Tablet weaving and other nice things

It has been a long time since my last post. I can’t say that I am short of time quite the opposite. Like many people during this pandemic, I spend most of my time at home and meet few people in real life. Thanks to Zoom and Google meet I am not isolated altogether. So I have a lot of time to spend on my website, but the inspiration has just not been there. Fortunately, I have my crafting, what should I do without it. Sometimes it seems like things will never go back to normal, but with successful vaccination, there are hopes of a better next summer.

During the winter I have worked with silversmithing and I have even had a few orders, among them a pair of engagement rings. Very satisfying job, where the couple had its say to every step of the process. Also nervous, as it is such an honour to get such an important task.

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But my biggest mission this winter and spring has been the Merovingian project. It started with my son asking me to make period costumes for him and his girlfriend, from the Merovingian period in northern Europe, which is 500-700 AD approximately. If you want to read more about it from start to finish take a look at the page “Tablet weaving” on this website. Anyhow, I had to learn about this ancient craft, one of my most challenging projects ever. After multiple mistakes, it has become almost an obsession. I have not only learnt a lot of living, crafts and clothing of this period, you come close to the individuals when you struggle with the same methods and equipment as they used. To make tablet woven bands you use square-shaped tablets with four holes, threads and some kind of loom. Through turning the tablets forward or backwards and passing the shuttle through the weft patterns are woven. It can look like this:

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Tablet woven bands were an important part of Merovingian clothes.

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So far it has been a cold spring, but sunny days I have walked along my beloved neighbourhood lake “Malaren”, and brought home bare twigs to put in a vase with water. Always exciting to see what it is when the leaves develop, in this case hazel.

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I have written before about the garden of “Vinterviken”, an organic garden run by volunteers. It has a restaurant and a craft shop. I have been a guest maker before, but this season I am invited to be part of the team that runs the shop. It is such a joy to be part of this enthusiastic and committed group of people, and I have the opportunity to show my jewellery in the shop. The shop is open all weekends from May to September. The shop is full of beautiful crafts all made by members of the group. Apart from a selection of jewellery I have a few woven bands in the shop.

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Another recent nice thing was buying new gemstones for my workshop. I have a wonderful supplier in Stockholm, a small shop called “Geo Art”, packed with gemstones and fossils. This what I bought:

Aren’t those stones a piece of art in itself!