The Golden Fleece Vararfeldr
- ardbeagcrafts
- Feb 17
- 1 min read
I crafted this full-length historical Viking cloak the Forgotten Fleece Tales exhibition. In the spirit of the exhibition's reminder of the forgotten stories of wool, and how this remarkable material can be used to help us toward a more sustainable future, I used historical spinning, weaving and dyeing techniques to demonstrate the enduring value of wool. The cloak may look ancient, but its natural insulative and waterproof properties have a thing or two to teach us today!
The cloak, with its shaggy golden locks, was woven on my home-built traditional warp-weighted loom. I took great care in dyeing the wool, using local plants from my home on the Rosneath Peninsula, along with onion skins from my kitchen compost bin, to achieve a stunning golden-brown hue.
The wool itself was hand-spun from fleeces sourced from a farm in the South Highlands, which would have otherwise been consiled to the scrap heap. I spent countless hours teasing the fleece into long, curly locks, which I then knotted into the weave using traditional Rya knots.
This experience not only deepened my appreciation for the art of weaving but also reinforced my commitment to sustainability in my craft.
