Joke of All Trades

Some new stuff in time for Christmas! These are components used to make "bracket bags" which we believe were common in the 9th and 10th century. The holes on the side are used to affix a strap, and the central holes are attached to a fabric bag. The left is a commission based on a find from Haithabu, also known as Hedeby, and is among the largest of the brackets found to date. These are made of cedar, hand-tooled and sanded, ready for sealant treatment by the customer. The beautiful woodgrain is among the prettiest I've seen! The right is based on a find from Birka. It is made from red oak, tooled the same way, and ready for stain or sealant. These will be available at the upcoming Viking Market at Ravensborg in the spring. Hope you all have a wonderful yule and happy holidays!

  Sunday was spent in good company, working up some more dye! Last time was woad (blue), this time my dye aficionado friend had a whole assembly line of mordant going with weld (yellow) and madder (red). We dabbled with dyeing some of the woad materials in weld to try for green, as well. I learned a ton about this process and had a blast with it. We did our best to do as much material as we could to make the dye ingredients go further. The results in the final photo, courtesy of Cat the Dye Magician, are nothing short of spectacular. Soon we will be weaving with this stuff!

The first item of my stock buildup for Return of the Sun, our Viking market event at Ravensborg in the spring. This 10-tablet weave is simple, but it may be my favorite pattern to make at the moment. It is just shy of 2 yards long and is composed of 100% wool. The red yarn has flecks of dark grey  in it; it was hand-spun by a local artisan, and is truly beautiful yarn!

  Gil does his best, but he's just not very helpful. That's okay-- I still appreciate the company!  😁

One hundred followers! It is equal parts encouraging and surreal that one hundred people are interested in seeing my work. Thank you all for visiting my humble page, and stay tuned for lots more crazy projects following the holidays! Here's a rare glimpse of my to-do list, for a sneak peek at what crafts the future may hold: --Riveted chainmaille crafts --More fiber dyeing! --Period-authentic tent construction --Blade grinding --One particularly crazy ambitious loom weaving project! And on the tabletop side of things, I look forward to digging into "Burrows and Badgers" in anticipation of a campaign on the horizon, so expect some 28mm anthropomorphic animals on the horizon!