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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

We have been hard at work spinning this week! Tomorrow to the dye baths, and next week weaving!

Many skeins of white handspun wool yarn spun by my students.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Tomorrow 16 pre-college students begin to tackle ancient textiles!

A pile of dowels with tapered ends and hooks to be used as spindle shafts. Three have wooden wheels slid onto them as spindle whorls.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

Sorry for repost! I forgot I made a thread for the projects

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Students explored one aspect of ancient textile production in a final project with a creative component supported by a research paper. In this thread, I feature their wonderful work (using pseudonyms for the students) 🧵

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Yesterday we had a very successful studio show where students showed off their work from the semester and their final project progress to guests. Stay tuned here for features on each of the amazing final projects as they are completed!

Students sit at tables with their fiber work spread out in front of them as guests circulate asking questions about their work.

A students shows a guest the vertical two-beam loom she constructed. Her loom is warped with fluffy blue yarn.

A student shows a guest the plethora of work she produced over the course of the semester. In front of her is spun yarn in various colors, woven rectangles, tablet-woven bands, and a teddy-bear modeling draped clothing. She is working on tablet weaving another band.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Our last class today 🥹Another round of student presentations, and then we had a bit of time at the end for takeaways from the course. Students shared their appreciation for the labor that went into textiles, their new skills like spinning and sewing, their enjoyment of the studio structure, and more

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

In this week's studio we learned how to hand sew and made some ancient outfits for models both big and small.

A student wearing an ancient Greek peplos fashioned out of a large white piece of fabric. Behoind her on a table is a stuffed rabbit also wearing a white peplos.

A student wearing a long chiton fashioned from a green sheet and a small white himation draped over a shoulder and one arm.

A small pink and white teddy bear wearing a mini white peplos and a sheer pink himation.

A small art mannequin wearing a sheer gathered dark blue skirt and a simple pale blue top with open sleeves.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

We have finished making our textiles and move on to their uses. This week is clothing! We read a chapter of Women's Work and one from Lee's Body, Dress, and Identity and talked about what messages clothing can send. We looked at tons of art of ancient clothing and tried to understand construction.

A painted polychrome vase showing a wedding procession. Four women are visible wearing a variety of draped colorful clothing.
Sicilian, 3rd-2nd c. BCE, Met Collections.

A depiction of Paris on a white ground Athenian vase. He has a traveler's hat around his neck and wears a cloak with a dark border pinned over one shoulder. He also wears sandals and carries a club.

A scene on a vase with several figures. In the center is a temple and two white-figure women wearing peploi and jewelry. One also holds a mantle over her head, and has two dark stripes down the front of her dress.

A 1st c. CE bronze statue of a young boy in "Eastern" dress. He wears an ornate pyramidal hat, a draped tunic with a high belt and knot, a long sleeve shirt, pants, and a cloak.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Today's studio was fulling and felting. We used warm water and a variety of methods of friction creation to full the fabric we wove previously and to felt colored roving. We stuck with water and dishsoap, nobody wanted to try urine ;)

A student applies pressure and friction to a woven wool rectangle with her hands.

A student smiles at the camera while pounding a plastic bag containing wool, soap, and water with his fist. Behind him smiles classics department chair Timothy Moore, observing this week's studio.

Several pieces of colorful felt drying on a paper towel with some colored unfelted wool roving behind them. One piece is white with a red spiral in the center.

Two pieces of colorful felt arranged on a table above two pieces of yarn forming a smiley face.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

While the instructor was off frolicking at CAMWS, students did a take-home #dyeing studio using natural dyes from Love of Colour online shop. Students used alum as a mordant on wool roving and yarn. 1/

Six spoons holding dye substances: powdered madder root (a red powder), alum (a white salt), osage (yellow wood chips), logwood (red wood chips), cochineal (dark red dried insects), and gallnut (pale beige powder). Photo from The Love of Colour online shop.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

This week is all about COLOR! We read Barber on dyes and Spantidaki on colors and talked especially about two of the most prized and symbolically-loaded dyes in the ancient world: sea-purple and saffron.

