look like any of the above seal tags.
Hmm, someday I'll do some of the other easy tablet-woven seal tags that I can find (or chart) patterns for. Also, the cord I just finished is starting to grow on me. I'm not sure what I expected from it, but once I release my expectations, it's a perfectly nice cord.
I have no idea what project I'll do next.
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