Here is a Roman woman using a back strap loom. She is tied to a tree and turns a series of cards to make the weave. These pieces were used in belts and straps. Her child is below, sorting out yarns.
Here a woman is making leather shoes. She draws around the clients foot on a piece of leather. Then she works on the cutting, sewing and crafting of the shoe.
Shoes like this were worn about the estate, but were not durable enough for the typical soldier. The shoe was typically wide in the toe area to allow the person to walk on uneven ground.
Most people worked all day for 2 small silver coins, smaller than a dime. It was a goal of every middle class family to have two silver bowls like the one in this picture. It would take one year's wages for an average family to get enough silver for a bowl. The family displayed the bowls on a mantel in their house. Since a soldier had to supply his own food and armor, it took a long time to accumulate the amount of metal they needed for armor.
Shops were portable, and easily set up about the street areas. Each person had to supply his own metal (silver, bronze, etc) for any spoons, jewelry or pins the metal smith made them. Pins were used in holding clothing together. Buckles were only used by the military.
Labor, for minting coins, or making jewelry, was not expensive. The actual cost of the materials was the expensive part of producing an item. Raw materials were thousands of times more expensive than they are for us today. The jeweller is showing coins of the time. Silver, up until the 1800's, was much more valuable than it is today.
Glass ornaments were also sold to those who could afford them. Often a cooking pot was copied in glass, not to be used in cooking, but as a status symbol. Glass was very expensive because it took a great deal of expensive heat (energy) to make it.
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