Viking mythology and all that goes with it

Yeah, kind of makes you wonder how many of those things are sitting in some box somewhere w/o people knowing what they are, huh? I've been trying to find a detailed pic or pattern of the thing, like the kinds you can get of the Bayeux tapestry, so I can copy it. Like I have nothing better to do... Just want to know if I can do it, sort of...it's a Bates thing. LOL. The yarn is wool and silk, so it must have been commissioned or made by someone with a lot of dough!

:OMG: Hehe me too! I have been looking at those tapestries as well as a few others (like the Oseberg tapestry and the Mammen textiles) to see about copying one of them at least. Yeah, I know, I am crazy...
So far I have not found a book that goes through detail by detail for those tapestries, just for the Bayeux tapestry. Its nice to see that someone else is interested in copying Viking Age tapestries :) I will most likely use the Yggdrasil tree motif for some embroidery that will go onto the apron part of a dress. The other motif I have for it already I took from a runestone carving (from Gotland I think) and drew it out. I have seen that same tree motif used on some old Russian embroidered linens, but instead the tree is in the middle flanked by a "mother goddess" figure and other plant motifs, usually done with red thread. It was probably due to Viking influence, but I really have no idea.
*Bates, good luck with your metalsmithing! Have you made anything cool lately?

p.s. I really need to catch up with this forum since I have been absent for so long....it sucks when you have no internet for a few months :(
But the good news is that I have returned and ready to learn because I always learn something new and interesting on this forum, especially this thread :)
 
Hi! I'm making garb today, so I was thinking about your garb. Did you get it done yet? I lost all your contact info, and I couldn't remember what your AA name was...
 
HAH! I got Runesinger here for a visit. She brought mead... My report from that is that all other meadmakers can drop dead.

Hej Tyra! Thanks for the compliment. I hope that mead I brought to you is a source of many merry times. I'm about to bottle the batch of "Thor's Hammer" mead that has been bubbling for so long.

I am also working on garb. I used the underdress pattern from the Vigdis site, and augmented it to be a 10-panel dress that I have read they found in Iceland. Apparently, the 10-panel dress was so de rigeur that if they didn't have 10 panels in their dress, they sewed extra seams to make it look 10-paneled.

I also got some dark blue wool that is a good equivalent color for a dark woad. I have a pattern already that will work for a more fitted apron dress - Simplicity 5561, View B (just add straps). I'm going more for the Western Viking look - you know - Norway.

At least then if I show up at a Reik Felag event, I won't look like the poor cousin.
 
We don't mind poor cousins...we've even got a few Northumbrians (shipewercked ones, that washed up on our shores. Yes, we like to harrass them).
I feel very Oden today... Having spent the day and evening and half a night playing viking with the Felag at a demo, and managed to get bit in the eyelid by something, I have been unable to open my eye all day. I look like I've been on the loosing end of some great viking battle. Anyhow, no wonder the Old One lost his temper every now and then. I would, too, if I had to put up with this on a regular basis. Someone else I know (and you, Runesinger) recently told me that after he'd had to have suregery on his one eye, and being unable to use his eye for something like six weeks, his whole perception of Oden changed. I wonder how that correlates to others' perception of him, I mean the scalds, for example, who told the stories?
 
Oh, and I think you should use that mead we had with dinner for something special at Yule, Runesinger, since it tastes so much like gögg.

The Elderberry mead? you're right, it does have a glögg taste to it. Maybe with some spices added. I found a large source of fresh elderberries in a hedgerow in east Bellevue, so I'm going to have to make another batch (once they're ripe anyway). Everything it taking longer to ripen this year because of all the cold weather we've been having.

Oh, also I finished the Lillehammer Bunad except for the purse (loslomme) and hat. I wore it to the Friday night Scandinavian mixer. Everyone liked it, and a lot of guys asked me to dance - the bunad makes all the difference. OK, the music isn't heavy metal - mostly heavy hardanger fiddles, but we do have some good musicians here.

I'm very sorry to hear about your eye. I hope it's nothing serious, and it gets better soon. Eye injuries are so worrisome.
 
wasnt sure where I should post this... whatever.

I was working on ways to hang my Mjolnir, it was just a simple ring that came with another necklace but it got bent up and wasnt good enough. I tried using a key ring (way thick, didnt work) then moved onto one of those thicker paperclips and got this....



I like it. :kickass:
 
Hehe, I use those thick paperclips all the time to hold stuff together. A handful of those, a pair of pliers, and a lighter and I can put damn near anything back in working order (Don't forget the duct tape, either!)
 
...and WD40. If it sticks when it is not supposed to, use WD40. If it doesn't stick when it's supposed to, duct tape. Otherwise, give it to my husband. He'll beat it into submission. (Really! Things get scared and start working just by him looking at them...)

That doesn't look much different from some of the hangy-things I saw Mjöllnir on in Sweden, Krigley.
 
