Today was a good day in Colonial Wardrobe. For one thing, we got to see Wendy.

For another, we got to see Mark, and the way cool gilt ribbon. He kindly brought it up to show us and he and Wendy measured it. Over 18′ of gilt ribbon. We figure it’ll make, oh, plenty of teardrop spangles. Mark’s going to make some next week in preparation for the weekend lace trial.

Months ago, Tricia and I identified as one of the objectives of the embroidered jacket project that we could interest new embroiderers in the craft, and encourage people who already embroider to try new and more advanced techniques. That has certainly happened, and keeps happening. A surprise by-product, though, has been the whole Knitting Stockings phenomenon, and consequent spreading of knitting skills.

Here’s Kelley re-footing an old stocking. When the feet wear out we darn them, and when they’re too thin to darn anymore we take off the feet and reknit them from the ankles. When Kelley started working with us in January she didn’t know how to knit at all. Now she’s re-footing stockings. This is testament to the general enthusiasm and optimism running rampant around here, to Kelley’s perseverance and patience, and to Penny’s excellent teaching.

Look what Wendy brought us! This is a pocket or pouch based on the one found on Gunnister man, a 17th-century body preserved in a Scottish peat bog. This is Wendy’s first attempt at knitting in the round, as well as her first attempt at knitting with two colors. Pretty successful, I’d say, especially since she only started it on the last day of the last embroidery session. So that’s two new knitters added to the fold. Pun intended.

After that meeting Mark went away with research and ideas. A few weeks later, which was last November, he arrived in the Wardrobe Department with, in Wendy’s words “a battered coffee can under his arm and a big grin on his face!” Wendy goes on:

The most amazing things tumbled out of that coffee can! Mark had made the tool, a small hole punch, a poker, a pusher and a die! And SPANGLES!!!!!!! They looked like the pictures! What joy!

Here’s Jill again. Since then, Mark and I have talked about how he went about making the spangles. Some of the process is clear from the originals, that they were punched, for example, and from a strip of gilt silver, like a ribbon, not from a big flat piece like a sheet of paper. Some, though, of what he’s done is conjecture. It’s one way to solve the puzzle of how to get this result, not the only way and not necessarily exactly the way 17th-century artisans did it.

Since that day, the trouble has been how & where to get some silver electroplated with gold and rolled to the correct thickness. Mark has solved all those problems, with the help of some new friends. A few weeks ago he and Wendy and Tricia questioned whether the gold layer was thick enough; they solved that too. Friday I got this message from Mark:

Hi Jill,

I have spangle stock in hand and i can have a quantity made for the 29th. I must show you the gilded ribbon it’s cool.

Mark

We are in business.

The next session on March 28 will see Robbin and Carolyn working with the reproduction spangles and the real lace pattern (the repro of the Laton lace, not the equally lovely but not-the-property-of-the-V&A pattern that went out in the kits) to work out any bugs.

I can begin taking real honest & true reservations for the subsequent scheduled sessions. Three lacers who were ready to come in February and got bumped have first dibs, and I will send out an email to them first thing in the morning (unless they see this and get in touch with me first) to find out if they would like to/are able to come for any part of the April 11 -14 session.

The next sessions are:

Friday May 16 - Monday May 19

Friday May 30- Monday June 2

Friday June 20- Monday June 23

If these sessions are not convenient, please call and let me know. I avoided Mothers’ & Fathers’ Day and Memorial Day thinking everyone would have other plans. If your idea of a great holiday is to come make lace, we can work that out. Let me know.

I’ll be scheduling more sessions; we’ll be working through the summer. Don’t worry - the office is air-conditioned and Plymouth has one of the coldest beaches on the Atlantic coast (that’s a good thing). Please feel free to suggest weekends or weekdays in July, August and September that would be good for embroidery or lace making.

We can have two lacers working at a time. Some have asked if they can make lace for one or two days and embroider for the rest of the session. That is absolutely OK, if you do an embroidery sample kit and learn the embroidery procedure. Also, we’ll have the same deal for lacers as for embroiderers, which is that once you’ve come during a session and learned the drill, you can then come anytime, whenever it suits you whether or not we have a scheduled session. Contact Kathy for embroidery and lace kits, kroncarati@plimoth.org or 508-746-1622 X 8114

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns jhall@plimoth.org or 508-746-1622 X 8119 - and yippee!!

Wendy sent me this information from her spangle research. She sent it quite a while ago, but I put off posting it in favor of other subjects. I wanted to save some for when we got nearer to the end of the Spangle Quest. I’m posting it now; think about that.

While researching word origins regarding spangles and oes I came across a book entitled: English Dictionaries 800-1700, The Topical Tradition by Werner Hullen 1999 and published by Oxford University Press. In it is found James Howells Dictionary for the Genteel (1660) and the definition at that time for a “wire drawer” is more of a list of tools associated with the art of wire drawing:

A Wyredrawer; Tiratore de metallic; Trayer de metaux; Tirador de metales’- a hammer,nippers, a rowl pin, an oyl stone, bobbins, purling wyres, a spangle tool, a tool to cut oaes,rocket or small rowles, a serpentine, an anvil, files, the racer, a burnisher

From the above I would suspect that a “serpentine” may have been the twisting wheel. Interestingly there is no mention that I can discern of a lead pan, pitch pan or mat upon which to punch or cut out the spangles. It would not have been done on the anvil, as it would have dulled the cutter quickly.

