The fine quality of Egyptian linen has lead to much speculation of how it might have been made. It has been shown that splicing is the answer and not traditional draught spinning. I was keen to find out more details and I believe that even the experiments of a complete novice like me give some insight. Cat Lewis of Llieinwe kindly allowed me to use some of her flax for splicing experiments. Some was thicker, […]
We sometimes think that how we do things is the way it’s always been done. But sometimes it’s worth questioning that. The ancient Egyptians were able to weave very fine cloth up to 60 threads per centimetre! How did they do that? Was it by the way we do things, or did they use some other method?While it might be thought that it was the spinning and weaving methods that were necessary to achieve such […]
I got this flax from ‘Berta’s Flax’, a guild set up by Christiane Seufferlein in order to preserve the tradition of flax working and to honour women’s lives. You can find out more about it here. Thank you Christiane. The flax belonged to Rosa Höglinger (Mühel, Sarleinsbach) who was married to husband Max. You can see a picture of her taken in 1949 here. Unfortunately, not much is known about her. This flax would have […]