Heh, sounds like your husband has the same curse I do... it always works when I touch it. (Which would be great, if I wasn't a repairman trying to figure why it doesn't work :p)
Onto a more relevant rambling.... which Asa or Van would be best suited for helping with artistic matters? I'm remembering why I went to blacksmithing... I'm more of a craftsman then an artist. Hmm, craftsman... bald... mebbe I should call myself Skallabates. :p
 
Hi! I'm making garb today, so I was thinking about your garb. Did you get it done yet? I lost all your contact info, and I couldn't remember what your AA name was...

No, I still have not made that garb yet. I haven't made it to the fabric store yet haha. Well, I did go to one, but it did not have what I wanted. I was also looking at a Finnish style dress from around the same period, so I might use that instead since I am going for an Eastern Viking look anyway. I am still looking for Rus Viking style garb, but only came across men's garb. Although I liked that patern for the apron from the historiska museet, it has less gores in it :)...so I will stick to that probably. Should I send a PM with my contact info?
 
Hej Tyra! Thanks for the compliment. I hope that mead I brought to you is a source of many merry times. I'm about to bottle the batch of "Thor's Hammer" mead that has been bubbling for so long.

I am also working on garb. I used the underdress pattern from the Vigdis site, and augmented it to be a 10-panel dress that I have read they found in Iceland. Apparently, the 10-panel dress was so de rigeur that if they didn't have 10 panels in their dress, they sewed extra seams to make it look 10-paneled.

I also got some dark blue wool that is a good equivalent color for a dark woad. I have a pattern already that will work for a more fitted apron dress - Simplicity 5561, View B (just add straps). I'm going more for the Western Viking look - you know - Norway.

At least then if I show up at a Reik Felag event, I won't look like the poor cousin.

Runesinger, what recipie for mead did you use? I am thinking of making a batch. That elderberry drink sounds good, too bad I am alergic to elderberries, eh I can make it out of local will blackberries instead I suppose...or black currents. I hated that pattern from Vigdis, it was too big and used too much excess fabric that was unnecessary imo. How did it work out for you?
 
No, I still have not made that garb yet. I haven't made it to the fabric store yet haha. Well, I did go to one, but it did not have what I wanted. I was also looking at a Finnish style dress from around the same period, so I might use that instead since I am going for an Eastern Viking look anyway. I am still looking for Rus Viking style garb, but only came across men's garb. Although I liked that patern for the apron from the historiska museet, it has less gores in it :)...so I will stick to that probably. Should I send a PM with my contact info?
Yeah, cuz I don't remember what all you needed...
I don't do a lot of fancy things on my garb. The under dress is pretty much just a wide T-tunic. I'm stick thin anyhow, so I don't need a lot of extra width on the bottom on the under dress. On the apron dress, I usually base the pattern on the width of the top of the apron, sort of. The front part of the apron, for example, is usually two pieces of 3" wide pabric, then one piece of whatever is left of my own width, appx 11". The back then is 11", also. The pieces then stay that width until you hit the hip bone, maybe 6" or so (keep in mind that I am in metric, so I am winging it with that figure...). At that point, I gradually make the pattern wider, so that the piece is as wide as the width of the fabric will allow when I get to the bottom of the piece. That way you end up with a dress that is shaped like a syphen (how the hell do you spell that in English, then?!!).
The thing is, that I don't think they used patterns like we do. You pretty much have to go by the shape of your own body. I am shaped so that my hips are not too much wider than my bust. If you have hips that come out really wide really fast, then you have to "taper" the pieces much faster than I do, maybe even add another gore, in that spot. This all comes with trial and error, and really, the best way to get the ultimate pattern is to make up a mock and then keep the pieces for patterns.

Bates, IMO that's one of those where it depends on what you're making. Generally, the over all god would be Odin, since he is in charge of the mead of inspiration. You may want to consider the alfar, though, since you're doing blacksmithing and all. That is all providing it's to do with metalworking. It's different if you're looking to do some weaving or sewing or whatever...

I've found a new project for you, which you must complete for your wife. I just pulled off a coup and picked up and infinitely large number of hand made coloured glass beads for all of 6 bucks. I re-strung all my old beads while I was stringing the new ones. "Bead spacers" are period, so I picked some of those up,too, because my damn strands keep coming off the brooches. Man, did that ever make a difference! Looks way better and it is so much nicer to wear!!! IMHO, you should make her some of those, Bates. I don't mean bead spacers, like what you get at the craft store (those are things that go between your good beads, sort of), but I don't know what the correct English word is (and the lady at the bead store called them bead spacers on the receipt today) but I mean the Sweidh version, like this: These things consist of a bar with four or five or however many loops running along one length of the bar, and on the opposite side is one loop only. The one loop attaches to your brooches, and the four loops have your strands of beads attached to them. Each strand of beads have one spacer at each end. So, instead of attaching five or so strands of beads to your brooch pin, all you have to attach to it is one damn loop-thingy. If something falls off, you only have to unhook that one loop, and it also prevents the beads from tangling.
The ON ladies used to have many strands on their spacers, I've seen more than eight. I can only get spacers with five loops, so I made up four strands, and left one for the next time I find some other awesome beads (or my husband finds some...). I don't think they'd be difficult to make, but it'd look really fancy!