When I woke up on the Saturday morning and looked at the bright sun and checked the expected temperature for the day from the Met Office, the decision of going to Sutton Hoo and the Textile chat or walking for an hour into Woodbridge and back was a no brainer.
The chance of talking to a couple of ladies knowledgeable in Sutton Hoo textiles clearly was the winner. In fact after I had chatted to them I wondered why I ever thought there was an alternative.
It was about a 10 minute walk to the National Trust property and I decided to have a coffee (and cake) first). Lovely to sit out and look at the area, which to someone who lives in Norfolk seemed quite hilly.
Then on to see the ladies who were sitting in the shade and in authentic dress. One was concentrating on braids and had some very fine yarns on an inkle loom with tablets being used for the formation of the pattern. I have had one evening session with tablet cards and vowed then that they were not for me. I got in a terrible muddle but today making the pattern seemed straightforward if you were skilled. We discussed inkle looms. I had my inclette loom in the MH and was intending to make a pair of light grey and black laces in a very simple pattern. I plan to use 4 ply cotton for the warp and for the weft 6 strand Anchor/DMC embroidery cotton, the sort that comes in many different colours.
This lady was using the equivalent to 1 ply or finer.
Also the tensioning device on her inkle loom looked more efficient than my built in method that I modified. (As you use an inkle loom the warp gets tighter!)the other lady was doing the most intricate embroidery which I understand was hand drawn from motifs on the metal work etc from the burial finds. She had also put together fabrics to show visitors what sort of fabrics had either been found (or the remains had been studied to indicate what the fabrics were ) and she emphasised the importance of the metal pin giving the right environment for preservation over the years. (1)
We then moved onto the use of the braid as the selvedge when setting up a warp weighted loom.
Braid as selvedge, note gold thread
I had been fortunate to be at a Shetland Wool Week when 3 international friends who had got together to write and then publish this book, did talk about it for an evening
I also had a day course in setting up a small section of a warp weighted loom and then weaving on it through the week. More about this and some photos is in my blog post of Sun 11 Nov 2018.
I had thought I might buy a table top warp weighted loom for myself last Christmas but did not factor in enough ‘build time’ to have the loom for playing with at Christmas so instead bought my small Chloe tapestry loom which I am enjoying.
Then, at Sutton Hoo, the next thing I knew a larger scale warp weighted loom arrived, set up with the tablet woven top selvedge and then I could see and understand the demonstration of how this also forms the warp. I had never fully understood this. Lots of chat about textile people we all knew and examples of spinning and natural dyeing. A perfect hour or hour plus for me and what a delight.
I understand some volunteers from the textile group are demonstrating through the summer, unless the weather is inclement, too hot or too cold or wet, as they are outside and the website should indicate when they are demonstrating. In my opinion these 2 ladies were true experts and the quality of their work was superb. It just goes to show that the Anglo Saxon period was not ‘the dark ages’ in terms of textile making. Nothing rustic about the fineness and sheer quality of their textiles produced on simple but very efficient equipment. I came home thinking I might just order that table top warp weighted loom and also have another go at learning braid making using tablets. Such an unexpected treat.
I went back to the MH for lunch and a rest and then did warp up my incklette loom and make a start on the first shoelace.
The following day I realised I had not studied the raised dye plant beds at Sutton Hoo. So today’s focus.
The dye plants, notice the weaving at the bottom of the label
These were extremely well labelled, as a set and individually and despite the near drought conditions some were still thriving. I think besides flax , 16 dye plants were illustrated with, under normal conditions the plants themselves. Those plants involved in dyeing some of the textiles found at Sutton Hoo by the Anglo-Saxons had a special photographic representation on the label of the 2/2 broken diamond woollen twill. This was a nice detail that appealed to me.
A label of an Anglo Saxon Dye plant
Despite it being very hot and leaving my wide brimmed hat in the MH I decided to walk to the area of the burial mounds, including the a royal burial chamber where the remains of ship was found. There is a 17m high viewing chamber but being on my own I was not confident I could get down easily so I opted out until I am there with someone else! A kind tourist, was able to point out to me which was the important royal mound, when he descended. There was a bit of a language barrier but we understood each eventually.
The royal mound, if you enlarge the photo you should see 2 metal triangles, one near an upright this side of the fence , the other at the back of the mound, which indicate the scope of this royal burial mound.
The royal mound
I really appreciated being close by for several days and being able to go into detail of the burial and finds. But of course the story of the actual find and the Pretty’s house and their life story I ignored this time! But I will be back!
Campsite; I stayed at Sutton Hoo Holidays Campsite
Woodbridge, it is a shortish walk away, I calculate I ought to allow 45 mins or an hour each way. N
Also in Woodbridge is the replica ship being reconstructed using traditional methods and tools. Look at ‘The Sutton Hoo Ships Company’ fb page for more details of the project and how to support it.
I investigated the first part of this just between the campsite and Deben, ready for another visit.
