Binding the ends of a Sámi belt.

A beautifully finished Sámi belt.

Sámi belts have a range of different endings. One of the most decorative is the multi-coloured binding.  This is easy to do.

This type of binding is called a three-strand plait in the Ashley Book of Knots on page 488. This is an amazing book. My copy has started to fall apart as I have referred to it so often. 

A Sámi belt 

Here is a belt that I wove using the Sigga heddle.

Sámi belt woven on the Sigga heddle. 

 

Sigga belt  width: 25mm  length: 172cm  Material used: Sámi band weaving wool

I wove it for a workshop at the International Conference on Braiding in Denmark 2022. The warp stretched across the room.

 

Weaving the belt at home

I made a number of belts and band samples to illustrate the different patterns made with this type of weaving.

Two samples of binding.

I am giving a workshop in Oxford this month.  I wove a number of short samples so that participants could learn how to finish a band. These bands are woven on a Sunna heddle with 9 pattern slots. 

Samples to practice binding.

The Decorative Binding Sequence.

Here is the sequence in pictures to show the process of binding.

Step 1 Divide the warp into four sections. Two sections are used to make the binding on each side. These are called the foundation groups.

Step 2 Take two strands of yarn from the right hand side. This is the working strand.Take them over the first group and then under the second group.

Step 3. Take the working strand over the left group and then under the first right hand group.

These two movements are repeated for the length of binding that is required.  movements 

Step 4. Take the working strand over the right hand group and under the left. Pull tightly and push up the working end to fully cover the group of threads. 

Step 5. Take the working strand over the left group and under the right hand group. Pull tightly and push the binding together. 

Step 6 Changing colour. The white working strand is over the left group.  It will be part of the  right hand group of threads for the next binding colour.

Take the next coloured binding thread from the right hand group.  Take the blue working strans over the right group and under the left group.

Step 7. Changing colour. The blue binding thread will be in the left hand group. The next colour, red comes from the left hand group. This is to ensure that each group remains approximately the same thickness. 

Keep binding until you are happy with the length.

Finish with a tassel or West Country Whipping.

The Working Thread.

It is important that the working threads are of the same thickness. The eight red pattern threads and the one blue central pattern thread are twice as thick as the other background threads. So for this binding, the working thread is two strands when using a background thread. This makes them the same thickness as a single pattern thread.  

The Ashley Book of Knots suggest that the binding thread, the working thread, should be at least five or six times longer than the area you wish to cover.

I have made a YouTube video to show the process in action.

Here is the link:

Sámi Decorative Binding

https://youtu.be/_9Qzr-9UEmc

Happy decorative binding!

Susan J Foulkes  June 2024

The Braid Society

The Braid Society is a fantastic organisation for anyone interested in narrow wares - braiding, plaiting, band weaving, tablet weaving, sprang, etc.  There is a public discussion group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/BRAIDSandBANDS/

There is also an on line discussion group at  https://groups.io/g/braidsandbands  Do join.  It is a wonderful forum for finding out about different crafts to do with narrow wares.

It was founded in 1993 and has members around the world.  The aim of the Society is to promote the education and practice of the art and craft of making constructed or embellished braids and narrow bands.






I have just received their latest annual journal Strands.  I always look forward to it as there are so many different craft interests and so many interesting craft practitioners.

This edition is no exception.

Here is the contents page of the Journal.  Interests range from plaits, lace,  finger looped braids, reed and rush plaiting - so many techniques and, I sometimes feel, so little time to explore them all.

I am particularly interested in any article about the history of narrow wares and their production. This exploration by Peter Davenport is no exception.

All the articles have colour photograph illustrations which bring the techniques to life.








Membership of the Braid Society is easy.  Just go to their web site at http://www.braidsociety.com/
Do think of joining.  It is not expensive and you gain so much from the web site, newsletter and Journal and online discussion group.

The last Braids Conference was held in Manchester UK in 2012.  There were many workshops to choose from and people came from all over the world.  The previous Conference was in Japan and the next will be in Tacoma in the USA.

Online discussion group. 

There is also a Yahoo group - Braids and Bands - which is a forum for discussing the practicalities of braiding.  I have organised four online workshop for Braids and Bands over the years.

I will be running another workshop early next year for Braids and Bands.  As you know, one of my passions is band weaving.  I have been exploring the band weaving heritage around the Baltic region.

As part of my trip, I attended the Weave Fair in Umea and met Per Niila and Lotta from Stoorstalka. They had been asked by a Sámi weaving tutor if a new design of heddle would make the traditional

Sámi bands, which use groups of floating pattern threads, easier to weave. They worked on this idea and put a new design out to test. 

Traditional way of weaving Sámi bands
 with groups of pattern threads. 

My previous online tutorial in 2012 looked at how to weave this style of band.

In traditional Sámi weaving, the floating pattern threads go over the top of the heddle. In order to pull them down, string heddles have to be used.

The background threads weave plain weave.

As a result of this request by a Sámi weaving tutor, a new heddle is now on sale for weaving these type of bands. It is called the Sigga heddle.  The background threads weave plain weave and are threaded alternately through a slot and hole.  The pattern threads have their own shorter slots.  It works in the same way as the Sunna heddle.

The Sigga heddle

Early next year I will be organising another online workshop for Braids and Bands looking at how this heddle makes this type of weaving so much easier. 

I have started to trial the heddle and it really does work well. I will be busy weaving different examples for use during the tutorial next year over the next few months. This band has one group of ten 'jumping' pattern threads

I was asked for the proper weaving term for the supplementary warp pattern threads but I think the term jumping pattern threads is so much more evocative.  They do seem to jump up and down on the band. 

Here is an example that I wove for the previous tutorial.  This band has two groups of jumping pattern threads. I love this Sámi design.

Happy weaving

Susan J Foulkes  Oct 2014