I don't like posting photos of myself on my main, okay?

[sartorialadventure]

Viking dresses by Savelyeva Ekaterina

[petermorwood]

Another visual demonstration that historical clothing wasn’t dingy and monochrome.

All of these colours can be obtained from vegetable dyes, producing different shades depending on what mordant (colour fixative - alum, different metal filings, different vinegars) was used. See here and here for examples.

[willowofthehearth]

BRING THIS FASHION BACK.

[thevagueambition]

Not clothes, but this was a palette developed by the National Museum of Denmark based on paint residue from archaeological finds for the purpose of painting a reconstructed hall.

Apparently, they can tell from the chemical composition that the colours wouldn’t be mixed with black or white to mute them, but be used in their brightest form. Bright yellow and red was achieved with expensive dyes (orpiment and cinnabar) and was thus fashionable. (Source in Danish)

[kalessinsdaughter]

@athingofvikings

[cicadianrhythm]

What is a man? An ecstatic little pile of pigments.

[sartorialadventure]

^reblogging for that comment

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Forever reminder that the ancient world was colorful everywhere, and every attempt to brownwash it in modern fiction is sheer laziness.

[beawitchinglyme]

Who wants to duel?

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

This is the first time in ages where I've thought, "hey, we can twin since I have that outfit," and it's snake fishnet pantyhose, a black bra, and a saber. Of course.

POV: you're too busy looking hot with a sword and I fucking GET you

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

@blueemmisaurus Not weird at all! I made it based off of grave finds. It's the simplest possible way to do turn shoes since they're in one piece each, that piece being shaped kinda like a horseshoe. I just looked for an illustration to show you, and this is basically it.

The only differences are that it is shaped to fit my pointy middle toes better, and I accounted for an ankle toggle, which is not completely necessary, but rolled toggles are a great use for scraps anyway. I also shaped the heel a bit from the inside by cutting out inserts from full-grain cow hide. I used buckskin for the shoes proper, and I generally recommend thin leather because it needs to be flexible to draw closed across the top. Let me know if you have more questions!

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

Wire-weaving 16 gauge v. 24 gauge

I wanted to see what the upper limit is, as far as my body is physically capable. They're both copper, and I wove them on the same dowel, and I used the same amount of stitches per rotation. I had to do every single stitch with my pliers in place of my fingers, which didn't slow me down as much as I would've guessed, but I had to skip my pushups for the day. So, maybe not something I will repeat, unless I get some dead soft aluminum. But I can't deny, it's so lush and expensive-looking.

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

I didn't get any good pics from the actual site, since I never do when I'm having a good time, so this is just the selfie I took to make sure everything was on straight. So, here's the current, and totally confused location-wise, Viking-ish kit. SCA has some looser standards, so if I was reenacting proper, I'd strip a lot of this down, I think, but scadian me is a tacky beast. You like my new pampooties? I made them out of buckskin and they have little rolled toggles on the side.

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

The heartbreak of comb-making

I guess plenty of people break their first comb, but this sucks because the whole thing was done. I didn't push it, kept it simple, just a few tines, and I snapped it putting the hanging hole in it. So, literally the last step! But that's how it goes sometimes. I remember an archaeological find of an unfinished comb, so breaking a comb in progress is a well-established misery, it seems. Maybe I can glue it but I'm sulking for now.

[sca-nerd]

Shirts or skins

Tunics

[electronicgallery]

Museum Asks People To Recreate Paintings At Home, Gets 30 New Impressive Photos

It appears that boredom lies behind the most creative ideas. That's why quarantine has produced some of the most entertaining activities. One of them is the Getty Museum challenge, that so many of you have already seen in our previous article here.

[delphinidin4]

Narcissus taking a selfie is the ACTUAL best.

[simplyclockwork]

These are REALLY cool

[notallfay]

These are art in themselves, in a some of them point out what lockdown was like for us, they’re expressed themselves in a really cool way. But I think these are going to be talked about in the future.

[sufficientlylargen]

@elodieunderglass I see that you are in this series

[elodieunderglass]

No series would be complete without!

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

What about my Judith? Gotta do everything around here

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

I dunno, I think she's had work done tbh

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

You can make a cone hat and they can't even stop you

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

What did I do with my time off? Well, I decided to attempt to copy a silver necklace from a Finnish hoard. I recently learned how to wire weave, and I wanted to see how much continuous rope I could get out of a single piece, and it ended up being 100 inches (2 1/2 meters). So I thought I should make something special out of it. Most projects I could think of would've involved breaking it up into smaller pieces, so I decided to make this necklace in such a way that I wouldn't have to cut it. So, that's deviation #1 from the original piece. I think I would like to go back in and replace some of the embellishments but I like it a lot as-is. It's really impressive in person. It's just steel, though! This viking is definitely on a budget.