Extraction of indigoid from murex molluscs. Top: the hypobranchial glands of Hexaplex trunculus. In the middle, left: a dyeing-vat containing the hypobranchial glands; right: direct painting of a wool fabric by coating murex gland. Below; left: the exposing to the air of the dyeing vat and the threads of wool in it and the turning of their colour from the yellow-greenish shades to the bluish one. Below, right: purple painted squares with different exposure to the air and sun; the yellow square shows the early stage of the change colour of every kind of marine purple, the red one the final stage of the purple from Bolinus Brandaris and the violet and blue squares show that of the dye from Hexaplex trunculus (photos: E. Soriga).

"Mari(ne) purple: western textile technology in Middle Bronze Age Syria", 81.

Color samples from the experimental series, Fabienne Meiers, "Historical outline and chromatic properties of purpura rubra Tarentina."

Top: 4 examples of dyes from Bolinus brandaris. 1) 3 single molluscs: a pale rose color; 2) 1st dyebath: a similar but slightly darker color; 3) 2nd dyebath: a similar color to the first example; 4) 2nd dyebath silk: a slightly darker lilac on a silk swatch.

Middle: 2:1.11 mixture of Bolinus brandaris and Hexaplex trunculus; UV-radiation during reduction process: a darker and warmer pink color.

Bottom: Dyes in Hexaplex trunculus. One row of four results had UV light during reduction process and show a blue color. The second row had less UV light during the reduction process and show a variation in color: 1) 1 single mollusc: a very pale pink; 2) 2nd dyebath: a dark and rich purple; 3) 1st dyebath: a very dark cool purple; 4) 50% UV-radiation: a blue color similar to the row above; 5) 50% UV-radiation 2nd dyebath: a very pale blueish grey color.

Four images of calcified textiles fragments from tombs at Stroccacapponi-Perugia showing the remains of purple coloring. Photos by M. Gleba, "Purple for the masses?"

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Thursday we wrapped up weaving - students took turns on the warp-weighted loom, learned to finish off their woven pieces, and some tried out tablet weaving. Lots of great stuff coming off the cardboard looms, including pieces woven with their hand-spun yarn!

A student smiles at the camera as she works on her cardboard loom. She has been weaving a narrow rectangle with stripes of white, brown, and grey yarn. The white weft yarn she spun herself.

A student twists blue tassels out of the warp of their woven piece.

A student lifts a heddle bar and inserts a bobbin of yarn into her piece on a cardboard loom. The piece is woven in various shades of purple and a white/grey 2-ply hand-spun yarn. Beside her work is a stack of cardboard tablets and two completed woven pieces.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Today we read "Textile Weaves: The Beginnings" + "And Penelope?" from Prehistoric Textiles. In class we looked at various swatches of modern fabrics to see if we could identify their weaves and we walked through how Barber argues for Penelope weaving a pictorial cloth for Laertes.

A closeup picture of a piece of shiny purple fabric decorated by butterflies. The butterfly patterns are created by clusters of threads in gold and pink floating on top of the purple ground.

A closeup photo of a mustard yellow textured cloth. The swatch is mostly woven in a balanced tabby, but at regular intervals there are both horizontal and vertical floats creating a series of raised textural dots.

A closeup photo of a yellow fabric with a twill weave. The selvedge is visible and is woven and has a different weave from the main fabric to create a reinforced edge.

A closeup photo of an off-white fabric with small pink flowers printed on it. The fabric is plain weave/tabby, and the designs are printed, not woven in.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

This afternoon students continued working on their small personal #weaving projects, and we set up and used a full-size #warp-weighted #loom! Thread with lots more pics and a description of the steps involved 1/

Students sit at tables in a classroom working on weaving rectangles on small cardboard looms. There is a warp-weighted loom leaning against the far wall of the classroom.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

This week is the WARP-WEIGHTED LOOM!! We looked at tons of images of warp-weighted looms and learned to identify all of the different parts. Exit ticket: What's one weaving technique or loom type you want to try?

