SCA: On Making Glass Beads and New Viking Jewelry

At the beginning of March I posted about making my own glass beads at home (here).  I'm still going strong, and I'm getting better with every batch I make.  It's SO much fun, and although it's pretty fast, it takes a lot of focus to get them right. 

My work table, all set up and ready to go

Right now I'm making about 7-10 beads per session, about 2 sessions per week.  Most of the beads I've made have been in shades of blue and green, although I recently picked up some white and yellow to throw into the mix and to use to make dots and stripes on my beads.  So far I've mostly been focusing on perfecting my round and oval-shaped beads, and learning to control the glass enough to make some larger ones; my next phase I think will be getting better at making dots and stripes and other patterns.  

A selection of beads I've made at home

All of this, of course, has been for the purpose of re-making my "festoon" for my 10th-century Viking kit.  Until now, the strands of beads I hang between my brooches have been made of store-bought beads - mostly glass and acrylic, in blue and amber tones.  I liked the color arrangement of my most recent iteration of the necklaces, but the beads were too perfect and modern looking; and to be honest, the more I look at the grave finds, the more this necklace just looks plastic and garish to me: 

My most recent set of necklaces, in modern store-bought beads

It's an SCA-ism, I suppose, that the more huge and ostentatious you can make your Viking jewelry, the better.  The reality is that (based on grave finds) most of these bead necklaces ranged from 18-20 beads per person, and that the beads themselves ranged from 10-16mm each.  We have no idea how exactly women wore these bead strands - whether they were worn as a single strand or multiple strands, how many beads per strand, etc., because only the loose beads have been found - whatever material the beads were strung on has disintegrated with time.  Found beads are usually glass, although some of amber, jet, quartz crystal, and carnelian have been found as well.  These were understated jewelry pieces by SCA standards - not 30 pounds of rocks and glass to impress your friends.

My first  "festoon" necklace set with about 95% homemade beads

Here's what my new set looks like for the time being.  Beads are small-medium sized, with a couple of larger ones in the center of each strand, in shades of blue and green and yellow.  (There are also 4 glass beads that I didn't make included here as well, because I loved them and wanted to re-use them).  It's simpler and plainer; and the beads themselves are more in line with what I've seen from grave finds in color and shape and size.  

A couple of smaller points, because people have asked:  

This necklace is strung on #10 cotton crochet thread.  I forgot to wax it this time for strength, so we'll see how it holds up. (The last set did just fine). 

I have three raven pendants that I hang from my beads. Two of them are historical representations based on actual finds; the third is a modern pendant I received for my birthday many years ago. The use of metal pendants may or may not be period (it's probably not); but I love my ravens.  

I no longer incorporate metal beads into my design, now that I have enough glass beads to make up the entire piece.  I read somewhere that metal beads have been found in graves/a grave, but I can't find the source anymore, and I've also read that metal beads were NOT a thing, so for the time being I'm not including them unless I can find something definitive one way or the other.   

 

Glass bead on an iron mandrel, Gotland (photo from 

Gotland Visby Museum; via text and trowel) 

So, what's next? More beads! This is my first set of necklaces; I fully intend to keep going, to get better and learn how to do more patterns and styles.  I would like to make a better set of necklaces for myself, and I'd also like to make enough beads that I can start giving them away as presents and largesse.  

I want to write for pages and pages on Viking-age bead finds, and maybe I will someday (maybe I'll turn all this into an A&S project and write a huge paper one day), but for now, here are some of my favorite online places to go to read about Viking-age beads: 

• Dr. Matthew Delvaux's FANTASTIC blog about Viking-age glass beads and trade routes, called "text and trowel": https://textandtrowel.wordpress.com/ 
• A Wandering Elf's Viking bead research blog posts: http://awanderingelf.weebly.com/blog-my-journey/category/viking-bead-research 
• Viking Age Beads, by Elin Hreitharsdottir https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273133694_Viking_age_beads_from_Iceland 
• Perler fra vikingtiden (Beads of the Viking Age) by Megan Hickey https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/8571/1/Megan%20Hickey%20MA%20Final%20Dissertation%202014.pdf

SCA: Camp Furniture Makeover

 So, this folding camp chair was pretty cool.  I bought  a regular old nylon camp chair at Walmart in 2019, removed the nylon covers, spray-painted the frame and the tray, and replaced the covers with pretty fabric, to make it look a little less modern and make it blend in with the wooden camp furniture a little better. Brown spray paint isn't going to fool anyone; but when you place the chair amongst all the wooden furniture, it at least looks a little less plastic-y.  

However, in March, the stitching on one corner of the back piece on this chair gave out and nearly dropped me on the ground at an event - I ended up shoring it up with safety pins in order to keep using it.  

Time for a new cover!  This time it's made from some dark green cotton damask upholstery fabric I had in my stash: 

(the back is the same as the seat and arms; the light is just making it look weird)

Hopefully this will hold me at least another four years.  Maybe by then I'll have built myself a wooden folding chair.  HA!  Yeah, right.  