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

It's finally getting a little cold in Caer Mear! Time to be a viking again!

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

Viking Wire-weaving for a more Victorian Tailor's Chatelaine

I've been setting aside items to put on a chatelaine for years and until I recently learned wire-weaving, I wasn't able to put it all together in a way that I felt was secure. The big jewel is a massive glass and brass costume brooch that was broken that someone gave to me, and it matches the wire perfectly. So I stitched that onto a big safety pin with wire. The back looks pretty messy but no one needs to know that, shhh.

1. A seam-ripper I bought specifically for this project, 2. A magnifying glass with a slipcover. I brushed it with coffee to mold and color it a bit. Honestly, I kept thinking, what if this magnifying glass sets my clothes on fire somehow like I'm in a Final Destination movie, so the last thing I made for this piece was this slipcover. I think it would have been fine, but it looks nice anyway.

3. A pair of embroidery scissors someone gave me. I've noticed when antique chatelaines have scissors, they have little metal scabbards on the sharp ends, so I will probably go back and do that at some point. But I had metal clips in my stash, so I put one of those on there to keep it from opening up while I wear it.

4. A threader/needle case I bought specifically for this project, 5. A piece of beeswax I put inside a small metal box I've had for decades and never knew what to do with.

6. A detachable thimble. I drilled a hole in an old, thin thimble that I don't like much tbh but it fits me.

There's three more slots left, and I could branch out and make even more if I wanted to later, so the sky's the limit. And it's actually useful! I really love it. Total out of pocket was around 40 USD but I do have a deep bench of random junk tbh.

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

DE GUSTIBUS NON EST DISPUTANDUM

Sometimes you spend weeks making a gown and it ends up looking like a playing card because you decided to add hearts at the last minute. I love those hearts. They combine with the heart buttons to make a neat motif, but it's sooooo a Queen of Hearts gown now. Fuck. I mean, I'm still gonna wear it but I expect some poker double entendres when I do. I wove the yards and yards of trims. The fabrics are all leftovers and freebies that I pieced together, so needless to say they are all cotton/poly. It's covered with beads, pearls, lapis lazuli, ammolites I made into buttons (quartz fossils of Jurassic molluscs), jade, tiger's eye, and glass gems. Basically I just threw whatever the fuck leftovers I had on this thing. It looks better with the right underwear and shoes and stuff but I ain't doing all that right now lol.

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

Bucket List Item Completed: Jocelyn's Wool Ensemble from A Knight's Tale

This ended up being like some kind of blood sacrifice in tribute to my wool allergy. The little doggie things on the back, Jocelyn's heraldry, are clearly sight-hounds.

Although, I couldn't really get her to hold still long enough to totally figure it out. And tbh the original execution looked a little sloppy to me. So, I made mine fat-tailed sheeps. Because I wish I wasn't allergic to them. They're so darn cute.

Speaking of wool allergy: It turns out the wool content can drop to like 20% and still felt up nicely. I boiled the hell out of two bolts of this stuff all PPE'd-up like Walter White and it shrunk up so much that there was barely enough left for the hat. That's probably because the fabric was originally craft felt that was so thin I could see through it. And now it's a proper winter-weight wool, maybe as thick as a quarter inch.

There was so little wool leftover that I had to piece in a couple of places. Which is fine. It gave me the opportunity to insert a pocket.

I found the lining fabric at a thrift store for $14 dollars. Not per yard. That was the whole bolt, and it's this super heavy silk brocade. And since I got it for a song, I decided to commit the sacrilege of wasting this incredible fabric on the lining. I fussy-cut it so that it mirrors from side to side, and front to back. And wasteful uses of my focus and skills like this are why I would never sell this coat, because who else is even gonna notice that kind of mental illness symptom, let alone appreciate it?

Another change I made from the original is the higher level of structure. I'm sure the shoulders make you ask yourself, "How did I get here?" They might be the biggest shoulder pads I've ever made, but I have the daintiest little debutante shoulders and they did not look right earlier in the project. I also reinforced the collar with hat felt and wire.

In conclusion: I'm gonna wear the shit out of this thing. Just as, like, a winter coat. I'm not sure about the hat, even though it's loads of fun to wear, but it's a bit on the papal side for casual wear. But I do have one last mystery that I haven't been able to solve, and it's this: What are these littler circles? One on one sleeve, three on the other. I mean, I put it on there, anyway, but I have no idea what it means.

??

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

It's impossible to not look like a real cool motherfucker in this coat, sorry

[icanmakesomethingoutofthat]

It took me a few times to get it right