My Ethnographic expression...

When brain tanned buckskin is mentioned people automatically think.... Native American, war shirts and pipe bags. Well, I thought it about time to widen my perspective a bit!
 

Not that there is anything wrong with making Native American inspired art. I have learnt an amazing amount from a lifetime creating Native American styled items and I am sure there is almost an infinite amount still to learn. But, is my focus on the 'New World' blinding me to my own hunter gatherer and early farming heritage and the fulfilment learning more about that can offer me as a European. I am not a fan of this commercial and artificial world and often 'want out!' I believe there is an integrity we have lost that a lot of other 'primitive' cultures still have. (I do not like the term 'primitive culture')

 

I am inspired by the landscape I was bought up in and love here in the south of the UK. I want to make my own set of 'stuff' I might need and like if I were living the life of a hunter gatherer from this country. So I want to keep away from anything too modern and mass produced, to steer away from the superficiality that our culture today seems to relish. I want to try and create my own 'ethnographic' tools and artifacts. I found it very difficult to pull myself away from Native American art as this has inspired my creativity from childhood. But it has given me a good grounding to start from!

I am, and have been all my life, very interested in bush craft and am highly respectful of hunter gatherer and simple farming  societies around the world, and as part of this I am intrigued by our stone age ancestors and how they lived and survived. I am convinced our stone age ancestors had a culture as well developed and complex as any. I think it is a mistake to consider them 'primitive' and having so much difficulty surviving that they had not developed a cultural expression, we know as art today. It is universal to put effort into creating everyday objects, so much so that we may look upon them as art. To beautify daily life and routine with cultural expression is, I believe, a human trait.

 

I made a bag for my walks in the forest. Made from sinew sewn pieces of smoked brain tanned buckskin. Using brains to cure animal hides is an ancient technique. Leather cured with animal fats and oils were found with Otzi the ice man. Sinew has been used to sew together items of animal hide in the past and are still used now. The Evenk reindeer herders of Siberia are amongst those who still use the back strap sinews as thread. 

I decorated it with mallard duck feathers, crow feathers a couple of trimmed buzzard feathers and some green parrot feathers. I am aware that some of these species are not native to where I live! But, it is what I had at the time.

I carry my 'trail' kit in there. This includes a knife, folding saw, matches, candle, my hemp and nettle string, some dried fruit and fruit leathers, a glue stick with resin glue and some plastic bags. The matches are there for an emergency. My flint and steel are in my other work bag. And in time I hope to replace the plastic bags with rawhide (or some such) containers.

 

It has accompanied me on many forest walks. The plastic bags are very useful for collecting different forage and keeping it separate so I do not have to sort through it later.

Another use of spare buckskin is to cut it into strips and weave it into something useful. Such a valuable resource is worth making the most of. Here I have made a belt using the hand weaving technique called finger weaving. This is an ancient and almost universal technique that needs no tools. All you need to do is fix one end and then alternately weave each strip over and under. It takes a bit of practise. Much more complex patterns can be wrought using this simple technique. I have used mostly smoked pieces here but I have accented it with two strips of un-smoked to create a lightning pattern.

This is a start on a trail I wish to continue. I have done quite a few bits and pieces and plan many more. It, so far, has been a journey of self discovery.

This year I would love to spend more time out there in the forest. I plan to produce more and use a lot of my own tools and equipment from nature where I can. I can't imagine the amount of knowledge that has been lost with the passing of the generations. It is saddening that we value the newest gadget more than what is held within an individuals head and the ability to create something from the environment around you.

To go out into nature and feel perfectly at home there. That is a better goal than owning the best TV or car or newest phone. There is a completeness and peace one can gain from learning the way of nature and becoming part of it.

 

 

 

 

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The Quiver

 

I have for some years wanted to make a quiver. I finally got the excuse and the opportunity in December.

 

This one I made from brain tanned buckskin. I only had pieces left so I had to sew pieces together to make a piece large enough for a quiver.

After  sewing the pieces together the next job I did was to make a rawhide insert to fit in the base of the quiver so the arrows do not wear the buckskin so quickly. Rawhide is really versatile stuff. It is very tough and stiff until you wet it. When it is damp and pliable you can from it into a shape and hold it there until it dries and it will keep that shape until it gets wet again. I made a raw hide 'cup' that would fit neatly in the bottom of the quiver. Whilst this was drying it was then the long job of the beading.

