Tarsoly
by Þorfinna gráfeldr
Based on a
find from Jämtland
© Melanie Fischer, November 2013
© Melanie Fischer, November 2013
WHAT I HAVE MADE AND WHY
I have
chosen to reproduce a Tarsoly (pronounced Tar-shoy), a type of decorated belt pouch,
particularly the one that was found at Jämtland, Sweden.
I
decided to make this Tarsoly for several reasons. Firstly, to see if I could;
and secondly, because I believe that adding the accessories, the small bits, to
an outfit is part of what brings it to the next level and helps to turn it from
a costume into real clothing.
…And because I hang out with a lot of “14th century nerds” (their terminology) and need some bling of my own to compete ;)
…And because I hang out with a lot of “14th century nerds” (their terminology) and need some bling of my own to compete ;)
I have been
inspired by a particular individual on Deviant Art who goes by the name
VendalRus. I have admired many parts of his kit, but especially the highly
decorated accessories he wears and particularly his pouches. In further
searches I came across many reproductions of Tarsoly pouches online and found
again and again that the reproductions of the type found at Jämtland to be the
one that appealed to me the most. However, as the reproductions and/or the
castings themselves were all well outside my current financial budget, I had
resigned myself to admiring them online, with the thought in the back of my
head that perhaps one day I would try casting the pieces myself.
Then
one day a friend posted a picture online of a pewter token he had cast using
Bondo as the mould. Intrigued, I decided to try making a Bondo mould myself,
and in the course of trying to come up with something to cast, I remembered the
Tarsoly and thought I’d try to recreate the pouch fittings.
Map showing where
the Tarsoly I am reproducing was found.
Below is a picture of the Jämtland Tarsoly I decided to try to reproduce:
BACKGROUND
The
Tarsoly was part of a Magyar warrior’s kit and was worn suspended from the
right side of the warrior’s belt to hold fire-starting elements, food, or other
small items. Many recovered Tarsoly were found in the graves of military men
and may have originally had connotations of rank amongst Magyar warriors. It is
possible that Rus traders and soldiers brought the Tarsoly, along with many other
items of Eastern influence, back to Scandinavia from their travels to and from
the Byzantine Empire and surrounding regions via the many trade routes
established in the 8th-11th centuries.
Most of the Tarsoly pouches recovered from graves are of the
type with a solid metal front plate. Only a handful of the type with individual
mounts on the front face of the pouch, such as on the Jámtland pouch, have been
found. These mounts were usually cast in brass, or occasionally silver. They
were likely cast either using the lost wax casting method, or the direct matrix
method, both of which had been in use during the Viking Age.
Map showing the major
Varangian trade routes: the Volga trade route (in red) and the trade route from the
Varangians to the Greeks (in purple). Other trade routes of the 8th-11th
centuries shown in orange.
MATERIALS
USED IN CREATING THE TARSOLY
The
pouch is constructed of cow leather for the main body and pig skin for the
pouch middle and edging. It was sewn with black, waxed linen thread. The mounts
are made from pewter.
Due
to my current financial budget, I was limited in the creation of my project to
the supplies I already had on hand. Therefore, certain concessions had to be
made in the construction of the Tarsoly:
As
cow leather would have been readily available, and as I had some on hand, I
decided to use a small piece of vegetable tanned cow hide to form the main body
of the pouch. This leather was however too thick to use as edging. I had a few
pieces of chromium tanned leather, but most of it was also too thick or of a
colour that did not appeal to me. I was left with two choices, a natural deer
skin, or a reddish-coloured suede pig skin. I considered the deer skin but I
had ear marked it for another project, so in the end I opted for the pig skin
as it is known that the Norse kept pigs so pig skin would have been available.
Unfortunately
the pig skin was not large enough for me to cut the edging and the pouch middle
all in one piece, so I instead had to do them in four separate pieces, which
resulted in a lot more stitching than would have otherwise been required. Similarly,
I did not have a piece of vegetable tanned cow hide that was long enough to
make the belt loop and strap, so I had to construct it of two pieces and join
them together to get the full length I needed.
It is believed that the inside of the Tarsoly may have been lined with linen due to the remains of some linen fibres found with the pouch (although, frustratingly, I can no longer find where I read that to document it!) I chose a piece of rust coloured linen to back the front flap because it complimented the colour of the pig skin and the brown dye I planned to use for the pouch, but I did not have enough of it to line the entire inside of the pouch, only enough for the front flap, so there is a raw edge at the top of the flap that could end up fraying if I’m not careful with the pouch.
