Fiber Festival Fosters Artistic Collaboration
by Alethea Kenney
Anne Ramey (in her Norse dress with beaded festoon) and her husband Ray Ramey dressed as their SCA personas Jehanette de Provins and Refkell Melrakki Einarsson.
The Fosston Fiber Festival 2015 featured instructors on various fiber art techniques, including Anne Ramey, the instructor who taught netting. While at the festival, Anne met one of the vendors, Julie Hart, a lampwork artist from Indiana who had her handmade glass beads for sale. Anne is involved in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Through her research for the SCA, Anne knew that Viking period dress included glass beads used as a festoon (up to several strands of glass beads, small tools and other embellishments that hung between brooches worn on the shoulders of a woman’s dress). Working with Julie, Anne was able to recreate an accurate dress with festoon to wear at a Crown Tournament event with the SCA. This meticulously handcrafted dress, including beads, will be on display at the Fosston Fiber Festival October 1-2, 2016.
Below is an interview with Anne about her involvement with the SCA and the dress and costumes she makes and an interview with Julie Hart about bead making in Viking times and how this differs from the modern methods.
Kenney: “Is there a particular time period or place where this outfit would have been common?”
Ramey: “My Husband's persona is 10th century Norse, but given that I don't do Viking very often, I aimed for early Norse and think I did pretty well.”
Kenney: “What other materials would have been used to make this outfit and do you stay true to the original? If not, where do you make changes and why?”
Ramey: “The clothing likely would have been wool, the weaving almost definitely would have been wool. Given my wool allergies, I opted for neither. The apron dress is a linen (which is an appropriate historical substitute), and the weaving was done with a wool-look acrylic. In the underdress, I could not find a white linen heavy enough to give the real heraldic *white* punch I was going for, so I went with a cotton. Given the purpose of the garment, the heraldic blue and white colors were very important for this particular garment. The embroidery for the seam treatments is a historically appropriate stitch, but was done in cotton instead of wool. This gave a similar look without allergy issues.”
Kenney: “Can you give a brief explanation of the SCA and the Crown Tournament event?”
Ramey: “The SCA is an educational recreation society where we work on recreating the period from 600-1600, mostly focusing on Europe, but there are folks who have focus elsewhere. I say recreation rather than re-enactment because we don't seek to re-enact exact battles as they were or act as specific known historical people. Instead, we focus on learning about the time period and recreate in the spirit and flavor of the best of the time (leaving out things like the plague and other undesirables). Many people focus their study on a particular time and place and create a persona from there. That is who they are in the society. This isn't an actual known historical person, but someone who could have lived in that time and place. I, for example, am Jehanette de Provins, a late 14th century French lady. My Husband is Refkell Melrakki Einarsson, a 10th century Norseman. We each try and play to our persona most of the time, though I will, occasionally play Norse to match him. I did this Norse outfit for the Crown Tournament in the spring, since we were fighting under his coat of arms. Crown Tournament is how each Kingdom within the SCA (we live in Northshield), determines it's next King and Queen. Each King and Queen reign for 6 months. Crown Tournament is a Tournament of Armored Combat (think knights in armor), which is one of the sports you can participate in in the SCA. Since the tourney has such an important purpose, there is often much pomp and circumstance. For more information about the SCA, you can check out www.sca.org.”
Kenney: “Thank you Anne.”
Julie Hart:
Kenney: “What is the modern method for heating glass to make beads?”
Hart: “I use a small propane oxygen gas mix torch to heat glass rods to 1700F. Once the bead is finished, it is annealed in a digitally controlled kiln to hold the bead at a specific temperature and cool it slowly to prevent cracking and breaking of the glass. Glass melts at 1300F but even at 1020F, a bead will start to melt a bit and lose its shape.”
Kenney: “How does this differ from the way Vikings would have made beads?”
Hart: “Vikings had to use a wood fire built in an oven, with bellows used to bring more oxygen to create a hotter fire. Although the glass I use now is the same as the glass used then (soda ash, lime and silica), the Vikings, through trade, got much of their glass from square mosaic tiles made in Italy, called tesserae. Now, I use glass rods made specifically for lampworking.”
Kenney: “How do you get the colors in the glass? How would the Vikings have used this?”
Hart: “Different colors are produced by different metals, such as copper, silver, gold. One technique for producing decorations on a bead is done now just like the Vikings would have. I wrap the bead in gold or silver foil, encase it in clear glass and then put it back into the flame. This keeps the heat from burning the foil off the bead.
“For the beads in Anne’s festoon, I researched Viking glass beads found at archeological sites. I made reproductions using colors and decorative techniques that the Vikings would have used. Some examples are dots on dots, raking (dragging hot glass around the bead using a metal pick) and using twisted stringers.”
Kenney: “Thank you Julie.”
Anne Ramey has been a member of the SCA for about 16 years and takes much pleasure in the Arts & Sciences part of the SCA world. She creates all her garb (clothing) and strives for a good amount of historical accuracy. She enjoys the research part of this as well as doing the costuming, weaving, braiding, embroidery and netting. Because there is always so much going on in the SCA, she is able to learn something new from others. For the last number of years, she has also counted herself among the "enablers" who have been fostering others to learn new arts and grow in the society.
