In an effort to help folks better their ability to choose textiles for historic projects, I am compiling a series of articles aimed at those less familiar with the source material and textiles in general.  I hope this helps those who are looking to recreate Bronze Age costumes better source their cloth!
 
I am starting with the dating systems used to better help frame the discussed textiles with timeline. According to some dating systems, the Bronze Age in Scandinavia covers the years 1700BCE to 500BCE, while others start at 1800BCE (see chart used by Lise Bender Jorgensen from Northern European Textiles) and come to the same final point.  The period is broken down into the Early Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age (either 1700-1000BCE or 1800-1000BCE for Early, depending on the source).  More recent work has sought to use carbon dating as a means of  ‘finalizing’ the 6 subcategories in the periods with the following being the results (Olsen, et al):
 
Phase 1 – 1700-1500
Phase 2 – 1500-1300
Phase 3 – 1300-1100
Phase 4 – 1100-950/920
Phase 5 – 950/920 – 800
Phase 6 – 800-530/520

​Note that while I am adding this to my blog category for “Textile Charts”, I have to note that there really is no actual chart to be had for this topic because the textiles from this period were almost entirely tabby/plainweave.  For those new to textiles, basic tabby cloth is what you usually see in linen fabrics, particularly those sold at popular vendors like Fabrics-Store.

In her work, Forhistoriske Textiler I Skandinavien, Lise Bender Jørgensen details the textiles from each grave in each specific time period for Scandinavia.  The book has both a catalog and an analysis of textiles, including spin direction. All figures in the next few paragraphs are summarized from that source.  The book does not, however, have detailed information on color or density of weave.  In total, there are 185 Bronze Age graves containing textiles.  Most of these are from Denmark, with only 2 finds from Norway, 20 graves were from Sweden (from Scania and Halland) and 10 graves from Schleswig and Holstein, which are now part of Germany.  Overwhelmingly, the textiles are wool in tabby weave.

For the Early Bronze age (Phases 1-3), Phase 1 has only one grave and all items were repp-like tabby weave.  In a repp weave, one thread system covers the other giving it a ribbed effect.  If you have seen inkle weaving, you have seen repp weave.  82 graves from Phase 2 contained 107 tabby textiles, 13 repp (these include bands and starting borders), sprang was present in 4 graves and there were a few other more unique items as well, including men’s caps with pile (fuzzy hats!) in 7 graves.  All of the actual fabrics were tabby or repp.  The last Phase for the Early Bronze age (Phase 3), had 52 graves with textiles yielding 79 items with a determinable weave.  68 of these were tabby, 9 are repp and the remaining fall into the category of other (again, containing items like sprang and plaiting).​

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The Late Bronze Age is comprised of Phases 4-6, but there was a switch during this period to cremation graves which leaves little material for us to explore.  Most of the textiles from this time are found in Phases 4 and 5, where we find 13 graves with textiles and with only 21 textiles that are preserved well enough to categorize.  18 of these are tabby, one is repp and two are a 2/2 twill.  Twill cloth has a diagonal weave to it (think of blue jeans here).  Both of these twill textiles are dated to Phase 5.
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The surface of the wool cloth was also fulled, which makes it a bit fuzzy but improves the way it sheds water, insulates and renders the cloth unable to fray at the edges (meaning things like bottom hems or complex French seams were often unnecessary as the cloth will not ravel).

As a side note here, if anyone is interested in learning to weave, these garments, particularly the cropped blouses in several women’s graves, would be great projects for a novice.  They could even be done on a wide rigid heddle loom, which is a very good way to get started with the craft.  (See information on this type of weaving here - http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/rigid-heddle-weaving-for-sca-use )

The next question that folks often have is what color to purchase.  In this case, the Bronze Age in Scandinavia also makes this easy.  Aim for Brown.  There is no evidence of organic dye from this time and place (Frei, Mannering, et al, p652).  We do see natural pigmentation from the sheep, primarily brown, in the cloth and white wool seemed rare.  Soay sheep are a Bronze Age Breed, so it does not hurt to aim for those shades of brown for your textiles.
 
And finally, the last question, embroidery?  Figurative embroidery is not represented at all in these finds.  If you want decorative stitching for Early Bronze Age, I encourage you to look to the Skyrdstrup blouse and the beautiful needlework on it.  