Additionally it should be noted that while researching it became apparent that the more creative I was with the search terms and spelling the better the results. Examples include:

O’s – oes, oaes, paillettes, paillon, drop, drops, hangers, hangrs, hyngers

Spangles – spangs, paillettes, tags, aguil, drop, props, hyngers, bezants

Wire – wyre, wyer, wir

I was hoping this would yield some additional information if not corroboration to our theories so we could begin the process of testing various methods to create the “spangles”.

Mark had already made one small tool and tested it on some of the “Plate” Tricia had brought in from her stash. His results were right on target and had us all really excited. The next step was for Mark to make a tool in the correct size and shape that we could try to find the right material to use in making the spangles.

Tricia has some exciting news:

Other than a few spools that Access Commodities has given out to shops and designers to promote the up-coming release of Gilt Sylke Twist, Thistle Threads bought the entire manufacturing runs made for the jacket, knowing that not all of the thread would be needed for the jacket. Part of horse trading. We have calculated the needs of the jacket based on our stitching use so far and used what was needed for the Nightcap class. We have extra!

The extra was first offered for sale two weeks ago to those stitchers who had already attended a session as a thank you for generously giving of their time and effort to the project. We still have some extra of five colors - but not copious quantities.

Several of these colors are limited edition, to be replaced in the next set of manufacturing runs by a permanent color series. The blues and pink will not be the same going forward. So if you have a large project in mind, you might want to wait. From last contact with Bill, there may be some thread coming over in the next six weeks. He is currently on travel again and was trying to get one or two colors to Access before he left but wasn’t sure that was going to be possible.

If you are interested in any of the Gilt Sylke Twist and can’t wait until later to get your hands on some, please email Tricia at tricia@alum.mit.edu with your request. The available colors are: Redde, Carnacion, Bisse, Graie Blewe, and Grene. The price is $25 for a 35 meter tube with $5 of each tube going to Plimoth as a donation to the jacket project.

Tricia

Please note: These photos show all the colors, some of which are not available for sale right now.

Tonight Wendy continues to tell about her investigations into how spangles were made in the past. These descriptions come from post-1620 sources. The methods and techniques described may very well have continued unchanged for decades or even centuries, but unless we find some pre-1620 sources, we won’t be able to know for sure. However, the written evidence, even from later sources, combined with the physical evidence of the early 17th-century spangles that Tricia, Wendy and Mark studied, can give us many clues as to how the sparklies were made.

So what does a “Wire Drawer” do? Well he/she draws wire, but we didn’t need to know the specifics for all types of wire, just precious metal. While the definitions are similar some of the tools are different as well as the terms and of course the products….. so here is what I hope is a picture of this craft.

The art of the Wire Drawer includes the manufacture of wire (thread), purls, plates, spangles and oes. Gilt wire started with “sterling” silver. Sterling means the silver was alloyed with copper to ensure that it would not fracture as it was worked. The sterling was then “drawn” or stretched into a finer and still finer diameter wire. Once it reached a certain specific size, gold leaf from the “Gold Beaters” (makers of Gold leaf) was applied until the gold layer reached a thickness of one-fiftieth of an inch. The gold leaf was then fused to the sterling and that was further drawn out to the necessary size. If “plate “ were the desired result, the wire would be run through a “rolling mill” (two smooth and polished gear driven rollers) to flatten it.

We suspect that at this point spangles could be made, individual spangles being cut or punched from the plate.

If the illustrations and the process originally described in Art of the Embroiderer by Charles Germain de Saint- Aubin, Designer to the King 1770 (and also quoted by Gail Marsh) are correct then the creation of spangles once the flat stock or “plate “ was made was a two step process. First the stock was pierced at intervals to create the small hole for hanging, then the “spangle tool” was used to cut out the shaped spangle (in this case a tear drop). The shape of the tool and descriptions call for the “spangle’ to emerge from the top – this would allow the worker to rapidly hammer out (cut or punch) a quantity before having to tip out the punch of its finished contents. This would also explain the nips seen in several of the spangles that Tricia has viewed as well as some of the spangles having more of a straight edge on one side (it’s the human touch).

It should be mentioned that wire drawers were also responsible in large part for the actual spinning of the gilt silk threads. The gilt was “spun” (wrapped) around the silk core by “spinners” a specific job within the field of Wire Drawing.

George Bernard Hughes in his book, Living Crafts- 1896 describes it this way:

It now became possible to make gold and silver thread, flattening the finely drawn wire by passing it through rollers and twisting those around a core of silk by means of a wheel operated twisting machine. These spun threads, much less expensive to produce than wires of solid gold or silver, were sufficiently flexible to be used for making lace as well as for wearing and embroidery.” He also mentions that “at first the new thread was known as ’sewing gold’ and in 1592 cost 5 shillings an ounce”.

I’m terrible at math but I wonder what that would cost in today’s money? Does anyone know?