Like Sarah said. The shapes of the patterns are correct (more or less), but the "threads" in the drawing are just a schematic simplification of the real weave. I've seen most of the Siksälä shawls in real life, and they all have tablet-woven edges (I'm not 100% sure I saw the one "reconstructed" in the drawing, though, but one that was very similar with all the linen warps and wefts missing). The edge bands are woven in the two-holed tablet weaving technique sometimes referred to as "Hochdorf weave" (see http://www.stringpage.com/tw/twohole.html). The Siksälä book _does_ say the edges are tablet-woven (p. 56), but the description of tablet weaving as a technique that follows is pretty muddled and, well...wrong: "The technique of tablet weaving is based on using thin rectangular tablets which are mostly penetrated by one small round hole /.../ Through the holes run the weft threads [sic], which form a grid for the warp threads [sic]. (pp. 51-56)
The reconstruction Ave Matsin made is not of the shawl in the link http://www.yrmegard.pri.ee/pictures/siksala.jpg, but of the one from Siksälä grave no 200, if I remember correctly. Ave is definitely the person to get in touch with for more info on the technical details of these shawls! /Vix. ---------------------------------------------------- Lanam fecit ("she worked with wool")--Roman epitaph. Viktoria Holmqvist, Göteborg, Sweden. E-mail: lanam_fecit (at) hotmail (dot) com To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 11:29:17 -0500 Subject: Re: [twist-tabletweaving] A curious reconstruction It's a flaw in the drawing. If you look at the actual photographs rather than the drawing (done by someone who knew little about TW except that warp-twining was characteristic), it's obvious that the piece was tablet-woven. "Reconstruction" in this case means "drawing of what I think it might have looked like." No actual yarn was involved. Ave Matsin, an Estonian scholar, has woven an actual reconstrution, and it's gorgeous. I had the opportunity to see and handle it last year. (My notes are at home.) Contact information for Ave is here: http://www.kultuur.edu.ee/225315 Sarah On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 9:34 AM, Julia <[email protected]> wrote: > Greetings to the list. > > A few days ago a friend of mine sent me some pictures from a relatively new > book on Siksälä archeology - "Siksälä: a Community at the Frontiers". Among > other pictures I found a very strange drawing that, according to the caption, > shows a reconstruction of a squared shawl from female grave. You can see the > drawing here: http://www.yrmegard.pri.ee/pictures/siksala.jpg > > Tablet woven edge on the left is beyond my understanding. How is it possible > to create such pattern while turning the tablets continuously in the same > direction? It also seems that the dark cords on the left are twisted more > loosely than cords in the pattern area. > > There is nothing on tablet weaving in the text of the book and the author of > this reconstruction drawing has passed away quite a while ago. It is possible > that her drawing is not technically accurate yet I would leave that > possibility for the last. We are currently trying to find out if the original > textile fragment survived but most probably it didn't. > > Does anybody have an idea how such pattern could be woven? > > With best wishes, > > Julia > -- Sarah Goslee http://www.stringpage.com _________________________________________________________________ Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free. https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969