SCA: 3 Things: Random Viking Kit Stuff

This is such a small thing, but it's a huge accomplishment for me!  I've been learning how to inkle weave...very...slowly...and without much forward progress.  I assumed my work was wonky because I was new, but that I would get the hang of it and it would stop being bumpy and fuzzy with practice.  I was using scrap yarn for this, which is...bumpy and fuzzy.  A weaving friend of mine told me it was likely the yarn's fault, and not mine - so I decided to try it with a new material. 

This time, I used #10 cotton crochet thread, and it came out MUCH more evenly and smoothly, thank goodness!  I made a pair of short (about 1y each), thin (3/8") garters to wrap around my winingas when I dress as a male Viking, to mimic some pictures I've seen online from some of the European reenactment groups.  I really liked the look, and since my raven clasps broke, I had nothing to secure my winingas with.  (Actually, the red garters are purely decorative, since I tuck my winingas in at the bottom).  (Also, I don’t know how period the whole winingas-and-garters thing is. I’ve seen this done as part of the Finnish Iron Age dress recreation (the “Eura dress,” 6-7th century), but I don’t know  if the style carried over into say, Sweden or Denmark, or for how long a time period that style was worn). 

*

After the little raven clasps from my winingas broke (the hook snapped off of one), I made the broken one into a piece of jewelry - it's now a pendant for my Viking "festoon" necklaces: 

Now I have three raven pendants for my necklaces: this one, a brass Rus Borre style raven; a silver Rus-style pewter raven that I got as a site token from Candlemas; and a modern silver stylized raven pendant that my BFF got me for my birthday many years ago.  All the ravens! (I also have a pretty nifty knotwork raven tattoo, but sadly it doesn't show with all my garb on.  Oh, well).  Anyway, the clasp on this is totally modern, but I use them on all my raven pendants, and they don't really show because they're hidden between beads.  

*

Also, I dyed my male Viking tunic with some leftover dark green RIT dye, because the colors were grossing me out. The greige and blue look was nice, but I just look awful in beiges and warm grays.  So now the tunic (and outfit) is green and dark blue, and I like it much better. 

More soon! 

Regency: A Picnic!

 Over the weekend I went to my very first JASNA event: their annual Box Hill Picnic, in Buda, Texas. I have to admit, I was very apprehensive about going - I'm not exactly a "social butterfly", and new people, and groups of people I don't know, and doing new things, intimidate me something fierce.  

The picnic was lovely, though. It was a smallish group; I met a handful of really awesome ladies and gentlemen who were happy to entertain a newcomer.  We all played a quiz game designed to get us talking to each other (mostly Emma trivia, and I was thankful I'd just read it again recently), ate a nice lunch with wonderful desserts, and took a walk around the park together to admire the local wildflowers.  

I think I'll definitely go back to more JASNA events - now I know there ARE lots of events, even though it's been hard to find info online. There's a Meetup group and a book club, there are English Country Dance classes every now and then, dinners and lectures and all sorts of nifty things to do.  

Here's me and my friend, Star, out at the picnic with our little paper name tags, hehe: 

I wore my white dotted/striped gown, with my blue linen open robe and green linen hat, along with my coral-and-mother-of-pearl jewelry and a Lover's Eye on a gold chain that I made.  Thankfully, I wasn't the only one "in costume" - several other ladies showed up in Regency finery, including one woman dressed all in black mourning, which was pretty cool.  

Hooray, I got out and tried a new thing, and it was wonderful!  I can't wait to go again.  Before the next "costumes welcome" event, I have a new Spencer to make...more on that later.  

Regency: Lavender Striped Drop-Front Dress

I LOVE striped Regency dresses. I keep thinking about making one, but I had no fabric to use …but wait, I thought - don’t I have a lavender striped cotton duvet cover in storage not being used for anything? 

I’d seen people use duvet covers and sheets for regency dresses before (I've even made a dress out of a pair of curtains myself); but I was worried it wouldn’t be enough fabric, but it turned out, the duvet cover was exactly enough for what I needed. (And to tell you how old this thing is, I got it at Linens N Things - remember them? It’s old but it’s in great shape).  

I used my Reconstructing History pattern for this dress, because I wanted the flat front and bib to show off the stripes. I was leery about using the pattern again, as the first time through was a nightmare - but when I made it before, I knew exactly squat about the construction and fitting of Regency dresses, and now I have more experience and a much better idea of what I'm doing now, and this went together really easily. 

 

I drafted new sleeves for the dress, since I wanted a straight long sleeve, and the pattern only had a short sleeve or a double sleeve option. (The double sleeves are neat, but I have broad, square shoulders, and puffy shoulders make me look like a linebacker, so I wanted a more streamlined silhouette there). I measured all the sleeve pieces from the pattern and then drew out my own sleeves based on that, adjusting the fit a bit for slightly-larger-than-usual upper arms. I also added a thin wrist band with a hook on it to close the sleeve around the wrist: 

I started this project and got about halfway through it when I realized I was going to have to make a new corset to go with it.  You can read about that in my previous post here.  

