Planning a book about needlebinding

I have for quite some time now been planning to make a book about needlebinding. I have been binding for about 6 years now and I really like the tekstiles that I get out of the little needle. It´s not going to be a very large book - more like a booklet. And since I have startet work in Bork Vikinghabour there has been requests for such a book. So this autum I´m going to devote some of my sparetime to make the text, take the photos and such. 
So at the moment I´m looking for references to both books, articles and finds of needlebinding from Europe and if you have any it would be a great help.
Here in Denmark we have some interested finds.

In the Mammengrave dated in the mittle of the 10th century were found a great chieftain. He had quite spectacular clothing with embroidery, brick weaving and also needlebinding in very thin metal treads.

Both pictures come from the Nationalmuseeum in Copenhagen. Go to their website to see more information about the grave.

From Ribe, which is the oldest town in Denmark, there has been found a mitten made in needlebinding. It is shown in their very good medieval excibition. I took some pictures of it and from the look of it the stitch use for this mitten is probably Oslo or Mammen.

A new workshop for me, and a small birthday present for Louise

A wonderfull thing happened in decempar last year. I got myself a workbench!

I have been doing woodcarving for a couple of years now, and have been making all kinds of small stuff at home. Things like spatulas, spoons and other household items. This is always nice to do, but i have been aching to make something bigger.
I have been looking at old danish and scandinavian furniture for quite a while. Looking for inspiration for all kinds of stuff.
I have also been collecting a lot of tools, like planes, saws, chisels and the like.
... Now I just need some wood, so I can get going on a larger project.

The last couple of months have been dedicated to school and I have not been able to get a lot of Workshop-time. One thing that I found the time to do is this sliding lid box. A birthday-present for Louise.

This box is the first project that I have made using only handtools. And I must say that it was a real joy to do. It is great to experience how much you can actually do on your own, without using machines for the job.

Of course it takes some practice to learn how to use the tools, but that is all part of the joy of working wood.

I made the box from some riven ash, that I had left from when I made the shaving horse. It proved to be very nice wood to work with.

Both the bottom and the lid fits in to a groove in the top and bottom of the box. The corners are joined with glued rabbets and wooden pegs.

The joinery definately could have been more precisely done, but I like the box all the same.

Doing these small projects is a great chance to try out different techniques and think about the process of working. Especially efficiency of wokring is a good thing to think about. When working with hand tools you can end up spending too much time on the different steps of the project. I find that I enjoy working more, when I feel like I am getting somewhere. If things take to long to do, it gets boring. The best thing is when you are working efficiently, without compromising the quality.

Lastly I want to show you my new (old) workbench. A real beauty!

I put some grease on the spindles and after that it worked like a dream.

I dont know how I even got by without this tool in the past. It really is a very versatile tool to have in the workshop.

Pouch purses

I realise that it has been quite a while since my last update. My last post was in may last year... So I quess it's high time that I post something new.

The lack of posts does not mean that I have not been making stuff. I certainly have. Just never got round to putting it online. It's time to do something about that.

The first post is the latest project. Two 15th century pouch purses. A type of purse worn by men and women alike.

The main compartment is a pouch, seperated on the inside into two seperate compartments. It is all joines togeather with stitches sewn from the outside.

The buttons have a wooden core and are wrapped in leather. Same type of leather as the pouch is made from.

The inspiration comes from two different places. A painting of the last supper and of course "Purses in Pieces" by Goubitz.

Hope you like them :-)

... And shame on Google for changeing the system that I used to use for reducing the size of pictures!

A little teaser - the first post in a long time!

Everything have been standing a bit still here at the blog (this goes out to you, Peter!). I got a new job in April being a fulltime viking. A actually that is what it turned out to be - a lot of wonderfull work and not a lot off spare time. Mikkel and Simon have also been buzy. With work, studying, attending new and exciting events but also making diffentent projects. So eventhough we haven´t been writing so much our hands have been buzy. Mikkel and I have among a lot of things been making viking clothes. So this little update is a teaser for more posts to come!

Also we could like to say hi and much velcome to the many new readers here at Haandkraft. It is lovely to see so many people tuning in eventhough we haven´t written for at while.

Scabbard

This week I made a scabbard for Louises new knife. I am quite pleased with the result, but I must admit that I am not very experienced at working with metal. I am getting better at handleing it though.
The only thing that bothers me is all the polishing and filing. I have always thought that my life was too short for sandpaper, but with metal there is no way around it (that I know of).

So rather than telling you how I did this scabbard I will give you a link to a swedish guy who makes scabbards and knifes like this one... Only much much better.
Be sure to have a look at his blog!

I have been looking at his knifes quite a lot, during the makeing of this knife. I especially like this knife, that he made in 2009. (Keep up the great work Frej!)

A knife for Louise

I just finished this knife, that I made for Louise. She will need a knife for her new viking-job, so I made one from another knife that I had.

I have been looking a bit at knifes from the 9th and 10th centuries, and found some nice examples from Sweden, that I really liked. They have wire wrapping around the handle and some were found in womans graves. So I thought that that would be just the thing for Louises new knife.



I used beech wood for the handle and brass for the end plates and wire wrapping.
The blade was made by my good friend Jesper.



The wrapping is made as a "common whipping". A type of knot where you draw the knot itself under the wrapping and cut of the edges.
I am not sure if the wire wrapping on the excavated knifes were done this way, but I wasn't able to find any info on this anywere.
The whipping works just fine and if it is made tight enough it will surely stay in place.



Here is a picture of one of the original knifes. This one is from Gotland. From a female grave (grave 503 at Ihre, Hellvi parish, Gotland). 9-10th C.

I got the picture from this site: Dark age recreation company
There are also some examples of knifes with wire wrapping in the collections of Historiska Museet in Sweden.

Another bone belt buckle.

I just made another bone buckle last night. It is inspired by one made by an english guy (i think) who has made replicated artifacts for various museums. Including some for a museum in Ribe (Here in Denmark). All of very high quality stuff.
You can check out his archive here: Roland's archive (It's all good!)



The buckle I made is inspired by this one.
But it lacks the ornaments on Rolands example. Since I still have to learn how to do that.



Here Is the buckle just after the initial sawing.



And here it is after most of the filing has been done.

I am really starting to enjoy working with bone. So I am definately going to make some more bone stuff in the future.