Mi Contra Fa

Kolrosing

This is one of those "let's try it!" sorts of projects.  Incised decorations filled with contrasting powder were used to decorate the Trossingen lyre. I got a softwood (basswood maybe?) box at the craft store and used knives to cut lines into it.  Then I rubbed cinnamon into the lines.

Findings:

• The Finnish carving knife worked better than the Xacto knife. The Xacto was too fine, at least for what I was doing (fingerpainting with blades).  The lines were so fine they hardly held any cinnamon.
• Hand strength is needed!  The knife wants to follow the wood grain, which is probably not where you want it to go. 
• I tried sketching some ornaments on with pencil and then cutting overtop.  It ended up looking like pencil.
• The cinnamon does highlight the lines, but it's not as dark as it could be. Powdered charcoal is the real thing to use, but you have to use a dust mask with it.  Faolan suggested pulverized instant coffee.  I had some espresso ground coffee that was old and no longer fit to brew, so I tried to powder it down finer.  (Turkish coffee would be fine out of the box.)  Haven't used it yet.

I used motifs from the Overhogdal tapestries because they're simple and geometric. I've been up to my ears in Sigurth legends recently, so I picked all the elements that might plausibly be related to that.  I did adjust the burning hall motif so that it had men inside instead of women, and added Guthrun standing outside.

Graphical elements from Overhogdal tapestry

Top row: Gunnar in the snake pit; Guthrun burns Atli's hall; Brynhild waits atop the mountain.  Bottom row: Andvaranaut, Fafnir and Sigurth

That's it, it was just for fun.

Scouring and combing fleece

Last May, I bought a ram's fleece at MD Sheep and Wool. The fleece's name is Stinky.  Stinky has been sitting in his plastic bag in a closet since then, with a few locks pulled off and spun in the stinky grease to see what it was like.  Then I found out what makes rams smell particularly bad (it's urine) aaaand quickly decided no more of that.

I finally got around to scouring a bit of Stinky.  I haven't done this before, ever, so it was an experiment.

1. I pulled off two 8" or so long hanks of fleece and laid them side by side in a lingerie bag.  I wasn't sure how full I could fill the bag before water wouldn't be able to circulate easily, so I erred on the side of "less full."
2. I should have weighed the fleece but I didn't.
3. I used a styrofoam cooler that the bag fit nicely in.  I put it in the shower and added the hottest tap water until there was enough to submerge the bag.
4. Some websites said to use soap by weight of fleece; Eucalan (the soap I was using) said to go by volume of water.  I guesstimated that I had a gallon or so, but used double the amount called for (2 tsp) on account of Stinky being so stinky.  I added the soap and gently stirred to dissolve without raising bubbles.
5. I sank the fleece into the hot water. A few bubbles were raised but not too many. I put the lid on the cooler and waited 15 min.
6. I lifted the bag out of the water and laid it on the upturned cooler lid, then emptied the cooler.
7. There was still noticeable smell, so I did it again.
8. And again.
9. There was still some smell after three washings, but it's wool, so there's gonna be some smell. I decided to let it dry and see how it had turned out.
10. I folded an old towel around the bag to press out water, then let the wool and bag air-dry.

Two days later, I had an opportunity to look in on it.  It didn't felt!  There was still some odor, but I compared it to a whiff of Stinky still in the bag - it was much, much reduced.  Working with the fleece, it was not noticeable.  Only when I stuck my nose in it.

 

Next - trial of combing techniques.  Last time I tried my combs, I jammed locks down onto the teeth and started from there.  I was told (can't recall by whom?) to instead lightly drag the locks against the teeth, letting them catch bit by bit.  I did this, and then pulled off the tog.  Unfortunately, the "lightly dragging" process had jumbled the lock structure, and I only got most of the tog.  Stinky has distinctive black-red-blonde tog and grey thel, so it was really obvious there were a good number of tog strands still in there.  I combed the thel/tog blend anyway, to get some practice combing.  I seem to leave a lot of waste on the combs - I was picking it up and trying to re-drag it onto the teeth so I could pull a bit more off. Not sure if this is good or bad?

First batch of combed wool. You can see the red streaks of tog all the way to the base of the locks.

