Five acres, two little ones, one awesome husband, 12 ducks (give or take), and a bunch of fruit trees and garden beds. In her spare time, Nicole likes to knit, paint, draw, teach kids, make fairies & dragons, philosophize, and read fantasy. She doesn't HAVE spare time, but does like to fantasize about it!
And now for Moana! I'm conflicted about what time to place the movie. The producers (and even Maui) say it was 2000 years ago. But, since the movie takes place at the end of "The Long Pause" in migration, I'm thinking that it should be around the year 800. The Polynesian peoples expanded out from Micronesia until about the year 900BC, getting as far as Samoa and Tonga, but then stopped exploring for about 1000 years. This is called "The Long Pause" (source). After The Long Pause, they began exploring again, making it to places like Hawaii and Easter Island (and maybe South America!) by around 900AD.
Because of that, I think setting Moana at around 800AD makes the most sense, rather than 1st century AD. Thankfully, though, the time doesn't really impact what she wears...because our evidence for what they were wearing in the 1st century is the same as for the 9th century. There's no extant ancient clothing. We only have oral history, early depictions by colonizers, and current clothing traditions to go after.
This Disney movie, thankfully actually did their research and asked indigenous Polynesians for examples af textiles and information about clothing. Her clothing in the movie is, by and large (as far as I can tell) pretty accurate. The reds in her clothing should be ochre or rust red, rather than bright red--unless the red is coming from berries or feathers. Red was a royal color, and red feathers were worn by chieftain's daughters , especially in ceremonies.
Taipa feathers
She probably wouldn't have been out adventuring in her fancy feathers. It also seems that she should probably be shirtless (as shirts seemed to have been introduced by Christian missionaries to protect the women's modesty). I chose to keep her clothed on top, but with tapa fabric that was made from beaten bark and stamped with designs, as was done historically.
I based her outfit largely on pictures of the Chieftain's daughter's ceremonial outfits, as I was able to find the most information about those:
You can see the strips of fabric on her skirt shown in the above photos. I used this video below to understand how those strips were strung together an worn:
I based the design on her top on this tapa fabric:
I think each of these princesses is hard to draw historically, and often for different reasons. I just finished drawing what I hope is a historically more accurate Merida. The movie makers said the movie takes place in the 1000's Scotland, and I placed her in the Highlands (the lowlands seem Anglo-Saxon during this time). Researching her made me realize just how little I knew about Scotland...and how little is actually known about Scotland in the early-mid medieval era.
I was surprised to find that much of Scotland at this time was full of--from what we understand--people who came from Ireland. Since we have very few extant garments from Ireland OR Scotland during this time, it's hard to know what they wore...and how much their fashion was was influenced by Viking invaders and settlers.
I found this resource super helpful: Early Gaelic Dress. They show a lot of primary sources, including this quote from the Tain bo Cuailnge:
A beautiful purple cloak she had, and silver fringe to it, and a gold brooch, and she had on her a léine of green silk with a long hood [remember that this may be more like a draping collar and not a true hood] embroidered with red gold, and wonderful clasps of gold and silver on her breasts and shoulders. The sunlight was falling on her so that the gold and green silk were shining out. Two plaits of hair she had, four locks in each plait, and a bead at the point of every lock, and the color of her hair was like yellow flags of satin. . .
They mention that there really is only one painting of a Scottish/Gaelic woman, and that is Mary from the Book of Kells:
Mary, depicted in the Book of Kells. 9th Century Scotland and Ireland
I also found this carving of a 9th century Pict maiden:
I'm pretty sure Merida should have her hair braided, as it seems that unmarried women are always mentioned with plaited hair. But, I just couldn't find an easy way to braid her locks, and it just seems counter to her whole attitude to have her hair braided if she could avoid it.
I used colors for Merida's clothing from pictures of green and teal dyed wool that's dyed with woad. I felt safe using dark hues like those in the movie, since she is the daughter of the King and would have access to deeply dyed cloth.
I modeled her broach off of the Hunterston brooch:
I based her shoes and belt off of the examples shown in Early Gaelic Dress. I kept her cloak and leine/tunic simple. The linen color at the her cuffs and hem could either be a shift (couldn't find info on if they wore shifts) or trim (trim is shown in the book of Kells). I also figured that if I kept things more simple, it'd be more likely to be accurate than if I'd tried embellishing it. Simple garb like this seems to be pretty common in many places and times during the medieval period.
I probably should have tried to make sure the bow was historically accurate, but I was rather burnt out by this point.
You're not the only one in that boat! I, too, feel bad about having neglected so much on permies in attempts to do all the other things that need to be done.
My daughter has made her Lantern and Coral dragons!
Lantern Dragon Powers: Can withstand both very high and low heats; burn enemies; hit and burn enemies with tail.
Lantern Dragon Features: Transportable light on wings.
Coral Dragon Powers: Amazing swimmers; can spit venom
Coral Dragon Only: Has five life stages
We missed out on a few days of prompts (we were out of state, visiting family), but we're back now! Hopefully my daughter and I will have time to at least do today's prompt, if not some from the days before.
Jill Dyer wrote:Hello and welcome back from the 'rabbit hole' of research! This whole subject is fascinating.
I went down that rabbit hole HARD. I was totally going to get to bed on time, until I saw those paint pots. I've been enjoying learning about ancient pigments for a few years now. It's like a combination of two of my great loves: art and history!
The chemical analysis of it in the study seems to indicate that as well. It says it's made of "Cuprorivaite, quartz, and calcium carbonate," and Cuprorivaite seems to translate to Egyptian Blue. The same ingredients of copper, quartz sand, and calcium are used in the below video on how Egyptian Blue is made.
They looked to medieval sources that credited the plant, Chrozophora tinctoria, as a natural source of color that created blue and purple dyes. They were stored on cloth and dried as watercolors. When it was time to use them as paint, a piece of cloth was cut and the paint was extracted with water or another element to bind it to the page.
Five acres, two little ones, one awesome husband, 12 ducks (give or take), and a bunch of fruit trees and garden beds. In her spare time, Nicole likes to knit, paint, draw, teach kids, make fairies & dragons, philosophize, and read fantasy. She doesn't HAVE spare time, but does like to fantasize about it! 
