Gli ultimi mesi del 2019 sono stati dedicati a un piccolo progetto, con l'obiettivo di partire dalle materie prime per arrivare all'oggetto finito.
We spent the past months of 2019 working on a small project, with the aim to start from scratch and to obtain a finished object.
Le giarrettiere / Garters
Un esempio di giarrettiere, indossate da un contadino./ An example of garters,worn by a farmer. BnF Lat. 9333, fol. 44 v. (prima metà XV sec./ 1st half 15th cent.) |
The object we wanted to make was a simple pair of woolen garters, closed by a bronze buckle, for carpenter Pirondino's outfit. Garters are an elusive item. You can rarely see them on middle-class characters, while you can sometimes spot them on people from the lower classes or you can see some posh and elaborated ones on rich people and noblemen. You can often see that elegant people wear only one garter: this means they use it a decorative item and that it doesn't have any practical purpose. The actual purpose of garters, normally worn under the knee, is to keep the hoses well stretched and in place, as well-fitted hoses that emphasyze men's legs are a cornerstone of late 14th century fashion. You can see this feature in many pictures but you can also find it in documents: for example, Francesco Datini, the rich merchant of Prato, sends back to his tailor a pair of hoses that weren't tight enough so they can be fixed. For working class men, garters would have been useful to keep the hoses in place and prevent them from slipping down, once they became loose and worn out because of hard work and time. Thus, we thought that a simple pair of garters could be a useful accessory for a carpenter's workwear and that they could solve the problem of slipping hoses, reported several times by Francesco.
La stringa di lana / The woolen band
Lana di pecora Aland. / Aland sheep wool. |
- trattandosi di giarrettiere per l'abito da lavoro di un falegname, ho escluso la seta, troppo pregiata e delicata
- nastri e giarrettiere di lana sono stati individuati negli scavi di Londra (p. 141-144) e la loro esistenza anche in Italia può essere intuita da alcuni passi di Statuti delle Arti della lana, in cui si vieta di realizzare "cinture e cinturine" di lana (non è chiaro il motivo del divieto - forse per evitare la dispersione del prezioso materiale, utilizzato per tessere grandi pezze di tessuto, in piccoli oggetti? Generalmente, comunque, la presenza di divieti di questo tipo presuppone l'esistenza in circolazione dell'oggetto vietato stesso).
- la scelta della lana mi permetteva di partire dalla preparazione della materia prima.
Filare con la rocca e il fuso. / Spinning with distaff and spindle. |
- being garters for a carpenter's working outfit, I avoided silk, as it was too precious and fragile
- woolen bands and garters have been found at London's docks (Textiles and Clothing 1150-1450, p. 141-144). They most likely existed in Italy too, as in some Statues of the Arte della Lana (wool industry) it's said it's forbidden to weave "belts and small bands" made of wool (the reason of the prohibition it's not clear - maybe to avoid the scattering of the precious material, that was supposed to be used to make big cloths, in small items? Anyway, even if it may sound weird, the ban of an item generally means that it actually existed).
- wool allowed me to start from the preparation of the raw material itself.
Il filo, pronto per essere montato sul pettine. / The thread, ready to be set on the rigid heddle. |
I chose to pick a specific find from London, n. 387 (Fig. 111 C): it's made of worsted wool threads, singles, Z-spun, with 28/12 threads per cm in warp/weft. It's only 13 mm wide and it's a tabby weave. It wasn't possible to find out the original function of the fragment, but I think it's such a simple weave that it could have been easily used to make a pair of garters.
Tessendo la stringa con il pettine-liccio. / Weaving the band with the rigid heddle. |
Lo spessore della stringa e dei fili. / The width of the band and the tickness of the threads. |
In this case, I had many locks that featured lighter, soft fibers mixed with some darker, thicker and hairy fibers. Wool had already been washed, so I only needed to remove some more dirt with a small comb before actually combing them. As my medieval wool combs are quite big and I wasn't sure they could comb the wool evenly enough, I used some very fine modern combs (Louet minicombs). After combing the wool, I dressed my distaff and picked one of my spindles to male some tests to see how thin the thread had to be to match with the find and how strong it needed to be, in order to be woven. After the spinning, I made a skein, I washed it in warm water, I hanged it to dry with a weight to settle the twist and finally I ironed it and steamed it.
La mia giarrettiera a confronto con il reperto originale. / My band and the original find. |
Per realizzare una tessitura "tabby" si può utilizzare il pettine liccio: ho quindi preparato l'orditura e montato l'ordito sul mio pettine. Alla fine, per ottenere la stessa larghezza del reperto ed avere comunque un filo abbastanza solido, ho diminuito il numero di fili dell'ordito (da 36 a 30, anche in funzione delle dimensioni del mio pettine liccio, che non è abbastanza largo per 36 fili) ed anche la densità dei fili di trama è leggermente inferiore (10 rispetto a 12). Come mi aspettavo, durante la tessitura ho dovuto fronteggiare la rottura di diversi fili, sia per la loro fragilità, sia per alcune irregolarità nel legno del pettine. Sono comunque riuscita a riparare i fili e a completare circa 120 cm di tessitura, da cui ho ricavato le 2 giarrettiere, che sono lunghe circa 43 cm più i margini per la rifinitura.
Sono stata molto orgogliosa del risultato, nonostante le piccole discrepanze rispetto al reperto di riferimento, e ho sicuramente imparato molto sulla qualità della mia filatura. Il modo migliore per conoscere il proprio filo filato a mano, infatti, è usarlo.
To make a tabby woven band it's possible to use a rigid heddle: I prepared the warp and set it on my rigid heddle. In the end, to be able to obtain the same width as the find, I reduced the number of threads in the warp as they are slightly thicker than the originals: so I had 30 instead of 36, considering also that my rigid heddle wasn't wide enough for 36 threads. The density of the weft is slightly lower too (10/cm instead of 12/cm). As I expected, during the weave I had to face the breakage of several threads, both because of their fragility and of some sharp spots on the heddle. Anyway I managed to fix them and weave about 120 cm of the band. Each garter is 43 cm plus some extra centimeters for finishing and for attaching the buckle.
I am very proud of the result, even if there are some small differences from the original find. I also learnt a lot about my spinning: the best way to get to know your handspun is actually to use it!
Le fibbie / The buckles
Il modello in cera e il disegno dell'originale. / The wax prototype and the drawing of the original. |
La fibbia in bronzo e il disegno dell'originale. / The bronze buckle and the drawing of the original. |
Il fornetto per la fusione del bronzo. / The bronze oven. |
Le fibbie immediatamente dopo la fusione. / The buckles righ after the casting. |
Si è trattato di un lungo processo per la realizzazione di un piccolo oggetto che probabilmente, durante gli eventi, passerà inosservato. Più di tutto, però, ci interessa aver fatto un passo avanti nella pratica e nella conoscenza di nuove tecniche e siamo orgogliosi di utilizzare un oggetto completamente realizzato da noi. / It has been a long process to make a very small object, that probably won't even be noticed during the events. But most of all, what matters to us is that we made a step further in the practice and knowledge of new techniques and we are proud to use something completely made by us.