A medieval waxed tablet

With much gratitude to the waxed tablet links on Larsdatter.com I conducted some research into making a waxed tablet. There are variations in the number of leaves in the tablets; I chose to use the fewest number, two, because the end result would be less bulky and also easier to construct.

I chose quarter sawn white oak as it is the most similar to European oak commonly used in the period, has pretty grain, and because it is quarter sawn is more stable and less likely to warp.

Different colors were used to mix with the beeswax in extant tablets including black, red, and yellow. I decided on red because I had a large amount of the pigment, thought it would look good, and work well enough when written upon.



The linseed oil and wax finish is a period appropriate finish and looks very good. This was my first time using linseed oil and I was extremely pleased with the result. The oil really brought out the beauty of the wood grain. I am now completely sold on using it in a finish and looking forward to trying it under shellac. Here's what it looks like in full sunlight:



Here is a little photo essay showing my process and progress to date:

Brick Stitch Pattern #20

It's been too long since I made a new pattern! This pattern is my 20th, bringing me 40% of the way to my goal of 50 patterns for the A&S 50 Challenge.

Once again, the source of the pattern is a German religious wall hanging. This one is dated to both 1290/1300 and the mid 14th century. Here is the detail I used:



Since the photo is black and white and I have never seen the original I have to invent the colors. I played with using a different number of colors. Maybe you can get an idea of a way to put them together with other patterns (the way the three colored motifs are stitched together below is a hint)?

Brick stitch cushion

Stymied by my long wait for the yellow thread I ordered to finish my embroidered box project, I decided to start something else. I am getting quite a collection of brick stitched articles, but they are all purses, needle books or needle rolls. They are also all silk and must be cared for carefully. Therefore I am going in a different direction and making something designed for harder use, which is why I chose wool for my thread. It is a cushion designed to be placed on my new bench.

For the pattern I am not copying one specific extant piece, rather I am using elements from various pieces.

Oak bench finished (well, just about)

Here is my new bench in all its glory. It is patterned after numerous 16th century examples of benches. It is made from flatsawn white oak (because I couldn't find quartersawn of sufficient width where I live), fumed with ammonia, shellacked with 3 coats blonde and 3 coats orange shellac. I may put a final coat of varnish, or just wax it, I haven't decided.

The color isn't what my original goal was, but I like it well enough. I didn't think to use linseed oil before shellac, but tried it after on another project and it really made a difference. I think all future projects will have linseed oil before shellac. The shellac went on so smoothly and beautifully, it hardly needed any smoothing when I was done. I enjoyed using the shellac and the easy cleanup, I can see myself using this almost exclusively in the future.

The use of shellac is not period so it is not a true medieval finish, but I will be using this piece in my house and I wanted something that didn't have much upkeep. Also I am a novice woodworker and finisher and every project I plan is to build up my skill set so I can make furniture for my home.

Needle roll from Pattern #8

I'd like to teach another brick stitch class, and to that end am planning on stitching more of the patterns I made. Eventually I would like to have examples of all of them. This little pattern was easy to stitch and the needle roll is small and quick to make.

The finished size is 3 inches long and 2 1/4 inches high. The embroidery took between 5 and 6 hours, with another 2 or 3 hours to weave the cord and sew everything together. Materials were 28 count linen, and single strand Aurora Silk in undyed (white), indigo, and cochineal (purple) dyed by my friend Renee of Solar Colors and a green of a similar silk thread from the store.

As much as I liked making this, I can only have so many needle rolls. Some of the other patterns will be made into purses and other things.

The Treasury of Basel Cathedral

When I go to the used bookstore I try to browse through the art books section just in case they (rarely) have something for me. This book, from an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), contains mostly examples of the amazing metalwork like the object pictured on the cover. There are a few examples of illumination and four fabric covered boxes, shown below. These boxes must have been fairly common in churches, although few survive (to my knowledge).

I love the painting inside the lid, it is tempera on silk. Note also the multicolored fringe on the edge of the lid and the cord that restricts the opening of the box. The box sides are very thin, but the inside support is wood according to the accompanying text. I wish the balls in the lower picture had a close up picture, they are very pretty.



