This belt is made of Silk yarn, from Halcyon yarn in colour 102 and . The weaving is sett at 36 epi. I wound a 6" warp, 7 yards long. I am weaving the belt using a 4 shaft broken twill threading. The damask will be created using 1/3 and 3/1 broken twill to create the difference between pattern and background blocks. The warp has a maximum of 58 pattern blocks. The pattern blocks have been placed in a point draw of 15 blocks with 2 full repeats.
I drafted the pattern one element, a lily flower, from a 8th C Syrian Damask and drafted it inside a circle because roundelmotifs are a very common element in Sasanian textile designs. After weaving my initial draft, I have also added some small motifs in the space between the circles as seems to have been done in other Sasanian textiles. During my tests, I decided the motifs between the roundels were too small and took them out of the design. As I was weaving the test patterns, I started noticing the lily flower motif in many other textiles and Sasnian finds. This motif can also be found in Sasanian Itaglio.
234 ends wound for the warp
As I am testing drafts for the final design, I was able to draft a lily flower within a cirlce defined by a line and a circle defined by circles, called a pearl roundel. When I sat down to make my final decision, it was a difficult choice. I went through all the extant Sasanian textiles I have studied in person and in books. I made notes of several things, total number of textiles, what type of roundel is used in the motif, and main design elements in the motif. I studied 50 Sasanian textiles in all. Nearly half of the textiles studied contain a roundel motif. There are 5 which contain a roundel defined with an outline. Ther are 5 that have pearl roundels. Overall 9 of the textiles have floral motifs.
234 ends wound for the warp
Silk form Halcyon yarn color 102
Ivy or lotus pattern or perhaps alternating the two.
58 pattern blocks
15 pattern blocks in point equals 28 pattern blocks per repeat 2 full repeats equals 57 blocks!
13 pattern shafts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2 repeat (24 pattern shafts per repeat) 2 repeats 6 & 5 border blocks
14 pattern shafts point repeat = 26 blocks 2 point repeats with 3 border blocks on each side.
Warp Calculations Per Weavolution Resources Page:
Warp length is 272 inches (7.5 yards)
Length to weave each article is:
220 inches (under tension)
210 inches (relaxed)
Width in reed is: 6.6 inches
Number of warp ends: 238
Total Warp Required: 1785.0 yards (3.8 ozs.)
Total Weft required is 1455.3 yards (3.1 ozs)
Warp: $44.51
Weft: $36.31
Total Project Cost is $80.82
Cost per item is $80.82