“Small Encyclopedia of 12th Century Textile Info”
“I have been wondering about what sort of silk to use myself. I spent some time going through my textile books last night, and although I have some black charmeuse that I wanted to make a bliaut out of, I have come to the conclusion that most likely this is not a period weave. I have 3 books that show examples of extant silk, and I would characterize the threads in the weave as much closer to the size of raw silk, or slightly smaller. I just made a wedding ensemble out of charmeuse and china silk. Those threads are cobweb thin, made by machine. The Museum of London book shows an early 13th century piece of silk, which is much in texture like our current cotton gauze.
“So this thinking is very preliminary, but I feel I am headed down the correct trail. What I propose is that our group engage in creating a small encyclopedia of 12th century textile info, and then go about finding modern equivalents if we can. I am willing to scan the examples of the extant silks in my books to the files page. I found I had a lot of info from my work on 16th century German fabrics.
“First of all, I would like feedback from the group – are you interested? (Bet you might be…) Second of all, this could take a bit of work, but not so much if we collaborate – so I would like to know what sources you might have available in your own library. Thirdly, when we are said and done, I’d like to compile this information into a paper stored on the group files page that might make a useful handout or documentation for those interested in using it. Fourthly, everyone participating would be listed as a contributor. Fifthly, I’d like to do this in a scholarly manner, so sources would need to be quoted. Sixthly, I think this would be a nice way to introduce folks who would like to know more about how to research to the book game. They could watch the work in progress and see how to do it (and not to do it too).
“After all of that, I am ready to start with an opening volley of terms if I get a thumbs up…”
~ Katrine de Saint Brieuc / Katherine Barich
Message #269 – October 8, 2002
“This is a great idea. I would like to help. The only sources I have right now is the book Textiles and Clothing, and a few museum textile catalogs (Chicago Art Institute and Philadelpha Art Museum IIRC.) I’ll double check this evening for how far back they go.
“Another good reason use for this is – I work near Fashion Fabrics Club’s retail store and they have said they are willing to look for more period fabrics if we can find documentation.
“Just a note to folks who might be doing some scanning. For use on the web stuff only has to be scanned at 72 dpi (dots per inch) but if it is going to be printed it needs to be at 300 dpi to get the kind of details we’ll need for this paper. Also try to make a note of what
scale the original photo is at.”
~ Slaine / Mary M. Haselbauer
Message #276, October 8, 2002