kristen jones
Master Member
Hey, all!
Who here loves Heilung?
As a viking age living history demonstrator, i was introduced to their music about 4 years ago, and--like many--was immediately transfixed by the appearance, energy and presence of Maria Franz.
This shamanic garb pays homage to The Deer Mother, which is an ancient Sami tradition (predating Kris Kringle and the like) which tell of a reindeer who carries the light of Sol (The Sun) in her antlers, and brings life back to the world in spring.
I absolutely ADORE it, and so I've decided to craft my own replica of it to wear when my group does it's rituals.
The most distinctive piece of this outfit are the antlers. they are from a juvenile female reindeer (the only species of deer in which both sexes regularly grow antlers), and finding an appropriately shaped pair was nearly impossible.
I eventually found this set, and while they are indeed close, they needed modification.
I set about removing some of the overgrown points to bring it more inline with Maria's set.
If you don't know, bone really stinks when you saw on it!
I used a bandsaw to remove the bits I didn't want, then belt sanded down the rough edges, smoothed with sandpaper, and finally smudged on a bit of cast iron stove polish to weather the sanded parts and blend them with the antlers.
The next step was to work on the harness for the antlers. I wanted something as primitive as possible, and based my design on snippets of behind the scenes pics I found of Maria donning hers
I could see from these images that hers was attached to a brown leather harness with crossing straps. So I fashioned one like it, and drilled holes into the skull plate to tie the harness to the antlers.
Here you can see I have two crossing straps, one which comes from high on the skull plate, and passes down low, below my occipital bone. The second comes from lower on the skull plate, and fastens around my head at about it's widest point.
Additionally, I've added a leather lace which ties around my dreads, as I have them fastened in a high pontytail on top of my head.
This keeps the antlers *on*, but steadying them is another bit of business. That is accomplished by the shaman's veil, which ties around my forehead, and also features animal skin fringes which hide my eyes.
Behind the tablet woven headband are a layer of wool fabric, and some pads which lay on either side of the skull plate to staedy it, and keep them from swaying when I move my head.
Next, I needed to work on the gown itself. It's a very simply viking age pattern. Essentially an a line dress with a keyhole neckline. I've hand woven some tablet woven bands to adorn the neckline and cuffs.
Maria wears a chakra medallion dangling from her waist, which appears to be made of brass and the tines of which form Thor's hammers in the cutout spaces. It's suspended on a tablet woven band in the pattern of a find from Snartemo V (a Norwegian burial find, dating to the Iron Age), and is fastened by a trefoil brooch in the style of a find from Smolensk in the 10th century.
The band itself is beyond my skill to weave, so i've commissioned a replica. Until that arrives, i've used a brocaded band featuring dragons in the Jellinge style. I have also 3d printed the chakra, as my brass one isn't finished being made yet. i did manage to find a good bronze replica of the trefoil Smolensk brooch to fasten it.
I needed to add streamers under the arms of the gown to replicate Maria's, and for this I used a combination of braided white horse hair, pigskin and twisted cord. I affixed small shells and feathers to them, choosing items that were special to me, as Maria had done with hers.
This was my first try on. I've also made a pair of cockerel feather earrings to replicate the ones Maria wears with her gown.
I did notice that i needed MORE streamers under the arms at this point, so I set about doubling them.
This was my first try on of everything together:
I did make a few minor tweaks after this:
1. I added more padding under the veil to fill it out on the sides, as I felt it clung too closely to my head, and also to help steady the antlers more.
2. I trimmed the fringes a good bit shorter, as I'd noticed that Maria's nose always shows and this one was covering mine.
3. I had noticed when i saw them live that Maria clearly had an added hairpiece of synthetic dreads on the top of her headress (they were a completely different shade and texture than her natural hair) and i speculated this was to hide extra strapping underneath the steady the antlers, so i added the same to my kit.
Here are a few images of me wearing it at recent events:
The drum that i'm holding is one I've made myself--in the traditional way--from a Sami oval shaped Mulberry frame and Horse hide for the head and lacing.
