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About>Projects
Gallery 3
These were the step-down clothes for HRM Skapti and Asa..
My asignment was to create "10th Century Norse" clothing and
that was it... when pushed for design ideas, TRMs looked me
straight in the face and said "We trust you". Talk about pressure!
Both Asa's apron and Skepti's tunic were cut from a 3.25
yard piece of wool 60" wide. I used rectangular construction
exclusively as there was no other way to get both garments
out of that one piece. The black bands and appliqued animals
are of felted wool and the embroidery is out of perl cotton
and cotton floss. Various other bits and pieces were added
based on examples of embellishments I'd seen from grave finds,
illuminated Tailors Books and just plain desparation.
For research and inspiration, I used various texts on Scandinavian
and Irish bog finds dated from between the 8th and 12th centuries
as well as Irish Manuscripts and Irish and Scandinavian jewelry
from the 10th and 11th century.
The black bands used as the embroidery ground have no documentation
but I needed something substantial to support the applique
and embroidery (the white wool is of fairly loose weave) so
I opted for these contrasting bands. There are similar things
in period but no real evidence in any archeaological finds.
Thanks to my faithful and quick fingred student, Merouda
- who is now one of my apprentices (and not because of this),
we were able to complete both of these garments in about two
months.
The pictures of the royal booties are from boots I made for
Asa in July 2000 when she stepped up as Queen. They are the
felted kind which I describe in detail how to make here.
Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of Skepti wearing his
tunic. My camera batteries decided to die out on me and there
was no chance to get more at the time. At some point, if I
catch him in it and I have my digital camera with me, I'll
take a few shots.
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