It is important to note here that the complete costumes we have from the Bronze Age in Denmark, including those from Borum Eshoj, the Egtved Girl, and Skrydstrup, all fall into the EARLY Bronze Age designation.  That means that if you are looking for appropriate textiles for these items, then your best bet is to seek out a coarse wool tabby.  The mentioned nettle textile and the two twills fall very much outside of the period for these costumes.  Given that most folks seeking to represent this period will be opting for these looks (given how broad the amount of base material there is), I will summarize specifically for the Early Bronze Age period:
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• Weave structure: Tabby, with repp being a lesser possibility for cloth, and likely for something like belts
• Fibre content: Wool
• Thread Count:  This cloth is what we would consider very coarse.  The textiles were most commonly 10 threads to the inch in each system.  There were a scant handful of wools that were more fine, but still coarse by today’s standards.  Because wools from this period were fulled, you can also look for wool flannels in a tabby weave that will help conceal a lower thread count.  It is possible that one might also locate something meant for more casual sport coats or jackets that will work.
• Color: Brown
• Stitches used: Running, overcast and buttonhole (Gleba & Mannering, p101)

If you want more information on Bronze Age costume, I have a list of sources in my Egtved Girl bibliography here:  http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/iron-age-celtic-studies/egtved-bibliography

Resources:
 
Barber, E.J.W. Prehistoric Textiles, Princeton University Press, 1991.

Bender Jørgensen, Lise.  Forhistoriske Textiler I Skandinavien, 1986.

Bender Jørgensen, Lise, Joanna Sofaer and Marie Louise Stig Sørensen.  Creativity in the Bronze Age: Understanding Innovation in Pottery, Textile, and Metalwork Production, February 2018.

Brandt, Luise Ørsted. “Species identification of skins and development of sheep wool”, PhD Thesis, The SAXO Institute, 2014.

Frei, Karin Margarita, Ulla Mannering, Ina Vanden Berghe, and Kristian Kristiansen.  “Bronze Age Wool: provenance and dye investigations of Danish Textiles”, June 2017.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317347024_Bronze_Age_wool_Provenance_and_dye_investigations_of_Danish_textiles

Gleba, Margarita and Ulla Mannering. Textiles and Textile Production in Europe from Prehistory to 400AD, Oxbow Books, 2012.

Hald, Margarethe.  Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials, National Museums of Denmark, 1990.
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Olsen, Jesper, et al. “Chronology of the Danish Bronze Age Based on 14C Dating of Cremated Bone Remains”, (2011). Radiocarbon, 53(2), 261-275.

I can never just do what I need to do, in any sensible order.  I did, in fact, prep the RV and do some Pennsic Packing this weekend, but I also spent some time trying out indigo dyeing (I need a long blue wool veil) and finished up a Hedeby purse.

The dye I used was actually an indigo tie-dye kit from Dharma.  It has everything you need to set up a vat very quickly and with little chance of error.  As I am only a dabble-dyer, and have never used indigo or woad before, I opted for easy.  I will definitely use this again!  I did three dips with my wool gauze veil, 3 with a small piece of silk habotai, and Lady Rosamund came over and dyed 3 skeins of wool yarn and several scraps of wool cloth and felt.

My one comment is to buy LONG rubber gloves if you dont want blue fingernails!

http://www.dharmatrading.com/kits/starter/sets/indigo-dye-kit.html

Less than 2 weeks till War!  I cannot wait!

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I love linen.  Most of my garb is sewn from linen fabric.  I have experimented with weaving it.  I had tried to grow it (will attempt that again in a few years when I am living at the farm property full-time and can water plants during the dry months).  At last, this weekend, I tried to spin it.

The first few yards were rough, as it is indeed very different than spinning wool.  However, once I got a feel for a slippery fiber that does not tend to grab its neighbors (doing half of the work for me in the drafting process), it was spinning wonderfully.

Interestingly enough, I found that it seemed to spin most easily on my smaller, low whorl spindles.  Normally I prefer top whorl spindles with wide, light-weight whorls.  For this, so far, my favorite tool is this spindle with a Sami reindeer antler whorl purchased a couple of years ago from Feed The Ravens/Viking-U-Like.  The thread I am spinning is quite fine and I will attempt to ply it to be used as sewing thread.  Plying will also be an adventure as I have only ever plied with my spinning wheel, even if the singles yarn was produced on drop-spindles.  I will finally make myself learn to ply without the wheel.