Two tiny boxes to hold the Eucharist. These remind me of another small round box. They also on a wood support, turned wood is my guess. Love the sequins on the box on the left!

Embroidery on pause

I haven't stopped embroidering, I have experienced a delay. I was working on the back panel (Pattern #7) for my embroidered box when I ran out of yellow thread. It is on order but will take weeks to arrive. I was hesitant to start another embroidery project in the meantime since I have so many other things going. Embroidery is still on my mind.

Oak bench, one coat shellac

It was with great anticipation that I started my first shellac finish with the first coat, shown here. I applied as much as possible with a rubber, which I really enjoyed as it laid down a nice smooth thin coat. For the areas not accessible with the rubber I used a soft flat paintbrush. The brushed areas were not as smooth and will require light sanding after the first coat, unlike the areas where I used the rubber. The wood already has a lovely soft sheen after the first coat.t

Some articles I read advised putting a small amount of boiled linseed oil as a first coating before the shellac to bring out the figure of the wood, but I forgot about it until too late. That'll be added to the list of things to try next time.



My shellac mixture was 4 oz denatured alcohol with 2 oz dewaxed blonde shellac flakes. I put them in an old glass jelly jar (I have started saving all empty glass jars, they come in handy for so many things) and gave it about three days to mix, agitating daily. Three days was not a calculated choice, it just worked out to be how long it took for me to have enough free time on a non-rainy day to apply the shellac.

I made the rubber out of cheesecloth (for the inside) and a piece of cotton (for the outside). I keep the rubber in another glass jar to keep it from drying out and getting hard so I can reuse it. I cleaned the brush in denatured alcohol although it is still stiff with residual shellac. However one of the articles I read assures me that once I wet it with shellac again it will be usable (another article suggested using household ammonia to clean shellac out of brushes, but I only have 28% ammonia at home - perhaps I will buy some 5% {household} ammonia and try it). Fortunately I chose a brush for which I had no other use planned.



The shellaced wood is a nice mellow aged color, although not yet as deep as I would like. My plan is to put a few more coats of shellac, experimenting with orange as well as blonde (as soon as the orange shellac I ordered arrives). To compare my results to what I started with, here is a picture I took showing the three stages of wood thus far:



Lessons Learned

1. Mix shellac flakes with denatured (ethyl) alcohol, not 91% isopropyl alcohol. Shellac + isopropyl = goop, even 9% water is apparently too much.

2. Cheesecloth is much better for the inside of the rubber than plain cotton. It holds the right amount of shellac and makes a nice and firm, unwrinkled rubber surface. I tried plain cotton first and was much better satisfied with the cheesecloth. I also read about using flannel or an old athletic sock, but I didn't try those methods.

3. Next time I would like to try putting on the finish before assembly. This piece has a lot of inside corners that were challenging to get an even coat of shellac. It would have been easier to tape the joints and shellac before assembly (I think). Next time I'll try that to compare.

4. Use shellac in a well-ventilated area. I don't have a shop to work in, so when it became too dark to work outside but I was almost finished, I took my work into the kitchen. I neglected to open the windows and ended up setting off the carbon monoxide detector. Now I make sure I can do all the work outside, then bring the piece inside and place it next to an open window.

I have never seen shellac applied in person or spoken about it to anyone. All my research came from the internet. Fine Woodworking.com had a couple really good, helpful articles. I went to their website and searched for "shellac". I also read a nice article by finishing expert Jeff Jewitt. Or read his book, The Complete Illustrated Guide to Finishing.

The following are available on the Fine Woodworking website, but I don't know if you may view them unless you are a member:

"Padding on Shellac" from FW #112
"Versatile Shellac" from FW #166
"Sealing and Coloring with Shellac", FW video (online)

New blog for my non-medieval stuff

I'd really like to keep this blog about the things I do/make that are based on things medieval. Yet I do other stuff and I'd like to post it (and have here a few times in the past). So I decided to make another blog where I will be posting non-medieval arty crafty stuff. I just did a post about an Edwardian inspired costume I finished a few days ago. Thank you to everyone who reads this blog, especially to those who comment!

