New fibulae

Moving right along here…. the jacket quilt is almost completely stitched, and all the new fibulae are drying. When I was creating the first batch of fibulae, I followed my usual path of going way overboard: why make one weaving figure when you can make six! or seven! Quite a few characters were holding niddy-noddies, but not one was carding wool.

So this batch has figures performing all the steps needed to process wool, from fleece to fabric. And they’re arranged in a lovely swirl, leading your eye all around the quilt. The fibulae aren’t strictly in order - but they do start with sheep shearing and end up at the sewing machine. Close enough. You can keep track of where the fibulae are located on the numbered swirl, below.

1. Starting with shearing the sheep, one image is from an old tapestry and another from a painting.

2. Fulling the fleece - stomping on urine-soaked wool. This illustration shows the women stomping in a pond. One is holding a small keg to add more urine.

3. Carding the wool. As you can see (below) these tools have many tiny holes poked into the clay, so that after firing, I can add all the wires which belong in a carding tool.

4. Dyeing the wool. This can happen at several different points in the process, and wool was sometimes dyed more than once. Like fulling, dyeing can be a smelly process, so I decided to position the dyers in the armpit of the sleeve.

5. Weaving. This is an image I gathered to use in the first batch of fibulae, but never actually made. It will be partially tucked under the lapel of the jacket. The warp threads will be added after firing.

6. Ironing! Ideally, they would be located after the sewing machines, but I love the way they fit over the collar backing.

7. Napping the wool. Remember the teasels? These two figures will be napping the wool around the gray neckline. There are plenty of holes to add very tiny teasels…. don’t know what I’m going to use as teasel-substitutes.

8. Sewing machine operators, from the many images I collected when making the fairy tale tapestries.

9. Washing the clothing, using a wash board, big bucket and a pot to add hot water.

10. These two are leftovers from the first batch of fibulae. Those pink spots that look like balloons are just the heads of the long pins.

There are three more fibulae which will sit atop the jacket-figure’s shoulder. These are the Moirai - the Fates, which are said to spin out, measure and cut each lifespan. Next week we’ll take a detour and learn more about them.

They will be extra dark, barely visible, so they won’t interfere with the visual flow.

The Jacket Mannequin is also progressing nicely. So - all good here. Hope you are staying well and reasonably sane, yes?

Diane