Band 2: Real Metallic Threads
I wove this band using real metallic wefts, consisting of a thin strip of metal wound around a central core. Aside from lesser differences such as the exact composition of the metal, these threads are precisely what medieval tabletweavers would have used.

Section 1 (Quarterly) and Section 2 (Cross): These two threads came to me from India via my Laurel and Pennsic, and I have no idea as to their provenance, nor have I been able to find a source for them on the web. They are very nice to work with; the weft slides through the warp quite easily. The silver thread is a touch too fine for this grade of silk, and should be used double for better coverage.

Section 3 (Chief Embattled) and Section 4 (Pale): This is a metallic weft with a silk core, and although it is somewhat thicker than most period metallic threads there are a number of examples of threads of similar weight (e.g. the trim on the 12th century chasuble of Bishop Bernard of Hildesheim (15)). I do not know what the actual metal content is, and though the gold thread is perhaps not as bright as true gold would be, to me it is the best metallic thread I have located so far. The only minor downside I found is that because the surface is not entirely smooth, there is some resistance when the weft is pulled through the shed and slightly more force is necessary than with other wefts.

Band 3: Solid Metal Wefts

	Section 1 (Saltire): I used gilded silver wire with a diameter of 0.3mm for this, similar to the wires used in the brocades from the 9th century Birka graves (16)). Working with wire is somewhat trickier that working with thread because once the wire has been bent at the turning point, if a mistake has been made it is quite hard to undo and straighten out the kinks in the wire. It is also necessary to have a fairly wide plain border between the end of the brocaded area and the edge of the band to give the wire room to turn underneath the band; thread-type wefts require much less space to turn.
	Section 2 (Pile): I used the same wire as for the previous section, but here I flattened the wire by careful hammering after the weaving was completed. The hammering causes the wire to flare out and cover the underlying warp much better, but it has to be done carefully enough so as not to damage the silk. It is also noticeable that the hammering causes the wire to lose the bright polish of the first section.
	Section 3 (Label): I could not find silver wire (silver-plated copper, to be precise) in less than 0.4mm thickness, which (from prior experimentation) is much too thick to weave with. For this section I flattened the wire by the simple expedient of running it several times through a hand-cranked pasta machine, which is essentially a very basic rolling mill. The resulting strip was still a bit too thick to work with, but hammering the wire caused distortions and marred the surface so I decided to work with what I had. This section was probably the trickiest one to do. The silver strip was thick enough that turning it at the right point took a lot of care, and even so it was not possible to make it lie flat all the time, and in one place there is a large section of wire protruding from the back of the band. In a real band I would cut off that section and flatten the ends, but I left the protrusion as an example of what can go wrong. I managed to fix some problems by the careful application of needlenose pliers and minimal force, but there are limits to this, and in one instance I snapped two of the silk threads by applying too much force. The overall effect, however, is worth it.
	Section 4 (Mascle): For this section I took 0.3mm gilded wire and flattened it by the use of a plain marble rolling pin. The resulting strip was much thinner than the silver strip and consequently easier to handle. I still had the same difficulties as with the silver strip, but to a lesser extent. I imagine that pure gold, rather than gilt silver, will be even easier to work with, but so far I have not acquired any real gold wire. When looking at the back of the band, one noticeable feature in both this and the previous section is that where the metal strip turns it lies edge-on to the band. I found it virtually impossible to prevent this; with a thinner gold foil it should be possible to fold the strip flat at the turning points (as the remains from the Taplow burial show), but my strips were too thick to achieve this properly. This raises the danger that too much pressure on the band might cause the silk to eventually begin fraying against the edge of the metal strip.

Band 4: Non-Metallic Wefts
There are two major advantages in using non-metallic wefts: using dyed silk or wool makes far more colours available to the weaver, and the flexibility of the band remains virtually unchanged. Any band brocaded with a metallic weft is very stiff across its width, and this is even more so when a solid metal weft is used.

	Section 1 (Per Fess): This is merino wool of approximately the same thickness as the underlying silk. Because the wool is slightly fuzzy it can spread out a bit and thus the coverage is quite good. The only risk I found with the wool is that it is not as strong as the other wefts, therefore a bit more care must be taken not to pull the brocade weft in too tight and break it.
	Section 2 (Per Pale): In this section I used the same type of silk as the ground weave. Brocading with silk involves the least difficulties of all the wefts I tried: the thread is tightly spun and there are no problems in pulling the weft through, and since it is more flexible than metallic thread it requires hardly any turning space at the edge of the band.
	Section 3 (Two Pallets): Many period bands brocaded in silk use multiple colours, so here I duplicated that effect. It was interesting to realise that using two silk brocade threads instead of one makes virtually no noticeable difference to the flexibility or the thickness of the band.
	Section 4 (Bendy): This section shows a combination of metallic and silk weft, as was done in many medieval brocaded bands. A noteworthy point in this example is that there is no separate tie-down between the interchanges from metallic to silk weft. There are a number of medieval bands with patterns of this type, for example some of the St. Truiden brocades (17)). The effect of this pattern is that at the point where the metallic thread disappears into the band, the silk rises to the surface, and for lack of any other space the two wefts must necessarily lie next to each other. This causes small gaps to appear between the brocade wefts where the green ground warp shows through. This was not intentional on my part and something I only discovered while working on this pattern. If the contrast between the ground warp and the brocade weft is low (e.g. as in the blue bends) the effect is not very noticeable, but with a high contrast weft it could be quite disruptive.

Band 5: Brocaded Wool
Although most documented brocaded bands have a silk base, there are a significant number of bands brocaded over wool. Since the ground warp influences the appearance of the brocade I wove this band to see how it compared to a silk base, using wool which is similar in thickness to the silk.
The main difference in brocading over wool vs silk is that wool is less rugged and must be treated with more care than silk. It is also more elastic than silk, and for both these reasons wool cannot be beaten down as tightly as silk, thus giving less coverage in the brocade. It is noticeable that each of the sections on the wool band is wider than the pattern with a corresponding weft on silk.

	Section 1 (Chequy): The brocade weft here is the same type of wool as the ground warp. This was the last section I wove (yes, my order of weaving is backwards) and the warp was fraying so badly that I did not want to risk unweaving the mistakes I made. Wool tends to be quite clingy and stick to itself, but I experienced no problems in pulling the weft through the shed.
	Section 2 (Gyronny): Working with linen weft was surprisingly pleasant; the thread is very firm and gives a solid surface which results in good coverage on the wool.
	Section 3 (Barry): I found one 13th century example of wool brocaded with silk (18)), presumably to give the effect of a silk surface while saving money on the ground warp. I find that the result has a less striking effect than the linen brocade.
	Section 1 (Chevronelly): Most examples of brocaded wool which I found were done with a metallic weft. I had half expected to have some minor difficulties such as the weft snagging on the wool fibres, but in fact there was no problem weaving this section. However, I find that the coverage is much less impressive than on silk; laying the weft double might improve the appearance.

Summary