I'm in the sprint to the finish line - I will be away for some work stuff, and then I will have a nice little summer break, so (as usual before a break) the chunk of things on my to-do list to actually do before I don't do stuff for a while has grown to a frightening size. And it's deadlined stuff, too, nothing that can wait until I come back.

This is partly because it's just what happens, and partly because while I did some semi-careful planning, some things have been shifted about on short notice, and some things were delayed in the different phases of planning before now, so my available time for doing things before not doing things for a while... has actually shrunk.

Which means that I am going to nix my plans of blogging for you until right before my actual break, and maybe even writing and scheduling a few blogposts to make the blog hiatus a little shorter. I will do exactly the contrary: I'll call the hiatus in early, starting now. Sorry - but I'm sure you will have important summer things to do, too, and won't even miss me much.

The blog will be back to its regular schedule of posts on August 14. Until then, I wish you a wonderful summer with just the right amounts and the right timing of sun, rain, breeze, coffee, cake, ice cream and lakes or rivers for bathing and frolicking!

One of the things I love about archaeology, and especially experimental archaeology, is how it keeps you on your toes and gets you to suddenly learn stuff about things you never tended to think about before.

As in - did you know that beeswax actually starts to melt at around 40°C, not the 60+ that are usually stated as its melting point? And that the temperature depends not only on the species of the bees and maybe their location, but also on who made the wax and how old it is? I learned about that yesterday. I was not as successful in finding out the melting point of natural pinus pinea resin, though (if you should have a helpful hint, I'd love to have it).

Today, I am trying to find out about the temperatures used in traditional batik techniques. Looks like they dye above the onset of melting of beeswax... and tomorrow, if everything goes according to plan, I will finish the thinking and planning and write down a plan to follow for the actual testing. There's a few sticky points still to solve - how to get the mixture out of the cloth again, how to make sure that everything is dyed at the same temperature but with no bad side effects from stuff touching, how to ensure an uniform temperature for the mixture application, and some more pesky details like that.

And now... on to more hunting of .pdfs, and finding out about melting points and possible sources and temperatures and processes. 

(For those of you who have not guessed it yet: It's all about the resist dye technique test runs at the Textile Forum.)

Yes, I know, that title does not sound too much like the more positive blogpost that I promised you yesterday - and it will not be much of a standalone blogpost, it's more the wrapping for a link.

The guy who told the story behind this link is Chris Brecheen, and he's a writer. And a blogger, obviously. The story itself is about an all-too-common occurrence - woman on public transport getting hit on by a man - but turns all non-common. Go read it, you won't regret it. At least it totally made my day.

Someone is leaning a ladder to our house, right in front of the front door. Probably to check the roof - and I confess it's a little distracting. (I'm sitting very close to the front door when I'm at my workplace, both the normal one and the summer-workplace in the winter garden.)

Speaking of distraction - there is an archaeological podcast in the internet (in German). It's called "angegraben" and looks quite nice. I have not managed to sit down and listen to it yet... but it's on my list of things to do.

Another thing in German: In Erlangen, the classical archaeologists have a slight problem. With buildings... their own building, to be precise, as it's coming down on top of their heads. For those of you not reading German: the article has pics.

While I'm helping spread the bad news, here's an article about the sellout of the Stralsund archives, in English (with links, many of them to German texts). And that's it for today - more positive stuff tomorrow!

As you might know, the Textile Forum is a very experiment-friendly place. Last year, we had a little dyeing experiment looking at the influences of different metal kettles (simulated by metal plates in neutral pots) on dyeing, inspired by the question why the Romans in Pompeii had lead dye vats. (You can see pictures of the experiment, the dyed samples, and a poster of the preliminary results on the Forum's archive page, here.)

The experiment is now getting an add-on - a second test run, only with birch leaves as dye (due to time restrictions), but with the metal additions split between the mordanting only and the dyeing only. If all goes according to plan, it will be possible to see if there is more influence from the metal in the mordanting process or the dyeing process.

I have been preparing for this quite a bit already - the alum is ordered, the 80 m skeins are wound and tied off so they won't go knotty, and today will see my finishing off the outline and experiment plan. It takes a while to go through all this and type out, bit by bit and step for step, what is to do. But yay for a detailed plan like that - it's so helpful to have a sheet with the single steps all written out, and tables to put the measured values. Also helps a lot in making sure you don't forget to take a measurement, or a photograph.

And week after next will see the actual run of the experiment. I'm really looking forward to this!

Thing I learned in the last weeks: Our little cat seems to have interesting things to do outside, and possibly some territorial/territory time-sharing related issues. At least she spends a lot of time outside, sometimes including the night, and can be too busy to eat even if she declared enormous hunger just minutes ago.

Also, cortisone really (and quite strongly) changes fur colour in cats, giving the fur a reddish tinge. When we adopted her, she had dark fur all over. After getting first a depot shot, and later cortisone pills, the fur on her shoulders and upper back turned really reddish - like a sort of saddle. Now that she's on inhaled meds, it has re-darkened almost completely. Instead, she now has reddish spots at the front paws, where she licks her paws to wash. I had read about this, but it's really fascinating to see for oneself.

I have also found out that it is a bad idea to only have one contact possibility for a given person, at least if it may become crucial to contact that person within a given timespan. This is linked to email etiquette, the very basic level: If the only contact information you hand out to somebody is your email address, you should make sure that a) that person's emails will reach you, b) actually read your email, and c) answer it.

In cases of unpleasantness springing from such problems, even a combination of liberally applied chocolate, coffee and tea (the go-to methods for alleviating life's little itches and pains, at least here)  will not help much. Or, after a certain while, at all.

If you are going for the chocolate therapy, here's a chocolate you might want to try out: Die Gute Schokolade. This is chocolate which has been produced under fair trade standards, and trees were planted to make its production, packaging and transport carbon neutral. Behind this thing is a children's initiative called Plant-for-the-Planet. It's a light milk chocolate, and I really like it. Plus it's absolutely affordable for a fair trade chocolate, and comes without the bad conscience that much of the other choc has attached to it. If you are in Germany, give it a try!

The event is based on an international, interdisciplinary and intercultural format meant to spark a lively and informative dialogue among speakers and participants from a variety of backgrounds, professions and points of view. The three day event will not only feature an impressive selection of high profile presenters, but also all inclusive behind-the-scenes visits and excursions to exclusive places and sites pertinent to the interests of all who attend.

They are looking for papers from all kinds of backgrounds,  and the CfP is open until August 22 2013. Technically, there is a website, but there is no info whatsoever there apart from three rather unrelated links; so if you are interested, it's probably best to contact info(at)costume-textile.com directly.

The international digital heritage congress will take place from October 28 to November 1, 2013, in Marseille, France. More info, as usual and expected, on their website.

And finally, don't forget about the European Textile Forum - we still have some very few spaces left!