Border Spat - The Big Reveal

Well, Border Spat has come and gone and after all of the late nights and hard work it appears to have been a resounding success.

All of my leatherwork projects were really well received.

The Challengers who were helping with the Dean prize fights seemed pleased and surprised with the pouches and marshal kits. I also gave some of my extra sword flex testers to His Majesty Edward the Red, His Excellency Giovanni (through Her Excellency) and to our Kingdom Rapier Marshal THL Lars. I also gave one to one of our newer fencers, Faustus, who won two of the three rounds of the rooftop tournament.

The red belt pouch (which I had originally started as part of my Kingdom A&S project), was won by a noble from Dragon Dormant for chivalrous behaviour during the Baronial Selection tourney. As an aside, Faustus also won a box of Peeps for the best death of the tourney.

The sword sheath, which received a fair bit of attention, was also won by another noble from Dragon Dormant for his victory in the first round of the rooftop tourney. Hopefully it will work with his sword, as the blunts the fencers from Dragon Dormant were using were a bit wider than ours.

All in all, a good day of fencing.

Now, to the pictures:

All of the projects for Border Spat

The pouch for chivalrous behaviour in the
Baronial Selection tourney

The pouches for the Challengers

Inside the pouches

Wide view of the sheath

Medium view of the sheath

Close up of the sheath

Progress Update: Border Spat Projects

With less than two weeks to go until Border Spat, I am happy to report that all leatherworking tasks are now complete. YAY! I have to say when the number of projects started to creep up I was starting to question my sanity at trying to get this many projects done for one event. Hopefully the recipients will like them. It is kind of neat that my leatherworking projects will be scattering across North America after the event.

For the thank you gifts, all eight pouches are made. The extra rapier tips have arrived and we are mostly done assembling. A little bit more work to do sewing the one special item I'm including (thanks Avelyn for your help) and we'll be good to go. I may have to make a few extras though, when I showed Avelyn's design to Lars his eyes lit up.

For the prizes, the secret-ish prize for the winner of the rooftop mass-melee tournament is finished and looks pretty sharp if I do say so myself. I dyed the leather black and a nice saphire blue.

For the Baronial Selection Tournament, there's no winner per se because it's the war point tournament. But there is a prize for the "most inspirational" fencer (which could end up being best death, or bravest newcomer, or whatever Their Excellencies decide). I've finished off a pouch I had previously started rather than starting a new project from scratch. AllI had left to do was put a button on and a loop of leather to keep it closed. I think it will be a nice prize, particulary if the winner ends up being someone new.

I'll be bringing my pile of projects in to the Harrowgate Heath canton meeting this weekend for those that want to see them, and pictures will be posted after the event.

Tonight, I start the pre-cooking with Emelote so no rest for the wicked.!

Border Spat Leatherwork Projects

Well, it's been a while since I posted as there's been a lot of non-leather related stuff going on, which I'm not going to get into here. Needless to say other things have been filling my time lately. However, we are now less than three weeks from Border Spat on May 12th, and my leather projects for the event are chugging along.

For my thank you gifts, I've just found out that I'm going to need eight of them instead of five. I had gotten all of the leatherwork for the first five done this past week, so last night I cut out and started sewing three more pouches. Unfortunately, I have run out rapier tips, which I'm including in the pouches, so I've ordered more. I got confirmation that they've been shipped so hopefully they don't get held up at the border. Thanks also to Avelyn for helping manufacture one of the other components for me, a new tool to help test for legal rapier blades under the new society standard.

My two prizes for my rapier tourneys haven't even been started yet. I've got the leather, but still have to cut out the pieces, die the leather and assemble with decorative lacing stitches that I've only done once. I had thought about doing some carving on them as well, but don't think there will be time. I've got some back-up ideas if I run out of time, but they'll be much less rapier oriented so I'm still hoping I'll have time to do my original plans.

Pictures will be taken and pictures will be posted after the 12th, to preserve the surprise of what I'm making.

Update on Project List Progress

Well its been a while since I posted, largely because I haven't really done much leatherwork. I've been spending most of my SCA time working with Emelote on planning the feast for our upcoming Border Spat event in May.

That being said, I have about nine different leather projects I have to get finished by then so I better get moving.

I did manage to make Avelyn her new belt pouch as a surprise a few weeks ago. Its a draw string style pouch that I made out of a nice purple pig skin. She wore it to Late Winter Shoot and it seemed to work well.

I also started to work on my thank you gifts for Border Spat. I'm going to be pulling together small rapier-oriented emergency kits with a bunch of stuff that would be useful for fencers (tips and tape etc). I'm going to put it all into small leather pouches. I started working on the pouches while we were at Late Winter Shoot this past weekend. Got one pouch cut out and sewn together. Just the closing button and the belt loop to add on. Six more to go!!!

I've consulted with a few people about my plan for the rapier prizes for Border Spat and it seems to be a good idea. I'm going to keep it somewhat hush hush so the winners can enjoy the surprise a bit. One will be for the winner of the mass melee rooftop tournament, and the other will be for the person selected as "most inspirational" by the Barons and Baronesses as part of the Baronial Selection Tournament.

Thora has also commissioned me to make her one of my leather rapier sheaths, like the one I made for the Baronial Rapier Champion when I stepped down from the position. She'd like it to have some sort of Ealdormerian or Skrael symbol on it. I think this one will have to wait until after Border Spat, don't think I'll have time until then.

Updated Project List

I thought it might be a good idea to start making a list of my leatherworking projects that I need to work on over the next few months. Just so I can keep track.

1) Pouch for Avelyn to replace the one that got wrecked at Pennsic
2) 3 prizes for rapier activities at Border Spat
3) 5-7 thank you gifts for Border Spat
4) (Long-Term) Figure out engineering and pattern for A&S competition pouch
5) (Long-Term) Figure out shoe pattern

There's probably more but that's a good start. :)