Just in case you were curious on how much wool one can fit into a 250 ml lab glass beaker, it's about 12 g of dry goods in this example, consisting of a small skein of yarn and a piece of fabric about 17 cm square:

tIt fits, but there's not much floating possibility... so it might be a good idea to put in a little less wool. Probably a smaller piece of fabric, and maybe a little more yarn to stay at sort-of-sensible amounts (but yarn will be a bit less, um, stiff?).

It's always fascinating to watch things unfold and questions come up when planning an experiment. There's usually a lot of aspects, and one has to decide on how to handle each one, while knowing that in many cases there's no really good solution that will cover all the possibilities..

There's an experiment coming up that I'm really, really excited about - we're going to test the influence of different waters at the Textile Forum. It's a truth universally acknowledged by all dyers that water has quite an influence on the outcome of madder dyeing, and that some are better and others worse for getting a good red colour, but as far as I know, there hasen't been a systematic test of that yet.

Aaaand that's what we're going to change, to my great delight! The plan is to mordant and dye some samples in water from different sources (same water for mordanting and dyeing, since we know from the Pompeii experiment that the influence of the kettle material is present both through mordanting and dyeing, and it adds up, so presumably the bigger difference will be seen when using the same water for both). We'll use the same wool, the same madder (ground madder roots is the plan) in the same amounts, and of course the same amount of alum for mordanting for each of the samples, and heat everything together in a large water bath so it is all as much the same as humanly possible. Reference will be done using de-ionised water so we'll also have a sample where there's really only the madder and the alum interacting with the wool. 

And then we will see what the differences are. I've already been collecting some samples of water, including a bottle of tap water from Sibiu airport (my first deed after getting through the security circus), a bottle of tap water from my home town, and a bottle of a spring close to my home town that has a lot of iron in it.

It has a very strong taste - very slightly sour, with a tiny bit of natural carbonisation, and you can taste the iron in it, and I personally find it utterly delicious and love to drink it. I will keep myself from consuming the sample, though, all in the name of science!  

I have this tendency to pounce on free articles and dissertations and so on that can be found on the internet, and to just download them if they might in some more-or-less expectable case be, well, relevant. Or interesting. Or because they sound interesting.

Of course I tend to lose track of what I have already downloaded, so when I'm getting ready to enter the titles into my database, I do a duplicate search first... which usually weeds out quite a lot of doubles that I had gotten, forgotten about, and then re-gotten, because, hey, sounds interesting.

And occasionally I actually get to read at least part of what I have downloaded. The latest one is a phd thesis titled "Archäologische Studie zu ausgewählten Aspekten der mittelalterlichen Handwerkstopographie im deutschsprachigen Raum : Bestandsaufnahme der Handwerksbefunde vom 6. - 14. Jahrhundert und vergleichende Analyse" and was handed in 2022 - you can download the whole thing from Uni Tübingen here.

I haven't read all of it so far, but skimmed through the pdf looking for passages about textiles and textile crafts - and what I have seen so far was both helpful and interesting, especially regarding the different amounts of finds pointing towards textile production in different areas and contexts. So if you read German and are interested in crafts and where they might have been found, check this one out!

As promised, here's the list of events coming up:

First of all, there's the "Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften" (long night of science), where I will be doing a demonstration of tablet weaving in the Stadtmuseum Erlangen. That's on October 21, starting at 20:00 h until 22:30 h - come see me there if you are in the area! 

On the next day, it's the last day of the special exhibition about the Stone Age, and I will be there again starting at 11:00 for the whole day, showing very early textile techniques. 

The second week of November there's the European Textile Forum, of course... my yearly week of wonderful textile madness.

And then there is an online workshop for spinning with spindle and distaff, in German, on December 8 (that's a Friday) starting at 18:00. If you are interested in this, you can learn more about it (and book your spot) here on my website.

There I was, telling you I'd be back here on the blog yesterday... and then somehow the day went by, with a lot of things done (catch-up-stuff still left from my trip to the conference) and I completely forgot to blog.

Even though it's on my trusty to-do-and-reminder list... but, ah, that only helps if one looks at it as the workday draws closer to ending. Otherwise... well. Like not looking at the calendar and then promptly forgetting about dates. 

So... what was happening here?

Lots of things. I went off to Romania, for a conference about Eastern European Traditional Textiles... hoping to learn some more about them (as I was rather blank on that topic), and make some new acquaintances to get better network possibilities into the East. Both plans did work out, to my great delight! I had a wonderful time looking at splendidly embroidered shirts, doing a little hemp processing, taking part in a dyeing workshop that included some dyes I'd not had contact with before, and visiting the wonderful museums in Băiţa and Sibiu.

While I was away, the little cat felt a bit under the weather... apparently she managed to catch a cold, which made her appetite about non-existent. She spent a few days just sleeping and eating very little, but she did pull through - and the plus side of her spending a few days only sleeping is that she rested her right back leg enough with that to let it recover from whatever sprain it had. Now we hope the rest of her cold will pass quickly so she can go back to her usual upbeat self.

She's at least fit enough again to conquer her favourite sleeping spots (which all have conquering aids for her now - ramps or steps, for easier access, since the jumping powers of probably-around-18-years-or-older cats are, let's say, limited...)

Meanwhile, planning for the Textile Forum is also happening, there's a demonstration coming up where I will be showing tablet weaving (which has to be prepared), orders have been sent out and more prepared to follow their chums today, and some more planning has been done - which I'll tell about tomorrow. 

 I'm off for a bit to attend a conference and workshop, thanks to the glorious opportunities the EuroWeb people are providing. Which means I will get to learn some more about Eastern European textiles and textile crafts!

As opposed to Germany and much of Middle and Western Europe, some traditions have kept alive much longer in the East. However, the Iron Curtain and then language barriers have played their part in keeping contact between eastern and western parts less than they should be. So I'm hoping to get a few more insights, and, even more important, some more contacts in the next days. And I'm definitely looking forward to seeing a bit of Europe that I've never been to before (and being further to the east than ever).

So I will leave you with these flowers, and I'll be back on the blog on Monday, October 9.

Every once in a while, things happen, stars align, and I have a look at female headwear again. This time around, it's for a small conference contribution - and as I was browsing images and putting together my thing, I realised once more that this topic is huge, it's extremely difficult, and it would be more than enough material for another phd thesis (which, mind you, I am not planning to do). There are so, so many different kinds of headwear worn by women, and so many open questions. Who wore what when? How do the terms we have from texts relate to what we see on images? Where do the (very few) surviving specimens of headwear come in? How did rules and expectations change over time? 

How were the headdresses shaped, and from what materials, and how were they fixed on the head so they'd stay on? There's some that just seem to stay on by sheer magic, and then there's others that look fairly sensible.

Oh, but speaking of sensible. There are a lot of draped cloths around, longer or shorter; there's also the barbe-and-fillet headwear in the 13th and 14th century... but then there are the weird things, too. Like a headdress made from long bands - such as this one: 

That's a detail from an altar painting from Vienna. (You can find all the images from this altar at the IMAREAL database, and look at them in fairly good resolution, by the way.) Now I'm tempted to go through my stash of linen bands and start wrapping, actually. It definitely looks some kind of intricate more-or-less-hat, and if the band is of a suitable quality (like silk, or fine linen with embellishments), it would also be a way to show off wealth. 

So... anyone around here looking for a dress-related topic for a larger study project? Headwear would definitely be a thing. Just saying.