It is believed that the inside of the Tarsoly may have been lined with linen due to the remains of some linen fibres found with the pouch (although, frustratingly, I can no longer find where I read that to document it!) I chose a piece of rust coloured linen to back the front flap because it complimented the colour of the pig skin and the brown dye I planned to use for the pouch, but I did not have enough of it to line the entire inside of the pouch, only enough for the front flap, so there is a raw edge at the top of the flap that could end up fraying if I’m not careful with the pouch.
I
had some black, waxed linen thread left over from a previous leather working
project, and decided to use it to stitch the pouch together, though I have read
that it is suggested that white linen thread would be more suitable for period
reproductions.
Based on the scale in the picture of the
extant pieces, the pouch appears to have been approximately 12cm x 13cm (plus
strap). It was difficult to get exact measurements of each mount from this
picture, and as I wanted to make sure that all the pieces would be the correct
scale in relation to each other, I decided to use the measurements I found on a
commercial website, Armour and Castings, that does reconstructions of
this particular pouch.
I took the pictures of each individual mount and drew them to the size described in the listing, and printed them out to give me a template to use with the Sculpey when making the Masters.
The measurements I used are as follows:
Centre Plate: 48mm x 45mm
Edge Mount: 20mm x 17mm
Flap Mount: 28mm x 28mm
Strap Mount: 12mm x 16mm
Strap End: 40mm x 12mm
Large Bear Mount: 20mm x 17mm
Small Bear Mount: They did not have the smaller animal head mount (that I am calling a Small Bear Mount) so I had to guess and do my best to make it proportional to the Large Bear Mount.
I used Fiebing’s brand alcohol based Mahogony leather dye to
dye the cow skin.
I used Bondo to create the moulds and I cast the mounts in
pewter.
THE PROCESS OF
CREATING THE POUCH MOUNTS
MAKING THE MOULDS
MAKING THE MOULDS
First I created
masters from Sculpey, a modern polymer clay that you can bake in your oven. It
is fairly easy to work with and can be sanded or carved further after
hardening. You can even add pieces to a baked piece and re-bake it, allowing
you to build up layers in stages rather than all at once.
I used plastic Tupperware-like
containers as the container for my moulds. I created my moulds using Bondo.
Bondo is a polyester resin that hardens when mixed with a catalyst that causes
an endothermic reaction. While Bondo is not a period medium, the
technique used to create the moulds and cast the items from them do not differ
all that much from period methods. The Bondo takes the place of
the clay that an original object or wax copy would be pressed into.
To make the moulds,
I mixed up just enough Bondo and hardener for one half of the mould and poured
it into the plastic container. Before placing my Sculpey master into the Bondo,
I sprayed it with WD-40, a spray lubricant, to act as a mould release (no mould
release is required between the Bondo and the plastic container.) It is
important not to over-spray your masters or the excess liquid can create
bubbles and cause a subsequent loss of detail in the mould. It is also
important to be sure that your entire master is sufficiently covered with the
mould release or it can stick in the mould and it it-self may break, or the
mould may break, when trying to remove it.
Once the master was
coated with WD-40, I pressed it into the Bondo, taking care not to push it so
deep that the Bondo could seep over the top edges of the master. The Bondo was
left to cure between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on the amount of hardener
added to the Bondo (more hardener = faster curing time.)
After the first
half of the mould cured, I created a cone-like shape out of plasticine and
pressed this from the top edge of the mould down so the tip would just touch
the top of the master, making sure to press the edges down so there were no
spaces, or ‘undercuts’, between the bottom half of the mould and the
plasticine. This cone of plasticine creates the channel or ‘sprue’ needed to
pour the molten metal in when casting. Once the plasticine sprue was in place,
I sprayed the entire surface of the first half of the mould, including the
plasticine and the back of the master, with the WD-40, ensuring that everything
was covered. If there is no detail on the back side of your master, you can be
more liberal with your use of WD-40 at this stage, as there is no detail to
lose.
The second half of
the mould was again left to cure for approximately 10 minutes, to the point
where it had hardened, but still not fully cured. At this stage, the Bondo is
still hot so you need to be careful. Using an exacto-style knife, I sliced off
a thin layer of the Bondo along all the edges of the mould where the two halves
overlapped. I have found it is slightly easier to do this before the Bondo is
fully cured, but it can also be done once the Bondo has fully cured and is
cool. This removes any places where the Bondo from the top half of the mould
may have seeped down around the edges along the bottom half of the mould. By
cutting away this overlap, we reveal the line between the two halves of the
mould and can insert the edge of the knife into the line and carefully work it
around all the edges and separate the two halves of the mould.
