Seal Tag 5 (another tablet woven tubular cord)

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.

Time for Twill

 The weaving area is set up again, and it's time to weave!

I did a continuous warp of 17 tablets (plus 3 edge tablets per side for 23 tablets total) with two light and two dark threads.  This is a great set-up for diagonals or double-face or twill.

My initial plan was to do the latest diagonals pattern posted on the Lautanauhat Facebook page.  It's Merisalo 147.  There's a version in Applesies and Fox Noses (21.  Applesies in a grand sieve, p.66-67) that I've been eyeing for a while.  And now these two new versions!

I warped up with dark blue and sage green cotton and got ready to party.

And I didn't like it.

First I tried the version with half-turns.  Then the version without.  They're both lovely patterns.  But the weaving was just not fun.

Sigh.  I didn't even bother with the version in Applesies.

Now what?  I wanted to weave something!

Well, for a while, I've been thinking about something I read on Aisling's website.  She wrote that after she first learned how to do 3/1 broken twill from a class with Ottfried Staudigel, she did bands that were simple and plain, no color patterning at all.  I thought they were very handsome bands and wanted to make a few of my own.

So that's what I'm doing.  I re-arranged the tablet orientations and thread positions and got started.  Fun!  This is clearly the right thing to be doing, since I keep returning to do "just one more" set of turns, over and over again.  In general, for this type of weaving, I do a set of four turns at a time (i.e. one pattern repeat) and then consider if I am still able to focus or if I need to step away for a minute or two.  If I lose focus, then I tend to spend the next little while unweaving.

I'm using Claudia Wollny's charting and weaving instructions since I might want to add motifs at some point.  She has a bunch of motif charts in Tablets at Work and also in the two Lily Grove books.  There's also the Arlon book, but those are all very wide motifs and I have a mere 17 pattern tablets to play with!  The charts are all modular and work with her general charting scheme, very convenient.

I was reading back through Sarah Goslee's website and noticed her description of the two-pack method for doing twill.  I've been doing the one-pack method so far.  Maybe I'll try the two-pack method for a future band.  Though that one would almost certainly be plain since I don't really like flipping or rotating cards around their axis; I usually prefer to switch the turning direction.  This means I also need to read up on Peter Collingwood's discussion of twill.

It's been quite a few lovely inches of weaving, and I really am starting to think about adding motifs.  The finished band will be around 1" wide 5 to 5.5 feet long, good dimensions for a belt.  A few motifs would look quite nice, wouldn't they?  Hmm, maybe do some color-switching, too, so that I have green motifs on a blue background as well as blue motifs on a green background.  I'm sure I will keep things VERY simple and abstract-ish rather than doing animals.  Twill is slow enough by itself (straightforward, but a trifle fiddly and thus slow) and I'm sure it'll only get slower if I am adding designs on top of the structure.

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I found some Lacis tablets at a local-ish spot.  They have good reviews so I decided to try them.  I think I like them.  They are small (2.5") and white and plastic and come in packs of 25 cards.  I've enjoyed working with smaller cards, so that was a plus.  I wasn't sure if these were laminated cardboard or actual plastic.  They are actual plastic, thin and somewhat flexible.  I expect that they will eventually chip or crack.

The cards are labeled ABCD in a clockwise way, not that it matters.  There's also a hole in the middle of the cards in addition to the ABCD holes.  There aren't any colors or notches or anything else on the edges.  If anyone cares.

My Robin & Russ tablets are getting kind of ratty-looking.  They're cardboard and have woven many bands.  It's kind of fun to see the wear.  I have a lot more of them but I tend to use the ones I've already used, partly to watch this slow deterioration.  I don't do a lot of really wide bands but I have plenty of these cards for when I do!

I must admit that I prefer smaller cards in general.  My hands are relatively small, and also the smaller cards allow me to work in a smaller space since there's not as much room needed to turn the cards.  That's especially true for eking out the last inch or two of weaving when the warp is almost done.  The shed seems to be perfectly reasonably sized for the smaller tablets I've used, so I don't necessarily need a card that is over 3".

I hope someday to return to the Merisalo 147 band because it's gorgeous and because I usually do like doing diagonals patterns.  But for now, it's gonna be twill!  And then maybe some double-face if I don't return to my two-hole/two-thread obsession.  Or maybe Saxon (i.e. pack-idling).  Or Sulawesi.  So many wonderful things;  I am glad that modern tablet-weavers have done so much to resurrect these old techniques and old (and new!) patterns for today's weavers.