The Armour Archive

This is for armour-covering/lining purposes, mind you. Period or not, I think a maille bishop's mantle would look pretty good lined with velvet. Not to mention it would be more comfortable to wear.

So, before I go out and buy fabric (not that my girlfreind would mind that ), what colors of velvet would be appropriate? I'm kinda aiming for 15th century here. I've seen brigandines covered in (formerly) red velvet, just wanted to know what my options are here....

I can't answer the colour quastion since such a range of natural dies did exist then and its a matter of picking out what was "fashionable" I'd hit the pictures and see what folks were wearing in conjunction with their armour.

*HOWEVER* if you plan to wear this for extended ammounts of time modern velvets are almost universally made from synthetics, (You can still find wool or silk velvets but the price makes custom armour look cheap!) Synthetics will be pretty nasty when the weather heats up and you start sweating.

If you are just going to show it off once in the while---go for it; if you don't plan to go with what they used originally, how about using a cotton velveteen or a waleless courderoy

Thomas

Cotton Velveteen wears VERY well and it looks nice too. As far as colors....ask Rhia! She(he..not sure which) is really good about period colors.

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They call me Ned

Rhia's a she.

You already knew about Red -- so what's left to ask ??

- Blue (like a deep Royal) and Green are others I remember.

But, as above -- why bother with all that when you've got Red going for ya!?!


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Norman J. Finkelshteyn
Armour of the Silk Road - http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/3505
The Silk Road Designs Armoury - http://www.enteract.com/~silkroad
Jewish Warriors - http://www.geocities.com/jewishwarriors
The Red Kaganate - http://www.geocities.com/kaganate
silkroad@spam.operamail.com (remove "spam" from e-mail to make it work)

spike,
since edward so generously provided this plug-in, i am obliged to answer ::bow:: although i cannot really say more than it was already told-- (and pardon my ramblings that follow, it's really a thought provoking question) Look for something that is NOT syntethic...I would splurge and shoot for a heavier silk noil (but I am a maximalist when it comes to period authenticity) or the cotton velveteen with the reasoning that cotton WAS a luxury in the Middle Ages...in the color of bright red or deep blue, or for that matter, black, which was in fashion since a Duke of Burgundy wore nothing but that in the beginning of the 15th century...Also, to look REAL period, maybe you can ask your lady to embroider a house emblem on it, which was very common in the 15th century, with a motto...I have the dukes of Burgundy and the Kings of France in my mind with their devices NOT related whatsoever to their actual coat-of-arms, but rather to their actual political whereabouts...Look for period illos from the Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry for instance for ideas...and if I manage to find my link to a great image library, I'll post it here...Basically, shoot for strong, heraldic-type colors, and you cannot go much wrong, provided they are NOT synthetic.

Take care,
Rhia

(who is a she...ask Russell )


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---Soldiers live.And wonder why---

Okay, I found the image collection URL:
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/index1.html

Collection of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque paintings, with search possibilities, painters' lists, biographies, exact and scholarly provenance descriptions, and great quality scans. I used it extensively for my dissertation, as the picture reproductions of scholarly publications are often...well...leave something to be desired, and I could see things so much better on these color scans.

Take care,
Rhia

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---Soldiers live.And wonder why---

Rhia said:
<i>Also, to look REAL period, maybe you can ask your lady to embroider a house emblem
on it, which was very common in the 15th century, with a motto...</i>

Why not get off your lazy butt and learn to embroider yourself (not you rhia)...

-+G

'cuz there are men who just cannot get the patience to deal with the tiny details...have you seen a modern era guy who was able to deal with embroidering say two sleeves with pearls in the middle of each little diamond-shaped brocade ornament? if you did, tell me where to find him and we can talk about a swap...

otoh, my man is good with the sword and makes passable salads, so maybe i keep him.


Rhia

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---Soldiers live.And wonder why---

Rhia,
There's a guy around here who makes detailed Renn-Fru-fru clothing.

...but I'm pretty sure he's gay.

I've decided to go with velvet drapery fabric (the kind used for curtains, etc.) - according to my girlfreind, who sews a lot, that's usually non-synthetic. I don't expect it to be too expensive, seeing as how I'll only be buying a yard (and not using all of that).



[This message has been edited by Spike (edited 03-16-2001).]

ARRRGHHH noil is *NOT* a period type of silk! (look up the derivation of the term!)

Silk was woven from reeled silk and any "noils" would get the reeler a beating and the fabric marked as flawed. You don't spend all the time and effort sending trash down the silk road when you could get more money for the same effort sending the good stuff.

Now it can be hard to find some of the heavier silk weaves these days in *un*noiled silk (and even harder to afford it!) but if you are an authenticity maximalist *DON"T* use silk noil!

Silk was treasured due to its shine and noiled silk looses a lot of the "gleam"

Thomas