Sponsored by TWIST - Tablet Weavers International Studies & Techniques
Hopefully we can see more of this in the next TWIST journal as well. I've
asked Julia to submit an article.
John
(TWIST Editor)
PS: The fall issue will be mailed this week. Thanks.
From: Shelagh Lewins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Estonian tablet weaving
Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:47:09 +0000
Sponsored by TWIST - Tablet Weavers International Studies & Techniques
Wow! So the first band is two-hole weave? Isn't it beautiful? And the
second one is so simple to weave but really attractive, I love that.
Thank you so much for sharing this and I would love to read/see anything
else that you can post.
Shelagh
Julia Christie Amor wrote:
Sponsored by TWIST - Tablet Weavers International Studies & Techniques
Greetings to the list and thank you for the welcome!
I'd rather skip showing my work, at least right now, as it is mostly odds
and ends, and those pieces that I like most are simple doubleface and not
so interesting.
But I'll try to write a short overview of Estonian tablet weaving. My
English is probably not good enough to explain everything clearly but I'll
do my best. Feel free to ask any questions.
So, it is said that tablet weaving tradition in Estonia is very old and
have continued without major breaks throughout the centuries. Yet lack of
hard evidence makes it impossible to prove this statement. The oldest
pieces of TW bands found in Estonia are dated to 12th-13th centuries, most
of these few small fragments were most probably edgings of cloaks and
other larger pieces of cloth. The oldest tablets are from the beginning of
the 13th century.
The oldest fragments of a wider belt are dated to 12th-14th century
(Virunuka find). Three fragments show enough of the pattern so that it is
possible to recreate a part of it. You can see my attempt at my website
http://www.yrmegard.pri.ee/rus/library/patterns/tw_pattern05.html (page is
in Russian, it has a small picture of the pattern, some pictures of the
belt woven after my pattern (not by me) and a link to pdf-file with
full-size pattern). The warp of the original belt is black and red wool
(now it looks brown of course), the pattern is woven with 38 tablets. 8 of
those tablets (4 on each side) have 4 threads in them and are turned
continuously in one direction. Other tablets have only two threads each,
one red and one black in diagonal holes. The tablet has to be turned half
a turn to change the color for the next pick or idles if the color has to
stay the same.
The pattern from Virunuka find is extremely similar to those from Latvian
finds dated to the same period. Virunuka is situated not far from Latvian
border so it can well be that Virunuka belt was not woven in Estonia.
(Latvian patterns can be found in Anna Zarina's book "Libiesu Apgerbs
10.-13. gs" that is listed in Nancy Spies' bibliography. Patterns in the
book are drawn the strange way so that they seem to be brocade patterns,
but at least to my knowledge none of them is.)
The next well preserved belt is dated to 14th century (Parisselja find)
and has very simple pattern. Of 11 tablets 4 (two at each side of the
central cord) have only two threads. All tablets are turned continuously
in one direction.
After that there is a huge gap. Next surviving TW belts and bands are
already from the second half of the 18th century and later and there are
quite many of them. One of the reasons why the middle of 18th century
turned to be such starting point for collecting and preserving national
textiles is that this was the time of national revival and since then a
significant effort has been made to study and preserve every bit of
national culture.
The patterns of those national belts and bands are extremely simple. There
is a small number of patterns similar to Parisselja find. There is a
number of very narrow belts all from a specific island (Muhu) that have a
central section woven on the same basis as Virunuka find, but there are
only three pattern tablets and pattern repeats every 8 picks. There are
few chevrons. And there are lots and lots of patterns woven by turning all
tablets continuously in one direction until twist buildup does not let to
turn the tablets any more, and then back the same way. An example of such
pattern can be also found on my website
http://www.yrmegard.pri.ee/rus/library/patterns/tw_pattern02.html. My
pattern has different colors than the original pattern but you can still
get the idea.
And that's about it. There is only one longer article about TW in Estonian
- published in 1931 by H. Kurrik (it is listed in Peter Collingwood's
bibliography, but with one mistake: it is published in Tartu, not Taru).
There are couple of sentences in some books about national costume. There
is an album on Estonian belts with some good pictures (including Virunuka
find), but most of Estonian national belts are woven with rigid heddle and
thus the album shows them most. No serious research has ever been done on
Estonian TW belts and bands. There are quite many people who know how to
weave simple patterns but there are really few who at least have tried
more complicated things.
I'll try to scan some pictures of local belts and bands some time this
week if anyone would be interested.
With best wishes,
Julia
Send private reply to Julia Christie Amor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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