On making a hobbit-home shadow box

Variations of this idea have been stewing for a long time. About five years ago I created a 'deep picture', where I took apart a picture into layers, drew each layer seperately and cut it out. Two years ago, for our wedding, I started playing around with LEDs more. Additionally recently beautiful shadow-boxes have been showing up.

So when a friend said they had fifteen very difficult stressfull days away from home and with limited access to the internet, all the ideas clicked into one item: a shadow-box countdown activity. Every day you cut one layer or assemble one thing that requires enough focus to bind your mind but is not overly complicated, especially in mental capacities. Everything needed is included: the frame, the LEDs, a small cutting mat, cutter, the paper layers themselves, padding for between the layers... and as one big common denominator to this friend is the Tolkien universe, and as there is little that symbolizes comfort and home as much as a hobbit hole, it's a hobbit-hole shadow-box countdown activity set! (Say that five times fast.)

I find it very difficult to describe how I take an image apart into layers. Basically what I did was take a photo and try to imagine it as different planes. Then I drew around the outlines that I could see for each plane. And some elements or layers I added from other images, e.g. the trees and the fence in the foreground, the trees in the very back background, the night sky.

After I drew the whole thing out, I scanned it and copied it twice, so I and another friend could test it out. Once you have the design, the process is quite straightforward.

Frist you cut out all layers (I had twelve or thirteen, depending on which you count). 

Then you cut strips of your distance-material. I used 1mm card stock that is intended to mount artwork, so it already has one side that is coated with glue. With 12 layers I cut about 48 strips, each 0.5cm wide and half 20cm, the other half 19cm long.

Then, into my 20cm x 20cm frame I placed the first layer of the image, then edging around all edges, the next layer, edging, etc. 

The backdrop was created by sticking paper to the back of the frame, then taping down an LED strip, cutting a small notch to guide the wire outside and then attaching the battery pack to the outside of the back of the frame with rubber cement. Put the back back into the frame, turn your LEDs on, fiddle with their placing until you're happy and voilá, there you go.

Formalities:

• Material: printer paper, 1mm self-sticking card-stock, 20cm x 20cm deep frame, LED strip, batteries, rubber cement (or other strong glue)
• Tools: pencil, laptop screen (to trace layers from), cutter knife, cutting mat
• Time: design about 6 hrs, creation about 4 hrs

PS: The friend is through their difficult circumstances. The project helped them manage. I am very happy that it did.

On prototyping a viking field-bed

In July I wrote about my ideas for a viking camp bed. Well, I've played around with the safari-style camp bed and it actually works! I'm working on a conclusive version and I'll write about time, materials and tools when I have it, but for now here's my prototype:

On creating a antler-hammer

When working fine equipment sometimes you need fine tools. When working with copper or silver alloys to make small items such as sewing needles, temple rings or closures (see this post for more on that work), I sometimes don't want to dent the materials but still whack them with something. For this purpose I have decided to create myself an antler hammer.

The antler was given to me by a friend for this purpose. I suspect it used to be mounted to a stag head. However now it isn't any more.

I selected a section that I wanted, sawed it out using a metal saw. Then I used a wooden drill bit to drill a 1.8cm hole through the middle (carefully and going slowly, antler is much harder than most woods! If you're not careful it will get very hot). A (already blunt, so fully abusable) file blunted the edges quite well.

From a scrap wood pile I found some nice maple wood, carved it to form a handle. It's held in place through a beech wedge. The head is neither very heavy (so the handle does not have to withstand much force) nor does it do much damage if it does come lose, so to be honest I wasn't too fussed with the details of the attachment.

Formalities:

• Materials: Antler, maple, beech
• Tools: metal saw, drill with wood drill bits, old file, knife
• Time: ~1.5 hrs to cut and drill the horn, ~1 hr to make and insert the handle

On making small copper-alloy items

I intended this to be a small course, however sadly nobody showed up. So I'll use the prep and pictures to briefly explain the basic concepts of cold-working copper-alloy in order to do proper instructions in a later post at some point - whenever people feel like showing up to a course (Me? Bitter? Nooo... never!).

By "copper alloy" I specifically mean copper, bronze- and brass-like alloys. I refer to them so unspecifically because some of the alloys used e.g. in the bronze age are now technically referred to as brass. For different applications they used different alloys - depending on the required hardness, melting point temperature, viscocity, etc.

I personally prefer modern bronze for sewing needles because it gets quite hard, however I prefer modern-day brass for thicker items such as closures, because it's easier to still work despite it's thickness. My tools are not all historically accurate, but I'm working on that set of equipment (look at my new horn hammer! I'll post on that soon too! Lots of teasing today...).

