Dating and placing my Finnish bling

Along with trying to date and place my Viking Age bling, I also wanted to make a note of some of the jewelry I use for my Finnish Viking Age (but not Viking!) costumes.

Round brooches – Sweden, Denmark, UK, Finland

First up are a pair of round brooches that I normally use for my Finnish Iron Age costume, although they’re photographed here with my Viking age bling.

These brooches are from Raymond’s Quiet Press, but were not specifically noted to be in the style of any particular find, though on the site they are mentioned to be suitable for Finnish costume.

A bit of further research suggests that this style is similar to the Jelling/Borre fusion-style brooches from Birka, Sweden and parts of Denmark, as well as those of Scandinavian origins found in the UK. Specifically the Portable Antiquities Scheme shows a brooch in this style found in Cambridgeshire. These brooches with a Jelling/Borre fusion style are dated to the first half of the 10th century.

Two necklaces inspired by Finnish bead examples

Necklace inspired by historic bead examples

After going through my glass beads (ones I’ve collected over several years as well as ones I was given by a friend), I began the process of stringing up a few necklaces for different costumes, with one of my first priorities to Finnish Iron Age examples.

I’d separated all of my workable beads into different baggies, each holding different variations (example: dark green transparent in one, dark blue opaque in another, silver & gold lined beads in another, etc) and then included slips of paper informing me which type of bead (sphere, double, melon, etc) would be appropriate for which location.  I did keep it quite broad “Viking age” and by country, rather than getting into specifics around items that were found in specific areas.

RAM Vikings – Baltic Jewellery

Baltic Jewelry display at the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) during their display from Denmark in 2019.

Since along with Viking Age history, I’m also really interested in Finnish Iron Age/Viking period history as well, I was really excited to see the Baltic Jewelry display at the Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) during their display from Denmark in 2019.

 

Kaarina Iron Age Hat

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Photo above from Beothuk’s Flickr feed. Direct link, no copyright violation intended.

In another instalment of “how much work can I do last-minute before an event?” I decided to tackle the Kaarina Iron Age (Finnish) hat.

This is a much-later post, as I actually made this earlier, but never actually finished it off, so put off posting this. As I’m going through my archive of drafts, I figured I’d share it – even in the stage it’s in.

Finnish Costume Capsule

My new Finnish Iron Age outfit, minus the underdress.

One of the ‘wardrobes’ I’m examining for my Capsule Costume Collection is my Finnish Iron-Age costume ‘wardrobe’.

Finnish Iron Age capsule wardrobe

Calling my Finnish Iron Age costume items a  “wardrobe” is a bit ambitious really. Right now what I have for this costume amounts to very few garments.

• I have one peplos-style overdress, and use the under dresses from my Viking Age wardrobe.
• I also have a small selection of accessories including a hat, two coil-embellished apron panels, and a few pairs of mittens.
• I also have jewelry like a set of brooches, and two necklaces. There are other accessories I would like to add (or improve upon what I have) like a knife.

However, each layer works well with other layers, and I think it’s another good candidate for a capsule wardrobe.