All in all, I'm fairly proud of my homage to her Ritual Garb:
Who here loves Heilung?
As a viking age living history demonstrator, i was introduced to their music about 4 years ago, and--like many--was immediately transfixed by the appearance, energy and presence of Maria Franz.
This shamanic garb pays homage to The Deer Mother, which is an ancient Sami tradition (predating Kris Kringle and the like) which tell of a reindeer who carries the light of Sol (The Sun) in her antlers, and brings life back to the world in spring.
I absolutely ADORE it, and so I've decided to craft my own replica of it to wear when my group does it's rituals.
The most distinctive piece of this outfit are the antlers. they are from a juvenile female reindeer (the only species of deer in which both sexes regularly grow antlers), and finding an appropriately shaped pair was nearly impossible.
I eventually found this set, and while they are indeed close, they needed modification.
I set about removing some of the overgrown points to bring it more inline with Maria's set.
If you don't know, bone really stinks when you saw on it!
I used a bandsaw to remove the bits I didn't want, then belt sanded down the rough edges, smoothed with sandpaper, and finally smudged on a bit of cast iron stove polish to weather the sanded parts and blend them with the antlers.
The next step was to work on the harness for the antlers. I wanted something as primitive as possible, and based my design on snippets of behind the scenes pics I found of Maria donning hers
I could see from these images that hers was attached to a brown leather harness with crossing straps. So I fashioned one like it, and drilled holes into the skull plate to tie the harness to the antlers.
Here you can see I have two crossing straps, one which comes from high on the skull plate, and passes down low, below my occipital bone. The second comes from lower on the skull plate, and fastens around my head at about it's widest point.
Additionally, I've added a leather lace which ties around my dreads, as I have them fastened in a high pontytail on top of my head.
This keeps the antlers *on*, but steadying them is another bit of business. That is accomplished by the shaman's veil, which ties around my forehead, and also features animal skin fringes which hide my eyes.
Behind the tablet woven headband are a layer of wool fabric, and some pads which lay on either side of the skull plate to staedy it, and keep them from swaying when I move my head.
Next, I needed to work on the gown itself. It's a very simply viking age pattern. Essentially an a line dress with a keyhole neckline. I've hand woven some tablet woven bands to adorn the neckline and cuffs.
Maria wears a chakra medallion dangling from her waist, which appears to be made of brass and the tines of which form Thor's hammers in the cutout spaces. It's suspended on a tablet woven band in the pattern of a find from Snartemo V (a Norwegian burial find, dating to the Iron Age), and is fastened by a trefoil brooch in the style of a find from Smolensk in the 10th century.
The band itself is beyond my skill to weave, so i've commissioned a replica. Until that arrives, i've used a brocaded band featuring dragons in the Jellinge style. I have also 3d printed the chakra, as my brass one isn't finished being made yet. i did manage to find a good bronze replica of the trefoil Smolensk brooch to fasten it.
I needed to add streamers under the arms of the gown to replicate Maria's, and for this I used a combination of braided white horse hair, pigskin and twisted cord. I affixed small shells and feathers to them, choosing items that were special to me, as Maria had done with hers.
This was my first try on. I've also made a pair of cockerel feather earrings to replicate the ones Maria wears with her gown.
I did notice that i needed MORE streamers under the arms at this point, so I set about doubling them.
This was my first try on of everything together:
I did make a few minor tweaks after this:
1. I added more padding under the veil to fill it out on the sides, as I felt it clung too closely to my head, and also to help steady the antlers more.
2. I trimmed the fringes a good bit shorter, as I'd noticed that Maria's nose always shows and this one was covering mine.
3. I had noticed when i saw them live that Maria clearly had an added hairpiece of synthetic dreads on the top of her headress (they were a completely different shade and texture than her natural hair) and i speculated this was to hide extra strapping underneath the steady the antlers, so i added the same to my kit.
Here are a few images of me wearing it at recent events:
The drum that i'm holding is one I've made myself--in the traditional way--from a Sami oval shaped Mulberry frame and Horse hide for the head and lacing.
All in all, I'm fairly proud of my homage to her Ritual Garb:
