My hair still smells a bit like wood fire... a nice smell, if you ask me. It reminds me of many, many different activities, and lovely times with friends and colleagues, in many different settings.

Yesterday's fire was a true work-fire, though - and since I had a lot of other things to do as well, I didn't get to sit down, relax, and enjoy watching the flames this time around. I didn't even make coffee on top of the spindle whorls, that would have been fun, and it's definitely on my list for the next time!

Firing whorls, the way I do it, is a kind of simulated pit firing. Instead of digging a hole in the garden and filling it with wood and the things to fire, I use a clay fire bowl (which is also the bowl that travels to Living History events with me). The bowl keeps the warmth of the fire nicely as opposed to the metal fire bowls, thus making cooking much more efficient in terms of fuel use. And for firing whorls, it is quite good at simulating the dugout pit.

In pit firing, generally, there's a high percentage of reduction firing (most of the whorls will turn out at least partly black). Temperature control is possible only in a limited way, by choosing how you build up your fire/pit, and what kinds of wood you use, and how long you let the fire burn. In my case, the firing temperature is not very high to quite low, and there is also always some loss of whorls if they get heated too quickly, or too unevenly.

But you want pictures, right? Here you go.

It all starts with filling the bowl with wood, wood shavings and, of course, whorls. It's a bit like whorl lasagna.



I start the fire on top of the whole thing then, trying to heat it up as slowly as possible. When that does not work out as well as intended, I get to hear cracking sounds... which means exploding whorls.



That is not a good sound - but there is some loss, that's just how it is.

Firing then goes on, with me putting more bits of wood on, and trying to have it burn nice and hot all the time:



That takes a few hours. It would definitely be enough time to make coffee on top of the whorls!



Once the firing is done, the bowl has to cool off a bit before I can take out the whorls. Usually I have a hard time waiting long enough, but I don't want to risk more damaged whorls because of taking them out too quickly. Then, once they're completely cold, the ashes and soot have to be wiped off or washed off, and once the whorls are completely dried again, I can weigh and sort them.

Here's the dead ones from yesterday's pit:



About ten whorls that did not make it, approximately. Not too bad - though I've done better in the past!

There's a webinar on tonight about Murex Purple dye in the Bronze Age Aegean, by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. The webinar is via Zoom, it's free to attend (you just need to register), and it starts at 6:00 pm German time.

Read more about the webinar, and register here.

In other news: I'm busy as a bee on amphetamines here, and the weather is finally stable enough for me to fire my spindle whorls! Unfortunately, there's already a few dead ones. The salamanders must have been hungry...

More about the firing, and pictures, are to come. Tomorrow, probably.

Today was insanely busy - and I still did not manage to get everything done that I had planned to do. (Is that new? No. Do I manage, again and again, to plan too much to fit into one day? Yes.)

There was making of some distaffs, and then dressing said distaffs, and packing said dressed distaffs for the online workshop (the German one is full already, I will fix a second date soon). Then getting the parcels ready for a post office run tomorrow morning.

I also managed to sneak in a little time outside in the garden, which counted for my obligatory daily "time outside", and it did feel so good. (We agreed, early on in the pandemic, that getting outside at least once a day for at least half an hour was a non-discussible thing that we'd do. In some cases and on some days, it wasn't easy to get outside in the rain after a long day, but we both had the feeling that those were the days it was most necessary, and did us a world of good.) Flowers are starting to bloom everywhere in our garden, the raspberries are getting ready to bloom, and I planted a lot of the now-quite-grown seedlings outside. Hopefully they will all grow into nice plants that make lots of fruit and vegetables. One of the tomato plants already has a first fruit!



So - another really busy day tomorrow, and then there's the Pentecost weekend, which means  time off, and I'm very much looking forward to that. There's a bank holiday on Monday in Germany, but since the Most Patient Husband had some more vacation days to spend, he's getting two extra days - and it would be unfair to let him spend these on his own, right?

Which means I'll be back on the blog on Thursday next week. And since tomorrow is going to be really busy as well, I'll take the day off, too...

So - see you in a week!

It's time again for the monthly textile chat on the EXARC discord server - this time, the topic is "Show and Tell". So if you are interested in seeing what the people there have been up to, or have something historical-textile-related yourself that you'd like to show and discuss, join the fun on Saturday, 15:00 Amsterdam time. (Which is also Berlin time. I always triple-check those times, as I'm always afraid that I will muddle up something and appear an hour early (not so bad) or an hour late (not so good)...

More about the event, and the link to the discord server, here.

If you're interested in dyeing in former times, there's an Archetype Book Talk with Dyes in History and Archaeology editors and contributors on Tuesday 25 May 2021, 3pm BST.

Jo Kirby, Maarten van Bommel, Ilaria Degano and Joanne Dyer will talk about the Dyes in History and Archaeology meetings and books. The talk is free to attend, but you must register via Eventbrite in order to receive the link to participate on Zoom.

Some of the books are also offered at a discount price until 26th May, for 30 instead of 40 GBP. You'll need to use the discount code BOOKTALK at the checkout of the Archetype Books online shop.

It's been a wonderful long weekend - and we were really lucky a few times, when we did outdoor activities that were just ended before the rain came.

Rain, mind you, that is still sorely needed by the ground here. It's still too dry overall here, or has been, so it is very welcome water from above.

In other news - I've fixed a date for the online spinning workshop. It will take place on June 2, at 18:00 - and I'm planning to put details into the shop tomorrow, and booking will be possible then as well. The workshop will include a dressed distaff and a spindle, and I'll put in an option for participants who have already bought a distaff and spindle from me, as it makes no sense to have them twice.

This is all very exciting, and I'm already looking forward to it. (And pondering if I can fix the webcam in a way that it's possible to see what I see...)

There's been progress on the writing stuff (yay!), and there's been a good bit of sending off parcels to lots of different places (thank you, online shoppers!), and if this were a normal year, I'd be off for a week of book-binding fun with friends this week.

Unfortunately, this is not happening this time due to, you've guessed it, the pandemic. Tomorrow is still a bank holiday here in Germany, though, which means I'll be taking the day off, and because it would be a shame to waste such an opportunity for an extra-long weekend, and the Most Patient Husband of Them All also has the day off, Friday will be added to this.

Which means I'll be back on the blog on Monday. Meanwhile, maybe you'd like to look at this article about an ancient Scythian shoe? Or maybe read about DNA analysis on the York Gospel? Or about trousers for women, and their history in Europe (that is also available in German)?