And while dyeing is not my first love, I have also decided to experiment a bit with linen dying.  I know the fiber does not take to dye as well as wool, but I am determined to get something more than the palest shades out of dyed linen.

For this experiment, I took linen yarn and (after washing with synthropol) steeped it in a solution made from oak galls (that I have been collecting for a year) for 24 hours.  The linen went from white to a tawny shade, so I know that it will sadden the final color, but hopefully the final dye will take better over that.  Currently it is in the alum mordant, and tonight it will go into a dyebath of madder root.  In the photo below you can see the color obtained from the oak galls on both the linen yarn and a swatch of linen fabric.

I excited to finally get this project underway!  I had intended to start it in the fall, but the vendor I was hoping to buy fleece from disappeared on me.  I found another white Icelandic fleece in December and finally got it washed last week and started combing a portion of it this past weekend.

I am curious to see how different fabric looks when dyed at different stages in the textile creation process.  At Coppergate wool was found that was dyed in the fleece with madder (Walton, 1713) and some of the tabbies from the Oseberg ship burial were dyed after the cloth was woven (Ingstad).  This got me thinking about how garments that are dyed in the wool, yarn-dyed or dyed after weaving would differ in final appearance and feel. 

So now I have a fleece which is cleaned and separated into 3 equal portions (of about 7oz each) which I will process and dye.  One sample will be dyed in the fleece, spun and then woven.  The next will be spun into yarn, dyed and then woven.  The last will be spun, woven and then the resulting fabric swatch will be dyed.  All wool will be combed prior to spinning and all samples will be woven on a rigid heddle loom.  The dye will be madder and all samples will be dyed at once (with locks, yarn and fabric going into the same dyebath to insure consistency).  I hope this goes well as I look forward to seeing how the results compare.

Resources

Ingstad, Anne Stein.  "The Textiles in the Oseberg Ship". http://forest.gen.nz/Medieval/articles/Oseberg/textiles/TEXTILE.HTM

Walton, P. "Textile Production at 16-22 Coppergate." The Archaeology of York Volume 17: The Small Finds.  1977.

I love both Jenny Dean's Wild Colour book and her blog, which is home to her Anglo-Saxon Dye experiments.  She has great information and her books are more than wonderful for a novice dyer like myself.

I was very happy today to see that she has a new book coming out this summer about historical dyeing!

More information can be found below (and you can bet I have added this already to my wishlist!)

http://www.jennydean.co.uk/index.php/a-heritage-of-colour-my-new-book/

http://www.amazon.com/Heritage-Colour-Natural-Dyes-Present/dp/1782210369/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389293087&sr=1-12&keywords=jenny+dean

Too many projects at once and too much work has been needed on my car, so little progress has been made!  I did, however, finally cut out my Ottoman coat for 12th Night.  Some of the fabrics I may be using are below.  The Rust colored fabric with the repeating medallion motif is one I have had from sometime and it will become the Entari.  The golden fabric is linen that shall be the coat lining and the green is silk for the facing.

The large pomegranate pattern on the left will possibly be a set of sleeves or hat or even the lower part of a pair of salwar (pants).  The lovely large scale pattern on the right will become shoes and possibly a hat.  I also have blue linen on which I will stencil a pattern for my chirka.

I also found that one of the oak trees near the cabin is infested with oak galls.  I have been collecting these for a few weeks now (I now have 3 or 4 times as many as I have in this picture) and will be crushing them to test some dying out with them.  I hope to have enough galls to run small samples of both wool and linen using two different mordants (alum and iron).  I look forward to seeing how the samples turn out!

There was no lack of color in the attire of the Ottoman nobility.  The range of dyes they could produce covered the spectrum, as is shown in both extant textiles and in paintings of the time period. 

Commonly used plant dyes (with mordants of alum, iron, tin, or copper) were indigo for blues; madder for reds and oranges on wool; weld, safflower, larkspur and saffron were used for oranges and yellows; certain types of buckthorn berries gave green; and brazilwood gave purplish red.  Insect based dyes such as kermes, lac, and Mexican cochineal produced the most vibrant and valuable reds and crimsons.

Additional colors were produced by overdyeing one color with another.  A yellow dye over indigo gave greens, indigo and henna produced blacks and indigo with a crimson dye produced deep purples.*

Miniature paintings also show a variety of colors being employed by the residents of the Ottoman Empire.  Blues, reds, oranges, greens and yellows appear on people from varying walks of life.  Based on paintings, we can also determine that colors appear to have been used liberally, with little modern sense of "matching" (likewise with patterns).