Julie Hart is a lampwork bead artist who has been working with glass since 2005. She uses a wide range of techniques that she has honed through classes with several noted outstanding artists.
Anne Ramey will be teaching a beginning inkle weaving workshop on Saturday, October 1 and a beginning netting workshop Sunday October 2. Julie Hart will be a vendor at the Fosston Fiber Festival again this year. For more information about the festival or the artists and instructors, see fosstonfiberfestival.com or 218-657-2502.
Below is an interview with Anne about her involvement with the SCA and the dress and costumes she makes and an interview with Julie Hart about bead making in Viking times and how this differs from the modern methods.
Kenney: “Is there a particular time period or place where this outfit would have been common?”
Ramey: “My Husband's persona is 10th century Norse, but given that I don't do Viking very often, I aimed for early Norse and think I did pretty well.”
Kenney: “What other materials would have been used to make this outfit and do you stay true to the original? If not, where do you make changes and why?”
Ramey: “The clothing likely would have been wool, the weaving almost definitely would have been wool. Given my wool allergies, I opted for neither. The apron dress is a linen (which is an appropriate historical substitute), and the weaving was done with a wool-look acrylic. In the underdress, I could not find a white linen heavy enough to give the real heraldic *white* punch I was going for, so I went with a cotton. Given the purpose of the garment, the heraldic blue and white colors were very important for this particular garment. The embroidery for the seam treatments is a historically appropriate stitch, but was done in cotton instead of wool. This gave a similar look without allergy issues.”
Kenney: “Can you give a brief explanation of the SCA and the Crown Tournament event?”
Ramey: “The SCA is an educational recreation society where we work on recreating the period from 600-1600, mostly focusing on Europe, but there are folks who have focus elsewhere. I say recreation rather than re-enactment because we don't seek to re-enact exact battles as they were or act as specific known historical people. Instead, we focus on learning about the time period and recreate in the spirit and flavor of the best of the time (leaving out things like the plague and other undesirables). Many people focus their study on a particular time and place and create a persona from there. That is who they are in the society. This isn't an actual known historical person, but someone who could have lived in that time and place. I, for example, am Jehanette de Provins, a late 14th century French lady. My Husband is Refkell Melrakki Einarsson, a 10th century Norseman. We each try and play to our persona most of the time, though I will, occasionally play Norse to match him. I did this Norse outfit for the Crown Tournament in the spring, since we were fighting under his coat of arms. Crown Tournament is how each Kingdom within the SCA (we live in Northshield), determines it's next King and Queen. Each King and Queen reign for 6 months. Crown Tournament is a Tournament of Armored Combat (think knights in armor), which is one of the sports you can participate in in the SCA. Since the tourney has such an important purpose, there is often much pomp and circumstance. For more information about the SCA, you can check out www.sca.org.”
Kenney: “Thank you Anne.”
Julie Hart:
Kenney: “What is the modern method for heating glass to make beads?”
Hart: “I use a small propane oxygen gas mix torch to heat glass rods to 1700F. Once the bead is finished, it is annealed in a digitally controlled kiln to hold the bead at a specific temperature and cool it slowly to prevent cracking and breaking of the glass. Glass melts at 1300F but even at 1020F, a bead will start to melt a bit and lose its shape.”
Kenney: “How does this differ from the way Vikings would have made beads?”
Hart: “Vikings had to use a wood fire built in an oven, with bellows used to bring more oxygen to create a hotter fire. Although the glass I use now is the same as the glass used then (soda ash, lime and silica), the Vikings, through trade, got much of their glass from square mosaic tiles made in Italy, called tesserae. Now, I use glass rods made specifically for lampworking.”
Kenney: “How do you get the colors in the glass? How would the Vikings have used this?”
Hart: “Different colors are produced by different metals, such as copper, silver, gold. One technique for producing decorations on a bead is done now just like the Vikings would have. I wrap the bead in gold or silver foil, encase it in clear glass and then put it back into the flame. This keeps the heat from burning the foil off the bead.
“For the beads in Anne’s festoon, I researched Viking glass beads found at archeological sites. I made reproductions using colors and decorative techniques that the Vikings would have used. Some examples are dots on dots, raking (dragging hot glass around the bead using a metal pick) and using twisted stringers.”
Kenney: “Thank you Julie.”
Anne Ramey has been a member of the SCA for about 16 years and takes much pleasure in the Arts & Sciences part of the SCA world. She creates all her garb (clothing) and strives for a good amount of historical accuracy. She enjoys the research part of this as well as doing the costuming, weaving, braiding, embroidery and netting. Because there is always so much going on in the SCA, she is able to learn something new from others. For the last number of years, she has also counted herself among the "enablers" who have been fostering others to learn new arts and grow in the society.
Julie Hart is a lampwork bead artist who has been working with glass since 2005. She uses a wide range of techniques that she has honed through classes with several noted outstanding artists.
Anne Ramey will be teaching a beginning inkle weaving workshop on Saturday, October 1 and a beginning netting workshop Sunday October 2. Julie Hart will be a vendor at the Fosston Fiber Festival again this year. For more information about the festival or the artists and instructors, see fosstonfiberfestival.com or 218-657-2502.
Ray and Anne Ramey in their SCA personas and Viking costumes showing the back of the Viking dress.