Finnish Iron Age silver basket headdress – Initial research

Selfie wearing my version of the silver Finnish Iron Age basket headdress/tiara

When I was at the museum in Helsinki, I saw in person this amazing “basket” headdress made with trichinopoly (aka Viking Knit) in silver wire. It was stunning, and super unusual. I’ve seen a scant few Finnish Iron Age reenactors online have made their interpretation, and I decided that this HAD to be on my project wish-list.

Unfortunately, research available on this piece is even more scant than the reproductions. The museum offered very little information about the piece, so the bulk of what I know has been gathered from reenactors who live in Finland.

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.

Beothuk’s photos of my K A&S entries

Like at Twelfth Night, I wasn’t able to take much in the way of photos at Avacal’s Coronation and the Kingdom Arts & Science Championships because I was swamped trying to do other things. Luckily, one of the local photographers (Beothuk)took MANY amazing photos, and published them publicly online.

All photos are direct links from his Flickr feed – if he removes them, they’ll break here. All copyright his.

My Kingdom A&S Championship display

Working behind my table on the blue Finnish hat on the table. Super-focused on coils while my trichinopoly is in the foreground.
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Double-knit Trichinopoly on fabric

Trichinopoly chain created directly on fabric

In my earlier post “Viking Knit on Fabric“ I showed off a single-knit trichinopoly chain on fabric. In that post I mentioned that I wanted to try off a smaller dowel, and double-knit to see if that improved the result. I did in fact have the chance to do that, and I wanted to share the photos with you.

“My next step after this is to use a smaller dowel, and try double-knit instead of single-knit to see if that improves the result.”

I did this with 26 gauge silver-plated copper wire, on a dowel just smaller in diameter than a pencil, on coat-weight wool (like Melton cloth).

Trichinopoly chain created directly on fabric

Trichinopoly chain created directly on fabric

The result is definitely more sturdy than single-knit, though I am not sure it’s quite sturdy enough to really act as protection to the edge of a fabric cuff…

Viking Heritage Magazine

Thor’s Hammer from the Vikings in BC exhibit

I don’t know much about the Viking Heritage Magazine, but I wanted to record some links while I have a moment to return to it later.

Index from: http://blog.eibeck.de/

01/1996 – Link to PDF
Agricultural development and early urbanization in the light of environmental changes in
Curonia 600–1200 A.D
The historical links between West Russia and Scandinavia
Certain Historical Facts on the Routes of the Vikings on the Belarussian Territory
Heritage News from Sigtuna museum

s/1996 – Link to PDF not yet found
The Viking Ship Sigrid Storráda
Viking Ships for export
A Viking Village in Överhogdahl
Assur’s Village in Upplands Bro
A book about the history of Trelleborgen
A new Viking Museum in the North of Norway
Viking Play on an island in Eken’s Archipelago
New Treasures
Even the Vikings used to write graffiti
Save the Viking pine!
New-rich in Russia are buying valuable archeologically ground