Crafting Textiles

New research into the techniques of tablet weaving, sprang, braiding, knotting and lace is presented in this lavishly illustrated volume written by leading specialists from Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and USA. Drawing inspiration from the pioneering work of Peter Collingwood, this publication explores aspects of these craft skills in the prehistoric, Roman and medieval world through scientific, object-based analysis and 'research through making'. Chapters include the growth of patterned tablet weaving for trimming garments in prehistoric Central Europe; recently identified styles of headdress worn in the Roman Rhineland and pre-Islamic Egypt; Viking-age Dublin as a production centre for tablet-woven bands; a new interpretation of the weaving technique used to make luxurious gold bands in the twelfth to late thirteenth centuries; and the development out of plaiting of bobbin lace borders in gold and silver threads from the fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries. Practical experiments test methods of hand spinning and the production of figure-hugging hose in ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy. A typology of braid and knotting structures in late medieval Europe is also set out for the first time. Diagrams, illustrations and photographs enrich each chapter with a wealth of visual source material. The work is the outcome of recent discoveries of archaeological textile finds from excavations as well as fresh examination of material recovered in the past, or preserved in treasuries. Early textiles form an increasingly popular subject of interest and this publication, which is a landmark in the study of various specialised textile techniques, aims to provide the reader with a better understanding of these virtuoso craft skills in antiquity. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Contributor addresses Section Tablet weaving 1. ‘Tablet weaving is a small byway of textile production…’ Bronze and Iron Age tablet bands with stripes, meanders and triangles from the salt mines in Austria Karina Grömer 2. The use of weaving tablets in the production of headdresses in Egypt in the Roman and Byzantine periods. A study of a bourrelet from Antinoopolis Claire Gérentet-de-Saluneaux, and Fabienne Médard 3. Evidence of tablet weaving from Viking-age Dublin Frances Pritchard 4. The so-called Palermo Bands and their technique Regula Schorta Section Sprang 5. Hairnets with gold-tube beads from the Roman Rhineland and their textile technique Petra Linscheid 6. Sprang hairnets from the necropolis of Fag el Gamous in the Fayum, Egypt Anne Kwaspen and Kristin South 7. Tight-fitting Clothing in Antiquity and the Research and Experimental Reconstruction Dagmar Drinkler and Carol James Section Braiding and Lace making 8. Braided strings and Turk’s head knots on European secular and religious textiles Joy Boutrup 9. A unique A woman’s fifteenth-century headdress from Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol Beatrix Nutz, Rachel Case, and Carol James 10. From narrow four-strand plaits to openwork bobbin-made braids and edgings Lena Dahrén Section Spinning 11. The Story of the Twist – Handspinning as a Medieval Craft Katrin Kania Index