So what do I make with this equipment? All sorts of things:

• Slavic temple rings, where the west-slavs had a very characteristic shape (e.g. shown here and here)
• Medieval sewing needles (with their characteristic punched round eyes)
• Pins (Viking and Medieval)
• Viking needle cases
• small closures
• Hygiene set (toothpick, tweezers and earwax spoon connected to one loop)
• Birka-wirewrapped beads
• I have also made a few drill bits, awls and other tools for softer materials from copper alloy. Iron would be better, but that's what I had lying around in a capacity that I could use it quickly and easily when I needed it

The basic principles are quite straighforward.

1. If you want it bent, use tongs to bend (once polished, use leather so the jaws won't marr the surface)
2. If you want it shaped, hit it with a hammer (or, once polished, mallet)
3. If you want it hard, hit it with a hammer some more
4. If you want it soft, heat it over a candle and then quench it
5. If you want material away, use a file to file it away
6. If you want it polished, use increasingly fine grit sand paper to polish. Or, historically, horsetail.

Formalities:

• Materials: copper alloy wires of different thickness and foil, different grit sand paper
• Tools: tongs, files, wire cutters, hammer and anvil (=metal block), to punch needle holes: very fine chisel and led/tin underlay, candle, glass of water
• Time:
•    1 temple ring ~5 mins
•    1 pin ~ 10 mins
•    1 sewing needle ~15 mins
•    1 little closure ~18 mins

On making a sheepskin bedroll

Every good viking bed needs a comfy warm sheepskin bedroll - though I will have to do some serious thinking if I want to have a set of equipment that I can carry myself. Especially when wet.

Well, we'll think about it later. For now I only have a brief post on my new sheepskin bedroll which is so wonderful that I use it in my modern bed on especially cold days.

Now so far I haven't come across much evidence for the existance of these, however this blog discusses it and has some very nice examples. Theirs looks much better, in part because the pelts they use are hand tanned and mine still looks very lustrous. I have done some pelt tanning but so far this will have to do. Maybe sometime I will use selftanned pelts.

I don't really have many process notes. The pelts are wonderfully colourful. I used a stitch called 'Polnische Naht' (Polish seam, I wasn't able to find the English name) using a waxed sturdy linen thread. The holes weren't pre-punched, I just used a normal thick sewing needle and a sturdy thimble. Here's an illustration of the seam on Wikipedia, though I now realize that my seam looks totally different. Oh well, so far it's held.




















Formalities:

• Materials: two pelts, sturdy linen thread, some wax
• Tools: sturdy needle, thimble, potentially pliers if the leather on your pelts is too stiff
• Time: 30 Minutes

On making medieval weaving tablets

So this activity is based on a trick my friend S came up with: using material cut for a completely different use to quickly and easily produce something for your use. In this case: using thick veneer cut wood instead of splitting thin sheets off a proper chunk of wood.

But maybe I should start at the beginning, this feels like I'm in the middle at the moment.

This post is on making medieval weaving tablets. I wrote about tablet weaving in July. My most recent and favourite way to describe the craft of tablet weaving as follows: it's like weaving but instead of having one thread up and one thread down (so two in every repeat - assuming simple tabby weave) you have four threads in every repeat. And instead of just moving them up and down between every wheft, you twist them like for normal cordage. So your sequence basically is 'twist each group of four a bit, pass thread through, twist each group a bit further, pass thread through again' etc.

In order to have space to pass the thread through you space all four threads out a bit. And as you want all four at same distance you create a little square tablet with four holes for the four threads. Then, twisting the tablet twists the four threads and hey presto, you have a weaving setup.

Now historically, these weaving tablets would have been made of many materials: bone, horn, antler (different to horn) wood and even rawhide and thick leather. Some of these materials are a pain to work, wood, rawhide and leather are easiest to come by and to tool. Also, quite thin wooden tablets were found in the Oseberg burial from approx. 800 and I remember seeing somewhere that similar ones found in 12th century Poland, so I think we're probably ok on these.

The veneer I bought was from a shop that sells tools and materials for model-ship construction. It's a 1.5mm thick nut-wood veneer, though in future I think I prefer 2mm or even 2.5mm. I got several pieces, each sized 10cmx50cm.

First, I smootened all the sides of the veneer with several grits of sand paper.

Then I used a normal cutter knife and cutting mat to cut squares sized 4.5cm by 4.5cm. I will admit that 5cm by 5cm looks as though it'll work better, but I really enjoy the slightly smaller size and also it allows me to get two extra tablets out of the material. Then I ground down the new fresh edges with the sandpaper as before.

Next I picked up stacks of 10-15 tablets and placed some scrap material of the same type at the top and bottom. Then I carefully aligned them all (as a future note: some tape might help keep them aligned) and clamped them down tight to some other scrap material in order to drill all the way through.

Drilling was somewhat faffy. For each 10 tablets drilled I surely split about 2-3, no matter how careful I went. But I found no way to reduce the loss - probably this is easier with thicker material.

Finally I sanded the newly drilled holes, oiled the tablets and promptly warped a project.

Formalities:

• Material: Veneer, sand paper of different grit, oil
• Tools: drill, clamp, cutter, cutting mat
• Time: maybe about 20 minutes in total per tablet