Bag lady...

Like most living historians I have way too many projects. When you start something new your mind immediately thinks of a thousand other things you can do or try. I guess this is one of the downsides of a creative mind!

I like bags.... I like making bags and when we went to the Moesgard Museum in Arhus, Denmark two years ago I absolutely adored the runic stone you see hereunder. They have a fabulous collection of runic stones and this one is by far the most famous. Of course I saw a bag in this but I have waited two years to start it.


While working on my other projects (yes yes I will finish all of them soon haha!) my mind figured out how to make a nice sturdy bag to use in camp. The "leftover bag" I made several weeks ago was just for me, but this bag is something Einarr can use too without looking too feminine. After all, folks, the man is a VIKING.

I bought a really thick piece of dark brown felt and some lovely colours in bright blue, yellow and happy red, similar to the colours you see on the stone. I could not find a light colour felt that was strong enough so the design is slightly different than the stone. The good thing is that this way the bag is a quickie to make!

Here's a picture of the bag-in-process. The yellow outline is in chain stitch and the eyes and mouth will be in blue and red kloster stitch. After carefully looking at the runic stone we decided to leave out the white corners of the mouth, we think it'll be too much and we prefer to keep this design simple.

Finally! The decoration on Lars' cloak

Well, here it is, finally, the decoration for Lars' cloak I showed you in June! Click on the photo for a larger image.

Thanks to my good friend Annemiek S. for this great photo!

No progress, but a good photo anyway!

The toilet bag is not finished in terms of decoration, meaning the trim I intended to weave, but it was ready for use during the last Archeon week.


Here it is next to the lamp Einarr made last year, it looks quite good huh? Nobody knew it hid my toothbrush and stuff!

With regards to the lamp, keep an eye on this blog because Einarr will make a new one this winter and we'll be posting photos and work-plans for you to use.

greetz, Arda

More progress

As you can see, I have removed the light yellow chain stitch and I have replaced it by the darker yellow I had already used in the bird's neck. This actually makes the bird more "elegant" and less noisy in terms of different colours.

This is a detail on the toes and beak, I have used the same bright yellow. All colours used are natural wool.

I hope to show you the finished banner soon =).

Progess on Lindisfarne needlework

It took me a while to decide on the next steps to take in the Lindisfarne embroidery piece, because initially I wanted to leave the bird's wings "open". What you see hereunder is just an experiment.

The pictures are not too fancy, I'm afraid, and therefore the yellow looks way too bright but it is actually a nice soft colour. To give it a more "wing effect" I did not use the Bayeux stitch but a chain stitch in two strands of thread.

Winter tunic finished

Well, I am proud to be able to show you the finished winter tunic! The fabric is very warm and cozy and weaving the trim was a quick job luckily.

As you can see, the garment is a bit creased because I am not the only one who thinks this tunic is warm and comfy...
The pin is forged by the Kinheim Blacksmiths group, one of the groups from the Open Air museum in Eindhoven. It has a lovely spiral.
I have used very cheap wool from Zeeman for this trim, because I didn't feel confident enough to use expensive wool. Now that I look at the tunic and the trim I realise that is a ridiculous statement, but hey I am only human. At the last Archeon market I bought lovely wool dyed by Una from Muninn, so I am going to be brave for my next tape! I'll keep ya'll posted as usual.

greetz, Arda

Storage

Ok, ok, this is not authentic at all but these three planks are great storage space in your viking tent. You can keep your plates and such within reach; if you have a bunch of vikings running in and out of your tent you really want to find your kitchen items quickly!

Cute neighbours

Last week we spent the entire week in Archeon to participate in the International Viking week. For the most part of the week these two cuties were our neighbours.



These pigs are called Ot and Sien, which is particularly funny to the Dutch because the names refer to old primary school reading books.