A close up of a 6th c. Attic black-figure lekythos, Met Collections (31.11.10). Two women work at an ancient Greek warp-weighted loom. One appears to be using a beater to beat in the new weft thread, while the second pulls a heddle bar towards herself. A bobbin of thread "floats" between the sheds, and additional bobbins are stuck into joints at the side of the loom, ready to be used.

A drawing based on the skyphos of Chiusi (C1831) of Penelope sitting in front of her loom, confronted by a standing Telemachus. Penelope's loom is warped with an ornate cloth decorated by winged creatures and geometric patterns. Several bobbins are stuck to the top of the loom for storage.

A line drawing of the side and front view of the Greek warp weighted loom with parts labelled in English and ancient Greek. Taken from Textile Production in Classical Athens by Stella Spantidaki, who in turn takes the drawing from Prehistoric Textiles by Elizabeth Barber.

Drawing of a weaving scene on a 6th c. BCE Corinthian aryballos. Thought to depict the contest between Athena and Arachne, the scene features two warp-weighted looms with women working them. The drawing has worn away in several places.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

Students know this class is a place where they can do their crafts to keep hands busy during lecture. I like getting to see what they're working on as I teach: this week we had one knitter, one crocheter, one spinner, and one embroiderer!

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 19/02/2025

First week of WEAVING! We learned what weaving is and what a loom is, and explored the ancient backstrap loom, ground loom, vertical two-beam loom, tablet weaving, and sprang. On Thursday we will start weaving on our own DIY cardboard looms, and next week will be all about the warp-weighted loom

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

Studio was lovely today - so lovely I forgot to take pictures! Students continued to spin and learned how to ply and finish their yarn. I read the song of the spinning Fates in Catullus 64 and we mirrored them - spinning while telling each other stories

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

Lecture today on spinning in literature. We read selections from Homer, Herodotus, Xenophon, Erinna, Theocritus, and the Batrachomyomachia. Spinning is strongly associated with women throughout, but has different connotations in the hands of elite women, free women, and enslaved women.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Take the whorl off your spindle and you've got a spool of yarn, ready to ply or (more often in a classical Greek context) use as a "shuttle" in your weaving.

My hand, holding a wooden dowel with a hook on the end wound with a cop of white hand-spun yarn.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

Our desks look about the same right now haha. Looking forward to hearing more about how this class goes!

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

Supply spotlight: Roman ring #distaff, 3D-printed at WashU's tech den. This is based on a surviving bone distaff now housed at the Louvre. The ring goes around the pinky, fiber is wrapped around the shaft, and then kept out of the way in hand during spinning.

A blue 3D-printed ring distaff side-by-side with the ancient bone artifact it is modeled after. The distaffs are in the form of a ring attached to a tapering conical shaft. Louvre collections Cp 9464.

My hand wearing the ring distaff and holding a drop-spindle. The distaff is worn around the pinky and has a fluff of grey wool wrapped around the top.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Students are practicing between studio sessions with some store bought roving to start. I'm doing a bit of spinning with some washed #wool we combed ourselves in class. This (coopworth?) is making a rough thread but the loose top is quite easy to draft. #Spinning

A wooden bottom-whorl drop spindle leans against a fluffy mass of gray wool. A small amount of grey thread is wound onto the spindle and connected to the wool.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

First studio day of spindle spinning. Students learned the basics of drafting and discovered just how hard it is to pick up this skill! We have three weeks just on spinning so plenty of time to practice. Students also got to pick up some supplies for the rest of the semester.

Five students spinning white wool roving into yarn on wooden bottom-whorl drop-spindles.

Two students sit at a table spinning. One winds spun yarn onto the shaft on his spindle, while another drafts fiber.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

A small selection of spindle whorls of the ancient med. across time and space. Spinning is fun, and for ancient folks indispensable, but spinning on a beautiful spindle is an extra joy that has persisted for thousands of years. All pics NYC Met collections.

An agate conical spindle whorl resting on its wider side. It has an ombre coloration of rich brown to white/transparent.
Minoan, ca. 2200–1450 BCE.