EDIT: Oops! I forgot to post the link to the new blog! It is Too Many Irons In the Fire.

Ammonia fuming progress

So far my ammonia fuming experiment seems to be a success. I placed my bench in a cardboard box with a glass pie plate that had a few ounces of aqueous ammonia (28% concentration - household ammonia is about 5%) and left it overnight. Now the bench is sitting outside (under shelter, because it is raining) to let off any ammonia fumes.

In the photograph with the bench is a piece of wood leftover from building the bench; it is the same color as the bench was originally. The color of the fumed wood is more gray and duller. It is definitely different from how it looked yesterday.

Next will be a little bit of sanding and then the shellac. This will be my first time making my own shellac. I saw it done once, years ago, and now I am going to try it. I have to wait until it stops raining because I work outside in my backyard (I don't have anyplace indoors to work). Unfortunately it is supposed to rain for the next week so my next update on this project may be a while.

Not a New Year's Resolution

I don't do the whole New Year's resolution thing, but I do like the idea of taking stock and setting goals. Since this will be my first post of the year it will be easy for me to find later when I wonder what my goals were. Here are my current plans and goals for the year ahead:

A&S 50
I have the A&S 50 Challenge to provide some structure and that is a good start. My goal was to chart 50 extant brick stitch patterns. I have 19 completed, almost halfway there. This year I'd like to make more charts and get my new web site up and running.

Wood Working
I am focusing more on woodworking lately as it is finally time to replace the mismatched furniture in my house with furniture made by me. To help me get started in the new year I got rid of a bunch of my furniture, so my house will look empty until I fill it again. Some of the things I'd like to make are inspired by medieval and Renaissance pieces, others are more Arts and Crafts styled. I will start building the second piece next week so we'll see. In conjunction with doing more woodwork I'd like to learn to use more hand tools. I don't know anyone who uses cabinet scrapers, hand saws, or cuts mortises by hand and I'd like to learn those things.

Carving
To further develop my woodworking skill I plan to learn wood carving this year. I feel like I need to take some formal instruction with this because I feel very intimidated, not only by carving but especially by sharpening. I start a class next month and I'll post some of my efforts.

Silkscreen
I plan to try and teach myself silkscreening this year but will probably not post those efforts on this blog since that skill is not medieval at all.

Paper Mache
Yes, there will be more paper mache this year. The Halloween display needs to be more elaborate this year, and I really want to do some sculpture. Actually, I may have to start another blog for all the non-medieval stuff.

Icon Painting
I've not kept up with my iconography but I really miss it and plan to continue with it this year.

And inbetween I plan to tile my front porch and walkway, finish the front landscaping and start tearing out the back yard in preparation for a major renovation. All while working full time and making time to read plenty of books.

How about you? What are you planning for this year?

oak bench put together but unfinished

Finally! On my very last shop day of the year I managed to finish building my white oak bench. All that is left to do is finish it. I doesn't look much different from the first picture I posted, does it? I assure you that in person there is a great difference!!

My goal in making furniture is to make stuff that can take abuse, where dings and scratches are "character" instead of damage. The way we live in my house, furniture needs to be that way. That means I don't want to put a dark finish on it that will show bare wood if it gets a deep scratch. I am considering fuming it with ammonia in the way that some original Arts and Crafts furniture was made. The original Arts and Crafts era crafters fumed with ammonia to create the aged look they so admired in ancient furniture. If it makes the wood dark enough I won't have to stain it at all. First I am going to experiment with some of the scrap pieces left over from making this bench. If I like the results I'll use the process on the bench. If fuming doesn't turn out well then I'll use a more conventional stain, just not too dark. Either way I hope to have the results posted here next month.

I'll be starting on another piece of furniture next month, something for my living room. I've been planning all along to build all new furniture for my living room but only now am I getting started. This month I am giving away virtually all the wood furniture in my living room; I think it will motivate me to work on my long-delayed furniture projects.

LESSONS LEARNED from this project: Make every cut, every step of a project as perfectly as possible. It saves so much time/effort/frustration as you progress. I made many mistakes with the first bench I made that I spent a lot of time fixing towards the end of the process; I didn't do as much of that this time and it was so much better that way!!!