Some personal things that I keep in mind when making color choices for an Ottoman persona:

• If I were to create a garment for someone of high status I would plan to use a rich crimson at least somewhere in the costume, if at all possible.
• If I have fabric woven with metal threads (such as the Indian jacquard in the below photo) I would also use it only for someone of high status, as serasar was only available to the very wealthy.
• I always use white for the gomlek (this is all I have seen in paintings, though there is one that could possibly be interpreted as indigo), but it is good to keep in mind that white is also an option for a woman's pants.
• If I were to create the impression of a non-upper class person, I would lean towards oranges or orange-reds rather than crimson or blue-based reds for color choice in the red family.
• A well-chosen, rich color in a solid fabric (such as a velvet or satin) can read better as a period reproduction than an overly busy quilting cotton that employs far too many colors.  (Often I will use a solid for a coat and reserve that lovely, but busy print for the pants.)
• While deep or bright colors were highly prized and more prevalent, there were also Imperial garments in white or pale shades such as taupe or rose.
• The facing of the coat was often a contrasting color (as shown in the green Imperial caftan below).  I have seen red, yellow, light blue, olive, bright turquoise, rust, grey, or hot pink, with other hues possible as well.  The lining of the garment could be a plain white (or beige) linen or cotton, or could be colored fabric as well.
• Typically somber colors such as the darkest blues, black and dark greys were used for mourning, modesty or to show one's piety.
• When looking to patterned fabrics, I try (though it is not always possible) to pick textiles that have a few colors, but not too many (again, that can be a failing of modern quilting cottons when used for recreating historic costume).  Often striking patterns were achieved with only two colors.  For more colors at once, a popular color combination for brocades was red/yellow/blue or red/yellow/blue/white.  Red was the predominant color, with yellow (or gold metal) following that and small accents or outlines in blue or blue/white.
• As always, I never knock the idea of using anything at least semi-appropriate that is already dwelling in the fabric stash.  :-)
  

For a selection of both extant textiles and extant art, please visit my Pinterest page to see further examples of the amazing range of colors used for Ottoman silks.

http://pinterest.com/alfrunketta/ottoman-and-middle-eastern-costume/

* Dye information came from two sources: Topkapi Saray Museum: Costumes, Embroideries and Other Textiles and Ipek: The Crescent & the Rose: Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets.

I could not be more thrilled with this! 

Here is crewel wool from Renaissance Dyeing that I dyed myself with madder (the same madder bath as in the previous post, but I mordanted the wool for three days before soaking in the dyebath for 7 more days).  I LOVE the color!

This yarn, btw, takes dye exceptionally well.

Now, of course, I am contemplating a project for a hand spun, hand-dyed, and hand woven mantle f

Over the last several weeks I have been experimenting with natural dyes.  The only dyeing I have previously done was in 2009 (I think) with onion skins.  I managed a lovely marigold color with those (on wool) on my first attempt, but only a pale, dull yellow when I tried a second batch.

I have known for years that I wanted to weave my own fabric, and given that I also recently took up spinning, a more serious attempt at natural dyeing seems to be the logical next step.  So, I tried a couple of dye baths with madder and weld (and still have another madder bath going) and below are my initial results.

Now, I cannot make something just for the sake of making it, even if it is something you have to practice a lot in order to obtain a quality product.  (I actually guess that would be a period practice as well, lol.)

So, the skeins of dyed yarn are being woven into a tablet band that will start a warp for a miniature warp-weighted loom that I am constructing.  For the band design, I was inspired by the double diamond pattern of the image to the left.  This is a fragment of an extant band from Kaupang (more info can be found in Hilde Thunem's document here http://urd.priv.no/viking/smokkr.html ).  It appears from the diagram that the original might have been brocaded, but given that this is for warping purposes it is not a technique I wanted to test out on this particular piece.

I also will admit that do not truly understand the "how" of tablet weaving just yet.  I can print a pattern off of the internet, set up the weaving according to the directions and follow the turn turn/flip pattern that they suggest, but this piece is my first attempt at really understanding the process of how weaving with cards creates a pattern.  So, I drafted the pattern myself, set it up and fuddled with it until I got the weaving to show the pattern I was expecting. 

Plan to weave a bit of the band on either side of the warp, so you can see below that I have started the left hand bit of the weaving.