Rosalie Gilbert

A new linear paternoster for me, made with garnet beads, white stone gauds and hand spun wool tassels. My first project of 2026. 




Most of the new paternosters I'm making are looped ones with 50 beads, but in medieval art, we see unjoined ones, usually called "linear" and I didn't have one of those myself, so I thought it was time to make onr for me. 

I can't express how I've always admired people who have a hand steady enough to do this kind of thing, but I'm grateful to have found Ezio Zanini who is taking this project on for me. This is the very first part of making the teeth. Ezio says he makes the teeth first before adding the carved decoration because if a tooth should break, then his carving isn't wasted, and that is definitley the sensible way to go.

Making more little things to sell!



Having fun making some coloured leather pouches to sell. These mini ones are my tests and suitable for dice or about 5 coins! The larger ones will be a variety of colours and will have braided strings.

Here are the colours:

Rock crystal and sapphire with little silver roses destined for a stylish 14th century diadem.



It's another one of those projects that I've got half underway and then not been completely happy with and set aside to come back to at a later date.

Happily, that time is now, and I've got all the bits and pieces out again to see if I can solve my issues and get it finished. One of the biggest problems is that I need a drill press for the holes on the silver band, and I don't have one. Drilling without is an unsteady business and I scratched my practice one a little.

The wire stems aren't sitting as flat as I want them to also, and I need to find a better way to bend them. 

To be honest, I really should take a course or something, but that's an expensive option, and it's not like I'll be making them prefessionally. Mostly, they're just for me.

Embroidery of a pattern from the Holkham Bible will begin soon. The pattern was likely woven into the fabric but as I do not have the means to reproduce that, embroidered will do.

It's a bit stressful as the cote itself is finished and very nice and if I mess up the decoration, I ruin a rwally lovely garment. I'm very keen to make it though, as this type of thing fits my locale and time period for re-enactment as is under-represented in reproduction clothing.

And it's stylish. 

Yesterday some brass discs arrived which I hope to polish up to a mirror finish and use to make a medieval mirror for my display.



I bought a couple as I wasn't to confident that I wasn't going to wreck them. I've got a few different polishing things, but if anyone has a recommendation for brass, I'd be keen to hear.

Most of my medieval mirrors are glass, as they extant ones are either glass or are painted in the manuscript with silver gilding or paint in the middle. A few are painted with gold gilding, which hints that they are most likely polished brass. People are often surprised to learn that the two types were both available at the same time. It's usual with technology for a new thing to supplant the old tech, but in the case of medieval mirrors, both types have a lot going for them in different ways. 

My challenge after polishing the mirror to a sufficiently high sheen will be to set it into a wooden frame of the right size. I had hopes of buying existing mirrors in wooden frames and matching the sizes, but this has proved to be a tad more optimistic on my part that I would have liked.