Leather Tablet Weaving Cards - a good start

Today's goal was to make the leather tablet weaving cards for the trim on my Norse hat.

The first thing I need to do was test a few methods to harden the leather.  (Here is a link to a wonderful PDF on Cuir Bouilli and Wax Hardened Leather by Jean Turner).  Using scraps of two different leathers I first tried a water hardening method.  In the water method I placed pieces of leather into a water bath held at 180F (using a candy thermometer) for 30 seconds.  The results proved inferior for this project.  One of the leathers shrunk up almost completely and the other did not seem to harden at all.  I am assuming that the later was not a veggie tanned leather which is required for the process to work properly.

That brought me to me second option of wax hardened leather.  Please note: it is my understanding that wax hardening of leather is a modern technique and was never used in period.  It is a common practice among Scadians when making leather armour so I opted to try it for this project as well.  I used pure beeswax for this project knowing that honey was used in the Viking/Norse eras so beeswax must have been available as well. Both leathers seemed to do well in the wax.  One got really dark, almost black, and quite brittle once fully cooled.  The other had a nice stiffness to it with very little shrinkage of the holes.  I decided on this second leather, which is a suede reddish brown leather.

I cut thirteen - 2 1/2 inch squares.  I started punching the holes in the corners of the squares when after three cards the hole punch broke.  That put a damper on finishing this project today!  I went ahead and dipped the three cards I had finished into the wax to see how they would turn out (since I already had the wax melted).  The suede texture did not make for smooth cards once out of the wax.  So, while still slightly warm I burnished them with the back of a spoon and was pleased to see how smooth and flat they became.  I am very happy with how they came out.  They are a bit tacky still.  I hope that after using them with some wool yarn that they will polish up and become less tacky.

As for the use of beeswax; Sturluson mentions honey twice in the "Heimskringla" (Sturluson, Chapters 17 and 40).  If the Vikings had access to honey they most likely had similar access to beeswax.

Sources:

"Heimskringla" or "The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway", Snorri Sturluson c.1225; online medieval and classical library release #15b; original electronic edition Douglas B. Killings with Diane Brendan 1996

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/

Turner, Jean.  "Cuir Bouilli Technique - An Historical Method of Hardening Leather"

http://www.jeanturner.co.uk/static-content/tutorials/CuirBouilliTechnique.pdf

Tablet Woven Garters - Finished!

I have been working on my first piece of tablet weaving in the evenings while watching TV with the family. It was probably not the best time to be working on a project that needed a bit of concentration in order to keep the pattern straight. I made more than one mistake along the way. I looked at it as a learning tool... having to turn back the cards and unweave.

The thing I really need to work on is getting my selvages smoother. I am just not sure if I am pulling too tight or not tight enough. It will come with practice I am sure.

The other major lesson I learned was to always allow for more warp then you think you will need for the project. My poor husband got recruited to hold the loose ends of my warp for my last eleven turns as I didn't have enough warp left to tie a knot and still turn the cards.

But, here they are... my first tablet woven item... garters! Now I just need to make stockings to go with them.


For the A&S 50 Challenge these will be one item under my Persona challege (linen garters) and also one item for my skills challenge (tablet weaving).

I have also started researching period German recipes for my third A&S 50 Challenge. I have found many that I can make and feed to my family to test them out. Once I have tested a recipe I will add to a cookbook doc which I will print out at the end of the challenge for display.

Next Project - Garters

I know I haven't finished the apron yet, but I am waiting on some linen thread to do the hem with so it has been set aside for now.

That allows me the time to play with some new things that came in the mail today from Halcyon Yarn...

A belt shuttle, as the Inkle Loom I got for Christmas did not come with a shuttle, and two dozen tablet weaving cards. 

I also ordered four mini spools of linen warping yarn (the black is on backorder).  This linen yarn is Newport 16/2 Linen in the 300 yard cone.  It is a dry spun yarn that has a nice sheen to it.

With all these new things to play with I started on my next project - garters to hold up my future stockings.  The plan is to use this small project as a learning tool for tablet weaving.  I plan to use my Inkle loom to weave on.  Some people often refer to this as a "TWinkle loom" when tablet weaving is woven on an Inkle loom.  Whatever one calls it, this will be my second weaving project ever and my first tablet weaving... we will see how it goes.