Figure 1: Entire band, with bad glint coming off the gold brocade and silver hooks in the back
It ended up coming together really quickly today. I finished the brocading with maybe 4" of broad plate left - there's about 7" of brocade in all. Then I wove a long piece of plain band. The width was pretty uncontrolled because I was so thrilled at being able to go quickly, I just blasted ahead. Also, knowing that the band will be covered by my veil, I wasn't so motivated to be persnickity.
Since agates are used to burnish gold leaf, and I have some agate cabochons, I used the flat back of a big (2" long) stone to hold sections of the braid and flattened the brocade with a smaller stone. I also trimmed the brocading weft where pieces entered and exited the work.
Figure 2: Large close-up of brocade, with flash blocked by thin white paper. It looks bad under strong light, but looks quite nice under normal room lighting.
The reverse was very prickly and scratchy, even after it was flattened, so I cut a strip of white linen to cover the it. I meant for it to be a sort of a stand-alone felled seam, and it mostly is - just not as even as it could be. I was worried that the corners where the fabric was folded many times would press "hot spots" against my head but so far, no problem.
Figure 3: Folded linen on reverse, sewn down with the same 60/2 burgundy silk that makes the band, so that it is invisible on the top. The longish stitches going across the band only sew a folded edge of linen to linen, and do not go through the band.
I tied it on snugly, then used to center of the knot to position my two silver hooks. (I did have to open one of the hooks with pliers, just a little - they're meant to be used with a smaller gauge loop, I guess.) I used the attachment rings on the hooks like tiny annular brooches to pin them on and check fit. I fit it on bare head but over hair. I think that'll work with most of my veil configurations, or it will with a little adjustment.
The band I've based this one on was found with small gold rings at either end. Given my thoughts about "eh, you can't see the unbrocaded band anyway," I wonder if - there was no more band? This find was a long strip, about 10" if I remember right, so plenty long to go across a forehead and disappear under a veil. After that - who cares? Save the silk! (If it was silk; a brownish thread survives but is too brittle to analyze.) Maybe a cord was tied from ring to ring? Or two cords, tied to each ring and then secured behind the head?
Also, the well-folded (to finish the edges) linen reminded me of Arnegunde's "padded cuffs." And aren't there some Viking finds (Birka?) with padded bracelets of some kind? I wonder if this padding was a similar protective backing?
All told - I am very very pleased with my new fillet. I've been wanting to make one for literally years. It's not perfect, but it looks very spiffy, and it reflects the light fantastically. Woooo!
ADDENDUM: This picture of the Cologne princess fillet reconstruction shows the hook offset and... more than that isn't clear. I seem to recall reading that the fillet fastened with "a pair of silver hooks" - I just assumed they'd be in the center-back. (Ah, it was in Crowfoot and Hawkes, p. 79: "and the fillet seems to have been fixed at the back of the head by means of silver-wire hooks.") I wonder how they came up with that reconstruction? Maybe the brocade indicates the narrowing band, so overlapping it made sense? I'll see what my exhibit catalogue says, if anything. I seem to recall that Crowfoot and Hawkes had more detail on that piece!
(And there seems to be room for either differing opinion, or else error: this book has the fillet fastening with the gold-and-garnet almandine pin in the front, which seems very unlikely.)
BONUS: This thesis appendix contains information on the textiles found with the Cologne 'princess.' One is described as a 12 cm x 12 cm piece "probably of silk, of a half-basket weave, turning into a twill-like weave; the spin analysis revealed that it was probably of unspun silk, the count of threads was 18/20 x2 threads per cm." (32). Sort of like my linen!
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