*

But wait, you say, isn't lavender/purple a mourning color?  Yes and no. From what I've read, in full mourning (the period right after a person's death) one would wear black or as near to it as was feasible (gray, dark gray, black accessories if you didn't have/couldn't afford a new black dress, etc.).  In half-mourning (the later half of the mourning period, designed to transition you away from all-black and back into more cheerful colors), softer, muted colors like gray and lavender and purple became acceptable.  You could always wear purple any time you wanted, of course - it wasn't strictly reserved for half-mourning.  The folks in the Regency weren't nearly as strict about these things as the Victorians were.  

That said, if I wanted this dress to be a half-mourning outfit, I could always accessorize it with my black crocheted mitts and a sheer black shawl: 

I love my new dress, and I plan to wear it this weekend: the local JASNA is having their annual Box Hill Picnic near Austin, and so I’m grabbing a couple of Regency-friendly friends and we’re headed down!  I’ve never been to a JASNA or Regency-themed event before - I did check to make sure costumes are allowed, and was told that yes, some people wear Regency attire to the picnic. Now I just have to figure out what to bring to eat for lunch. And what to do with my hair! And - where the heck are my white gloves?? 

SCA: Glass Beads

 Before the pandemic, I got the awesome opportunity to learn to make glass beads with FIRE.  It's called lampworking or torchworking - it's where you melt glass rods over a very hot flame, and wrap the molten glass around a steel rod called a mandrel to form a glass bead.  It's utterly fascinating, and SO much fun - and it's historically accurate! Not only did the Vikings make beads in this way, but many other ancient cultures did as well.  

I was immediately hooked, and set about slowly amassing the supplies to set up a glass-working shop in my own garage.  In February of this year, I was afforded another opportunity to make glass beads in the same friend's workshop; and I finished collecting the supplies I needed to make beads at home.  Although it was simple enough at first, the learning curve was huge, and I'm in the process of making a LOT of beginner mistakes at the moment. 

That said, I'm coming along pretty well, I think.  I'm working on making my beads and smooth and round as possible, and beginning to work on creating enough beads to thoroughly re-work my Viking "festoon"bead strands.  I'm not nearly there yet, but I'm having a LOT of fun doing it.  

Here's a sampling of some of the beads I've made.  Most are tiny, some are messed up, but all of them have been a really awesome learning experience:  

Regency-Adjacent: New Jewelry Box Just For Fun

Here's a little wooden jewelry box I just finished making, to house my Regency jewelry: 

It started life as a little $9 blank box from Michael's.  I stained it (Minxwax's "Special Walnut" and "Dark Walnut"), and then painted the insides, and painted the little vine/leaf design on the top and drawer front with gold leafing paint. 

The lid is clear (plexiglass), and shows all the little square compartments inside, so you can show off your nice pieces and the inside of the box, so I wanted a color that would pop against the golds and blues and corals of my jewelry.  

This, by the way, has no basis whatsoever in actual history - I've seen exactly *one* Regency-era jewelry box to date (it was green on the inside), but other than that, I have no idea how a real Regency-era jewelry box would have looked.  From what I know about furniture and accessories in the Regency, natural wood tones were a thing, as well as hand-painted details, so I went with that...but I have no research to point to for this project, I just wanted to make something pretty.   

Regency: Mitts!

Mitts are neat.  After making the crocheted fingerless gloves last week, I decided I needed some longer, fabric ones.  You see them a lot in 18th and early 19th century costumes; they show up again later at various points in the Victorian ages, and are popular even now as crocheted and knitted "wrist warmers."  I’ve seen several Regency sets around the internet on museum site and on other blogs, and Fanny Dashwood wears black mitts to the wedding with her gorgeous half-mourning lavender outfit in Sense & Sensibility: 

Here are some extant mitts I found on various museum websites: 

Blue leather mitts, late 18th century or early 19th, Boston MFA

Embroidered/bejeweled mitts, early 19th century, MMOA

The first pair I made are a little wonky. I used the remainder of the green embroidered (polyester) taffeta fabric that I used for my green reticule. The fabric is very stiff, so they don’t conform well to my hands (even though they were cut on the bias), and the edges stand out a bit. I made these entirely by hand the other day when my power was out due to the ice storms: 

My second pair is made of cotton voile, very light and sheer, and they hug my hand very well. They were also cut on the bias, and this time I made them as tight as I dared. I made these a little longer, and re-shaped the hand and elbows a bit to correct those protruding edges. I sewed these on the machine with little tiny French seams, because of the way this fabric frays; and finished them by hand. I love the sheerness of the fabric here; I’m always secretly pleased when you can see my tattoos through my frilly white Regency things, hehe. 

You’ll notice I didn’t put any actual thumbs into this pattern  I admit to being a little afraid of them. Working with such tiny pieces and tight spaces is hard for my hands, and to be honest, I’m okay with just thumb holes. 

Because it cracks me up, I’d like to show you the paper pattern I made for these once I had them fitted properly: 

Don’t worry, there are no Cowboys fans in this house,  or even any football fans. I bought this paper as a gag to wrap a birthday gift in for a friend who hates the Cowboys, many years ago, and as I am currently out of pattern paper, well, you see what happened.  Wrapping paper is *horrible* for patterning, as it rips very easily and wants to curl, but you gotta make do where you can sometimes.