Category Archives: History

Whatever the reverse of survivorship bias is

Posted on June 29, 2023 by Nolie Alcarturiel

Even in periods we have surviving artifacts from, we know that what survived is only a fraction of what actually existed. Moth and rust destroy, metal gets melted down and re-used, and so on. We are dust, and so, at … Continue reading →

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Best I love September’s yellow, part III

Posted on December 16, 2021 by Nolie Alcarturiel

Funny, isn’t it, how the first to get made are the last to get a post? November came in like a lion and and continued like a lion and went out like a lion and things keep being wild around … Continue reading →

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Best I love September’s yellow (part II)

Posted on November 2, 2021 by Nolie Alcarturiel

Continuing from the last post, let’s talk about layers. Never let anyone tell you it’s impossible to run while wearing a pair of bodies, bumroll, three skirts, and sleeves of doom. I did. We were doing pictures right after we both got … Continue reading →

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Best I love September’s yellow (part I)

Posted on October 30, 2021 by Nolie Alcarturiel

Of course, it’s not September anymore. These pictures were all taken during September, though. I finished several projects at about the same time, and on September 22nd (only coincidentally on that very important day in the Lord of the Rings … Continue reading →

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Historical Entwife part V: Bibliography

Posted on February 8, 2021 by Nolie Alcarturiel

Bibliography Andersson, Eva. “The Perfect Picture — A Comparison between Two Preserved Tunics and 13th-century Art.” North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles X, edited by Eva B. Andersson Strand, Margarita Gleba, Ulla Mannering, and Cherine Munkholt. Oxbow Books, 2010, page numbers not … Continue reading →

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Historical Entwife part IV: What’s an outfit without pockets?

Posted on February 7, 2021 by Nolie Alcarturiel

   I had another image to work from, back in the summer when I had plenty of time and a cottonwood in mind, but with barely a month to go I found the perfect extant to try to re-create instead. Because everyone … Continue reading →

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Historical Entwife part III: sideless gown and St Birgitta cap

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Nolie Alcarturiel

Sideless    I would need a green garment for leaves, of course, and I was pretty sure I wanted it to be a sideless gown. At about this time, while in lockdown and trying to catch up on the kinds of … Continue reading →

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Historical Entwife part II: Saintly Stripes

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Nolie Alcarturiel

   I was determined this garment had to be in stripes, for tree bark, in some combination of white and the darkest “likely to be natural dyes because linen doesn’t do intense colours” brown I could find, in the widest stripes … Continue reading →

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Historical Entwife part I: Introduction

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Nolie Alcarturiel

The project I introduced in this post is completed (ish) and entered into the Foundations Revealed competition, so it’s time for the pictures and gory details you’ve all been waiting for. Or something. Introduction    Because I like to set myself … Continue reading →

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An Eleventh-Century Englishwoman’s Cyrtel, part V (and last)

Posted on October 9, 2020 by Nolie Alcarturiel

Finishing    I didn’t have time to do any of the seam treatments I wanted to experiment with, beyond pressing the seams of the sleeve and sleeve lining pieces so that they would lie nicely together. This I did — not … Continue reading →

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