Textile Research

    “Riders of the Sea” takes place in the Aran Isles of Northern Ireland during the early 20th century. Our lead, Maurya, has lost her husband and five sons to the sea. As the play begins Nora and Cathleen, Maurya’s two daughters, receive word that a body, which has washed up on shore. Their brother Michael had been missing for two nights. Bartley. another of Maurya’s sons, is planning to sail to Connemara to sell a horse and ignores Maurya's pleas to stay. He leaves denying her wishes. Maurya predicts that by nightfall she will have no living sons, and her daughters harp on her for sending Bartley off with an ill word. Maurya goes after Bartley to bless his voyage an apologize. While she is out, Nora and Cathleen receive clothing from the drowned corpse that confirms it was Michael. Maurya returns home claiming to have seen the ghost of Michael riding behind Bartley and begins lamenting the loss of the men in her family to the sea, after which some villagers bring in the corpse of Bartley. He fell off his horse into the sea and drowned.

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  As I am of strong Scott-Irish descent, my focus on fibers and textiles generally moves towards that of my ancestors and learning to understand and recreate their original processing of fibers, and development into textiles. Vedler, an associate Professor at the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo, justifies this process as she states, “One of our aims in reconstructing the tunic is to learn more about how the textile was made, how time-consuming it was to make, and how the wool was used” (Marianne Vedeler). Wool being the main fiber of Ireland and especially so in the Aran Isles, I find it the most appropriate to focus on that fiber and further understand its importance to the Isles.

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       In the process of selecting a fiber to represent the region of Northern Ireland, the most common breed of sheep both of the current day and of the period are Cheviot sheep. Cheviot sheep are extremely adaptable to wet and cold conditions making their home region of Ireland and Scotland of particular usefulness. Them being adaptable to this harsh weather, their wall after spun and woven makes for just as durable and resilient garments. The Cheviot breed is considered a long wool breed, meaning the staples of their wool fiber when removed very long and extremely easy to spin thin yarn making it another reason for being a particular favorite to the region.

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         The process of spinning wool from up to the Iron age and through later periods was done using the weighted drop spindle. A weighted drop spindle is of a disc lightweight with attached through the center wooden dowel as to wrap the yarn around before transferring to a bobbin. One wraps a small staple with a cluster of combed wool in hand around the hook at the top of the dowel closest to the disc and pinches down the fiber to secure. One then spins the dowel in a particular direction, for example clockwise, and parks it between their knees when a large amount of twist has been applied to the small strand. The spinner then moves the position of their pinch up through the long Staples to guide the twists up into the fiber making a twisted strand. This is then wrapped around the dowel base and reapply to the hook and the process is done again. When two drop spindles are full, both are plied together using a separate drop spindle to guide the two strands by spinning in the opposite direction to twist them together making a yarn.

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        An important yet overlooked area of dying that precedes the process is the mordanting process. Dr. Hofmann-de Keijzer of the Natural History Museum of Vienna describes the use of tanning as “agents and fermentation [that] created a stronger bond between the dye and the textile fibers. The direct effects of the iron mordanting or tanning process can be seen when we compare these dyed samples. Both of the same fiber and of different scaled ratios of water to ground pigment. These ratio samples are shown in the image above.

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        In my attempt to replicate the rich greens found proudly in Irish textiles and tartans, finding information on how to obtain such a color was important and difficult as no natural dyes result in a naturally green color. Dr. Hofmann-de Keijzer explains that “leaf green (chlorophyll) is unsuitable for dyeing a textile green. Already in the Hallstatt Culture 2500 years ago people have realised that a blue and a yellow dyeing have to be combined for dyeing green. They dyed blue with woad and yellow with a plant such as weld” (Hofmann-de Keijzer, pg. 29). Weld is an exceptional accurate dye both to the period of the late 19th century and the region of Northern Ireland.

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 Frame looms can be applicable to many points in textile history as they were of simple nature of use and easily made per the size of the desired garment. Both the warp (left) and the weft grain (right) are strung and woven using coordinating colors of dyed woolen yarn to create a tartan pattern, this pattern being typical to that of Irish textile history and tradition.