Hi,
When I read about
the brocaded bands from Birka in "Cloth and Clothing in Medieval Europe", I
recall that one of the articles mentioned that the backs of the brocaded bands
were not uniform in texture, but had variations which indicated that they had
been woven in a pattern as well as being brocaded. Sadly the author gave no
information about what the patterns might have been (presumably the colours were
too faded, though it's a shame she didn't record the textural
pattern).
I was wondering
whether it might have been the woven version of the same pattern, as shown in
the TWIST article "Birka and Beyond", and outlined on Carolyn Priest-Dorman's
site http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/birkarcp.html? In
other words, I am thinking of weaving the Birka strapwork motif as outlined by
Carolyn, and brocading the same pattern over the top of it. I imagine that if I
used a white weft thread for the areas which are to be silver brocaded, it would
make the pattern stand out more clearly?
Does anyone have any
idea whether this might have been the case? Or is at least a reasonable idea?
There's a simpler Birka strapwork motif which resembles two ribbons wound around
each other, and I think it would also be suitable for the same
method.
Shelagh