 

For the beading I wanted to use colours inspired by the forest so this meant lots of greens. I wanted to avoid red as this in nature tends to be a colour of warning and so stands out too much. I used mostly size 13 Charlotte cut beads so it took longer to complete than it might have done. I also used some size 11 Charlotte and some plain size 12. I am really pleased that the beading still looks neat even though there is a range of sizes.

I have sewn it together using sinew and linen threads.

The feathers here are the off-cuts from making flights. These are Buzzard.

 

What did surprise me was how long it took to decorate the strap. This took so long because it was a very fiddly job.

I now finally have a quiver to take with me whilst practising my primitive archery whilst walking in the woods.
Shame the weather is so poor. It looks like I may have to wait some months before I get the chance to use it.

The Seventeenth Century Skirt Update

Carrying on from an earlier post...

The 'Jacobean' skirt was finished and here are some pictures of me wearing it in a complementary setting.

The skirt created was made to be worn in houses from 1630-1680 approximately.

Here in the Garden of one of the houses I demonstrate. I am wearing an underskirt that can not be seen here.

 

One of the aims of this fashion is to give women large hips. I do not need much help there! But this skirt certainly adds width. Lots of heavy cartridge pleating. This is a very heavy skirt and only really suitable for the cooler weather. 

 

I did finish the bottom of the skirt with a strip of madder dyed wool. When the hem wears out all I have to do is replace the decorative edging.

 

Just a note the waistcoat is not quite right for that day. The waist coat is more 1560 -1630.  The waist coat sleeves become more voluminous and it also evolves a flaring skirt like bottom to add the wide hip effect. Making the correct waistcoat is on the 'to do' list.. along with hundreds of other things...

And here tending to the fire.

And an underskirt. I am pulling nettles to make string.

The under skirt can be worn as a summer version of the heavy skirt. This one is a thinner wool and is unlined.

The Kitchen Maid by Hollar.

1640

Above can be seen at least two skirts. The outer skirt and her coif has been decorated with a little lace. A very popular accessory in this period. It seemed to quickly go out of fashion. I can only imagine this may have been due to its impractical and delicate properties. Here you can see she is wearing a fashionable waist coat for the lower sort.

The Milk Woman by Maes

1656



By the mid 1650s the lace was not so popular amongst the working class. The poorest of people could never afford any sort of lace. 

Jan Sebrechts 1650-1675

And here in the summer or when at work the ladies wear just the unlined underskirt.

The Ford Jan Sebrechts 1670

The Museum last year

Well, last year was a busy one at the museum. With very mixed experiences. It seems the recession has well and truly landed.

I did not have as much work from early autumn onwards. But, until then I was extraordinarily busy, doing many and varied tasks.

There was also the filming of The Tudor Monastery Farm. The more eagle eyed might catch a two second glimpse of me very occasionally.
Lion TV interpreted parts of the site as 1500. Just before Henry the Eighth came to the throne and we were still a deeply Catholic country. This is not strictly a period we cover at the museum but what they produced is very effective.

This is one picture my husband took during one of the filming sessions.

Clothing made by the volunteer needle workers group that gets used on a daily basis was used for the filming (except the monks costume above, that was bought by Lion TV).
Because this clothing is produced to cover a later Tudor period some alterations were made on a ad-hoc basis. Above this is the clothing we tend to wear for the 1540s. But, it was fun to see lots of people populating the place.

Some feather Craft

I am very inspired by the arts of the Amazon. Especially the feather crafts.

 

I wanted to make some things that look like they may have been gathered from an exotic trip. So I have used hemp string of my own manufacture. I have not used any modern findings or methods. I am also very interested in 'Bush Craft' and indigenous cultures. Also I like to try and imagine what my Palaeolithic ancestors may have made as an expression of their identity and culture.

 

Hair decoration inspired by the art of the indigenous Amazon people.

 

Above you can see body feathers of the Macaw. Each feather is individually attached to my own hemp string.

 

And the end is decorated with Amazon Parrot Tail feathers.

 

Dyeing the Stuart/Jacobean skirt

The Mordant Bath. 

 

I am lucky enough to have a large boiler that I use for these larger projects. Here is the fabric in the mordant. I used Alum and Cream of Tartar. The Cream of Tartar keeps the fabric soft during the process.

Mordanting is probably the most important part of the dyeing process. The fabric should be stirred regularly.

And the dye stuff.

Lovely and cheap.

I like to get the colour out of the dye stuff before adding the fabric.

Here you can start to see the dye stuff colouring the dye bath.

And some pictures of the fabric after dyeing.