Back again!

We´ve had a lovely autumn leave from school – a whole week! I were enjoying my free time (sewing) but now i´m back with interesting things to share.

First off; We had time to do some traditional bronzecasting before our leave, I did get to cast one of my own but I cant say it went well. It was a long day even though our teacher had prepared alot beforehand. For safety reasons the crucible was burnt in a oven, as we have no or little experience with this kind of work, there is always a risk that they might not hold or even explode if there is moisture trapped inside. We started the day with digging and building our firebed and furnace. We used fireproof bricks and sand as opposed to clay and stone to minimize the possibilities for failiure.

From left to right; The pipes are connected to leather bellows and provides oxygen to the fire. The furnace area is a pit, with holes for the pipes and filled with coals. It should be pre-heated to get rid of all excess moisture and store heat to help the melting process. The weird brick piles and the fire in the middle is used to pre-heat our moulds and melt out the wax. We slowly moved the moulds closer to the fire and eventually into it. The little pile of sand in the end was our pouring space.

When the moulds were warm enoug and didnt contain wax, we put cold coals on the embers and put our molds in the mix. The heat then gradually made its way up through the bed of coals and heated upp the moulds nicely.

It was a cold day, so we were all huddling close to the fire and dreaming of a warm cup of something. A faint smell of burnt rubber was the result of people trying to warm up their feet. At this point it was time to start melting the bronze.

It is amazing how hot you can make the coals burn if you just add air. We took turns using the bellows and casting.

It was quite hard getting the metal to flow where you wanted, not to mention avoid getting pieces of coal in the mix! After pouring the metal needs to cool a bit before throwing the thing in water. Then it was time to open it up!

Yeah, mine did not turn out that well. The bronze cooled too much before pouring and tadaa: The fox looks more like something a fox might leave behind. In the bronzecasting post from earlier I have a picture of how it should have looked, if you want a laugh I recommend taking a look! Well, most didnt work out but maybe next time! We will do some other types of casting next week, that should go better!

Other news: We went to a slaughterhouse to buy some sheep hides. Some took it better than others and I´ll tell you more about that in the coming days. We will be working with these hides for the next couple of days so i will leave it for another post.

The school will be hosting the last christmas market (?) and open doors event this year as we will be moving to new locations. The students will sell their products and people are welcome to see us working. There will be all kinds of fun things to see and do so If you happen to be in the Mynämäki area 3.11 then do come and take a peek!

Progress!

You remember this? well, I´ve gotten alot further down the road with my mug. To make a long boring story short; I´ve drilled a hole, chiseled out as much material as i´ve dared, cleaned it up with a knife to get a smoother surface on the inside and made a bottom piece of another, dry piece of wood. The idea is that as the wet birch “mug” part dries, the already dried bottom piece will be locked in place in a small groove inside the mug. The outer part will shrink approximately 5% when drying so I hope I´ve gotten my measurements right. If something went wrong, the mug might crack or the bottom piece will not be locked in place and leak or even fall out.

So fingers crossed!

Ive also gotten my materials for my iron age outfit! We had a little accident when drying the linen so it is a tad…discoloured but oh well! I sure recommend NOT drying wet cloth on wood that is treated with something unknown – it just might not be waterproof.

I did take the time to pin down my woolen cloths on a mannequin just to get a feel of what the outfit will look like.

Bad picture, I know, but it serves a purpouse. I will add decorations; bronze spirals and maybe som decorative stitches but Im not quite sure about what it will look like yet. I also made a hood out of the same material as the cape and I just love it!

From one thing to another, I started a new project in todays workshop! I´m making a plate by *surprise* carving with hot coals! I did´nt get that far before it cracked at one end, might have something to do with the material itself but it is hard to say at this point. I´ll see what I´ll do with it at some other time.

I might have told you about it before but it is worth mentioning again. We have this thing called Mute Workshop. When we have the workshop in our timetable it means that someone of us will teach the others to do something that we know to others that are interested in learning. As an example we have one that does historical swordfighting, so she had a demonstration or a short beginners lesson in fencing for those that were interested. Each one of us have different interests and backgrounds and this way we have an opportunity to teach and learn things that we could´nt normally do in school. It is just perfect! I could go on and on about this but I´d better stop here before I get too carried away!

 

Pictures / Bilder / Kuvia

So, here´s the most interesting pictures from Kurala. After working on the spoon I got crazy and decided it would be just great to do a bowl, so i did.

Här är de intressantaste bilderna från Kurala. Jag bestämde mig för att göra ett fat/skål med samma teknik som skeden. Jag rekommenderar starkt att man kollar vindriktningen före man börjar!

Täältä niitä kuvia sitten löytyikin. Tein sitten kulhon samalla tekniikalla kuin lusikan eli hiilillä kovertaen. hauskaa vaikka silmät oli koko ajan täynnä savua!

 

Tablet weaving

The last couple of days have been all about Tablet weaving. It was quite fun, as soon as I started to understand how to place the tablets and where to turn. I did most of the work at home, it is perfect to do wile watching TV (easy pattern this time). And I got My first Tablet woven belt ready today!

The belt is a bit over 2 meters long. The pattern is my own, not the best ever but I like it!

Chop down what now!?

A Tree.

It is not every day your teacher tells you to grab the axe, bring the saw and do´nt forget the knives! In this case we went out to the little patch of woods next to the school and chose a birch that will become mugs and spindles, among other things. We had one hell of a teamwork going on, taking turns with the axe and sawing the tree in pieces, not to forget the cleaning up. We put some material aside to be kept wet until next time and the rest to dry. I will put up more pictures as we get going!

So, first day at school again huh?

Yes. It sure was and yes, it was weird. I would just want to jump right into working but no. We had to go trough all the practical stuff about what´s where and how to use this and that first. I study “Muinaistekniikka” at Mynämäki. It´s a bit difficult to translate well, but I think ” Ancient Techniques” covers it. It is essentially handcrafts such as wood-, leather-, horn-, bone- and metalworking, not to forget textiles and ceramics. It is a quite wast field, but somewhat heavier on the traditional techniques side than on modern production.

Next week we will be trying tablet weaving, or so I´ve heard. I really look forward to that. I have been meaning to try it but never actually got that far. I´ll put up some pictures as soon as i have gotten started on it!

And please! If you know any sites, blogs or portfolios related to handcrafts and traditional crafts then please do tell. It is always fun to read about other peoples work and compare techniques and results and maybe even get a contact or two!