These are madder roots from our garden, freshly dug out. They'll make part of the second part of our experiment on madder dyeing - using different batches of madder with the same water, and see how different they will come out.

Madder is said to get better the longer it matures - first in the ground, then once harvested, resting time of a few years is also said to make it better. But I figure that too-fresh madder may be better than no madder at all...

It will be dried now and then ground up, and I hope for a yield of at least 30 g afterwards (though in a pinch, 10 g would be enough). It would definitely be nice to have some more samples to test. So - do you happen to have a bit of dried madder to spare? Would you be willing to donate 10 to 30 g of it for our experiment?

Just in case you were curious on how much wool one can fit into a 250 ml lab glass beaker, it's about 12 g of dry goods in this example, consisting of a small skein of yarn and a piece of fabric about 17 cm square:

tIt fits, but there's not much floating possibility... so it might be a good idea to put in a little less wool. Probably a smaller piece of fabric, and maybe a little more yarn to stay at sort-of-sensible amounts (but yarn will be a bit less, um, stiff?).

It's always fascinating to watch things unfold and questions come up when planning an experiment. There's usually a lot of aspects, and one has to decide on how to handle each one, while knowing that in many cases there's no really good solution that will cover all the possibilities..

While I'm doing necessary office work (the books have to be kept once in a while, for tax stuff to be sorted out in time), part of my brain is still nibbling on the madder-water-tests. Especially that part which likes to add more and more things to an experiment... because, well, variables and such. And the good old "but but but there's more to find out, can we not?" thing. Aaah.

Current ponderings are related to the dyestuff, not the water. I had decided, in the start, that we'd use one batch of madder, preferably of at least decent quality, and if possible (very much preferred) of very good quality, to do the test runs. Now one of the colleagues asked "which madder are you planning to use", and I started thinking... It's clear that we will test different waters with the same madder - but should we also test different madder harvests/sources with the same water? There's definitely enough local tap water to do that, and I might be able to get two or three other waters in sufficient quantity to do a comparison of two to four different kinds of madder (well, technically one water would do, but maybe different madder qualities react differently to different waters)... so that would be an option. An option that tickles me, to be honest.

And that's not even dipping a toe, or fingertip, into the whole huge, HUGE topic of assists such as bran, fermented bran, beer, and other plant materials that were sometimes added to the madder bath. I've even read about the roots being roasted beforehand. So, so many things that one could try, and try to figure out what they do. In some cases it's pretty clear, at least part of it - adding sour material such as beer or fermented bran will adjust the pH, which is almost always a factor when dyeing. But what pH is the best one for the madder? And how did the dyers of old know how to dose it? (Well, if you just add beer or bran, you can taste it. That would definitely work.) But is the pH the only thing that will be doing stuff? Or would the fermented bran also do some microorganism magic and act on the madder roots while it all soaks before dyeing? Would the (probably dead) yeasts in the beer add something? Or the alcohol have an effect?

So many questions. It would probably be enough for a doctoral thesis (a pH-D-Thesis, hah!) to figure out all, or at least most, of the influences on the madder. 

Here's hoping that nobody will get mad when we tackle this at the Forum... 

That's the title of a new exhibition in the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg, starting October 15 with the opening at 11:00 - so if you are interested in colourful papers, that is definitely something to visit!

The exhibition is about "Buntpapier", coloured papers with a variety of motifs until about 1880 - things that are usually not appreciated on their own, only seen as part of book bindings or other papery items. I am definitely planning to go there while the exhibition is running!

Here you can see a glimpse of what awaits you:

It's paper with floral and architectural elements dating to the first half of the 18th century. Definitely adding some bling! 

If you're interested in the exhibition, here you can find more info (including the extra events going with it). The exhibition itself is free, so if you're in the Bamberg area at some time until January, go check it out!

In case you're in the area around Munich this weekend and are looking for something textile-related to do, there's the Textilmarkt Benediktbeuern - only this year, because of hail damage, it's been relocated to the Freilichtmuseum Glentleiten.

It's taking place both on Saturday and Sunday, September 16 and 17,  from 10 to 18 h. You can find more information on the website here.

I'm back from a wonderful trip to Ireland, where it was comparatively cool - and now I'm back to baking in the German late-summer heat. (Way too warm for the season, actually.)

The conference in Belfast was easily and by far the largest archaeology conference I've ever been to, with about 3000 participants altogether (online and on-site combined). I don't know how many people there were in Leeds when I attended it, many years ago, but it felt similarly huge. It's fascinating, and certainly has its pros, but personally I do prefer smaller conferences where I have less decision-making issues (what session will I go to?) and there's a little less noise in the common functions, and fewer people so it's easier to find somebody.

The programme was also very, very tightly packed, which meant that any of the (unavoidable) technical issues that could occur would throw the plan, and meant less time for questions and discussion. But these things aside, it was just wonderful to go there and experience this huge get-together of archeologists!

My own presentation was in the very last panel time slot of the conference, so everyone was already a bit tired (myself included). Nevertheless I think nobody fell asleep on me.

A friend made this photo of me during the presentation. As usual, I had a lot of fun doing the "dance" (I tend to hop around when presenting), and it was so nice to show the results of our membrane thread process reconstruction to other interested people! 

Belfast and the EAA are drawing nearer and nearer - so I'm packing and preparing. There was a bit more spinning of membrane thread today, to have a little more of a sample to show around at the conference, and some more packing and writing of lists and so on. 

 I've also done a little more other spinning - cotton this time, trying to reproduce a cotton yarn used in some non-European fabrics. It was very nice to return to cotton spinning (which I have not done very often), and a bit of a challenge to hit the right thickness (hint: it was not very thick) with the high twist required. It definitely is a rather slow process. Now the thread will go to my colleague, who will take a look at it and see if that would match her requirements, and then we'll see.

There was also some Textile Forum planning stuff (the preliminary programme has been updated, and you can find it here). I'm already very excited about all the workshops, we will be exploring so many aspects of the colour red.

And now it's time to wrap up the day, get some more packing done, and update the lists of things that have to be done before I leave for Northern Ireland. The presentation is already finished and only needs another practise run or two, the materials to show are prepared, and hopefully there will soon be a login for the conference app so that planning which session to attend where will be a little easier... because that, of course, is a challenge with about 40 sessions running in parallel, and a lot of interesting topics to choose from!