Wire is A Bit Like String...Except When It's Not

Copper corrodes. Who knew?

I wanted a project while the toddler I was watching was (blessedly) taking a nap, but I didn't feel like bringing the Birka tablet weaving project of doom into the same room with said toddler. She might have been sleeping at the moment, but it never lasts, now does it? And as soon as she's awake she can be relied upon to bee-line straight for whatever you least want her to get into. The idea of my cards getting tangled and twisted atop their inherent complexity makes my blood run cold with horror.

So, instead, I pulled out my wire stuff. Referring to this craft is problematic. I've seen Viking wire knitting, Viking wire weaving, trichinopoly, Viking wire chainwork, continuous wire something-or-other, etc. One of the earliest extant examples of this craft happens to be Pictish--more on this later, I hope--and there are examples elsewhere, so calling it "Viking" anything is a little odd, though by far they had the most extant examples. But that is actually the most consistent element of the name, right beside "wire." Anyway, whatever you want to call it, I pulled it out...and discovered that the last piece I'd been working on, which happened to be copper, was busy turning my stick green. Another finished copper piece in the bag was also turning green. And one of my tools (actually filtched, er, borrowed from someone's tool box... *whistles*) is rusting. So it looks like I have some wire and tool maintenance in my future. I know people have copper jewelery...or is it all alloys and specially treated? Probably. But people *used* to have copper jewelery... So there is more research in my future.

I've also been thinking in the direction of wet felting again. I made a wet felted bag at West-Antir war that was pretty spiffy if slightly lopsided. I've been thinking of making a felted bottleholder to disguise a regular glass bottle and give it a strap for greater ease in using it as a water bottle at events. It might be interesting to try a leather costrel one day for greater authenticity, but I don't know how to make one and I can't afford to buy one, so I'm stuck brainstorming with what I can make.