Tablet Weaving Articles

10 years ago, I analysed and reconstructed the weaving techique of the medieval silk belt commonly known as Eric of Pomerania's Belt. It was for my bachelor's thesis in historical textiles and handweaving and eventually resulted in a paper that I presented at NESAT conference in Copenhagen.

I've been meaning to put up the article online forever, and now when my friends over at Historical Textiles wrote a post about the girdle I've finally got around to it!

Because of a miscommunication with the editors of the NESAT X volume, the wrong pictures were used for my article, which made all the pretty diagrams almost incomprehensible (not enough contrast between the different shades of grey to see what colour went where). In the version below, I've added the original colour images throughout, making it much easier to actually understand how to weave this previously unknown (?) tablet weaving technique.

Article: A Study of Two Medieval Silk Girdles: Eric of Pomerania's Belt and the Dune Belt

I then used the Eric of Pomerania project as an example in another article discussing  the use of reconstructions and craft skills as analytical tools when working with historical textiles. I also threw in some some thoughts on medieval tablet weaving looms and the limits (and/or possibilities...) of using modern crafts to investigate historical craft practices...

It was originally published in the Textile Forum conference volume Ancient Textiles, Modern Science in 2013.

Article: The Use of Craft Skills in Historical Textile Research

Enjoy!