Look at my spindles!

[senshisteph]

I was going to post these in the knitting and crocheting thread but I just have to show these off to anyone who'll look *lol*

A friend of mine has just started experimenting with making fibre tools - more usually he makes musical instruments but he was fascinated by my drop-spindle. Anyway, I comissioned a couple of spindles from him, one heavy one for spinning bulky yarns and one light one for laceweight. And this is what I got


This is the heavy one, rosewood inlaid with abalone. He designed the inlaid pattern for me.


This is the laceweight spindle, I asked for a 'Yorkshire rose' design and this is what he came up with. The shaft is rosewood, the whorl is hand-carved from Japanese cedar (smells nice, and keeps moths away!), inlaid with abalone and pyrographic details.

*jumping up and down with excitement*

[ULTRAGOTHA]

Those whirls are beautiful! Especially the rose.

[Thing 1]

I really, really, really covet the rose one. I mean, really. Those are lovely! It's great that the two of you were able to bounce interests off of each othe to come up with such a great result.

[Noemi]

Wow, those are gorgeous! I like the heavy spindle the best, the abalone with the dark wood is amazing.

[Silas Sparkhammer]

I have utterly no idea what I'm looking at -- duh, what's a spindle? -- but they're lovely! Very decorative, like wall plaques! Nice woodworking, lovely inlaying! Love the abalone nacre!

Silas

[MichiganGirl]

Originally Posted by Silas Sparkhammer

I have utterly no idea what I'm looking at -- duh, what's a spindle? --

Same here, but it looks like incredible work making them.

[babyshoes]

Originally Posted by Silas Sparkhammer

I have utterly no idea what I'm looking at -- duh, what's a spindle? -- but they're lovely!

Silas

They're for spinning fiber into yarn. And they are absolutely beautiful, aren't they?

[purpleiguana]

Originally Posted by Silas Sparkhammer

I have utterly no idea what I'm looking at -- duh, what's a spindle?

Smartass answer: If you are a princess in the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, it means "keep the NFBSK away."

[ULTRAGOTHA]

They are drop spindles. For drop spinning fiber. There's a dowel on the other side of the whorl that you can't see well.

|
|
__

Kind of like that with the __ being the whorl part.

And there's a cup hook, too, so these are top whorl spindles.

http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/spindle-types.shtml

[remigo]

Subarashii!

[franjava]

Lovely! Spinning is one of the hundred or so things I think about trying to learn. Keep them in good condition and they'll be wonderful family heirlooms!! Happy spinning!

[Squirt]

Those look pretty darn snazzy.

Is there a tradition of having decorative spindles? I guess they were such a utilitarian object and got such hard use that many people didn't bother with anything special.

[senshisteph]

Originally Posted by Squirt

Is there a tradition of having decorative spindles? I guess they were such a utilitarian object and got such hard use that many people didn't bother with anything special.

There certainly is - here's an example of one from the late Neolithic period!

[ULTRAGOTHA]

Originally Posted by Squirt

Is there a tradition of having decorative spindles? I guess they were such a utilitarian object and got such hard use that many people didn't bother with anything special.

As senshisteph says, yes. There are also numerous examples from Saxon and Viking times (my specialty) that are decorated. Roman ones could be quite spiffy.

Scottish Spindle Whorl

Pictish spindle whorl

Viking spindle whorl

In Viking and early Saxon times, and other times as well, our ancestors tended to decorate anything that couldn't run away--even very utilitarian objects.

It's just about as common to find decorared whorls as undecorated ones.