Also, combing in low humidity is, um, fun.  Especially the long, hairy tog, that just wants to fan out like a kid rubbing a balloon on her hair.

Next, I separated individual locks, grasped them firmly, and pulled out the tog.  This got much more of the tog out - the thel looked entirely grey.  It did take longer.

Second batch of wool after separating tog and thel, before combing

I also tried jamming some locks down onto the combs, pulling the tog, and then removing the locks to drag them more nicely on the combs. This jumbled some of the fibers and doesn't seem to be the best idea.

I combed the tog and the thel, and saved my waste.  Then I combed the waste!  In the end, I got three slivers (not counting the first one where I left a lot of tog in) and much less waste.  All three had clear tips and roots.  The thel still had some short, dark tog in it, which migrated out to the tip of the sliver, but it was mostly light gray.  The tog looked like an enormous strand of Stinky's hair, very dark at the root, turning red, and then blond at the tip.  The waste, which was a mix of the thel waste and tog waste, was darker on account of the tog, especially towards the tip.  I would expect the fibers are not as well aligned in this one, and it'll be interesting to see if I can feel a difference in how they spin up.

Slivers: Mostly thel at the top; mostly tog lower right; waste wool from both combed together on lower left

Holiday Fun

I did a few projects this winter that were just for fun.

For the Palio races at Twelfth Night, a Thoroughly Authentic Hobby Horse:

I named him "Grani" after Sigurd's horse

The coloring was based on the Bayeux Tapestry.  It's blue linen and white acrylic yarn.  The bridge ornaments are inspired by the finds in Sutton Hoo Mound 17.  They are gelt wrappers that I rubbed down overtop of a Celtic knotwork pin.  The decoration only barely showed, but at least it pretty well erased the American money designs.

Little-known Norman blue-and-yellow coat color

                        I call him "Sutton Horse"

Then, Lochmere's Midwinter's Revel had a Diwali theme and a mandala competition.  All I know about mandalas, I learned on a quick trip to Wikipedia.  Symmetric, intended to represent the structure of the universe.  I briefly got confused and thought Buddism had a Ninefold Path, then said, "Hey, there were nine worlds in Norse mythology!" and then went on from there.

Laying out the mandala with a compass was really fun!  It was kind of too bad that the set screw that held the lead was missing, so eventually I couldn't use it anymore.  I labeled the worlds and the wells with a fine-tipped calligraphy marker, because European charts of the world/cosmos often did that sort of thing, too. (No reference, just my memory of looking at such things.)

And there's a little Midgard Serpent swimming through the seas of Midgard

Here's the documentation:

According to Wikipedia, a mandala is a symbol that represents the universe. I was inspired to represent the Norse concept of the universe, as presented in the Prose and Poetic Eddas.

Norse Cosmology

Yggdrasil, the world tree, has its roots in the wells Mimir, Udur, and Hvergelmir. The serpent or dragon Níðhöggr gnaws at its roots. In its branches are the nine worlds:

• Asgard, home of the great gods

• Vanaheimr, home of the gods conquered by the Aesir

• Alfheimr, home of the elves

• Svartalfaheimr, home of the dark elves or dwarves

• Midgard, home of the humans

• Jotunheimr, home of the giants

• Muspelheimr, land of fire

• Niflheim, land of ice and snow

• Hel, home of the dishonorable dead

Bifrost, the rainbow bridge, connects Asgard and Midgard.

Mandala Construction

Rather than show the Yggdrasil in a natural fashion, it has been rendered in the nested, symmetric fashion of the mandalas. The three wells are contained in a center circle. A row of 'petals' are the roots of Yggdrasil, and Níðhöggr gnaws at them. A green zone with rounded edges represents the branches and leaves of the great ash tree. The worlds are shown in the outer ring, all connected by the rainbow of Bifrost. (Technically, Bifrost only connects Midgard and Asgard, but it was most symmetric to link all the worlds.)

Compass and ruler were used for most of the layout and some of the drawing.

Materials

Copy paper; acrylic paint; 1 mm felt-tip calligraphy pen

Sources

Norse Cosmology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_cosmology

(I used Wikipedia to check my memory on Norse cosmology. I have read the Eddas, but I can't honestly say I referenced them for this.)

Mandala. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala