Study of Colour and Twill on a Rigid Heddle Loom
Jahanarabanu Vivana
The Piece
This piece is a woven colour sampler. I wove this piece to see how Shetland wools look and served as an opportunity to learn how to weave a twill pattern on my rigid heddle loom. This finished sampler now provides a valuable tool that I will use to choose appropriate colour combinations for weaving period fabrics. Table 2 shows a summary of various Viking Textile finds, the colour of their warp and weft along with the dyes that were used to create these colours.
My next project will be to weave a red and yellow diamond twill fabric, on the rigid heddle. This combination was found at Hedeby and the fabric will be used to make a Viking hood
Medieval Techniques
Dying
Each colour in this sampler was achievable in Viking and Persian lands prior to the 10th Century, which is my focus. Table 1 shows what dyes were used to achieve these colours.
Table 1
| Red | Madder (Mckenna, 2001) |
| Yellow | Young fustic and saffron (warm shades) Weld, broom, sawwort, trintanel, and buckthorn (Persian Berries) (for cooler shades) (Priest-Dorman, 2001). |
| Blue | Woad (Bingham, 2001) |
| Green | Combinations of Blue and Yellow Dyes |
| Purple | Lichen (Beatson) and Madder & Iron Mordant (purple red, Mckenna, 2001), shellfish, Cochineal |
Weaving
Rigid heddles were used even before the Medieval era. The British Museum and various others have Ancient and Medieval rigid heddles on display. These heddles were used to make a variety of fabrics and narrow wares. The extant textiles summarized in Table 2 show that twills and colour combinations were common in Viking textiles. There are a variety of textiles held in the Victoria and Albert Textile Study Room showing the use of twills in this area as well.
Table 2
| Site | Date | Width in Inches | Width | Thread Counts (approximate) | Length | Colors found |
| York | 17 warp/cm & 16 weft /cm | Lichen purple | ||||
| London | 15-16 warp/cm, 13-14 weft/cm | Lichen purple (nearly all bands, indigotin (blue from woad?) | ||||
| Elisenhof | 16-24 warp/cm, 9-19 weft/cm | 124 cm | red | |||
| Hedeby | 11-21 warp/cm, 4-12 weft/cm | 118cm, 102 cm | red, yellow | |||
| Dublin | ||||||
| Unkown | 2.379 | 6.1-12 cm | ||||
| Damendorf | 2nd C AD | 105 cm | ||||
| Bermuthsfeld | 7th C AD | 292, 370 cm | ||||
| From Wickelbander. Peter Beatson | http://users.bigpond.net.au/quarfwa/miklagard/Articles/legwrpp4.htm#P4 | |||||
References
Beatson, P. Wickelbander. Retrieved from http://users.bigpond.net.au/quarfwa/miklagard/Articles/legwrpp4.htm#P4.
Bingham, G (Sept. 2001) Woad. Medeival Textiles. Complex Weavers Issue 29.
McKenna, N. (Sept. 2001) Madder Dyeing Medeival Textiles. Complex Weavers Issue 29.
Priest-Droman, C. (Sept. 2001) “A Grass that Grown in Bologna”: Dyeing in Weld. Medieval Textiles. Complex Weavers Issue 29.