A terracotta spindle whorl richly decorated with patterns of black circles, crosses, and dots.
Attic, 6th-5th c. BCE.

A stone spindle whorl shaped like a rounded diamond with a seam in the middle.
Cypriot, ca. 1600–1200 BCE.

Top view of a glass spindle whorl. It is made of two colors of glass, dark and light, spiraled together.
Roman, ca. 1st-2nd c. CE.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Intro to spinning! Students tried to make string out of wool with just their hands - many figured out quickly to wind their finished thread around pens or to ply their thread to balance it. Tech evolution in real time! Exit ticket: How does the spindle make string production easier/more efficient?

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Supply spotlight: commercially prepared wool roving/combed top for spinning (which we are starting next week!) Students will also get a chance to spin the fiber they prepared, but this stuff is going to be a lot easier for beginners.

16 braids of white wool roving in a line on the floor.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

First studio! We handled wool of different breeds and different washings (some w/ lanolin, some not) + flax. We learned how to use combs and hackles but spent most of class time trying to prepare wool for spinning with nothing but our hands. As a bonus, we checked out some silkworm cocoons

A studio classroom with students sitting at tables handling wool. On a center table there is a bin of wool, some piles of other wools, and some flax fibers. Students use their hands to pull apart locks of wool and align the fibers, rolling them into snakes of roving. A hackle is bolted on to one table.

Flax fibers lay on a table, with some short tow fibers in a pile next to them. Behind, a student pulls apart white wool with her fingers. In front of her on the table is a long snake of wool roving she has prepared.

A student rolls wool between her hands to form a snake. Next to her are piles of wool in various stages of preparation. There are two modern wool combs on the table in front of her.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

In Tuesday's discussion of fiber prep we looked through several depictions of ancient sheep/rams and thought about similarities and differences to modern domestic sheep vs. Mouflons.

An off-white ostracon with a black line-drawing of a ram eating leaves. Lines on the outside of the neck and legs indicate the kempy/hairy coat.

Ancient Egyptian, New Kingdom, 1550-1069 BCE. Louvre Collections E 13110

A small clay figurine of a ram. The ram has a tall neck, and its coat is carved in a texture imitating wool.

Italian, 200-100 BCE, Louvre Collections 6635.

A terracotta Roman oil-lamp with a relief of a ram. The ram has a relatively short neck, a long tail, and is carved with a clear wooly texture.

Roman, 100 BCE-100 CE, Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections 74.51.1917.

A mummified ram. The ram is wrapped in linen with a herringbone pattern across its chest and an eye painted on. The shape of the legs or tail is not visible, there is just a tube for the torso connected to the wrapped head.

Roman Egypt, 30 BCE - 200 CE, Museum of Fine Arts Boston 72.4906.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Tues. Today was intro to fiber prep. We read Prehistoric Textiles 1 and TPCA 3-4. We went over the domestication of flax and sheep, the diff. properties of each fiber, and how to prep the fibers for spinning. Students had a lot of qs about other fibers such as hemp, silk, and other animal hair

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Supplies highlight: A collection of various wools at various degrees of washed/scoured for us to play with on Thursday. Plus some flax as a bonus

A large bin of grey, brown and white sheep's wool. Besides it is a bag of dirty white wool, a pile of dark brown wool, a bag of the same wool, a coil of flax fibers, and two wool combs.

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

The main texts for this course are Barber's Prehistoric Textiles and Spantidaki's Textile Production in Classical Athens. We will also be reading sections of Barber's Women's Work, as well as plenty of other works including blogs and online open access pubs. (as so much experimental work is!)

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Thurs. We read the last chapter of Woman's Work and the intro and first chapter of Textile Prod. in Classical Athens. We listed the types of evidence we use in study textiles: archaeology, lit., visual, ethnographic/comparative, experimental. We discussed the pros and cons of each evidence type

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Ancient Mediterranean Textile Production @wustltextiles.bsky.social · 17/01/2025

Tues. first day of class! Students got an intro to the ancient world and grouped up to try to write out the complete step-by-step process of creating a wool coat. Exit ticket: Why is it important to study textile production?

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