Sunday, July 15, 2012

More Medieval Toys

Wow! A whole YEAR since I last posted? Yikes! I have been doing stuffs. I have Made Things. :)

Sadly, I have once again repeatedly let things leave my house without photo documenting them, so I can only show you pictures of some of them. :(

I have made more toys!


Roman Era rag doll, in Coptic dress (apparently I've posted this one before-here's some more info on her fate). This is how she looked in a show in Abbotsford, BC in 2011. The dress was inspired by this artefact in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

When she was returned to me, I removed the tapestry piece as I didn't want to give it up, and replaced it with a stola to make a Late Roman Empire costume for the doll. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture.


Her hair is of unknown fibre, with a thin braid circling her head at the hairline to hide where I sewed in the hair; the rest is gathered in a small circle of cheese cloth left over from a dyeing project in school.

She was given to HH of Avacal for largesse. With her was a second doll (also not pictured), dressed in a simple red linen gown with a white linen coif (no hair).


I made leather balls too! These are all based on finds from London, though mine are a bit bigger. You can find them in AY17-16-Leather and leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medival York from York Archaeology Trust; page 3407. These are all Fig. 1728d, and I previously made a Fig. 1728d and a Fig. 1728c for the show in Abbotsford, which ended up as largesse. I stuff them with waste wool usually, as I cannot get moss.

(Yes, that link is the whole book. Yes, you can download it for your very own. Yes, this is totally legit. In fact, go here, they have a bunch of their out-of-print books you can download for free.) :)


MORE MEDIEVAL DOLLS!!! Linen body, various different stuffing (left: polyfil-very puffy!; middle: weaving waste-various fibre thread left over from weaving (thrums), solid but evenly stuffed; right: linen sewing scraps-very uneven to stuff, looks crudely made).

These three, as well as the three balls in the above picture, and the two hobby horses below, were for a 'Dirty Dozen Largesse on a Theme' competition at Avacal-Tir Righ War 2012, which I entered as part of a collective. These guys are nekkid, because someone else provided their clothes. As well, another person provided a couple of dolls, another a couple of wooden tops, and I think there were a couple of felted balls as well (yes, yes, that's more than a dozen, I know! I wasn't there!) All 'proceeds' of the competition were handed over to various royalty for largesse.


If you enlarge the picture, you can see more or less how they're put together. I don't think I've posted here before, but I have a photo-tutorial on-line on how to make these. You can find it here. The dolls are based on this artefact.


MORE HOBBY HORSES!!!! Black linen, sewing scraps, cotton floss inkle weaving.

I had limited black linen for this first one, and limited time, and limited scraps for stuffing, and shorter than usual bits of leftover trim for reins, so I decided to try making them smaller this time and skipping the mane. I kinda like them better than previous ones, though I might try the next shorter one with a mane just to see.


Grey linen, sewing scraps, cotton floss inkle weaving.