Lastly, I removed
the master from the mould and checked for any problems in the detail such as
air bubbles or holes that could be quickly repaired by adding a dab of bondo to
fill them in. At this point, any areas that required additional clean-up were
sanded and/or carved until the desired result was reached, and all holes for
the mounting posts were drilled into the backsides of each mould. As the second
half of the mould always picks up a faint outline of the master, it is easy to
place the mounting posts and drill them in appropriate places.
I chose to drill
the posts rather than make them out of Sculpey because it is infinitely easier
to make perfectly straight posts with a drill than it is with a thin piece of
Sculpey that will need to be reinforced with a pin of some sort to give it
structural strength before baking. To allow air to escape when pouring the
molten pewter into the mould it is important to add tiny air holes to the
posts. I did this using a pin drill and a tiny drill bit. It is important that
the air holes are as small as possible so that your molten pewter does not flow
all the way out your air hole to the back of the mould where it can trap the
casting in the mould.
CASTING THE MOUNTS
I used a cast iron
pot to melt my pewter in, placing it on a burner on my stove at about ‘8’ until
it had melted and then reduced the heat to about ‘5’. It is absolutely
imperative that you make sure that no water can come into contact with your
molten pewter, as it can cause a steam explosion (as the water evaporates) and
send molten pewter flying in all directions. Protective clothing, glasses, and
gloves are recommended.
Unlike soapstone
moulds, holding the Bondo mould by hand while pouring generally does not create
enough of a seal between the two halves of the mould. Using spring clamps to
hold the mould together solves this problem and also makes it easier to hold
onto the mould, which can get very hot. Usually I used between 2 and 4 clamps,
depending on the number of masters ganged together on each mould. This helps
create a tight seal between the two halves to minimize excess pewter around the
edges of the cast item, called ‘flash’.
A bit of talcum
powder dusted over the mould aids in the flow and release of the pewter. I
dusted my moulds every three or four pours.
Once the mould was
powdered and clamped together, I took a small amount of pewter in my ladle,
just a little bit more than was necessary to fill the mould, and poured it into
the sprue in one smooth pour until it filled. It is important to pour it all at
once as the force of the pewter pouring from above is what helps push the
molten pewter deeper into the mould.
The pewter was then left to cool until it had ‘set’. You can tell when the pewter has set by looking at the pewter in the top of the sprue. If it has dulled from the chrome-like shininess of its molten state to a slightly more grey, less shiny colour and is solid, it has cooled enough to be removed from the mould. If not, it needs more time. With practice, it becomes easy to recognize when your pewter has cooled enough to be removed.
The pewter was then left to cool until it had ‘set’. You can tell when the pewter has set by looking at the pewter in the top of the sprue. If it has dulled from the chrome-like shininess of its molten state to a slightly more grey, less shiny colour and is solid, it has cooled enough to be removed from the mould. If not, it needs more time. With practice, it becomes easy to recognize when your pewter has cooled enough to be removed.
Once the pewter had cooled
enough, I removed the clamps from the mould and separated the two halves. Using
a knife, I fit it under the main body of the casting and pried it gently straight
upwards to pull the posts out of the mould without breaking them or bending the
main body of the casting. I then snapped or snipped off the sprue and returned
it to the pewter pot, and left the casting to cool completely before final
cleanup.
If there was any flashing
or other areas that needed to be removed from the cast item, I would snip and
file them using small jeweler’s files until they were cleaned up and ready for
mounting.
WHAT
I LEARNED FROM THIS PROJECT
From a hands-on perspective of
actually making the Tarsoly
About Bondo Moulds:
While Bondo is great for
making a quick mould for a limited run, there are disadvantages to using it as
well:
A Bondo mould does not
produce an end result as fine as what can be achieved using a soapstone mould.
Fine detail is often lost or bubbled when air gets trapped under the master. I
have been experimenting with ways to combat this, and have had some success by
brushing on a thin layer of the Bondo to the face of the master directly, and
then placing that into the rest of the Bondo mixture to avoid catching air
between the face of the master and the mixture.
