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Dress and Textiles IV: From Field to Fabric: The University of Wisconsin–Green Bay Flax-to-Linen Project

Flax and Linen as Subject and Content in Medieval Images -- Alison Gates, Univ. of Wisconsin–Green Bay

Looking at characteristic signs of particular types of fiber processing in art, e.g., wetting the spun thread in the mouth, which is part of the linen spinning process as opposed to wool. But when the techniques are backgrounded to the subject of the depiction, the technology or activities may be stylized or misunderstood. (We now get a parade of 19th c. images of "medieval" textile scenes that completely misinterpret the relevant technology or include serious technological anachronisms.) Working back to contexts where the artist was closer to the actual production, the representations become more accurate and conversely can be more reliably used to increase understanding (e.g., agricultural scenes from books of hours showing seasonal flax processing actvities). When the activities are clearly functional, then the equipment depicted is a better guide to reconstruction. Spinning is an extremely common activity to depict, associated with both the Virgin and with Eve in iconography. Distaffs also appear in the genre of "henpecked husband", used by a woman to beat a husband who is being forced to use (feminine) textile tools. Spinning animals are another genre for fiber equipment depictions.

Seeds, Scutches, and Retting Pits: Archaeological Sources for Medieval Fiber Production -- Heidi M. Sherman, Univ. of Wisconsin–Green Bay

Plant fiber remains don't survive as well as animal, which distorts the understanding of the relative importance of linen versus other textiles soures. Looking at other types of material finds confirms the equal importance of linen & hemp fiberst to that of wool in northern Europe. Preparation rquires several stages of preparation. Retting (soaking in water pits to break down the "glue" holding the fiber to the stalk) can be identified by the remains of retting pits, often located places with easy acces to water, but also identifiable by traces of characteristic bacteria in the pit location. Flax seeds are also a key sign, especially in areas used for braking (breaking up the core and physically separating it from the surrounding fibers) or drying in preparation for this. When wooden artifacts are preserved, mallets or specialized flax-brakes used for this process may be characteristic. The next step (scutching) uses a wooden knife-like tool to separate the broken cores from the fibers and may also point to processing areas. (Sometimes mis-identified as "toy swords" due to the shape.) Hackling uses a set of iron teeth or spikes set into a wooden base to finish removing the cores and tow and to straighten and alight the fibers.

Both the materials from which the tools were made and the heavy use they had make survival difficult (with mis-identification a separate problem). Corroborative evidence for forms and uses can come from traditional peasant practices on the assumption that these are relatively conservative even in the face of available newer technologies. For example, common and widespread Novgorod finds of semi-toothed knife-like objects have been identified as hackles (assumed to be used in the lap with the fibers drawn over the teeth), but there is no ethnographic basis for this particular interpretation. One test for theories of this type is attempts to reproduce the hypothesized techniques using reconstructed tools.

Ancient Fiber Crop Cultivation on a Twenty-First-Century College Campus -- Alicia Engstrom, Univ. of Wisconsin–Green Bay

Grew 2 crops, one on campus, one on private land. Intent was to do entire fiber production cycle with an eye to creating 'home-grown" art materials for students as well as to explore process understanding for historic research. Seed is sown thickly to prevent branching. (Plants on the edge of the plot will branch and produce inferior fiber.)As plant flowers, the stalk begins to yellow from the base up, indicating readiness for harvesting and the nature of the resulting fiber. The on-campus raised bed yielded a good crop by the other, conventional crop was a failure, with early seed-setting and fallen stalks. Plants were pulled up by the roots and bundled in handfuls then stacked upright in groups to dry. The plants are straw-colored at this point. Seed-bolls are removed by rippling through a metal comb. Then they are re-bundled for retting. Placed uner water (weighted) for ca. 7 days. Interestingly the color of the plastic kiddie pools used for retting affected the retting speed and microbial growth (possibly due to temperature differences?). Bundles are dried again then put through a flax brake and scutched against a board. Fibers are pulled through three sequential hackles of descending size. First will still take out a fair amount of core; second removes tow (short fibers), third separates fibers more finely. The distaff was dressed more like a "woolen" technique (with the fibers relatively chaotic) rather than in the traditional cone-shaped dressing. The fibers were used as weft to spin a tabby linen (with commercial warp. (The results were presnt for show-and-tell.)