I was once again tempted by a prompt for the Poeta Atlantiae Competition: to write two poems in different forms that existed before 1600, one each responding to these prompts:
A poem celebrating the journey : One poem must meditate on the experiences and/or lessons learned of a long voyage or time away.
A poem for coming home: One poem must evoke the emotional experience of coming home at last after a long journey.
This spoke deeply to my soul, and so I submitted the posts below, containing text, videos, and documentation, to the competition. It was an illustrious field with many beautiful pieces submitted by outstanding poets, so I was deeply touched to be named the Poeta Atlantiae for this entry.
For this competition, I entered items from a natural dyeing class I took in May 2019, a silversmithing class I took in June 2019, a fingerloop braiding class I took in July 2019, and a lyre I am still trying to complete (as of January 2020). Because these are all either from classes or small/unfinished items, I do not have individual posts for them. However, you can read about my next silversmithing exploits under my Spinner of Fate (Clotho) garb and my next dyeing adventure under the Great 2020 Dyeing Experiment, Part 1.
Battle on the Bay 2019 had an Epona-themed challenge—and as a horse lover, I had to enter something. I was on a huge knotwork kick, and I wanted something soothing, so I combined knotwork, a horse-shoe shape, and the Staffordshire Hoard’s “stylized horse” in this scroll blank. Materials are permanent pen and gouache
In April 2019 I had the pleasure of leading the Shire of Roxbury Mill team at Revenge of the Stitch, a 24-hour sewing competition. After consulting with our model, Ava Deinhardt, we settled on a 12th-century bliaut. I was particularly interested in bliauts, as they’ve been finicky to pin down, and I happen to know Dr. Monica L. Wright, an expert on bliauts, and I wanted to apply her research.
This was the result.
After several requests for our team’s documentation, I am posting it here. You can also download a PDF copy.
In 2019, I decided to make Ottoman Turkish garb for a Near-East-themed Twelfth Night — and won for Best Themed Garb in the Garb Runway Competition! I unfortunately got almost no pictures from the event, but below the cut I have my full documentation, progress photos, and pictures of the finished garb.
I made this bag for Lochmere Midwinters in January 2019 as part of their Pilgrim Bag competition. The picture shows the fabric a much darker blue than it is in real life.
Materials & Techniques
Outside Bag Body
Material: Wool, handwoven on a rigid heddle loom, fulled, and hand-dyed in indigo
Techniques: Handsewn with commercially-dyed wool
Bag Lining
Materials: Linen (commercially woven)
Techniques: Handsewn and felled with cotton thread
Strap
Materials: Commercially-dyed wool in Atlantian colors
Techniques: Inkle-woven and handsewn onto the bag’s back
Tassels
Fluffy fluffy goodness made of wool
Badge
Don’t worry! The badge hasn’t gone missing: this is the bag’s first “pilgrimage,” so it does not have a badge yet! After this event, I will sew a badge (perhaps a Spike?) to the front flap.
Pattern & Construction
Thanks to Mistress Karen Larsdatter’s links pages, I first found the pattern by Sabine Scholl, the pattern by Myriam Gateault, and the translation of Scholl’s pattern by Lord Coblaith Muimnech (Ansteorra). In several manuscript images on these pattern pages, there were blue bags with white tassels and details (Atlantian colors!). I then remembered the wool cloth that I had handwoven, fulled, and dyed in indigo—it would be perfect for this bag! Addendum 2019: I used a small rigid-heddle loom to weave the cloth out of a rough commercial wool; I then fulled wool by putting it in my home’s washer/dryer and forgetting about it!
While I prefer the look of the trapezoidal bag in these patterns and illuminations, I wanted to use every inch of my handwoven/hand-dyed fabric, so I settled on a rectangular bag (but still with tassels, because who doesn’t love tassels?). Because the final construction was simple folding and bag-lining (pun definitely intended), I did not use a pattern; I relied on the dyed fabric’s width and cut the lining to match.
Finally, while straps in illuminations are usually a single color, I wanted to reinforce the Atlantian colors of the bag body, so I patterned the inkle-woven strap with white and multi-toned, asymmetrical blue stripes. I wove a long enough piece to serve as a strap, then sewed it to the back of the bag to create the same visual, from the front, that I saw in the exemplars. Addendum 2019: I used a modern inkle loom to weave the strap. The asymmetrical blue stripes were a necessity, as I had a limited amount of match yarn remnants!
Period Exemplars
Detail from a mural at the Villeneuve church, France (1300-1400), of a pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela. This mural also inspired the colors on my bag, as well as its future badge.
Detail from a mural at the Villeneuve church, France (1300-1400), of a pilgrim to Santiago de Compostela. This mural also inspired the colors on my bag, as well as its future badge.
Detail from Bibliothèque nationale de France MS Français 2810, f. 142v (1400-1420), of pilgrims traveling. The bags worn by these pilgrims inspired the shape of my bag (and its tassels!).
These three exemplars gave me confidence that a blue-and-white square bag with tassels could be possible across multiple centuries.
In 2019, I decided to make Ottoman Turkish garb for a Near-East-themed Twelfth Night — and won for Best Themed Garb in the Garb Runway Competition! I unfortunately got almost no pictures from the event, but below the cut I have my full documentation, progress photos, and pictures of the finished garb.
I made this bag for Lochmere Midwinters in January 2019 as part of their Pilgrim Bag competition. The picture shows the fabric a much darker blue than it is in real life.