The Bondo holds the heat a
lot longer than the soapstone. Subsequently it takes longer for the pewter to
set in the mould, and thus longer between each pour. I tested a Bondo mould
against a soapstone mould and found I was able to do approx. 3 pours in the
soapstone mould for every 1 pour into the Bondo mould, a significant difference
in time. This has led me to the conclusion that if there are going to be a
large number of the item cast, it may be worth the effort to carve the mould in
soapstone.
The Bondo mould also
reacts to the heat more and develops more flex the hotter it gets, absolutely
necessitating the use of clamps in order to hold the two halves of the mould
together tightly enough to get a decent seal. Even using the clamps, the Bondo
moulds also seem to result in a lot more ‘flashing’ on each cast, resulting in
a lot more clean up required after each pour. This also lends weight to the
conclusion of using a soapstone mould for items that require multiple castings,
as cleaning up each casting can take considerable time.
About Attaching Mounts:
Much to my consternation,
I discovered that, even when you think you have your mounts lined up exactly
where you want them to go, and you press the posts on the back of the mounts
into the leather to make marks to punch with your awl, somehow the mounts can
still end up not quite straight or sometimes even downright crooked. This
happened with the mounts on the strap, where a few of them are a bit angled and
so don’t sit perfectly in line with the rest of them. Fortunately it is only a
minor difference and not glaringly obvious when looking at it. The ‘clasp’
section on the inside front of the pouch on the other had is considerably
crooked and the part that disappointed me most of all with the entire project.
One edge had already become rounded due to a second too long on the belt
sander, and somehow, even after carefully lining it up, that same side ended up
lower than the other, emphasising it even more. I considered moving it, or
making a new one, but did not for two reasons. The first being, I did not want
visible holes left in the front of the pouch that would result if I moved the
clasp; the second being that the amount of cleanup required to make that piece
useable was quite a lot, and considering that I already didn’t want to move the
clasp to avoid the extra holes, it did not seem worth the effort to replace the
existing one in the same position. So, since it is not visible when the pouch
is closed, which is how the majority of people are going to see it, it is more
of an unfortunate annoyance to me than an overall flaw.
WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME
Sculpey,
the material I used to create my masters, is deceptive. What seems perfectly thin
and light enough in Sculpey often results in a pewter casting that is thicker
than desired. If I were going to try making another Tarsoly from scratch, again
using Sculpey for the masters and Bondo for the moulds, I would make sure to
make the masters much thinner than I did this time around. I think that most of
the mounts could stand to be almost half as thick as they are. That being said,
at some point I think I would someday like to go back to carving the masters in
soapstone, as it is a period method and makes it easier to cast multiples.
For
the sewing of the pouch, I would endeavor to do the edging and pouch middle out
of one piece of leather to cut down on the amount of stitching that was
required. Using separate pieces for the edging meant I had to go over the same
section twice as many times as I would have had to with only one piece. I would
also prefer to use leather that would more likely have been used in period over
the suede I used this time.
I
would also use a larger piece of linen so that it would line the entire inside
of the pouch and cover all the folded over mounting posts from all the mounts.
This would not only be more aesthetically pleasing, it would prevent fraying of
the open edge of linen, and provide a layer of protection between the mounting
posts that stick through the leather and whatever you may put in the pouch; to
avoid scratches from the posts, and to avoid catching the posts when you put
something in or take something out of the pouch.
It
would also be nice to be able to source or create some period dye or oils to
use on the leather instead of the Fiebing’s brand commercial dye I used.
LIST
OF SOURCES
http://vendelrus.deviantart.com/
www.armourandcastings.com
Graslund, Anne-Sofie "Beutel und Taschen" Birka
II:1: Systematische Analysen der Graeberfunde ed. Greta
Arwidsson
Carlson ,
I. Marc Leatherworking of the Middle
Ages © March 3, 2013; Web;
Accessed: November 2013; http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/leather/leather.pdf
Söderberg , Anders
“Scandinavian Iron Age an Early Medieval Ceramic Moulds – Lost Wax or
Not or Both?” Exarc, ©2012; ISSN: 2212-8956; Publishing date: September 15, 2012; Web; Accessed:
November 2013; http://journal.exarc.net/issue-2012-3/ea/scandinavian-iron-age-and-early-medieval-ceramic-moulds-lost-wax-or-not-or-both
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Varangian_routes.png
http://www.hurstwic.org/index.html
http://www.regia.org/leatwork.htm