New project with brick stitch

I am trying brick stitch in a different way than my usual - this is wool yarn (2 strands of Paternayan) on 14 count canvas. The color choices are modern, but then so is the project - my boyfriend's Christmas stocking. The stocking will have a variety of stitches, this is the only brick stitch (so far). Since I have a Christmas deadline expect to see the finished product by then. I like this wool embroidery so much I may do a cushion as my next project.

Natural Pigments on sale!!

Right now Natural Pigments is having a sale. Buy one item and get the second item 50% off. Good for stocking up on things used a lot, such as gold leaf. Or get together with a friend and buy items you both want. Enter code b50X2nd. Sale ends on 29 November at midnight Eastern Standard Time.

Pattern #7 and some comment responses

There were some interesting comments on my last post. Here are the comments and my responses:

From Laura Kathleen:
"This pattern definitely caught my eye, as I charted the same motif while charting Russian patterns from towel ends. I wrote about it on my blog here.

I wish I knew enough about the history of the two styles to connect them, though it may just be a coincidence from working with geometric patterns."

Laura Kathleen - yes, your Russian pattern #7 and my German pattern #7 are identical, except for the stitches used. Coincidences abound...

From Elina (and I really enjoy your blog):
"What a lovely pattern, that no 7. I tried looking for the instructions on the blog, but for some odd reason couldn't find it, altough I found patterns #6 and #8. Could you please point me in the right direction?"

Elina - sorry, I haven't posted #7 yet. I'm about to correct that.

From Krista:
"That is interesting - it's like the one in Wymarc, only smaller. Very cute! Doing these in one color is fun, but be prepared for 1) getting sick of the color and 2) having people not notice the embroidery."

Krista - both true statements. As for the pattern being like Wymarc #4, it is true that they are very similar. If you look at lots and lots of these embroideries you'll see the same or similar patterns over and over again. What I like about that is that I feel like I can vary the colors or I could vary the pattern and it would still be plausible for the period. I feel like it gives me some freedom if I should ever wish to make a period plausible pattern instead of trying for reproductions. It also allows some freedom in color choices.

I was holding back on publishing Pattern #7 but I think I might as well post it. It was the most challenging to create so far; it is more complicated than many of the other patterns and the source photo was a challenge as well. I am using this pattern for the front and back panels of my reliquary box (one is shown almost finished in the photo above).

Embroidered reliquary box, fourth panel started

This is the motif from Pattern #7, with only the main color filled in. The fill colors are white and yellow. There are a total of four side panels; the sides are Pattern #2 (seen here and here), the front and back are Pattern #7. Actually, I think it looks interesting as it is and I'd love to see it as a white-on-white embroidery. Someday...

One last picture...

My cartoneria skeletons at night. They looked really good. I'll have to do more for next year...

Almost ready for Halloween

A picture of most of the front:


A detail picture with skeletons in the window in the background:



As shown in these pictures, much of the Halloween decor is in place. I still have the front porch to decorate a bit and lights to put up, but that's it. I think the paper mache is really attractive but doesn't make as much of an impact as I would like considering how much work it was. Oh well, making the crosses last year was also some work. Next year I'll have the fruit of three years of work. It will also look more cool with the lights and fog, with spooky sound for atmosphere. I hope you like it and I'll be back to medieval topics again next week.

Oak bench at rough cut stage

In my last session at the woodworking shop I made this progress. All the pieces for the bench are now roughly cut except for the stabilizing brace not started yet. I love the bandsaw!!

Next up will be making the brace, making the mortise and tenon joints to hold the brace, routing the top, and fine-tuning the fit and shaping the edges of the apron and legs. But most of that will have to wait until woodworking class resumes next month.

cartoneria crown of lillies

In the previous post you can see this crown in the wet newspaper stage. I made it to perch on my head but after I finished it I realized that since it doesn't sit around my head I need a way to hold it in place on my head so it doesn't fall off. It is very firm, not flexible at all, although I could drill into it if needed. Ideas, anyone?

P.S. The pumpkin is approximately head sized so that's how it looks sitting on my head. Cool, as long as I don't move much.